Viewing graded work?

[omar robles]

Just wondering what did you guys view your finished work on? I used to like viewing my finished work on my large screen TV by playing a burned disc. However with physical media dying and my television being 4K I have adopted to putting my footage on Vimeo and watching it on my Apple TV.  Unfortunately streaming sucks and I feel I am not getting the best viewing quality out of my footage.   My footage looks great on my iPad but is that a good indicator of its quality?  Are there any other things I am missing in order to view  my footage the beat quality besides watching it on Vimeo or YouTube on my Apple TV?

[Aapo Lettinen]

For small projects it is usually fine for me to view them on a uhd 75" tv connected to a computer which plays back the proreshq or 444 uhd or 4k master from raid array. The colour check is separately on smaller better quality monitor

[Daniel D. Teoli Jr.]

I view on computer with a monitor set for photo viewing and on 1080 TV. I burn temporary DVD and Blu-ray discs for the grade tests. I don't think 4K will look any different as far as color grading and contrast whether it is 1080 TV or 4K. The 4K should only be sharper.

Since I never used a 4K TV am I overlooking something? Does the 4K boost contrast? If so and your film will end up on 4K, then you have to grade on 4K. Since there are no constant viewing standards we have to have our film up to speed in many areas if we want our film to look decent.

Laptops usually have poor color unless they are color balanced. Although, I've only used  consumer grade laptops. Maybe the high $$ laptops have a decent monitor.

Wherever your film ends up, that is where it should be graded for. For instance, I graded this film for TV viewing. On the TV it tends to boost contrast and exaggerate color. On the computer it is kinda flat in some spots, blacks not as rich as the TV viewing, whites are a little grey, but just in spots. If the whole thing looked bad, then I'd make another grade. For Cotton Pickers, I just split the difference with grading. 

I used to make grades for YouTube, Vimeo, computer MP4 download files for the Internet Archive and TV. But just don't have the time. So I usually split the difference unless something very special. It really starts getting crazy when you have a ton of different graded versions for every conceivable use.

This film was very hard to grade and did require different grades for various uses.

My end goal is to make films that are good quality for large screen projection. Something you won't be embarrassed when you see. Films can always be downscaled, but if it looks like crap on the large screen then you are stuck. Almost everything looks good small...blow it up and see what it looks like.

Edited December 25, 2019 by Daniel D. Teoli Jr.

[Vital Butinar]

The workstation that I work on is connected to 5 outputs. First 3 are monitors for the work station and the 4th is a TV mounted just above the workstation most of the time to preview the color grades and edits. But for the final result I have a cable running to the big screen in the living room to preview the entire project with sound system and everything.

Works well enough.

[Daniel D. Teoli Jr.]

I have problems with sunlight in my grading and viewing room. I can't get my room dark enough and when the sun hits the window, even with blinds drawn, it puts a glare on the monitor screen. No matter where I move the monitor in the room it gets glare or my eyes get glare. And my preferred local for the screen gets the most glare. I need to get the room blacked out.

When I viewed the grade at night it looked different from the daylight view with screen glare. I had to go back and redo it with a view camera dark cloth pulled over my head and the monitor.  

[Daniel D. Teoli Jr.]

On 12/24/2019 at 6:09 PM, Daniel D. Teoli Jr. said:

 

This film was very hard to grade and did require different grades for various uses.

 

That is funny, I can't remember what film I had put up. I have a few Vimeo and YT accounts with lots of films online. Hard to keep them all straight. Vimeo must have removed the video. None of my stuff is EVER private, except a book preview I did about cutters. Some places treat photos of cutting like it is kiddy porn.

I will have to remember to put the film name in when I post something online. The filthy censors take your stuff down as fast as you put it up. If I had the name I could have sent in a link for the Internet Archive.

Tumblr removed all 48 of my websites last year. That was a huge loss. Took 4 years to make all the websites.

Edited February 24, 2020 by Daniel D. Teoli Jr.