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If I calibrate the monitor via Resolve/DisplayCal, generate a lut, and apply the lut to the “video monitoring lut” setting, both my macbook resolve display and the monitor display change.

That shouldn't be happening. I think you need to make sure that in your Project Settings under the Color Management, the Color Viewer and the Scopes do not use the Video Monitoring Selection (I have no earthly idea why this is the default).

The monitor seems to be the correct one. When I compare the export to the apple resolve display WITH THE VIDEO MONITORING LUT REMOVED, it then matches my export the same or close to the reference monitor.

Right...because effectively if your Project Settings are incorrect, then the Resolve viewers are lying to you.

why is there this big to-do about not grading directly from mac via say an HDMI to a monitor, knowing yes it will not be 100% color accurate, but arriving at the same result grading from the apple display must be logically the same as grading in rec 709 and seeing the same resulting shift on an apple display in the final result on something like youtube.

Ok, so basically you need to do some reading on the subject (I'll post some links). Fundamentally, aside from calibration and accuracy, the issue is Apple Color Management that is playing interference with what you're seeing, and this interference isn't consistent from OS to OS, or device to device. Because of this, you need to establish a "ground truth" first, which is where your calibrated external monitor going through a Decklink or similar comes in. The Decklink is bypassing the MacOS Color Management, while the calibrated monitor allows you to see your image as close to accurate to the actual data as the quality of the monitor and the calibration will allow.

Dunno if any of that makes sense, but basically the entire process of sending out an untouched signal to the calibrated monitor is so that you can watch the image in its purest form ever in order to make informed decisions. Doing it any other way would mean that you're swimming against the current that is Apple Color Management, as well as whatever Color Profile your Mac Book is using (which can range from sRGB, P3, rec709, AdobeRGB, and on and on).

Ideally you wouldn't be using LUT's and instead use a pre-calibrated monitor like the Flanders Scientific or EIZO that everyone around here mentions...but unfortunately they can be prohibitively expensive. An LG OLED is a more affordable solution, but it will still need to be calibrated using something like CalMan if you really want it to be accurate.

https://blog.frame.io/2019/10/14/gradin ... QBFfGOvY2k

If I calibrate the monitor via Resolve/DisplayCal, generate a lut, and apply the lut to the “video monitoring lut” setting, both my macbook resolve display and the monitor display change.

That shouldn't be happening. I think you need to make sure that in your Project Settings under the Color Management, the Color Viewer and the Scopes do not use the Video Monitoring Selection (I have no earthly idea why this is the default).

The monitor seems to be the correct one. When I compare the export to the apple resolve display WITH THE VIDEO MONITORING LUT REMOVED, it then matches my export the same or close to the reference monitor.

Right...because effectively if your Project Settings are incorrect, then the Resolve viewers are lying to you.

why is there this big to-do about not grading directly from mac via say an HDMI to a monitor, knowing yes it will not be 100% color accurate, but arriving at the same result grading from the apple display must be logically the same as grading in rec 709 and seeing the same resulting shift on an apple display in the final result on something like youtube.

Ok, so basically you need to do some reading on the subject (I'll post some links). Fundamentally, aside from calibration and accuracy, the issue is Apple Color Management that is playing interference with what you're seeing, and this interference isn't consistent from OS to OS, or device to device. Because of this, you need to establish a "ground truth" first, which is where your calibrated external monitor going through a Decklink or similar comes in. The Decklink is bypassing the MacOS Color Management, while the calibrated monitor allows you to see your image as close to accurate to the actual data as the quality of the monitor and the calibration will allow.

Dunno if any of that makes sense, but basically the entire process of sending out an untouched signal to the calibrated monitor is so that you can watch the image in its purest form ever in order to make informed decisions. Doing it any other way would mean that you're swimming against the current that is Apple Color Management, as well as whatever Color Profile your Mac Book is using (which can range from sRGB, P3, rec709, AdobeRGB, and on and on).

Ideally you wouldn't be using LUT's and instead use a pre-calibrated monitor like the Flanders Scientific or EIZO that everyone around here mentions...but unfortunately they can be prohibitively expensive. An LG OLED is a more affordable solution, but it will still need to be calibrated using something like CalMan if you really want it to be accurate.

https://blog.frame.io/2019/10/14/gradin ... QBFfGOvY2k

Thanks for your feedback. I do understand the concept of the Decklink, however, either something isn't working correctly, or I'm just having a hard time understanding why one couldn't, outside of Hollywood or delivering to streaming services, work from an apple device first with a resulting Non-Apple color space shift, just the same as working from a Non-apple color space with a resulting shift on Apple devices to arrive at the same result. But again, maybe I have messed something up here in the settings and that's what's causing the issue. I calibrated the monitor via Resolve and Displaycal. I understand this is not ideal, but I cannot afford the extra money on pro reference monitor at the moment. Again, what's strange is, applying the displaycal-generated lut, based on resolve's calibration process, to the "video monitoring lut," adjusts not only the monitor display but also the display on my apple computer (It gets brighter), so the mac definitely looks wrong, but the monitor looks good, but then taking off the out, makes the apple device viewer in resolve look the same as the export, which is odd to me, because that would suggest I'm just using the apple display the whole time. Maybe there is a difference, but if there is it's imperceptible to me. I'm also using a rec 709 cst node on the clip, not sure that should matter, but figured I'd mention it,

I'm attaching screenshots of all my settings. If there are any others that are helpful to post please let me know. Thank you again for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

If I calibrate the monitor via Resolve/DisplayCal, generate a lut, and apply the lut to the “video monitoring lut” setting, both my macbook resolve display and the monitor display change.

That shouldn't be happening. I think you need to make sure that in your Project Settings under the Color Management, the Color Viewer and the Scopes do not use the Video Monitoring Selection (I have no earthly idea why this is the default).

The monitor seems to be the correct one. When I compare the export to the apple resolve display WITH THE VIDEO MONITORING LUT REMOVED, it then matches my export the same or close to the reference monitor.

Right...because effectively if your Project Settings are incorrect, then the Resolve viewers are lying to you.

why is there this big to-do about not grading directly from mac via say an HDMI to a monitor, knowing yes it will not be 100% color accurate, but arriving at the same result grading from the apple display must be logically the same as grading in rec 709 and seeing the same resulting shift on an apple display in the final result on something like youtube.

Ok, so basically you need to do some reading on the subject (I'll post some links). Fundamentally, aside from calibration and accuracy, the issue is Apple Color Management that is playing interference with what you're seeing, and this interference isn't consistent from OS to OS, or device to device. Because of this, you need to establish a "ground truth" first, which is where your calibrated external monitor going through a Decklink or similar comes in. The Decklink is bypassing the MacOS Color Management, while the calibrated monitor allows you to see your image as close to accurate to the actual data as the quality of the monitor and the calibration will allow.

Dunno if any of that makes sense, but basically the entire process of sending out an untouched signal to the calibrated monitor is so that you can watch the image in its purest form ever in order to make informed decisions. Doing it any other way would mean that you're swimming against the current that is Apple Color Management, as well as whatever Color Profile your Mac Book is using (which can range from sRGB, P3, rec709, AdobeRGB, and on and on).

Ideally you wouldn't be using LUT's and instead use a pre-calibrated monitor like the Flanders Scientific or EIZO that everyone around here mentions...but unfortunately they can be prohibitively expensive. An LG OLED is a more affordable solution, but it will still need to be calibrated using something like CalMan if you really want it to be accurate.

https://blog.frame.io/2019/10/14/gradin ... QBFfGOvY2k

I suppose one other question would be, if I were to change the RGB sliders during the calibration, which one does, now that I think about it, what is the purpose of the LUT? Is that necessary in addition to the hardware adjustments on the monitor? Or is calibration just a matter of measuring the RGB values, aligning them to target and then measuring the effectiveness? What exactly is the calibration LUT doing in resolve on top of the hardware adjustments?

A couple of things:

1. Your Video Monitoring settings for Data Levels should be set to Video and not Full.

2. Not sure if you should be defaulting to rec709A for your timeline and project. It's a flag setting that you should pick on Export.

3. You should consider using the DaVinci YRGB Color Managed workflow. I think it's more likely to give you consistent results across the board and minimize the chances of screwing something up accidentally.

4. Are you working at Gamma 2.4 or 2.2? Is your external monitor set to Gamma 2.4 or 2.2? Most computer monitors will only do Gamma 2.2.


When you calibrate using DisplayCal, there is an initial setting done to ensure that your starting point is as close to the ballpark as your monitor will allow. This is both for luminance (should be set at 100nits for SDR), as well as general color balance which is where you typically would adjust your monitor's Gain settings to get as even distribution of RGB as possible.

With that in mind, those adjustments are just preliminary and the tip of the iceberg. DisplayCal runs through a number of test patches to determine color and luminance accuracy throughout a wide range of values, and based on those readings generates a LUT that should give you a semi-accurate representation of the corrected values. The reason why a LUT is still necessary is because there are slight but significant variations across a wide range of luma and chroma values that need to be brought in check for the monitor to have a fighting chance at being accurate.

Unfortunately, the accuracy is really a ballpark one at best. The reason is because the calibration tool that you're likely using is just ok, and there really isn't a proper way to accurately determine how good the tool is without much more advanced equipment. In addition, there is only so much that a LUT can do, if a monitor is poor quality to being with, or has variances across the screen; the LUT can't really account for that since the meter is only sampling a small portion of the screen.

FSI monitors, as expensive (even overpriced) as they are, give you panels with as much uniform consistency as possible, which have been calibrated with high-end equipment at the factory. Unfortunately there really isn't much competition in this field, which keeps the prices of the couple of players's hardware rather elevated. I've long wished that Blackmagic would get into the game and market a color grade monitor, but they haven't yet.

Ultimately, you do what you can with what you got. Working on anything that's been calibrated is better than nothing.