Blackmagic Forum

Hi!

After some research, I've decided to get an OLED, LG C4 model specifically, to use as some sort of an entrance level reference monitor for grading. The monitor will be calibrated with a 3D LUT and plugged into a Decklink for clean signal. Although I still have a few questions.

1. How often must I calibrate it to account for drifting and aging?
2. Can I do it myself to an acceptable level of accuracy with the ColorChecker Display Pro probe? (I have access to the old version, not the rebranded Display HL/ HL plus)

A bit of info for the second question, I would like to be clear that I will grade only in SDR. I only have the mention probe, and I can work with either DisplayCal or HCFR, can't afford ColourSpace.

The reason I want an OLED is because problems like IPS glow, backlight bleed, elevated black..... have been bugging me to no end and any IPS type monitor that doesn't have these problems are twice or three times the price of a C4.

You can't calibrate to a chart -- you have to calibrate to the generated calibration signal from Calman or Light Illusion or whatever software you're using. They have specific test patterns that are sent to the monitor, and then the software "looks" at the probe sitting on the glass place of the monitor and it reports back what the levels, color, and hue values are.

With our C-series LG OLED's, we find they generally hold calibration pretty well over about a six month period. If we attempt to re-calibrated them, they're only a fraction of a percent off from where they were.

There's lots of info on calibration on the Calman and Light Illusion websites:

https://www.portrait.com/products/

http://www.lightillusion.com/

longdoan wrote:Hi!

After some research, I've decided to get an OLED, LG C4 model specifically, to use as some sort of an entrance level reference monitor for grading. The monitor will be calibrated with a 3D LUT and plugged into a Decklink for clean signal. Although I still have a few questions.

1. How often must I calibrate it to account for drifting and aging?
2. Can I do it myself to an acceptable level of accuracy with the ColorChecker Display Pro probe? (I have access to the old version, not the rebranded Display HL/ HL plus)

A bit of info for the second question, I would like to be clear that I will grade only in SDR. I only have the mention probe, and I can work with either DisplayCal or HCFR, can't afford ColourSpace.

The reason I want an OLED is because problems like IPS glow, backlight bleed, elevated black..... have been bugging me to no end and any IPS type monitor that doesn't have these problems are twice or three times the price of a C4.

How often you need to calibrate it will depend on how often you use it. If 8 hours / 5 days a week, I would say every 4 to 8 months. LG OLEDs are pretty stable. I would measure them at least every 3 months if you are using it for SDR and once a month for HDR. At this was the case for the C3 generation. And each generation of OLED seems better than previous.

Yes, you can do it yourself. Ideally, your scope and software have display profiles that increase the accuracy depending on the panel type, but even without it, you should achieve <2 Delta of accuracy.

Marc Wielage wrote:You can't calibrate to a chart -- you have to calibrate to the generated calibration signal from Calman or Light Illusion or whatever software you're using. They have specific test patterns that are sent to the monitor, and then the software "looks" at the probe sitting on the glass place of the monitor and it reports back what the levels, color, and hue values are.

With our C-series LG OLED's, we find they generally hold calibration pretty well over about a six month period. If we attempt to re-calibrated them, they're only a fraction of a percent off from where they were.

There's lots of info on calibration on the Calman and Light Illusion websites:

https://www.portrait.com/products/

http://www.lightillusion.com/

Has Calman Professional come down in price? Or am I misreading it? I am also assuming that's the all in price needed to calibrate your monitor.

jallen0 wrote:Has Calman Professional come down in price? Or am I misreading it? I am also assuming that's the all in price needed to calibrate your monitor.

I find the probes are far more expensive than the software. Last time I checked, a Klein K10-A colorimeter is about $7000. That's one of the reasons we just "hire a guy."