Andrew Kolakowski wrote:Surely there are way better panels than one in DM240 model today and relatively cheaper. We are now in era of UHD and HDR panels, not just simple SDR HD.
I assume contrast is not everything anyway.
Maybe there are Andrew but it begs the question as to why Flanders was unable to find one for the DM241, probably because very few are being made now in 24" plus HD as opposed to UHD? Yes there are many UHD/HDR panels that exceed the specs of HD ones but good ones are far more expensive and most of UK broadcast is still HD and native 1:1 pixel ratio finishing is always better IMV and since that represents 1000s upon 1000s of hours still, I'd have thought there is still very much a market for good ones. There is no middle ground yet for UHD reference monitors and so £4-5K as opposed to £20-40K is quite a consideration too.
The panel quality (and specs) is one thing but the stability and calibration precision is another and we have several here that have maintained identical, accurate calibration for over a year - they are due for calibration very soon. The contrast ratio, as Justin alludes to, is critical for a grade 1 reference SDR monitor - it should be ideally at least 2000:1. The DM240 is 1500:1 but I have not seen a QC problem grading on it. I don't know if the 1100:1 ratio of the DM241 is just too low or not therefore. There are very very few Lcd HD panels that have 'good blacks' for SDR, even fewer for HDR yet. In my own suite I have a SmallHD 1703 P3X, which is a very good panel, as good as the DM240, yet a faff to calibrate (accurate once you get there) and poor support - I wish I'd bought the DM240 now instead. At only 17" it was still £3.5K.
Since you grade at 70-100nits for SDR you need very accurate contrast to eyeball a grade. It is as critical as colour. A low contrast panel would have you grading in too much contrast even if your scopes told you all was good. Conversely Oleds are not really ideal for SDR since their infinite contrast can create problems grading with the sub blacks too.
The reason BTW the FSIs do not have HDMI is because most facility environments are exclusively SDI and the client monitor, where I work is run HDMI directly from the Decklink in any case.