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 (Page 2 of 2 pages for this article < 1 2) Filed under: DreamColor from HP: an ideal tool for critical image evaluation
Inexpensive dedicated colorimeter
Some people ask me why the calibration kit doesn’t come included with the DreamColor. The answer is that many purchasers end up buying several monitors for use in different suites in the same facility. They only need one calibration kit for the entire facility, and it wouldn’t make sense to inflate the price of the monitor to include it with each one. Optional LCD hood
Recent tests in the Miami areaSo far, I have brought the DreamColor monitor to several editing suites and to one pro video dealership in Miami. Everyone has been blown away at the DreamColor’s specs, look, performance, off-axis quality, and affordability. One editor said that if he only looked at the image (not the cabinet), he could swear that he was looking at a CRT (tube). After about 15 minutes of testing it, another local editor decided that he would definitely purchase one. The rest of our meeting was about how to connect it to his system which currently uses a Blackmagic MultibridgePro whose HDMI output is not compatible with the DreamColor Engine. You’ll learn about that in the next section. He is now debating whether to sell his MultibridgePro (with its current HDMI monitor) to someone else, and then replace it with an interface that is directly and fully compliant with the DreamColor Engine, or to keep the MultibridgePro and buy a converter box. I am sure that after he reads this article and the companion articles, he will be very well informed to make the best decision possible. Special demands for color managementAs I explained back in my May 2009 article called How to connect your HD evaluation monitor to your editing system properly: Let me count the ways!, in order to have the DreamColor Engine available (which is necessary to manage color spaces like Rec.601 and Rec.709 in this monitor), we absolutely must send a signal that is already true progressive (no interlaced or PsF) and RGB. If the signal is interlaced, PsF, and/or YUV component, the DreamColor Engine will become inactive, since the monitor’s CPU must then use all of its resources to de-interlace and/or convert YUV into RGB. In that case, the monitor can no longer manage the color as ITU Rec.709 (or any other profile), and will be very too saturated. On the other hand, if we alleviate those two details externally, then the DreamColor’s engine will be available to us. Having Rec.601 and Rec.709 are some of the DreamColor’s most valuable features. That’s why it is so critical to make sure that your current system either can already comply with the DreamColorEngine’s demands (at least in your typical formats), or get external hardware to make your system compliant. If you are building a system from scratch (or considering upgrading your current interface), read the companion article called DreamColor direct interfaces. If you already have a interface that doesn’t yet comply, you have two options: Either replace your current interface, or add a converter box which will deliver a truly progressive RGB signal over HDMI or DisplayPort. For those options, see the second companion article DreamColor converter boxes for non-compliant systems. Avoid the DreamColor’s DVI input (even from a DVI source)For two reasons, you are better off avoiding the DreamColor’s DVI input. First, the DVI input is 8-bit only, while the HDMI and DisplayPort inputs are potentially 10-bit. Second, the DreamColor’s custom scaling (or 1:1) options are not available with the DVI input. Even if you have to connect from an NLE interface that only outputs DVI (like Blackmagic’s now discontinued MultibridgeExtreme), connect it using a DVI<>HDMI cable. Even though you will only be monitoring 8-bit (24-bit color), at least you will keep the custom scaling (or 1:1) options in the DreamColor menu. In addition, see HP’s comment:
The importance of 1:1, pixel-by-pixel monitoring1:1, pixel-by-pixel monitoring is important to be able to bypass the monitor’s scaler, especially when you are creating a moving transition, and want to rule out whether any artifact you may be seeing is due to the way you programmed the move… or to the result of the monitor’s own scaler. The DreamColor monitor allows 1:1 for both 1080HD and 720HD sources. In the case of 1080HD sources on the DreamColor, the image will fill the screen horizontally, but not vertically, since the DreamColor has 1200 vertical pixels, so there will be 60 extra pixels above and 60 below which will be tiny black bars. In the case of 720p in the 1:1 mode on a 1920x1200 panel, obviously there will be a very large border which will completely surround the image. My recommendation: If you are editing a 1080 project, monitor it 1:1 all the time. If you’re editing a 720p project, have the monitor scale the video up to fill the screen horizontally most of the time (maintaining aspect ratio), and only select 1:1 manually if and when you need to verify whether a motion artifact that may pop up in a motion move is due to to your programming in the move, or it is due to an artifact in the monitor’s scaler. This is definitely feasible and easily switchable directly from the DreamColor’s front panel when your compliant NLE interface feeds the DreamColor directly and natively (without a converter box). However, with some of the converter boxes HP and I have tried so far, this requires reconfiguring the converter box itself each time you change among different types of timeline formats, which is more of a pain (although certainly not the DreamColor’s fault). For details about this, read the companion articles DreamColor direct interfaces and DreamColor converter boxes for non-compliant systems. RGB versus component video
As I originally explained in two prior articles: the primary colors in video are RGB, or red, green, and blue. However, a long time ago, video engineers discovered that given a situation of limited bandwidth, it is often more efficient to handle the video in a component version of RGB. This is because the human eye is more sensitive to the luminance portion of the video than the chroma portion. Component video assigns more of the bandwidth to the luminance. Over the years, there have been many different ways of expressing component video, including:
Sometimes the terms are associated more with one context than with another. In the component analog days, there were even fights among the standards in terms of the chroma levels (the EBU N10 level, the SMPTE level, and the Sony Betacam USA level, etc.) which sometimes caused mismatches when interconnecting equipment. I remember having to re-calibrate component analog switchers to work with a different standard… and having to prove to Leader Instruments that in the PAL world, Sony had accepted the EBU N10 level, so they would not stop forcing PAL component vectorscope users to have the display say “MII” in order to show the proper level for PAL Betacam SP. It was very different in the NTSC world, where the Sony USA chroma levels won over in popularity over the SMPTE levels. But that’s all nostalgia now:) Nowadays, most NLE timelines have component video, since almost all editing códecs are component, and almost all camera códecs are component. The only exceptions I know are raw RED material and some HDCAM-SR material (those shot in RGB 4:4:4 mode and captured via dual-link HD-SDI or 3G-SDI). Why we can’t simply use Apple’s “Digital Cinema Display”Way back in 2005, Apple launched Final Cut Pro 5, together with a new feature called the “Digital Cinema Desktop”. The purpose was to allow FCP editors to preview full screen video on an independently connected computer monitor. However, together with the launch of the Digital Cinema Desktop feature, Apple warned us that it was for content only, and was not to be trusted for color correction purposes. This warning was stated both verbally at NAB 2005, as well as in writing in Apple’s support article TA27705. The reason for the color precaution has to to with the accuracy of the conversion between RGB and component video. Someday, this may change, if and when Apple’s FCP team gets together with some GPU manufacturer to do a hardware 10-bit YUV>RGB conversion to DisplayPort or HDMI, but that hasn’t happened yet and may never happen. Pricing and availabilityIn the USA, the LP2480zx DreamColor is available directly from HP for US$1999. Pricing from resellers in the USA varies all over the place from slightly under to several hundred dollars higher, and can change radically from one day to the next. For example, at publication time, it is available from B&H Photo for US$2,234.95, from, PC CONNECTION for US2,499 and from PCMall for $2,429.99. (I suppose their customers aren’t aware of this, or are willing to pay several hundred dollars extra out of convenience or loyalty.) Given this situation, many pro video dealers aren’t so anxious to stock or recommend the DreamColor. I asked Larry Mahoney from HP’s marketing deparment, and he responded: “The product is available direct from HP and indirect via partners. The US web price remains $1999. You can check web prices in other countries by using the country selector in the upper right corner on hp.com.” DreamColor’s impressive warrantyHere is the official warranty information, directly from HP:
DreamColor pros
DreamColor consThese are really minor quibbles, and both are likely to be fixed via firmware/software:
ConclusionI highly recommend the DreamColor monitor for anyone who needs to make critical image evaluation, together with its US$349 calibration tool. Just be careful to make sure your interface is compliant with the DreamColor engine, or make it so, either by replacing it or adding a converter box. Read the related articles
Disclosure, to comply with the FTC’s new rulesHP is not paying Allan Tépper to do this review. Allan Tépper’s articles and seminarsGet a full index of Allan Tépper’s articles and upcoming seminars at AllanTepper.com. Listen to his podcast TecnoTur, together with Tanya Castañeda, Rubén Abruña, and Liliana Marín, free via iTunes or at TecnoTur.us.
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