monitor calibration question for you experts a little confused

Hi group, embarrassed to say I'm confused about monitor calibration. In the past I have used pucks and then the advanced setting on my mac's to set a neutral calibration. I feel like I have that down but on my latest video I was noticing on different browsers how different the video looks.

Then I started using rec 709 and srgb and read that you should set your gamma to 2.4 for 709 then I was thinking am I suppose to calibrate to neutral then set the monitor to rec 709 or use the latest neutral setting on my monitor. This bugging me and I can't find a topic that explains on google everyone speaks of using a puck xrite and it's not clear. Same with using a lut if I use a lut is that changing the file or is it only for my own viewing then what happens if I start changing the file with color etc. Thanks so much, David

Hey David,

Easy to be confused on this topic as, supposedly, the standard you choose should not make much of a difference. FCP will use the ICC profile to make sure you are seeing a color-accurate image. However, I have found that if you use the default profile creation settings in the i1Profile software (I assume this is what you are using when you mention XRite) it creates problems. Set the user mode to 'Advanced' which will allow you to change the profile settings on the second page of the workflow. Use Version 2 rather than version 4.

I can't guarantee this will fix your problem but I can tell you that FCP, and ColorSync in general, works better if you do this.

Best,

Chris

Thanks Chris, I don't have an xrite at the moment still not quite clear to me the advanced mac color was a system by a DP who had a software to make dailies and he said by using the standard mac osx color (in adv. mode) it would be more accurate on delivery of the dailies (transcode prores or h.264) as everyone on a mac can use the adv calibration where xrite vs datacolor can cause some color issues.

However, that doesn't quite explain to me (my little brain) how doing that vs srgb or rec 709 is slightly different when I switch back and forth (709 and srgb are 99% the same on my monitor though.

sRGB and REC709 are indeed slightly different. Having said that, I don't think this is where the problem lies. The issue is more likely in the browser itself.

There are two concepts at work here: Calibration and Profiling. Calibration means adjusting the display to match a standard. Profiling means measuring the display and then describing that display in a file. The file, which might be a ColorSync profile or and ICC profile or a display LUT (these are not all exactly the same thing, as some are more sophisticated, but they basically are used in the same way), allows software to alter what is sent to the display so that what you see is correct. The software might be the OS or it could be FCP. The profile can also be used by your browser.

The calibration function and i1Profiler both calibrate and build profiles for your display, but the System Preference calibration can only measure brightness, gamma and whitepoint and only based on what you can eyeball. Colors are not measured at all. XRite measures all of these things and also gives you more control over how the file is created.

So.... It might be that the file created by the System Preferences calibration can't be read by the browser or it might be that the browser doesn't read the profiles at all and instead makes assumptions about your display. There are ways to test these theories. It might be simplest if you can send me a link to the video in question and a description of what you saw with each browser.