I'm looking for a reference quality DVD with long & steady takes, including some flesh tones, to help calibrate my monitor. Something like a Terrence Malick film (The New World or The Thin Red Line) would be good but I notice that none of his films are listed in the "Reference DVD" thread:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=372989&page=1&pp=30

I would also want something with natural lighting and un-altered colors, for instance epiosdes of CSI aren't any help.

Any suggestions?

You should use a test disc with test patterns, such as frequently discussed: Avia, DVE, Getgray, or perhaps the Monster ISF disc.

I've already used Avia. I just want to check the settings with some live material.

Greetings

Use the live sequences in the test discs ... DVE and Monster ISF have them.

Regards

I've already used Avia. I just want to check the settings with some live material.

Gotcha. I would use some films you're familiar with, maybe films you've seen in the theater. Natural live material can sometimes be difficult, but good transfers like many in the reference thread can help,. but not all those are free from heavy stylization. The DVE clips are good as Michael mentioned.

A few that I use are the fifth element, Ghost Dog, and Dreams. But you can use lots of other stuff as you see fit to get an idea of how things look. Fifth element is pretty sensitive because it's so colorful, to errors, but you need to be kind of familiar with what it should look like in a properly calibraten system, which is kind of chicken/egg situation.

Greetings

I once had a client base everything about how the TV should look on the movie "the insider" ...

Nothing ever looked right to him ... until one day I had him put in his "reference" film and saw that it had a heavy green tint to it. That's the way it was filmed and he wanted the TV calibrated so that the tint was gone. I stopped talking with that client after finding that out. :)

Regards

That's exactly why I'm asking for a film that doesn't have effected colors. Adjusting your monitor using "The Insider" is almost as bad as using "CSI Miami".

Greetings

so it comes back to the clips on the test discs. They are correct ... and look the way they should look. Everything else is a movie ... where director's vision comes into play ...

Some are green ... some are sepia... some are blue ... some are warm ...

Regards

I just want to see how changing the settings effects some well-shot footage.

Not all films or television shows look good, many are out of spec. Maybe somebody screwed-up a setting. Or the producers don't care how it looks. I recently re-formatted a bunch of Roseanne episodes. They looked awful, blown-out whites and way too red.

In those cases, I don't care if my monitor is set "accurately". I just want the picture to look good.

I have used Avia and been happy with it.

I just want to see how changing the settings effects some well-shot footage.

Not all films or television shows look good, many are out of spec. Maybe somebody screwed-up a setting. Or the producers don't care how it looks. I recently re-formatted a bunch of Roseanne episodes. They looked awful, blown-out whites and way too red.

In those cases, I don't care if my monitor is set "accurately". I just want the picture to look good.

Put the gun down.


Now, get to emergency and have them repair the hole in your FOOT!

If your monitor is not set "accurately" how can you expect the "picture to look good"?

I'm not intending to criticize but I'm just trying to see your thinking. ;)

Perhaps in the reformatting of those "Rosanne"s the color data for them got skewed somewhat. Try tuning in a broadcast rerun and see how it looks there.

The point is, Meli, you simply cannot rely on individual movies or broadcasts to set up a TV. There is too much variation - some intentional(producer preference, artistic intention,) and some unintentional(technical issues, long cable runs, too many links in the broadcast chain, etc.) so that the end product - the picture on your TV - will be way off the mark.

No longer are broadcasters even maintaining an objective standard when sending out material. They crank up the color saturation, manipulate the tint, and add their own edging. They over(or under)-expose shots. They deliberately blur facial detail to hide blemishes. This nonsense goes on during the shoot, during production, during post - and during broadcast. "Standards?!?! We don't need no STINKIN STANDEDZ!!" :D

The settings you get with a good calibration DVD will be a "fair medium" by which to judge all material. And if C-Span, History Channel, PBS, and Discovery & TLC look good, you know you've got something right! BTW another source of "objectively" shot video - "Do it yourself" videos or DVDs over at the public library. No effects, no processing, whatsoevah.... ;)

Happy viewing,

I use avia and dve then load up The Fifth Element; I find it to have amazing clarity for the fast action scenes, and displays a wide range of colors - allowing me to easily adjust the image's 'tone' to my liking.

I use avia and dve then load up The Fifth Element; I find it to have amazing clarity for the fast action scenes, and displays a wide range of colors - allowing me to easily adjust the image's 'tone' to my liking.


That's fine. But remember, by adjusting the images tone with "Fifth Element", you are actually "re-calibrating" your carefully wrought Avia settings to "Fifth Element"(which to my knowledge is not a current calibration title). ;)

Just because a flick has a wide range of scenes with different color palates and ranges of brightness does not a test pattern it make.

This would be like using your 4 year old's "foot" to measure one room in a house and your own "foot" to measure another room. That's why the standard foot in measurement = 12 inches. And that's why standards exist for setting up video displays and audio systems.

Happy New Year,

That's fine. But remember, by adjusting the images tone with "Fifth Element", you are actually "re-calibrating" your carefully wrought Avia settings to "Fifth Element"(which to my knowledge is not a current calibration title). ;)


I've read AV magazines recommending different settings for different movies. At first, I think that is not right. Now I realize it as personal preferences. After all, what most people want is "good looking" other than "correct looking".

I've read AV magazines recommending different settings for different movies.

It's a shame. The whole point is accuracy to standards. You should not need to use per-film calibration, EVER, unless a film is poorly mastered.

If your monitor is not set "accurately" how can you expect the "picture to look good"?


Because I may be able to correct mistakes or bad production choices. If I'm watching the TV show "Roseanne", and the flesh tones are too red, I may tweak the gamma to make them more natural. This would not be an "accurate" setting because it would deviate from the Avia setting and it may not be what the broadcast source tape looks like. But in my opinion the picture looks better. Note that I'm not not talking about trying to make something like "CSI: New York" look natural.

When I'm finished watching Roseanne, I can then change the gamma setting back to it's "accurate" setting derived from using Avia.

It seems that our priorities are different. You may want an "accurate" picture even if it doesn't look good or natural. I don't mind tweaking the settings so that the video looks better to me. I work in television production and use a Videotek color corrector all day, so I feel comfortable making these changes. I also know how many mistakes can be made during production and post-production that can lead to unintended color shifts. I don't regard the video signal as something sacred that should not be altered. But it's cool with me if you do.

Use a movie that is filmed outdoors in natural sunlinght and which does not have alot of special effects. You are most likely to get natural skin tones etc in sunlight as opposed to artificial studio light. If the film has alot of special effects, (Lord of the Rings) then the director might be playing with colors just to be artsy.

Consider Pirates of the Carribean (but avoid any scene that has digital critters or digital scenery in it). There are a good number of shots outdoors in that film(s). Skintones can be difficult as everyone has make-up (especially Jack Sparrow), but then again actors always have make up in every film.