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Eric Ivey
Participating Frequently
February 3, 2020
Question

How to calibrate Monitor for Premiere Pro Using BM Decklink and an x-rite i1display pro

  • February 3, 2020
  • 2 replies
  • 2153 views

Hello,

My apologies if this has been asked before, but I'm wondering if there exists a tutorial out there for calibrating a monitor for Premiere Pro, output via HDMI BM Decklink 4k mini. I found some on how to do it for Resolve which is awesome, but as PP is my primary NLE and I want to be able to do a basic grade for rough cuts and be able to use use a reference monitor going through the HDMI BM Decklink 4k mini. I have been told over and over that output via Decklink (or similar) is the only way to get an accurate feed, but how do you calibrate your reference monitor to accommodate accurately display that accurate feed? I don't have a LUT box, and the monitor I am using is an LG OLED. I'm on a PC if that matters. I have a probe and Display CAL software seems like it could do the trick as far as I can tell? Thank you in advance for any guidance.

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2 replies

R Neil Haugen
R Neil Haugen
Legend
February 4, 2020

Setting up a system for proper color management takes some work ... and some study. Sheesh ... if you go to colorist's websites and forums for how to setup for this, there are massive dense articles. It can become very complicated ... sigh.

 

Neil

Everyone's mileage always varies ...
R Neil Haugen
R Neil Haugen
Legend
February 3, 2020

Premiere is hardwired to be used on monitors calibrated to video sRGB, Rec.709, gamma 2.4, and 100 nits. There's nothing in the app to set, really ... except for the "Enable Display Color Management " which may help if your monitor is set with an accurate alternative ICC profile.

 

So using something like i1 Display Pro puck/software to calibrate to those professional standards data, then checking with a profile run by coupling the Lightspace calibration software and Resolve to ensure your calibration is correct.

 

Neil

Everyone's mileage always varies ...
E
Eric IveyAuthor
Participating Frequently
February 3, 2020

Thanks, Niel,

 

I appreciate the reply.  I don't comprehend most of this, to be honest. But I'm not sure this really answers my question.  Do you use a Decklink or similar card in your setup? My reference monitor is getting the signal using a Black Magic Decklink 4k mini. So my understanding is that this bypasses the Premiere Pro color management and any color management by the GPU or OS. So If I am using software managed by the OS to calibrate the monitor how do I know it is accurate when I bypass the OS?  Again all this is over my head but I just want to make sure I am getting somewhat close to an accurate clean signal when doing grades in Premiere Pro.  I bought a decklink and an OLED for this reason.  Thank you again!

 

 

R Neil Haugen
R Neil Haugen
Legend
February 3, 2020

The Decklink is bypassing the OS ... and for that use (not many users have Decklink or other output cards) you need to be able to do one of two things ... store a calibration LUT in the monitor, or use a LUT box between the Decklink and the monitor to store the calibration.

 

The only monitors that have any useful storage of LUTs for calibration purposes are of course rather spendy monitors built for colorists. And the vast majority of monitors that say they are highly calibrated out of the factory (and may even come with pretty little certificates) ... aren't nearly close enough or are calibrated to goofy specs. The Flanders, some of the top Eizos, a couple Sonys, are actually calibrated to propers specs to begin with and have the capability to store LUTs internally.

 

Pretty much other than those, including everything under about $5,000USD, needs a manual calibration/profile routine run before trusting it.

 

So ... options are really these ...

  • output from GPU to monitor, using an i1 Display Pro puck/software to calibrate the monitor, creating a specific ICC profile for the OS to us, and then checking that calibration with a paired Lightspace/Resolve profile run ... this is the best most users can probably get, and it should be fairly close; or ...
  • using a BM card (like the Decklink) or AJA card to run an output bypassing the OS, using something like the i1 Display Pro puck and say Lightspace or Calman to create a 3D LUT; then storing that LUT in either a LUT box or the monitor if it has that capability.

 

And the process of calibrating and running a profile to generate the graphs to confirm success of the profile takes a bit of study and practice. No getting around it really. Check out the LightIllusions web pages, they have tons of "white papers" explaining things ... like this one: https://www.lightillusion.com/grading_display_accuracy.html

 

Neil

 

Everyone's mileage always varies ...
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