Create a 3D LUT for Resolve | DisplayCAL & ArgyllCMS

[@BoyanDechev]

This video was absolutely invaluable in properly calibrating my external monitor and I keep coming back to it! Thank you so much for your work!

[@writedirect]

Right on. Appreciate your words and glad it’s helping! The entire DisplayCAL thing was so confusing when I first got into grading.

[@kaktus.studio]

Very good one, especially for people for whom Displaycal might be a little overwhelming... I am using this method since over 3 years. My setting is quite similar, except from: Calibration - here I set tone curve to Rec 709, as well as black level to 0.01 cd/m2; 3d lut: size 65 (33 is simply less accurate, but some tools like viewing calera monitors may accept only 33). Also I always do verification, which can assure me that all went ok - worth to mention that either a lut is loaded into Resolve, or Device Link Profile with the right path is checked, otherwise luts duplicate themselves.

[@writedirect]

Great info. So on the black level -- Mind expounding on that more? I'd love to know your reasons. Copy that on the LUT. Didn't realize smaller was less accurate. I'm using a LUT box that asks for 33x33x33 hence my logic on the choice.

[@kaktus.studio]

@@writedirect Black level might depend on your monitor; I use BenQ SW271 as a reference monitor and I found that information on a channel "ArtIsRight" and tested it getting better results in contrast and delta E especially for dark shades of colors. Regarding lut; the less points it has in the cube, the more values are "only" approximation between these points, so 65x65x65 will deffinitely be more accurate, if you can use one.

[@meek1ns]

Any chances you do a video as good as this one also for display verification in DisplayCal? Or any good resources that help me to figure this process out? ❤

[@writedirect]

@@meek1ns yes, thank you. I plan to do a video on the verification process along with the other version of DisplayCAL.

[@meek1ns]

@@writedirect Looking really forward to it! This video here is so good, kinda glad that I found it - I struggle with this topic for months now

[@ozzyosmond1]

Hi Kyler - So glad somebody is out there making these videos for us! I am ready to get into a properly calibrated work environment and based on some suggestions from others somehow ended up here where you corroborated, expanded and even deep dived for me! Amazing. My grading is done on an M1 Ultra Apple Studio in Resolve with the new BM Micro panel. My plan is to get the Blackmagic Design UltraStudio Monitor 3G, a Calibrite Display Pro HL, and an ASUS PA329CV and use DisplayCal to produce a 3D LUT. QUESTIONS - 1) Is the ASUS I mentioned going to work well? It's a 4K display, but I figured it would be nice to be able to use for other purposes later if I upgrade. Will I have to make adjustments for the fact that it's 4K? 2) I tend to keep things updated and I see indication DisplayCal may not work with the latest Mac OS. I would probably then have to use the Calibrite software if it's not compatible. Would I still get decent results?

[@writedirect]

Thanks for your kind words! There is a forked version of display cal that should work on the latest macOS. I haven’t tested it because I’m still on the older macOS on my M1. I don’t upgrade operating systems unless there’s a specific need. If you’re going to do a 4K display, I would do the BMD decklink card option. I don’t think you wanna send an HD signal out to 4K- not sure how the image will look. It might be fine, but just haven’t tried it. I’m doing a small HD display so the difference between HD and 4K is negligible. Calibrite software will not work. You can’t create a 3D LUT file using calibrite. Your choices are display cal or Calman software. If you’re going to get a nicer display, try to get 2000:1 contrast ratio.

[@ricardobirnbaum]

Thanks for this. Helped a lot.

[@writedirect]

Cool man. Happy to help! Thx.

[@FuIIDiveVR]

I noticed the gamut covered was quite low at 88% after profiling. You can get better coverage if you increase the saturation slightly beyond rec709 primaries and check the tracking on HCFR before profiling. Just make sure to import the ccss or ccmx to hcfr.

[@writedirect]

Good to know! Thx.

[@markusrytilahti]

Nice content! I really hope you will do a video about using BMD hardware as lutbox.

[@writedirect]

Will do! Thanks man.

[@markusrytilahti]

Hi! Displaycal PY3 that you sort of mentioned in the video works great on Sonoma 14.4.1 .Im running it on a macbook pro m1 with Sonoma 14.4.1 right now. No problems at all!

[@writedirect]

Oh really? Good to know! When I tried it you had to jump through hoops to get it up and going and it just didn't work well for me. But that was a year or more in the past. I'll check it out again.

[@markusrytilahti]

@@writedirect 1.Install homebrew 2. Install Displaycal Py3 . Use terminal to start the program after installtion. Go to Macintosh HD/Users /"your username" / displaycal-py3 folder , right click on the folder and choose "new terminal at folder" . A terminal window will open up then write "make launch" (without the marks). Press enter and then Displaycal py3 starts!

[@johanwagner_sweden]

Thanks a lot. Really helpful. My Eizo was way off. Now back on track. 😊

[@writedirect]

Right on man. Happy to help. Glad it worked for you.

[@akyhne]

Calman makes the home version for TV calibration (if your TV is supported). By buying an addition (Client 3),you can also calibrate 3 monitors with the standard version. Unfortunately, the Calman Home doesn't support Resolve, which is kind of screwing us. They give us half solutions or you better pay the $2000-2500 licence for the full version.

[@writedirect]

Calman is the ticket-if you have $2k laying around. Unfortunately for us indie filmmakers, not so much. I would love to use them.

[@pumpum000]

thanks for the details instruction, btw i have the same monitor ASUS PA247, same CalMan i1 pro, same BMD UltraStudio Monitor 3G but my rec709 mode only gives out 66% sRGB after calibration

[@writedirect]

If you’re doing the same settings as I had in the lesson, it should be higher. I would go back to the point where you are messing with the values on the monitor itself. Are those all precisely lined up and DisplayCAL?

[@im_gldn]

Ive been going through the series and i just want say thanks for creating this content. Im sure the ill be recommending and coming back for a refresher. Qiuestion: I know you said you would followup with how report the results from theh calibration. Ive tried my hand it at just curious if you'll be releasing that before and after report and what to look for in the results.

[@writedirect]

I do want to get to that, but I’ve got a film in post and I’m just really stacked right now. Also finishing the color grading info for the film school. Sorry for the delays!

[@hooraay]

Thanks for this great guide!! Any chance you are still making the video about the verification of the calibration? That would be super helpful! I have calibrated my BenQ PD2700U monitor (connected through a Decklink) many times, tried too many options (0% black offset, 100% offset, full vs legal, standard correction vs user corrections ...) and every calibration looks slightly different. What to my eye looks best, has the worst result when looking at the measurment report and what looks good on paper, does not look good in the image. Idk, I am in the rabbit hole again. :D Therefore it would be much appreciated to get some help understanding the calibration result. Keep up the great work!

[@writedirect]

Thanks man! I’m behind on that lesson. And I probably won’t do it until I switch to the forked version of displayCAL. There’s just too many problems with the current version and macOS. It will get done! I’ve got a film in post and other chaos going on so It’ll just take some time.

[@DamianVines]

Such great information in all of your videos thank you so much. I am just using a 27"iMac with a built in display, clearly not a good option for accurate color grading, however... is there still a benefit in creating a 3D LUT display profile for Resolve? As opposed to just using the ICC profile my Spyder creates?

[@writedirect]

Thanks man! Technically, yes. That will affect the viewers. Not sure on full screen playback though.

[@borqi]

Thank you very much for the video. I have a few questions. 1. If I create a LUT with a BM Decklink(clean feed), can I apply that to a monitor using a GPU 8 bit HDMI signal , or would I create the LUT using the GPU instead of the Decklink? 2. Just trying to figure out how to calibrate 2 cheaper 1080x1920 monitors and use a BM Decklink 4K mini for the 10 bit grading monitor. Would it be worth it to use 2 additional LUT boxes to calibrate the other monitors or just create an ICC profile, since I have to use the GPU to output their signal anyway? Thanks and sorry if the questions are dumb, very new to this.

[@writedirect]

No such thing as dumb questions. Especially with grading setups. Haha. To create the 3D LUT you must have the grading display hooked up to the DeckLink and use either DisplayCAL or Calman software (pricey). These software utilities use Resolve, the BMD hardware and completely bypass the GPU. This is what you want. ICC profiles only works for displays the GPU is aware of. So for example, for my setup I created the 3D LUT like I told you above and load that either into Resolve project settings, or onto a LUT box (I'm using the MicroConverter 12G). Then for my main Resolve display, I just set that to Rec.709 mode. I don't really care how accurate that is. I'm not using that for the final grade.

[@borqi]

@@writedirect Thanks for the reply. Will order the hardware and give it a shot.

[@twan.peeters]

Thanks a lot Kyler! I was wondering if the Argyll settings would remain the same for a 1350:1 contrast ratio Eizo monitor or if you would change something? As it seems in between the 1000:1 and 2000:1 discussed.

[@writedirect]

I haven’t tested so can’t give you a solid verdict. You will have to do the brutal comparison. I’d kick out a QT if the same footage with different settings and view them on various devices. That will help. But it’s a pain.

[@mariatzortzatou1586]

Hi! Thank you for this extremely usefull video! I have a BenQ SW272U monitor that is hardware calibrated (all color adjustments happen inside the monitor's LUT). In order to calibrate the monitor and update the internal LUT I have to use Palette Master Ultimate (BenQ's software). For this calibration I can't use the blackmagic 3g monitor because PMU won't recognize it. After calibrating with PMU , I then add BM 3g monitor in the chain, which means that whatever icc profile was generated through the PMU calibration does nothing to the signal since I'm now bypassing the GPU. The icc created in this case (hardware calibrated monitor) contains the RGB color gamut info the video card should output and no color mapping at all (that lives in the monitor's internal LUT). Although the monitor is now calibrated for Rec709 gamma 2.4 output, the image is not looking good, the blacks appear crushed. Do you think that calibrating with DisplayCal as an extra step would benefit the final output? Maybe this is because of a different way that REC709 is being outputted from macOS(GPU) and Davinci Resolve (via the io device)? Sorry for the long message, I hope it makes sense! Thank you.

[@writedirect]

Hey! The only reason to use a 3D LUT is if you don't have a hardware calibrated display. However...since you have to hook it up to your computer to calibrate with the BenQ software, this could be a problem. Ideally you'd have someone come in and calibrate with the right tools so you could then hook it up to an external Decklink or 4K studio mini hardware. So anyway, if it were me, I'd probably calibrate like you are. Then hook it up to BMD hardware, use DisplayCAL to create a 3D LUT which would then do any needed corrections once the display isn't affected by the GPU. Does that make sense?

[@mariatzortzatou1586]

@@writedirect It does, thank you!

[@LightmanTropic]

I have an sw270c. We are on the same situation. Calman is too expensive for me so my workaround is just to switch my monitor to panel native that is adobe rgb and then calibrate in resolve

[@mariatzortzatou1586]

@@LightmanTropic Hi, maybe it's best to caibrate for the intended output color space. In my case that was rec709 gamma 2.4, so i had the monitor settings in that color space while calibrating it.

[@LightmanTropic]

@@mariatzortzatou1586 I did this method before as well but I'm concerned of how much coverage that it would limit itself when calibrating the rec709 colorspace so I base at the AdobeRGB. What we are technically doing is double stacking a color profile. One from Palette Master Ultimate and then via Resolve 3Dlut which is not ideal unfortunately and what made DisplayCal a bit challenging to wok on with as well. Ideally, it should just be Benq alone with a single firm 3D Lut profile which is what calman and lightspace is capable of without double stacking.

[@kjellrang7622]

Thank you for a very useful video. Unnfortunately is use Sonoma, but I have a PC with DisplayCal. I have a related question, that you might help me with. I have just bought a on camera monitor (Viltox DC-X2) and was wondering if you could a similar method outlined here to create a 3D lut for calibration of the monitor? The input to the monitor would then come from camera after the calibartion (not the computer), but it might help somewhat? A related question. As I use LUT on the monitor to convert from N-Log, is it possible to "combine" a N-Log LUT with a calibration LUt into one LUT? Thanks!

[@writedirect]

Hey, there is a forked version of DisplayCAL that works with Python 3. I need to test it, but heard it works. So regarding your monitor, I'm following you. But you can't (to my knowledge) combine those two LUTS. And with that, DisplayCAL relies on tweaking RGB values on the monitor, so I'm not sure you could even dial the small one in that well. However...if you did pull off a 3D LUT for the camera monitor, you could trying loading that onto a LUT box and sitting that between the camera and monitor. Then you could use the other LUT like normal. Haven't tried any of that, but if you do let me know!

[@kjellrang7622]

@@writedirect Hi, thank you for your reply. I might try out the forked version. Just for fun I tried to calibrate my on camera monitor using Calibrite on my Mac, but the result was dissapointing. I thnik this might be caused by the colorimeter (Colorchecker Display Pro) is to big for that small monitor (6 inch) and when measuring color it also include more than the measuring spot leading to very odd results. Perhaps DisplayCal (I can use this from my windows PC) could make a bigger spot to measure.

[@corerage]

Thank you so much! very informative video. Do you think Displaycal is unreliable now as its development was abandoned in 2019?

[@writedirect]

DisplayCAL is the interface for ArgyllCMS. which is continually updated. So as long as DisplayCAL runs on your system, it’s fine. it will not run on the latest macOS, but there is a forked version by another person out there that will.

[@henrikholmen345]

Thanks for a great and very helpfull video! Are you sure tha Asus Proart pa27cv is only 8bit? I think it is 10 bit... Am I wrong? :)

[@writedirect]

I could be wrong, but I think it’s a pseudo 10 bit. But only eight bit in reality. It’s some marketing lingo or something.

[@GoodTimesWithBrianJoseph]

Do you still use the BENQ 2700u monitor for your color grading as a reference monitor?

[@writedirect]

Not as the reference. I use a small Asus for that. The BenQ is my main Resolve timeline monitor. I love it for that. I’m using the ASUS PA247V for reference. Hooked to the ultra studio monitor 3G.

[@wildcat_films]

Excellent and fascinating. Enjoying many of your videos. However despite following your instructions to the letter, Calibrite doesn't see my ASUSProArt247. Calibrite support sadly not much help. Am I missing something obvious? My ASUS is also not showing in my Mac Display Settings. So sorry to bother you but I'm completely stuck!

[@writedirect]

Thank you! Calibrite will not see it. The colorimeter reads data from it. Is that what you mean? If you have your ASUS hooked up to BMD hardware, your computer has no idea it’s there. Only Resolve. If you can give me more details I’m happy to help!

[@wildcat_films]

@@writedirect Thanks so much for replying so quickly. So I've been following your instructions to the letter, but there are two moments in the video where I have a query. The first is at 04:49 where your Calibrite screen shows two monitors, and you click a second one. Is this a second screen you have but out of shot? i.e. not the ASUS ProArt? But then the moment I loose the plot is at 25.09 where you are fixing the profiler onto your ASUS ProArt - but I can only get the Calibrate color test screen on my main Apple display? This is where I decided I must have done something wrong! I really appreciate your help; do you have a buymeacoffee or Ko-fi account? - I would love to make a contribution for your time. Many thanks, Dave

[@writedirect]

@@wildcat_films hey Dave, I'm sorry for the late reply. Hopefully you sorted it out. If not: I'm only doing Calibrite at the beginning to kick off a scan and unlock my colorimeter. There used to be a bug where DisplayCAL couldn't access the colorimeter unless Calibrite had been unlocked. With that said, when you're using DisplayCAL your computer will NOT see the monitoring display. Because we're bypassing the GPU entirely, which is what you want. Any monitor plugged into the UltraStudio Monitor 3G will only be accessible to Resolve. And DisplayCAL uses Resolve to create the 3D LUT. Calibrite cannot create a 3D LUT file. Hope that helps.

[@wildcat_films]

@@writedirect Thanks Kyler, - going to be a few days before I'm back in the edit and able to try again, but think it's making more sense now! Cheers, Dave

[@86rules]

I'm going through all the steps explained in the video, but when the white measurement area box that you place the Calibrite DisplayPro HL on appears, it appears on the computer monitor I'm using to show the Resolve color page, not the Asus monitor connected to the UltraStudio output. How do I move the white box to the Asus monitor I'm trying to calibrate? I believe the white box is supposed to appear on both monitors, but it only appears on the one not connected to UltraStudio, even though the Asus connected to UltraStudio does show the output from Resolve.

[@writedirect]

Hey! On the Color Page are you choosing Workspace > Monitor Calibration > Portrait Displays Calman? You need to do this and enter the IP and port.

[@86rules]

@@writedirect Thanks so much for your quick reply! I was indeed following that procedure. Just figured out that if I turn off the extended display on which I had my DaVinci GUI and instead run the DaVinci GUI directly on my iMac screen, the white box does indeed appear on my grading monitor. So it seems the problem was either that or the fact that the Mac wouldn't let me proceed all the way through the process until I set my privacy and security settings to "open anyway" on every single one of the executables one at a time as I was attempting to do a measurement. One more question if you don't mind, and I guess it's a newby one: Once I adjust the RGB values and brightness on my monitor so they all line up correctly coming from Resolve and the UltraStudio box, doesn't that mean my monitor is now set to show accurate color from DaVinci? If so, then what is the purpose of the LUT? I guess I don't understand the purpose of the profile versus going through Resolve and setting the monitor's RGB and brightness per DisplayPro and UltraStudio. Many thanks! Fantastic video!

[@writedirect]

@@86rules oh I see...if you're getting the open executable stuff, that means you must have tried an update to DisplayCAL a certain way. I ran into that, uninstalled and updated a different way. Steps are hazy now. But if you browse to the update files it does that. To your other question: Good thought. I'm no grading master, but the LUT is making fine tuned adjustments beyond that of the general RGB balance. For example, if you run a short testing set vs a very large testing set, the LUT is going to be different. Getting general RGB is def helpful, but then the thousand + color swatches combine RGB in a ton of ways and measure what the display does. A lot math as you might guess.

[@86rules]

I’ve been puzzling over the value of the LUT versus just the adjustments from the Calibrite/DisplayCal/Resolve/UltraStudio process, but your answer makes a lot of sense to me. Can’t tell you how much I appreciate it!

[@gabrielebradley]

Hey there, thanks for the video, finally someone helping with display cal. I've an LG 27UL550P, i can seem to find input range on the monitor itself, what do i do?

[@writedirect]

There’s gotta be a way to change that. I’m not trying to disagree with you, just gonna be surprised if there’s no way to set it. And if there’s not, you’ll probably have to reach out to LG to see what the default setting is.

[@erikgouletphoto]

How do you add the LUT box to the hardware chain?

[@writedirect]

It goes AFTER your BMD hardware. So if you’re using the ultra studio monitor 3G, you’ll go SDI out from that, SDI in to the LUT box and then HDMI out from the LUT box to the monitor. I do it with the black magicdesign micro converter 12G. Overkill for an ultra studio, but you get it.

[@Alexie]

Question! I have an ASUS PA328CV monitor. What do you think of the ProArt presets (display modes)? I compared all the modes with footage I colour graded and I feel like Standard Mode shows the most dynamic range. I tried Rec.709 mode but I think the shadows look really dark and lack range. :( Do you have an opinion about which mode i should use for now for accurate colours? I can't find any answers online about this because they all tell me to calibrate my monitor. Unfortunately, I don't have the money for that yet (I am also a cinematographer so I have a lot of expenses)!! Also thank you for these videos! I only had enough money for a new monitor but in the future, if I can afford to buy an UltraStudio Monitor 3G or Displaypro HL I will!

[@writedirect]

I totally understand your situation. But what you’re trying to do is like pulling part of a required component out. Like removing shutter speed from the equation, but trying to get a cinematic look. You can only go so far. My recommendation would be to grade in the different modes, And have different versions of timelines for each grade. And then export all of those out and look at the quick times on other devices like an iPad Pro, etc. And from there see which one looks the most accurate.

[@Alexie]

@@writedirect Hey thank you for the tip!! I totally understand what you mean! I will see what I can do :)

[@giznofx]

So workflow would be.. 1. conect with HDMI do display 2. make calibration with DispalyCal and create LUT 3. switch to Ultrastudio 3G and in resolve add video monitor LUT Is that correct?

[@writedirect]

Hey! No, you don’t want to hook the display to your computer via HDMI. you want the computer’s video card out of the loop. And btw the ultra studio only hooks up to a secondary display. It will not work on your primary display. The workflow is; 1) Hookup secondary display to ultra studio monitor 3G. 2) enable this in Resolve. 3) create the 3D LUT with DisplayCAL 4) choose the LUT in your project settings

[@giznofx]

@@writedirectbig tnx for the reply ❤ im on mac studio and I have 3 displays and the third one is Ultrastudio, but the calibration software doesnt see that monitor or in the display setting i can only see two monitors not the third one, i can only see it in resolve clean output preview… maybe wrong port? Mac os Sonoma..

[@writedirect]

@@giznofx the calibration software that comes with your colorimeter will not see the display hooked up to the UltraStudio Monitor 3G. That's how it's supposed to be-You are bypassing the GPU entirely. DisplayCAL will work with Resolve and see it.

[@giznofx]

@@writedirect thank zou very much for info. DisplayCal isnyt updated so is there option to buy for example EIZO monitor (hardware calibrated) or is there any other option, software? Again tnx for your time

[@TanelTopaasia]

Thank you for this tutorial 😊, but how did you manage to set the monitor hz to 24 since it only supports 48-75hz? Mine shows out of range logo when BMUS3G is feeding 1080p24.

[@writedirect]

I didn't set the monitor Hz...don't change that. I need to check the lesson because I shouldn't have that in there.

[@TanelTopaasia]

@@writedirect Can i ask, which Mac OS are you using with ur setup. Sequoia is kinda buggy when it comes to Displaycal and maybe it is affecting the hz bug aswell. When i set my default video standard to 1080p24 from Desktop Video Setup then my ref screen gives me the "Out of Range" message, but on 1080p60 works fine but since all my work is in 24 anyway, then it makes sense to work with 24.

[@writedirect]

@@TanelTopaasia I'm on Monterrey. I don't upgrade macOS unless I have to on my post computers. There's a forked version of DisplayCAL that will run better on your OS. I've yet to test it well however. On the to-do list.

[@TanelTopaasia]

@@writedirect Thank you for answering. I found a solution for my problem. It was the monitor (pa248qv) that does not support 24fps. I ordered the exact one (pa247cv) that u are using and now everything works (in every hz that Ultra Studio offers). So the message for out there is that pa247cv will take BM US3G with no problem.

[@writedirect]

@@TanelTopaasia Oh interesting...thanks for the info! I wouldn't have thought about one not supporting 24! Good to know.

[@vicentsendra1385]

Hello, thanks for the video! I have a question, if I already created an icc calibration and installed it on my windows, do I have to deactivate it and make the 3D lut for davinci or can I just do the 3D calibration method for Davinci while having the icc already installed on the system? Thank you!!!

[@writedirect]

If you had the ICC profile active when you created the 3D LUT then yeah, leave it active for your OS. And use the DisplayCAL 3D LUT for Resolve specifically.

[@abhipadiya]

@@writedirect Adding more to this question, If I am using single monitor (as GUI and Reference both) connected through HDMI to GPU (no decklink), will this thing work outside of resolve? Like looking the exported file different (as we only applied 3D LUT in resolve only) or whlie using other software such as premiere pro.

[@writedirect]

@@abhipadiya for normal OS operations you want an ICC profile. I would just use the software that comes with your hardware. And then for resolve create the 3D LUT and load that for your color viewers in project settings. And as far as specific applications like Premiere, you’re gonna have to look up their specs and see if they use to ICC profiles or if they require something else.

[@RyanYoung8]

Hey man, thanks for an invaluable video. Do you leave your ASUS in its native mode (which I believe by default is gamma 2.2) and run this rec 709 2.4 calibration to have the 3D LUT move you into a 2.4 gamma? Or are you changing your gamma on the display to 2.4 as well?

[@writedirect]

I'm not in front of it right now, but whichever mode allowed me to adjust individual RGB levels like I show in the video. If Rec.709 does, I'm sure that's where I begin. Just can't remember off hand if the display allows for changes in that mode - it may not. Just remember that mode is just a preset. It's not doing anything magical.

[@Christopher_P321]

I've read and seen some others NOT use "apply vcgt". It's confusing. If we're just using an Ultrastudio Monitor 3g and NOT a lutbox, should we apply or not apply vcgt? You had mentioned that with a lower contrast ratio monitor to use a 2.4 relative curve and set black output offset to 100.....if you have a high contrast monitor 2000:1 and want to use 1886, should black output offset still be set to 100? or keep it at 0? Thanks so much!

[@writedirect]

Hey man, sorry for the delay. As far as I understand, regardless of a LUT box you want apply vcgt checked. If you weren't using the UltraStudio that would be different. If you have a 2000:1 contrast ratio display, try the Rec. 1886 setting vs what I said. But leave black offset at 100%. Now...this is just what I've read. You can rabbit whole on this app like crazy. Worst case you can try both, export quicktimes of your sequence and see which quicktime looks better.

[@Christopher_P321]

@@writedirect No worries at all for the delay! I went down a rabbit hole a while ago trying to get the Python Version of DisplayCal going and recently updated ArgyllCMS to 3.2 (which was released in April). Last night I was scouring some forums with top level colorists and it seems like a never ending battle. So, if this info can help you at all as well, here's what I've gathered: BT1886 is the standard. Rec 709 doesn't have a pure gamma curve of 2.4 attached to it. There's charts around you can find that show the difference in the curve when measured. I think WHY it gets confusing is that most colorists are using high end OLED and now QD OLED (and those that still use lower end Eizo's) where they have high contrast ratios or where black can be measured at zero. In monitors with high contrast such as the ones previously mentioned, BT1886 will get you a true 2.4 gamma curve measured from a 0 nit black. Low contrast monitors such as lcd, ips, etc with a contrast of 1000:1 or 1500:1 don't have enough contrast to reach a measured black point of 0 so if you try to calibrate with BT1886, your blacks will end up lifted because the curve has to bend. Therefore, in this case, it's better to use a Rec 709 gamma 2.4 Relative calibration as that will measure from the black point of the monitor and the blacks won't get lifted. WHEW. That was a lot to type but hope the info helps! -- For myself, I did end up calibrating with BT1886 with black output offset set to 0 and the results looked pretty spot on and the verification report showed all tolerances passed. Will try an alternate calibration with black output offset set to 100 tonight to see if there's much of a difference.

[@writedirect]

@@Christopher_P321 nice. I really appreciate the thorough type up! It’s crazy how confusing and all over the place all of this stuff can be. I think if you drop two grand on software from Calman, you could probably get more detailed info. But that’s two grand. Were you able to get the new display cow working with Python 3? I tried it a few months ago, maybe even a year ago and ran into issues. But haven’t tried since.

[@Christopher_P321]

@@writedirect Yeah, I think that's probably why most colorists just shell out the money for professional calibration. Haha. As for DisplayCal Pyth 3...It works flawlessly and is getting pretty consistent updates. I think they're aiming to release 3.9.13 soon. The big issue I had was that the TPG from Resolve wasn't working on Sonoma but they fixed that. I did have an issue with the tar.gz not working properly but I found a workaround. If you'd like, I can shoot you an email with further info for you to explore and try out?

[@Christopher_P321]

Also, I do believe from what I've read over on the Github discussions as well as the DisplayCal forums that the new devs are currently working on getting 3.9.13 out AND are also working on getting regular installation packages out for Mac & Windows after that sometime in the near future because there's been so many requests to get normal installers out since the Python3 workaround has been a nightmare for some.

[@erikgouletphoto]

On DisplayCal I don't the Override minimum, override display, full field pattern and output levels. I only have the Display - Instrument and Correction. How do I get the missing components?

[@writedirect]

Hey! Go to Options > Show Advanced Options.

[@erikgouletphoto]

@@writedirect Thank you, options are visible now.

[@erikgouletphoto]

@@writedirect Perfect, should have known.

[@erikgouletphoto]

@@writedirect Sorry for all the questions. I tried calibrating with the setting you described. After adjustments and calibration, my reference monitor is low in luminosity but the rendered output has a brighter luminosity. The only difference in my setup is that I have an UltraStudio Mini 4k and load LUT in DR colour management. Can't find the reason why. Any insight?

[@writedirect]

@ interesting. Are you doing Rec 709-A on export?

[@venetadecheva4610]

Thank you so much for this video, very informative and helpful! I'm currently calibrating my display (I have the exact same monitor as you), but when I finish calibration my numbers are too high - average is 3.68 and, maximum 15.25, RMS 6.01... do you have any idea what I might be doing wrong and what I should change to get better results?

[@venetadecheva4610]

Forgot to mention I am using a Datacolor Spyder X Pro and due to this I did not use any correction profiles under "Display and Instrument" - it just shows me "None" and "Auto (None)" as options.

[@writedirect]

Hey, I'd try increasing the delay setting on the first tab. Increase by 100ms until fixed. Run short tests so you don't waste time. I haven't used the Spyder X. You might try browsing the DisplayCal forum to see if anyone else has tips on that colorimeter.

[@BoyanDechev]

@@writedirect Just go this answer from the Displaycal forum: "Unfortunately, Spyders are infamous for being inaccurate. It would be best to get an X-Rite i1 Display Pro/Pro Plus or a Calibrtite ColorChecker Display Pro/Plus/HL." Bought the Calibrite Display Pro HL and now my results are perfect : ) Thank you again for creating this guide!

[@angelocool95]

I have come across an issue Where the scopes are affected by the monitor lut. I have done as shown, only applied lut to monitor and No lut on scopes and color viewer. When checking my scopes there’s a small slope between 0-70 IRE that gets lifted when checking a gradient. Any solutions? Also, do you switch back to video levels on monitor settings after calibration! Thanks for a great tutorial!

[@writedirect]

Hey man, thanks for your comment. So I do not switch back to video levels. I'm just staying at data. Interesting on the small change on levels -- That sounds like a bug to me. It wouldn't affect my setup because I'm doing that LUT box, so it's completely outside of Resolve. I'm using one of the BMD MicroConverters as a LUT box. Seems to work well, and the measuring I've done shows a small change from Resolve to LUT box with the same 3D LUT.

[@adamblair-smith3063]

There should be a setting in resolve under color management settings to turn that off, let me know if you need help finding it.

[@adamblair-smith3063]

Any way to do this with video levels instead? when I try changing the pipeline to video levels I get unusable results. I need video levels as .mp4 and h.264 does not support full levels

[@writedirect]

You def can change to video levels no problem. But Resolve, DisplayCal and your actual display all have to be set to that. From my specific setup full was better.

[@russtvmedia]

I was going to ask you if it's possible to create the 3D LUT file using a different computer with an older version of the Mac OS. Last night I got DisplayCal to work on my 2012 Mac Pro with Monterey OS. Your instructions are great!

[@writedirect]

Awesome! And obviously that's only with BMD hardware. Let me know how it goes.

[@russtvmedia]

@@writedirect Correct! It will be a few days until I can back on it again. I'll let you know.

[@russtvmedia]

@@writedirect Update on my progress: I could not get my DeckLink card to work in an expansion box. So I went ahead and got the BMD UltraStudio Monitor 3G. And got the ASUS PA247CV monitor. All works great! I Then went to my other computer to create the LUT using DisplayCal. I got all the way through it until I got to the part where I had to enter the IP address in Resolve. It says it failed. Not sure why or if I'm missing something. So I guess for now I'l have to wait until there is a fix for my M2 Mac Studio running Sonoma. If you have any ideas, let me know? Thanks!

[@writedirect]

@@russtvmedia if you’re using the IP address and port number specified, they should talk to each other. You have to have resolve running on that other computer obviously. It’s not an IP address communicating over the network. I know that’s what it seems like but it’s just an internal mapping on your computer. Also, if there’s any type of antivirus firewall or that type of thing running on that computer, I would turn that off.

[@russtvmedia]

@@writedirect This might be a stupid question. But for the calibration, does the monitor need to be connected to the computer's GPU, or through the BMD UltraStudio Monitor 3G via HDMI?

[@ToTheSkiesProductions]

Great Job!

[@writedirect]

Thank you! Hope it helps some indie filmmakers.

[@Bosstaset.p]

My M3max with Sonoma can't open the DisplayCal3🥹 If I have no this program what's next I can do to get 3DLUT?😅

[@writedirect]

There is a way to make DisplayCal work via a fork with Python 3. I haven’t done a video on that. And they are also working on making it less complicated. But right now that’s it outside of Calman software which costs $2000.

[@Bosstaset.p]

@@writedirect Thanks for your advice, now my DisplayCal is working via a fork with Python3🙏🙏.

[@writedirect]

@@Bosstaset.p awesome.

[@samvogel2452]

@@Bosstaset.p hey! i’m very unfamiliar with python but i’m trying to get this to work on sonoma as well. would you be able to help? i cant describe to you how much that would help me🤝🏼

[@RememberThisShow]

ok, but when I'm done, and I load my lut file, do I then turn my display and monitor settings back to limited input?

[@writedirect]

No-Whichever route you choose at the beginning, leave it that way. There’s nothing wrong with video level. If you think you get a better result that way. But Resolve and your display have to match on that setting. And you need them set that way before you create the 3D LUT. For me, data seemed better.

[@RememberThisShow]

@@writedirect ok thanks, I tried it on full and it was all washed out no matter what I did. I'm on an OLED proart and had to tinker a bit, but I think I have a good calibration lut now with it all set to limited. It is quite a process for sure. Sadly the display I'm using is not as common I guess among the communities. Its this one, ASUS ProArt Display OLED PA27DCE-K 26.9 I wish there was more info on it, as it was almost 2 grand, but I guess its up to me to take a scientific approach...

[@writedirect]

@@RememberThisShow how are you connected to computer? Using BMD hardware?

[@RememberThisShow]

@@writedirect yes the ultra studio monitor 3g

[@writedirect]

@@RememberThisShow if I used a 4K display for monitoring I’d prob do a decklink so you could send 4K out. Not that this is your prob. Just side comment. Is the manual part of the monitor calibration working ok and getting in good range? With that display you might want to do change to BT 1886 and experiment with black setting, if the display has 2000:1 contrast.