Thanks for the kind comments.

No, I don't really do anything different. What I found that saves some time is once I tweak a filter settings that works really well for a certain situation, I name it and save it, then it gets added to the preset list under whatever filter I was using so I don't have to try to duplicate it from scratch next time.

For example with color curves what you can do is nudge the curve using the arrow keys on your keyboard once you add a point to the default line. I've made a bunch a couple nudges in different directions.

Thanks, again, BillyBoy. Nice to have all this in one spot, rather than have to look all over the web when I need it.

i'm a little confused. SMPTE color bars are a STANDARD? .. so are there different versions of NTSC SMPTE color bars ?

"Vegas Video includes several color bar and other test images calibrated to be used with their DV codec."
how can SOFO have their own version of SMPTE color bars or other standard test that suits their codec ? perhaps i'm reading more into it ?? most VIEWING monitors are set to SMPTE color bars and they DON't change em for every tape they view. NOW in POST production house they will set up to ALL color bars on every tape.

i was under the impression that the VV color bars were SMPTE ..
when you use the label -4, 0, +4 is this IRE ? or just the difference between them in IRE's ??

"You can also use Vegas Video's test patterns #18, #19 and #20 which are under the Text/Backgrounds tab under test patterns for this adjustment and the one that follows."

i've looked in all of VV3 and i cannot find any 18,19,20 ... i have 6 test patterns under TEXT/BACKGROUND-TEST pattern, only the color bars match anything on your web page ??


i have a SMPTE color bar generator . i also have SMPTE color bars from beta sp , dsr 500 , from film to dvcam , .. all these color bars appear match each other ( including PLUGES that i can see on external monitor ) BUT the SOFO do not match and i cannot see their pluges on ext monitor ?? .
the main mismatch are bottom area -I & Q on your page and GRAY .

now i can see having different PLUGE bars as ALL DV has 0 ire so the standard +3.5 , 7.5 , 11.5 doesn't cut it for trying to set up DV viewing ?

so are there NTSC SMPTE color bars for analog and different set for digital ?

I just did a TEST of my own. i put SOFO color bars on VV time line . above it on new video track i insert SOLID COLOR BLACK which is 0,0,0 ... next using track motion i adjust it so i can see the PLUGES of the color bars on right side of frame ( so solid black is taking up 60% of the left side of frame) ..now using the eye dropper/picker on the preview window i take a sample of the solid black and it reads 0,0,0 ( plus you can set solid black for 0,0,0) .. next i sample the middle PLUGE 15,15,15 ...next the left of middle pluge 6,6,6 ..next the right of middle pluge 40,40,40 ... from what i know 16 is equal to a 7.5 ire ?? so it appears that SOFO color bars pluges are 3.5, 7.5 ,11.5 IRE

so you are setting up to 7.5 IRE ( for analog ) ? and it is true that the TV's we view it on are sort of set for 7.5 ...

BUT DV is 0 ire and that is a WORLD standard? any DV tape handed to me i assume has a 0 ire and there is NO need for set up? but if persons start handing out DV tapes that are 7.5 ire and 0 ire how do we know ? now every analog tape i assume is 7.5 ..

this is a what do you do ? as viewing is 7.5 and dv is 0 ? if you do all your color correction set up to 7.5 it will be DARK at 0 set up ? ... this has been always been a confusing area set up to 7.5 or 0 ire ????


very informative site ..IMO you should state that this is a 7.5 ire set up or change those #'s -4,0,+4 to correct #'s 3.5, 7.5, 11.5 so persons do NOT think they are IRE #'s ??..
very good color tutorial and the applying color to solid b/g overlay is EXCELLENT .. thanks for the tip..

AFAIK the color bars "standard" means they are suppose to be at 75% saturation. The points I'm trying to get across are:

a. be SURE you really use a real SMPTE color bar chart (many non SMPTE bars can be found on the web that say they are and aren't. Of course if you have it a color bar generator that is a superior method.

b. Note Vegas included two versions, the NTSC and PAL, depending on where you live.

About -4, 0, +4 Pluge. If you have a DVD player you should be able to see something that is called super black (-4). My understanding is only the rightmost block, the +4 bar, is important when doing a manual adjustment. When your black level is set correctly (doing it manually) it should just barely be visible and a tad lighter then the middle bar (0) which most people won't see differently than the -4 bar.

Sorry, I goofed on the bar naming, I probably looked under properies and took the active take name rather than the actual image name. I was referring to White Porches, Pluge and Porches and Ramp which should be in the folder I indicated. Thanks for catching that, I'll change the web site...

IRE settings (very interesting question you asked)

This gets a little confusing...

As I understand it, SMPTE color bars are really designed to adjust a non digital device, in this case your typical run of the mill analog televison that does (?) introduce a slight problem in that digital cameras are set to use 0 IRE for black (or 0,0,0, RGB) as oppposed to the 7.5 black (or RGB 16, 16, 16) you're shooting for in setting up a TV.

In the SMPTE color bar chart, the middle block, what is suppose to black, checks out at RGB, 16,16,16 IF you blow up the main timeline and click there. However, if you use the eyedropper in the preview window it reads RGB 15,15,15. Why that is, I don't know.

The confusing part is should you or shouldn't you "fudge" the black values (meaning adjust the chart itself) to take into account the difference between the analog and digital world? In other words is there a "digital" color bar chart, if there is I don't recall ever seeing one.

Does this make sense?

To make such a chart, would you not have to make the middle block which is black according to SMPTE "standards" some different shade of gray to make the leftmost the blackest? If not, how to you make a color blacker, than black?

As you can see, I'm confused too.

Anyone know?

Billyboy,
Which model video monitor do you use to do your color calibrations? I have been using a Sony 13" TV/Monitor. Being a frugal person, I don't want to spend more than I actually need to obtain accuracy.
Thanks,
John

Yet another very cool tool, Billyboy!

Being a pinchpenny, I just went to BestBuy or maybe it was K-Mart or Walmart I forget, and grabbed a cheap little 13 inch TV that has video in. I got a Sharp, mainly because that's the brand I got for my big TV. I use this little TV as my external monitor which I do all my color/level adjustments off of.

Actually a couple advantages besides the price. Because it is small it doesn't take up a lot of room, I have it about 4 foot from where I sit on a table. Also because it is smaller, the CRT produces a bright crisp image.

Now the real "secret"... for my own personal use when I burn a DVD I wanted to have a little TV so I could pick it up and when needed bring it into the family room side by side where I got my giant TV. Don't get them too close about 4 feet apart or the electromagantic fields could mess things up.

Why did I do this?

Because I wanted the external monitor I use for video editing to be calibrated as close as possible to my big TV. Just using color bars and the other steps in the tutorial gets you close, but since each TV is a tad different due to CRT size, age, phosphors used in the picture tube and so on they will be minor varations in levels, mostly hues.

So...

The key to get both TV's exact as possible to each other is to feed them BOTH the SAME signal at once.

How do you do that?

The easy way is to get yourself a video distribution amplifier. Radio Shack has one for around $40 or so. It has a input for "S-video" and composite video plus audio right and left. You connect your video souce to these inputs. It has 4 outputs. So you can feed the same signal to 4 devices at the same time without any loss of signal strength, critical or what follows is pointless.

Now I feed a video to this box, (from my digital camera or from my DVD and have theinput go to my little external TV I use for editing, plus also go to my big TV. I can now tweak the setting of each at once thereby adjusting my little TV so it I can know how rendering a DVD will appear on the big TV.

The first time I did this it took over an hour, because I tried several source files, so I needed to take an average adjust the brightness/contrast/hues on one set than the other back and forth. Anyways, I found this the best way for home use to know beforehand exactly how your videos will look on the TV your're going to view them on. Yes, a bit much, but I'm a nitpicker. It turned out that my big TV also a Sharp because of its size if calibrated couldn't generate the same brightness level, so I had to lower the smaller TV so when I made adjustments while making color/level adjustments this was taken into effect. Also since the picture tubes were much different in size I need to shift the hue on the larger set up just a couple clicks, while dropping it down one click on the smaller TV to get them to product as close as possbile the same hue. Without doing this I would always be making a tad red skin tones (viewing the smaller TV) then what was produced on the larger TV. So in effect I cheated, forcing both TV's to be just a tad off so they both would produce the same hue. This way I don't have to worry about how the videos will look on the big TV since the smaller TV I adjust off of has already taken the very minor difference between the two TV's into account.

Do you have to go through all this? No, but if you're a nitpicker. <wink>

Re: The pluge bars on a smpte bar chart. They are supposed to be 3.5, 7.5 and 11.5 IRE. Since 7.5 sets the level of black in the USA, as BillyBoy says, the right most bar should just be visible and the left and middle bar should merge into one double width bar since they represent values which are black and blacker than black. Visually there is no difference on a properly set up monitor between 3.5 IRE and 7.5 IRE. 11.5 IRE (the right one) is a little bit less black so it appears very dark gray.

The reason that the "setup" level is so important is that if you set your black at 0 IRE (as in Japan) and I set mine at 7.5 (as in the USA), then when I send 7.5 IRE to your device and expect a beautiful black picture, I get a gray picture instead. You might not think that it's big deal but to give you a real world example, imagine an outdoor night time show. The tension builds, the music suddenly stops, the lights are totally shut off and the big display screen doesn't go black plunging the audience into the desired pitch blackness but churns on emitting a noisy gray which completely destroys the desired effect.

As the bosses said: "Why's the new screen doing that Al?

The same effect will happen if your video has its black level too high and that's why smpte bars are one of the best tools to check your video system.

The video distribution amplifier that BillyBoy mentioned is an absolutely amazing little gadget for $40. Unfortunately, it does slightly change the video level and chroma saturation of the input signal (at least the one I tested at work did). For most purposes, the difference is small but professionals might want to be careful for the reasons mentioned above.

Regards...

Al

Billy Boy, on your sharp TV where do have your brightness setting. Originally I had it almost halfway across on my 13inch Sony, but going back through your tutorials I came to the conclusion I had it too bright and realized the upper left 2 recs were perfectly black with the 3rd being gray and the middle rectangle became absolutely black (no diagonal stripes) at a little more than a 3rd of the way. Anyways, does this fit in with your experience, or are TV sets so different you can't really comment on it? (Sony is about 2 years old -- flat screen 13 inch).

Hi billyboy,

Maybe it's obvious to many but can I apply your tutorial for NTSC monitor calibration to PAL monitors?

If not, do you know where I could get some tut on it? (been google-ing for more info on it to no avail)

Thanks,

Shaun

Because you asked... but do NOT assume these setting will be right for you. Each TV is different. Mine like most newer TV's generates a little bar pattern on screen which you can increase/decrease by clicking your remote.

On my little TV I use as the external monitor when doing video editing:

picture....(contrast) is set at 12, color.....18, brightness 24, sharp.....16,tint...... 3G.

Note that while brightness is one click higher than dead center, contrast,(picture) which most people have set way too high and by defualt is way too high out of the box in most TV's is only 12 or only about 20% of its maximum range. So too with focus, which mistakenly a lot of people crack way up thinking more is better is will give a sharper picture Wrong. Use a really good test pattern and you'll see.

While the test pattern in my tutorial (step #3) is a good one, trying to use the copy I included won't cut it because of resolution issues. You have to find one, then maybe cut a CD or DVD and use it or better there are several DVD's out there that have them along with similar steps I put in the tutorial. I forget the name of the one I got, some neighbor 'borrowed' mine and I haven't got it back yet.

I'll see if I can find the web page I found the test pattern on.

Try here: Under do your own test there are two #1956 test patterns, in low and high resolution you can use for adjusting sharpeness (focus)

http://www.bealecorner.com/trv900/respat/

You can follow most of the steps for PAL, except use a PAL color bar. Sorry, I haven't found munch on the web either about how to do a PAL calibration in more detail.

There is no "setup" (7.5 IRE level) for black in PAL, it's at 0 IRE, so PAL bars don't have the same pluge bars.

Al

Thanks for the reply. Billy Boy. That was quite helpful. I have a veg with the proper media in it, with overlaid text explaining how to calibrate with your instructions. I think my problem has been setting the contrast way too high. Anyways, hope I 'm getting closer to perfection here.

Billyboy,

I tried following the Calibration and Adjustment Tutorial you posted, but I have a few questions.

1. The Rosco #80 I bought doesn't look right. When you look through it you can see other colors. I tried the blue color gel which came with the AVIA Home Theatre Setup DVD and it blocked the other colors as I believe it is supposed to. It is a different shade of blue than the Rosco #80.

2. For the White and Black level adjustments it is difficult to determine the optimal setting. What appears to be correct, results in a very dark video image with unnatural shadows. The same is true of a broadcast television image when viewed after doing this setup.
I also ran the AVIA tests which give more detailed explanations than your tutorial, but again it all seems really dark. I am afraid that if I do color correction with these settings that the resulting video (particularly the VHS copies) will be all washed out. For black level adjustment those tiny pluge bars just don't cut it, but the White Porches, Pluge and Porches, and Ramp alternatives you mentioned don't have a description as to how to use them.

3. The sharpness test was easy and well detailed.

4. The color intensity adjustment seemed impossible with the Rosco #80 as I described earlier. The intensity of bar A B C and D was inpossible to adjust using that filter. By intensity I assume you mean overall brightness not color match.

5. The Hue adjustment was the same problem.

6. I ended up doing the entire thing with the AVIA DVD and it's accompanying filters (gels). Still the image is really dark.


Any thoughts on this?

John

How old is the TV you're adjusting? If its more than a couple years old, sadly it already it probably on its unavoidable path of getting dimmer and dimmer where the brightness and contrast isn't what it once was which means you'll have to bump up the white level. Its one of those things you don't notice looking at it day to day because the changes are so gradual. Also if you've had your TV brightness and contrast cranked way up beyond what it should have been it also takes a few days for youy eyes to get used to viewing as it should have been all along. For sure the picture will seem darker...at first. If you can resist putting the settings back to what they were in a few days you won't think things are as dark as they appear now. In a couple weeks time when you view someone's else's TV you'll think their picture isn't correct. Remember going through this myself way back when I built my Healthkit TV about 20 years ago.

If you still think your picture is too dark then just push both the white and black level up a notch until you can live with it. Try to drop it down a notch in a couple days. Ignoring the tests, a quick check you can do just watching TV. Every so often you'll notice a true blank screen, usually between commercials, probably only lasts a second or less. At these times your TV screen should be black. With some older TV it looks as if the TV set it off. If during these very brief times where there is truly nothing there if the screen is any shade of gray no matter how dark a gray, your white level is too high.

Yes... things will seem dark... if you were use to viewing your TV miscalibrated for years. Me too. In fact everyone thinks that... at first.

Thanks for the quick reply Bill.
The TV is a 13" Sony which is four years old and has been used very little. The broadcast channels look dark to the point that some details are very difficult to see.
Originally, the white level was all the way up at factory setting as are most TV's that my cutomers will view the videos. That is one of the confusing aspects. When trying to produce good video for customers with good color, etc (I shoot mostly theater productions)I want to color correct so that it looks excellent on everyone's TV. Staying within Broadcast Standards for NTSC theoretically should give you that, but it doesn't always work out that way.
I'll try tweaking the White and Black levels.

Also.
What about the problems I mentioned with the Rosco #80 filter? Do you use that one or the Wratten? Also, when I read your tutorial it sounded like you also had the AVIA DVD judging from your descriptions. The blue filter which came with that DVD worked well, but the Rosco #80 looked really different and didn't block the other colors well enough.

Yep, I got, should say had, the AVIA DVD. Gave it to some neighbor to "borrow" and oh well, don't remember which neighbor and that was awhile ago. I ordered the Rosco gel myself from some web site and never got it, at least not yet. I went to a couple local photo suppy stores and asked for it, and they both looked at me like I was from another planet... didn't have a clue what I was talking about. When I first got the AVIA DVD I used the little sheet they include too and I think I saw just a trace of red bleeding through.

To adjust hue what I do myself perhaps sounds a little oddball, but it works for me.

Using the color bars to judge overall hue you can get close but to me at least it didn't seem that effective. So... while this may sound silly it seems to work well. Get a sheet of carboard at a arts supply store. I forget what you call it, its about three feet square and a dull shine to it. Use that as a background. Now a couple objects most everyone has around the house (in the US anyways) or can easily get. A can of Campbell soup (the traditional with the red and white label) and a box of Quaker Oats oatmeal placed in front of that white cardboard. Shoot a minute or so of the soup can and oatmeal box far enough away so they appear life size on your TV. Having the objects in front of you and on the TV I found adjusting hue and overall intensity of colors with this somewhat silly method works as good or better than trying to stare at those color bars through gel. <wink>

Honest I really did this, not joking.

BillyBoy,

What kind of Campbells' soup did you use? I tried Bean'n Bacon, but it just didn't look right.

G

P.S. Seriously, great tip. It does sound funny, but it makes complete sense.