Blackmagicdesign Pocket UltraScope, Operation Manual

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Blackmagic UltraScope
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1. Parade Display
Parade Display is perfect for color-correction, checking for illegal colors and checking levels.
When color-correcting, press the RGB button to display the full height of each color channel as red,
green and blue. Monitoring the levels of each red, green and blue color channel makes color-correction
straightforward and it is easy to view color balance in the blacks, mids and whites of the video signal.
Parade Display enables you to identify details common to the red, green and blue channels, making it
simple to color-balance and remove unwanted color tints.
It’s often important when color-correcting to make sure you’re not clipping the video levels. Make sure
the video is full level but not clipped. You can turn on the GAMUT function, and any illegal levels will be
highlighted in bright red, so they are easy to see. If you want to increase the video level, then make sure it
doesn’t go above 100% RGB or you will encounter illegal levels. Some equipment won’t let you generate
illegal 100% RGB levels, however other equipment will. Blackmagic UltraScope lets you see illegal levels
whenever they occur.
Illegal video can also happen in blacks as well as whites. In some color-correction systems, black levels
can be lowered to below the black point of 0%, and the levels will be shown as bright red if the GAMUT
warning mode is enabled. If you observe illegal black levels, just add some “lift” or gain to eliminate them
but check the 100% graticule level to make sure the whole video signal has not lifted and generated illegal
colors in the whites.
It’s a constant adjustment process, when color-correcting, to attain the best looking images without
generating illegal levels!
To check levels, simply press the YUV or YUV+ button.
The COLOR setting switches the RGB display to color rather than traditional black and white. When the
COLOR setting is used with the YUV or YUV+ display, luma (brightness) remains white, B-Y (difference
between blue and luma) appears blue and R-Y (difference between red and luma) appears red. The
COLOR setting is not a professional setting and should usually be switched off, especially when showing
video to clients.
Color Correction Terminology
Blacks – black levels in the video signal
Mids – mid-gray levels in the video signal
Whites – white levels in the video signal