NewTek Tricaster TCXD850, User Manual, Page: 316 / 336

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C.3.1 COMPUTER MONITOR
This is a subject that could (and does) easily fill multiple volumes, but which we will sadly give
short shrift. It may not be
quite as important to achieve ‘spot-on’ color calibration for the
monitor used for the user interface. Not surprisingly, video output color is best judged on larger
downstream video monitors.
Nevertheless, you may find a trip to one of any number of websites providing test imagery and
calibration hints useful. A search for “computer monitor calibration” will yield an endless list,
along with some commercial utilities for those who feel the need. Here are links to several such
sites:
http://epaperpress.com/monitorcal/
http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/
http://www.jasc.com/support/kb/articles/monitor.asp
http://www.photofriday.com/calibrate.php
http://www.onecomputerguy.com/windows7/windows7_calibrate_color.htm
C.3.2 PROGRAM OUTPUT MONITOR
Again, a search of the internet for “video monitor calibration” will yield a large number of
resources, both free and commercial. If you have television monitors connected to TriCaster’s
outputs, though, you can make further use of the color bars. The approach is somewhat similar
to what we did for our video sources, in that the first adjustments are to ensure that black and
white levels are correct. Color calibration is performed afterward.
First, warm up your monitor for at least 10 minutes (some sources recommend a half-hour), to
stabilize its output. Dim room lights and window light, to eliminate light sources that might skew
your color perception. Pass the color bars from your camera through to program output (or use
a color bars image in one of TriCaster’s media players for this purpose.
C.3.3 SETTING BLACK AND WHITE
As mentioned earlier, NTSC and PAL (and NTSC-J) regions use different black levels, so it’s no
surprise that they take different approaches to setting black and white levels, and that their