normally when we do these videos we're evaluating the performance of the item
about which we made the video but not today no today will be different the
subject of today's video is one for
which we are not capable of measuring
the performance for it is itself a
measuring instrument I mean imagine this could one evaluate the performance of a
tape measure perhaps by comparing the feet to one's own feet or the Ines to
one's
own Intel brings ddr4 to the mainstream
with their new core i7 6700k and core i56600k processors check out the link in
the video description to learn more okay
so the intro was pretty silly today but I don't want that to take away from the
seriousness of the tool that I've got in
front of me okay no seriously I'm done with that this my friends is the
cryptically named x-ray i1 basic pro2 an
instrument that even with the best press discount we could negotiate cost us
$800 us to buy excuse me lonus what
makes that goofy looking hunk of plastic worth over a thousand Canadian pesos
great question the i1 basic Pro 2 is a professional grade color measurement and
C calibration device in this case a spectr photometer with the ability to
accurately I mean assuming you adhere to the yearly recertification process
measure not only the light output of pretty much any display you would
actually want to use but also of projectors and even printers to maintain
an accurate workflow from the initial graphic design to display on the web and
finally to physical paper media this is necessary because while the human I
magnificent Beast that it is can detect a given range of wavelengths of light
that's what we perceive as color our devices be they monitors televisions or
printers cannot achieve the same level
of performance yet with printers in particular legging significantly behind
their digital counterparts so accurate color calibration and careful profile
creation for the various devices an artist would use is essential for for
preventing that chick modeling the hottest parkas for this season or
whatever from looking oversaturated when viewed on a monitor and under saturated
when viewed on the pages of a magazine and this is even more important when
collaborating remotely with someone else
say for example if you were designing a lan hoodie where standardized panone
colors mean nothing if everyone's equipment is not calibrated correctly
okay got it lonus color is cool and sciency and all that crap but come on
we've seen your work and you guys are all over the map when it comes to color
in your video so what do you need it for okay one that is something we're working
on thanks to LG and X right all of our workstations are equipped with i1 Pro
colorimeters and 31 muu 97 4K video
editing monitors so you should expect to see some improvements soon and two this
device is actually not for the video editors here at Linus Media Group it is
for me now you might have seen some Fancy Pants
looking graphs in the last couple of monitor videos that I've done those were
created by Spectra Cal's calman 5 for business software an incredibly robust
tool of which I've only barely begun to scratch the surface people use this
software for all kinds of stuff like uh making sure that a wall of discrete
displays doesn't have that goofy effect where they all look a little different
which is jarring when an object passes over the border between them to a home
theater installation to professional studio use but I'm focused on using
their evaluation tools to determine the performance with respect to color
accuracy maximum luminance Etc of
computer monitors so it works a little something like this I fire up a monitor
that I need to evaluate and I look for the profiles in the displays menu that
are most likely to be accurate so the
movie profile usually isn't the right one since that tends to crush blacks
like there's no tomorrow so you lose detail in dark parts of the scene
usually if you want the accurate one it's going to be srgb or RGB depending
on how wide a gamut your monitor can
cover so then I run through the gauntlet of tests and this basically tells me if
the display manufacturer is actually calibrating before they put the monitor
into the box or just applying a general
profile and hoping for the best from unit to unit after they ship once that
done although this has become less necessary in recent times with IPS
monitors becoming so affordable and even and even high performance with 144 HZ
displays like Acer's XP 270 hu available
I use the i1 basic Pro 2 to apply an ICC
profile to the monitor effectively correcting whatever mistakes the panel
is making natively with your computer's graphics card and measure again to get a
best case after calibration look at the display capabilities so that's pretty
much it there's not much to say other than thanks to xrite for the discount
and to spectracal for the software license and the marathon three-hour
training session on the phone so that we can do much more now than just say you
know yeah the uh colors on this one look pretty you know
flee you know and just make things up as we go along both now and into the
future guess who's back it's chero makers of useful and often adorable
mobile accessories so they've got a couple of new ones here today the first
one is the plate cable which is usually 15 bucks but they've actually got a
special for 50 units over on Amazon for
12 and pretty much what it does is it takes what would normally be a cable and
folds it up around a little thing that fits on your keychain it's available in
either lightning or micro USB connectors
and then folds back up when you do not need it any longer so you can always
carry a cable around with you at all
freaking times the other one is a variant on one that we've actually shown
you guys before their twoin one cable so the previous one had their like cute
little Dan board thing on it with the light up eyes and all that well this is
a lower cost alternative it's 15 bucks normally but same as the other one for
the first 50 units it's $12 so we'll have links to both of those in the video
description and thanks to churro for sponsor ing this
episode so I hope you guys enjoyed this look at our newest piece of measurement
gear thanks for watching if the video sucked you know what to do but if it was
awesome get subscribed hit that like button or even consider supporting us
directly by using our affiliate code to shop at Amazon instructions up there
buying a cool t-shirt like this one or with a direct monthly contribution
through our community Forum which you should also by the way join so now that
you're done doing all that you're probably wondering what to watch next so
click that little button in the top right corner to check out Luke's
unveiling of NVIDIA's new graphics cards
that are also in laptops but their
desktop performance and wow it's amazing my head just exploded for the second
time in less than two minutes