X-Rite i1 Basic Pro 2 - Badass Color Calibrator!
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2016-05-06
·
1,305 words · ~6 min read
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normally when we do these videos we're evaluating the performance of the item
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about which we made the video but not today no today will be different the
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subject of today's video is one for
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which we are not capable of measuring
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the performance for it is itself a
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measuring instrument I mean imagine this could one evaluate the performance of a
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tape measure perhaps by comparing the feet to one's own feet or the Ines to
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one's
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own Intel brings ddr4 to the mainstream
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with their new core i7 6700k and core i56600k processors check out the link in
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the video description to learn more okay
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so the intro was pretty silly today but I don't want that to take away from the
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seriousness of the tool that I've got in
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front of me okay no seriously I'm done with that this my friends is the
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cryptically named x-ray i1 basic pro2 an
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instrument that even with the best press discount we could negotiate cost us
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$800 us to buy excuse me lonus what
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makes that goofy looking hunk of plastic worth over a thousand Canadian pesos
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great question the i1 basic Pro 2 is a professional grade color measurement and
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C calibration device in this case a spectr photometer with the ability to
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accurately I mean assuming you adhere to the yearly recertification process
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measure not only the light output of pretty much any display you would
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actually want to use but also of projectors and even printers to maintain
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an accurate workflow from the initial graphic design to display on the web and
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finally to physical paper media this is necessary because while the human I
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magnificent Beast that it is can detect a given range of wavelengths of light
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that's what we perceive as color our devices be they monitors televisions or
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printers cannot achieve the same level
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of performance yet with printers in particular legging significantly behind
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their digital counterparts so accurate color calibration and careful profile
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creation for the various devices an artist would use is essential for for
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preventing that chick modeling the hottest parkas for this season or
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whatever from looking oversaturated when viewed on a monitor and under saturated
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when viewed on the pages of a magazine and this is even more important when
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collaborating remotely with someone else
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say for example if you were designing a lan hoodie where standardized panone
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colors mean nothing if everyone's equipment is not calibrated correctly
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okay got it lonus color is cool and sciency and all that crap but come on
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we've seen your work and you guys are all over the map when it comes to color
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in your video so what do you need it for okay one that is something we're working
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on thanks to LG and X right all of our workstations are equipped with i1 Pro
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colorimeters and 31 muu 97 4K video
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editing monitors so you should expect to see some improvements soon and two this
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device is actually not for the video editors here at Linus Media Group it is
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for me now you might have seen some Fancy Pants
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looking graphs in the last couple of monitor videos that I've done those were
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created by Spectra Cal's calman 5 for business software an incredibly robust
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tool of which I've only barely begun to scratch the surface people use this
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software for all kinds of stuff like uh making sure that a wall of discrete
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displays doesn't have that goofy effect where they all look a little different
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which is jarring when an object passes over the border between them to a home
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theater installation to professional studio use but I'm focused on using
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their evaluation tools to determine the performance with respect to color
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accuracy maximum luminance Etc of
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computer monitors so it works a little something like this I fire up a monitor
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that I need to evaluate and I look for the profiles in the displays menu that
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are most likely to be accurate so the
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movie profile usually isn't the right one since that tends to crush blacks
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like there's no tomorrow so you lose detail in dark parts of the scene
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usually if you want the accurate one it's going to be srgb or RGB depending
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on how wide a gamut your monitor can
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cover so then I run through the gauntlet of tests and this basically tells me if
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the display manufacturer is actually calibrating before they put the monitor
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into the box or just applying a general
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profile and hoping for the best from unit to unit after they ship once that
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done although this has become less necessary in recent times with IPS
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monitors becoming so affordable and even and even high performance with 144 HZ
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displays like Acer's XP 270 hu available
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I use the i1 basic Pro 2 to apply an ICC
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profile to the monitor effectively correcting whatever mistakes the panel
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is making natively with your computer's graphics card and measure again to get a
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best case after calibration look at the display capabilities so that's pretty
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much it there's not much to say other than thanks to xrite for the discount
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and to spectracal for the software license and the marathon three-hour
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training session on the phone so that we can do much more now than just say you
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know yeah the uh colors on this one look pretty you know
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flee you know and just make things up as we go along both now and into the
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future guess who's back it's chero makers of useful and often adorable
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mobile accessories so they've got a couple of new ones here today the first
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one is the plate cable which is usually 15 bucks but they've actually got a
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special for 50 units over on Amazon for
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12 and pretty much what it does is it takes what would normally be a cable and
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folds it up around a little thing that fits on your keychain it's available in
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either lightning or micro USB connectors
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and then folds back up when you do not need it any longer so you can always
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carry a cable around with you at all
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freaking times the other one is a variant on one that we've actually shown
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you guys before their twoin one cable so the previous one had their like cute
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little Dan board thing on it with the light up eyes and all that well this is
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a lower cost alternative it's 15 bucks normally but same as the other one for
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the first 50 units it's $12 so we'll have links to both of those in the video
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description and thanks to churro for sponsor ing this
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episode so I hope you guys enjoyed this look at our newest piece of measurement
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gear thanks for watching if the video sucked you know what to do but if it was
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click that little button in the top right corner to check out Luke's
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unveiling of NVIDIA's new graphics cards
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that are also in laptops but their
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desktop performance and wow it's amazing my head just exploded for the second
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time in less than two minutes