Difference with Video seen on FCPX monitor vrs HDMI out

Im working on a wedding shot outdoors. was very sunny so the brides dress is glowing a bit and the skis washed out. I went into the exposure and brought down the highlights some and got back the detail. problem is it does bring down the overall brightness of the video.
heres my question. is what I'm seeing on the FCPX monitor close to what i would see if i had an HDMI out to monitor/TV ? I'm wondering if theres not that much dynamic range on the computer monitor so I might not have to bring the highlight down if its going to look ok on a real TV.
Is there a easy way to get real time output to an HDMI tv.
I have my tv connected to a second video card but i dont know if that would work.

I have an early 2008 MP 2 x 2.8 quad core xeons 10gig ram ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024 MB graphics.

I would suggest to get a capture card, I have a Blackmagic Intensity Pro.
This card has a hdmi out and doesn't cost that much.
I would trust the computer monitor for grading.

If I could get a few more answers it would help a lot.
I can see FCPX on an external monitor with a second video card converted to hdmi but Id like to know if Some type of HDMI card or capture playback device would look like the video does when playing from a Blue-ray disc.
thanks,
randyc

I think it's the converse - most TVs (thinking £200-£800 32-42" domestic LCDs here) will probably be showing LESS than most computer monitors.

For example, I've a couple of domestic LCD sets with 'super intelligent features' that are supposed to increase viewers' enjoyment of movies, games and the internet. Tummyrot and bunkum - they're modes to boost sales in TV shops. Contrast wound up, brightness wound up, saturation wound up, lots of 'denoising' and 'frame interpolation' - the whole picture looks like a wobbly mess wrapped in clingfilm.

So... the best advice I can offer is that your average iMac or MacBook Pro will probably give you a pretty good idea of what's going on - yes you can get a broadcast card and monitor (I have a BlackMagic UltraStudio Thunderbolt to HD-SDI adaptor connected to a Vutrix monitor) and this is great for fine tuning the last few steps to perfect delivery - that's how it SHOULD look, it's what we're all aiming for.

BUT there's nothing like checking it out on a cheap Supermarket bought crappy TV/DVD combo, just to let you know the worst case scenario. To my eternal frustration, I realised I had done some work assuming good blacks on a monitor. On a cheap 'crank up the brightness' monitor, I saw my 'quick and dirty' matte method, and it looked pants. Worked fine at Grade 1/2, looked pretty damn stupid at Grade 'mum-and-dad' (i.e. the set they'd buy if you didn't get to them first).

What you should be doing is getting friendly with your Waveform Monitor (WFM) in the NLE. I'm assuming this is FCPX. This will tell you what is ACTUALLY THERE, and what's happened to it. If you're not used to the WFM, watch some of your better known material through it and get used to what it shows and what you actually see.

Be aware that anything over 100% white gets chopped off when you export. Anything over 80% white looks 'white' on domestic TVs (not computers) and is in the prime zone for being truncated by your Bride's Mother's TV set, so I'd err on achieving 'handkerchief' white rather than 100% white.

I have to say that there's one plug-in that really does well in these circumstances and is part of my 'plug-in triumvirate' of highlight control - Tonalizer by Iridus . It will do the complex job of compressing highlights ('Highlight protection') without dropping the whole brightness range.

But your first port of call is to revisit the footage, and instead of dropping the Exposure slider, just drop the highlights slider until the WFM puts the peaks at 95%.

HDMI is not what you'd use for a broadcast monitor, you'd use HD-SDI. Anything else will not show the true, raw image data.

That said, your computer monitor or an HDTV (HDMI connection) will show you plenty enough to judge if something is technically blown out or now. If you're pulling down the Highlights in the Exposure controls, and you still don't see the detail, I can tell you it is simply not there.

If the camera recorded it blown out, the data won't be there, you won't get it back. Your computer screen is enough to see that. If you can't get the details back on your Mac screen, that's it, done.

You could try some of the grading plugins or Resolve LITE and see if they can do something more, but if the data is not there, it is not there.

A slight correction, anything over 100% is not automatically chopped off, it remains on export. You'd have to adjust the exposure or apply a broadcast safe filter to do that. And don't confuse luma levels with the color white, not the same thing, although they influence each other.

randychesbro wrote: Im working on a wedding shot outdoors. was very sunny so the brides dress is glowing a bit and the skis washed out. I went into the exposure and brought down the highlights some and got back the detail. problem is it does bring down the overall brightness of the video.
heres my question. is what I'm seeing on the FCPX monitor close to what i would see if i had an HDMI out to monitor/TV ? I'm wondering if theres not that much dynamic range on the computer monitor so I might not have to bring the highlight down if its going to look ok on a real TV.
Is there a easy way to get real time output to an HDMI tv.
I have my tv connected to a second video card but i dont know if that would work.

I have an early 2008 MP 2 x 2.8 quad core xeons 10gig ram ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024 MB graphics.

When you're attempting to make adjustments like that, the biggest issue you face is that your computer monitor and tv operate according to two different color spaces, with the computer monitor operating in sRGB, and the TV operating in Rec709.

If your video is headed mostly for the web, color correction on your computer monitor is generally ok, as it displays your image in sRGB, which is the web standard. If the video is more likely headed for TV, say if you author a DVD for your client, then it would be a good idea to have a Rec709 reference monitor (Sony, Panasonic, JVC, FSI) to check your work on. Most pro (ie, HD-SDI) reference monitors are a few thousand dollars, but you can get away with using a Pansonic ST,GT,or VT series plasma and a Blackmagic video interface (like the Intensity Pro) over HDMI.

Regarding connections, even though it is a consumer fomat, in most situations HDMI is just as capable of providing a "true" signal as HD-SDI is. HD-SDI has more overall bandwidth, but HDMI is capable of 10,12,and 16-bit RGB or YCbCr at resolutions up to QuadHD. Where HD-SDI edges it out is in d-cinema formats like full 4K (4096x2160), which HDMI can't transport.

Where the problem arises is with the source; if you take HDMI from your computer video card, you are not seeing the "baseband" video signal. You are seeing a processed signal meant to display your computer interface, not a raw video signal. However, something like the Intensity Pro will give you a baseband video output over HDMI or HDSDI, and will allow you to view your video without ancillary processing, straight from your video application. Combine that with the a Panasonic Plasma and you have a really good shot at seeing your video the way it will be seen by your clients.