HP DreamColor Z27x Professional Display manual Understanding the Z27x Image Adjustment Options

NOTE: The Adjust Luminance option displays the current luminance value to the right of the menu option.

Understanding the Z27x Image Adjustment Options

The Z27x contains a number of special image adjustment options that are designed to fit specific workflows in the media and entertainment industry. The following section describes these functions from the perspective of their application in these workflows.

Use Video Levels (16–235)

This option is designed to support the accurate display of video signals that include footroom below black and headroom above white. These types of signals are typically encountered when working with video signals that conform to the complete ITU-R BT.709 or ITU-R BT.601 standards as these standards allow for excursions beyond black and white, rather than treating black and white as absolutes.

These signals are typically encountered in the following situations:

●Viewing the HDMI or HD-SDI output from a video capture and playback card such as an AJA Kona or Blackmagic Design DeckLink

●Viewing an image in the Composer/Edit/Preview window in a non-linear video editing program

●Viewing the output of a consumer Blu-Ray/DVD player

In all of these situations the video signal usually includes the BT.709/BT.601 headroom and footroom. Without this option enabled when viewed in a computer monitor the blacks and shadows are lighter, the whites are darker, and colors have less saturation than the signal actually contains.

When this option is enabled the blacks will be clipped at the 8-bit value of 16 and the whites at the 8- bit value of 235 (for 10-bit, the clipping will occur at the values of 64 and 960). The signal is then remapped to display the signal in the correct visual range.

It is important to note that the source and pre-processing of the source video will impact whether this setting should be enabled, but in many cases you will see a more-accurate image if you enable this option. Note that you may need to adjust the lightness of your editing application interface after enabling this setting.

To use video levels:

1.Press any button on the front bezel.

2.Press the bottom Open Menu button to open the OSD.

3.Select Image Adjustment to display the adjustment options screen.

4.Use the Up/Down buttons to navigate to the Use Video Levels option then press the Select button to select it. The option will be checked when it is active.

Overscan the Frame

Though by default the Z27x displays all pixels in the image, when screening video dailies or an edit revision it may be desirable to view the image in an overscanned mode, similar to how it is viewed on a consumer digital television. The Overscan Frame by 5% option will enlarge the image so that only that portion of the frame within the Action Safe region is displayed. Action Safe is defined as an area that begins 5% inside the edge of the frame.

32 Chapter 4 Operating the Monitor