3D LUT creation workflow for Resolve

Wikis > 3D LUT creation workflow for Resolve

Important: When using Resolve 14 or later and an external video monitor, you have to uncheck “Release video I/O hardware when not in focus” under Resolve preferences -> Video and Audio I/O, otherwise Resolve will not show the patterns it receives via the external monitor! You may restore this preference after all measurements are complete if desired.

Table of Contents

  • Prerequisites
  • Pattern generator workflow (requires DisplayCAL 3.0+ and Resolve 10.1+)
  • Creating a 3D LUT for the GUI color viewer
  • Creating additional 3D LUTs with different settings from existing measurements

Prerequisites

  • If you are using a colorimeter that supports it (e.g. i1 DisplayPro, ColorMunki Display or Spyder 4/5), you may want to import and use one of the vendor spectral corrections for your display type. Select “Import colorimeter corrections from other software” in the “Tools” menu, and make sure i1Profiler is selected. Click the “Auto” button.
  • After you’ve successfully imported the files, they are listed under “Corrections” on the “Display & instrument” tab. Choose one that matches your display technology if possible.

Pattern generator workflow (requires DisplayCAL 3.0+ and Resolve 10.1+)

IMPORTANT This workflow is for creating a 3D LUT for a display that is not part of the desktop (e.g. connected via a decklink card or similar). If you want to create a 3D LUT for the Resolve GUI color viewer, see “Creating a 3D LUT for the GUI color viewer” further below.

  • In DisplayCAL, choose the “3D LUT for Resolve (D65, Rec. 709 / 1886)” preset under “Settings”.
  • If using an OLED, Plasma, or other display with variable light output depending on picture content, enable white level drift compensation.
  • Note that Argyll CMS automatically calculates and uses a delay when measuring displays, to allow for things such as display update delay and settle time. When Resolve is used as pattern generator (see important note above, the following paragraph does not apply in that case), an increased minimum delay is needed, which is by default 600ms and should work well in most cases. To check if you need to alter this, you can run a quick profile with the “Small testchart for LUT profiles” (154 patches, select it under the “Profiling” tab) and look at the profile self check error. If it’s much higher than 0.5 DE average and 5 DE peak, there’s a high likelihood of misreads due to the used delay not being quite enough. You can set a higher delay by going into the “Options” menu, enabling “Show advanced options”, and then adjusting the delay on the “Display & instrument” tab. Increase in steps of 50-100ms until the self check errors are in the mentioned ballpark. Don’t forget to set the testchart on the “Profiling” tab back to “Auto” after you have established a delay that works.
  • If desired, adjust the amount of measured patches under the “Profiling” tab. The default 1553 patches should already give good results. More patches increase measurement and profile processing time as well as characterization accuracy. If you need to save time, you may reduce the amount of measured patches at the cost of accuracy. If the display is well-behaved, the effect may be negligible.
  • The “Resolve” preset is set up to not use iterative gray balance calibration, as normally it shouldn’t be needed. If you do want to use iterative gray balance calibration, set calibration tone curve on the “Calibration” tab from “As measured” to “Rec. 1886” (or another desired curve). Note that this setting does not influence the 3D LUT tone curve, which you can adjust in the next step.
  • If you want to target a different tone curve for the 3D LUT, go to the “3D LUT” tab and adjust the options as desired. E.g. to target a gamma 2.2 “output offset” (pure power) curve, set tone curve to “Gamma 2.2”. A blend between input offset (BT.1886) and output offset can be achieved by setting tone curve to “Custom” and output offset between 0% and 100%.
  • If desired, adjust the 3D LUT output format and encoding.
  • Click “Calibrate & profile”.
  • A message “Waiting for connection on IP:PORT” should appear. Note the IP and port numbers.
  • In Resolve, switch to the “Color” tab and then choose “Monitor calibration”, “CalMAN” in the “Color” menu (Resolve version 11 and earlier) or the “Workspace” menu (Resolve 12).
  • Enter the IP address in the window that opens (port should already be filled) and click “Connect”.
  • Drag the measurement window to the desired location and size. A size that’s just large enough to fit the instrument comfortably inside the area is usually best (unless you use the instrument in non-contact mode in which case a larger size may be required). For Resolve, APL patterns with roughly 22% level will be used by default unless you enable “Black background”. The position of the window will be mimicked on the display you have connected via Resolve after you click “Start measurement”.
  • DisplayCAL should show a confirmation to place the instrument on the designated spot. Click OK.
  • Use the interactive display adjustment window to adjust whitepoint and luminance before starting profiling measurements.
  • After the measurements and profile calculations are finished, a window will appear which shows the profile self check error as well as gamut coverage. The self check error should not be higher than 0.5 DE average and 5 DE peak. Click “Save 3D LUT…” to select a location where it should be saved. Resolve searches for LUTs in the folders
    C:\ProgramData\Blackmagic Design\DaVinci Resolve\Support\LUT (Windows) or
    /Library/Application Support/Blackmagic Design/DaVinci Resolve/LUT (Mac OS X)
  • If you want, you can verify the 3D LUT you have just created by going to the “Verification” tab and clicking the “Measurement report” button. The settings should already be correct for the chosen 3D LUT parameters, but you may want to choose a larger or different testchart (the default one only has 26 patches and is suitable for a quick check, which ideally should be followed up by a more thorough examination with a larger chart).

Using the 3D LUT in Resolve

Open the “File” menu in Resolve and select “Project settings…”. Select “Color Management” (in older versions “Lookup Tables”) from the list. Choose your 3D LUT under the “3D Video Monitor Lookup Table” entry. Note that you should set your scopes to not use the video monitor selection (see below how to create a 3D LUT for the color viewer). You can also set 3D Lookup Table Interpolation to “Tetrahedral” for potentially better accuracy.

Creating a 3D LUT for the GUI color viewer

IMPORTANT This workflow is for creating a 3D LUT for the Resolve GUI color viewer on a display that is part of the desktop. If you want to create a 3D LUT for a display that is connected through e.g. a decklink card or similar, see “Pattern generator workflow” above.

  • In DisplayCAL, choose the “3D LUT for Resolve (D65, Rec. 709 / 1886)” preset under “Settings”.
  • Select your actual display device under the display dropdown instead of Resolve.
  • If using an OLED, Plasma, or other display with variable light output depending on picture content, enable white level drift compensation.
  • If desired, adjust the amount of measured patches under the “Profiling” tab. The default 1553 patches should already give good results. More patches increase measurement and profile processing time as well as characterization accuracy. If you need to save time, you may reduce the amount of measured patches at the cost of accuracy. If the display is well-behaved, the effect may be negligible.
  • The “Resolve” preset is set up to not use iterative gray balance calibration, but as we are going to create a profile that will also be installed to the operating system, you may want to enable it. Set calibration tone curve on the “Calibration” tab from “As measured” to “Rec. 1886” (or another desired curve). Note that this setting does not influence the 3D LUT tone curve, which you can adjust in the next step.
  • IMPORTANT If you have opted to do iterative gray balance calibration, enable advanced options in the “Options” menu, then go to the “3D LUT” tab and disable “Apply calibration (vcgt)”. This is very important because while Resolve does not make use of the display ICC profile, it’s user interface is still affected by the 1D calibration of the profile we’re going to install later, so applying it to the 3D LUT would result in the calibration being applied twice.
  • If you want to target a different tone curve for the 3D LUT, go to the “3D LUT” tab and adjust the options as desired. E.g. to target a gamma 2.2 “output offset” (pure power) curve, set tone curve to “Gamma 2.2”. A blend between input offset (BT.1886) and output offset can be achieved by setting tone curve to “Custom” and output offset between 0% and 100%.
  • If desired, adjust the 3D LUT output format and encoding.
  • Click “Calibrate & profile”.
  • Drag the measurement window to the desired location and size. A size that’s just large enough to fit the instrument comfortably inside the area is usually best (unless you use the instrument in non-contact mode in which case a larger size may be required). Click “Start measurement”.
  • Use the interactive display adjustment window to adjust whitepoint and luminance before starting calibration/profiling measurements.
  • After the measurements and profile calculations are finished, a window will appear which shows the profile self check error as well as gamut coverage. The self check error should not be higher than 0.5 DE average and 5 DE peak. Click “Save 3D LUT…” to select a location where it should be saved. Resolve searches for LUTs in the folders
    C:\ProgramData\Blackmagic Design\DaVinci Resolve\Support\LUT (Windows) or
    /Library/Application Support/Blackmagic Design/DaVinci Resolve/LUT (Mac OS X).
  • Go to the “Display & instrument” tab. Click the small “Install profile” button next to the settings dropdown, and install the profile.
  • If you want, you can verify the 3D LUT you have just created by going to the “Verification” tab and clicking the “Measurement report” button. Enable the “DeviceLink profile” checkbox. The other settings should already be correct for the chosen 3D LUT parameters, but you may want to choose a larger or different testchart (the default one only has 26 patches and is suitable for a quick check, which ideally should be followed up by a more thorough examination with a larger chart).

Using the 3D LUT in Resolve

Open the “File” menu in Resolve and select “Project settings…”. Select “Color Management” (in older versions “Lookup Tables”) from the list. Choose your 3D LUT under the “3D Color Viewer Lookup Table” entry. You can also set 3D Lookup Table Interpolation to “Tetrahedral” for potentially better accuracy.

Creating additional 3D LUTs with different settings from existing measurements

You can create additional 3D LUTs from any existing profile selected under “Settings” by going to the “3D LUT” tab and disabling “Create 3D LUT after profiling”. The button at the bottom will change to “Create 3D LUT…”. You can now adjust the 3D LUT settings and create as many additional LUTs as you like.

39 comments on “3D LUT creation workflow for Resolve”

  1. Have a question on creating a 3D LUT for the GUI color viewer/scopes on Macbook Retina internal LCD

    I already have a calibrated sRGB ICC profile installed and I’d rather leave it system wide. Can I still use it and get Resolve viewer calibrated to REC.709?

    Sorry for answering but your workflow leaves a few options:The “Resolve” preset is set up to not use iterative gray balance calibration, but as we are going to create a profile that will also be installed to the operating system, you MAY want to enable it.

    Is it necessary to install DisplayCAL profile systemwide after creating 3D LUT? Why I may want to use iterative gray balance calibration?

    With the new option in Resolve:
    Use Mac Display color profile for viewers under Project settings/Color management, if I leave it on and install DisplayCAL profile I get HUE shift in the viewer. Here are the samples with different combinations of System ICC profiles in MacOS. Mac Display Color and  3D LUT in Resolve.

    Screenshots Download

    Mac built in preview looks different than my Chrome Browser, Hue shifted screens are fine and the others are shifted, but I hope you’ll see it even on Windows. Is this a bug or a feature? 🙂

    So what should I choose for calibration / profiling settings?

    Calibration tab:
    – Is it safe to disable “Interactive display adjustment” as the laptop screen can only change brightness, or you use DDC controls, or else?

    3D LUT tab:

    – Apply calibration (VCGT), it only applies the DisplayCAL measured corrections?

    On the pop-up menu after I press Profile:

    – The current calibration will be used.
    Does it mean DisplayCAL will pick up my System wide ICC?

    – Embed calibration curves in profile.
    Which profile? 3D LUT .cube?

    Sorry for lots of questions. Will try to figure out on my own by fiddling with these settings, but will be happy to know your opinion.

  2. And thank you for great soft Florian!

    Just in case I’m on a MacBook Retina 15″ MacOSX 10.10.3, DaVinci Resolve 12.1

  3. Is it necessary to install DisplayCAL profile systemwide after creating 3D LUT? Why I may want to use iterative gray balance calibration?

    If creating a 3D LUT for the GUI viewer, then the 3D LUT needs to be built from the same profile as the one assigned to the display to make sure the video card gamma table is valid for the 3D LUT as well. Although, there is the option to use an existing display profile (as long as it’s an ICCv2 profile) by choosing “<Current>” under “Settings” in DisplayCAL instead of creating/installing a new profile.

    Use Mac Display color profile for viewers under Project settings/Color management, if I leave it on and install DisplayCAL profile I get HUE shift in the viewer.

    This means Resolve is using only the matrix tags in the profile which are deliberately hue shifted to make it obvious when they are used. Resolve should use the cLUT tags instead, but apparently ICC support in Resolve is quite limited. This should really be reported to BMD as a Resolve bug.

    Mac built in preview looks different than my Chrome Browser

    Yes, Preview has been buggy for me at least under El Capitan, possibly earlier. The wrong rendering in Preview also happens with profiles built by other profiling solutions (e.g. i1 Profiler). At the moment, I would therefore recommend not to use Preview for any color critical work.

    Is it safe to disable “Interactive display adjustment” as the laptop screen can only change brightness

    Yes.

    Apply calibration (VCGT), it only applies the DisplayCAL measured corrections?

    Must be disabled/off if building a LUT for the Resolve GUI Viewer/Scopes, because any 1D calibration is already applied via the video card.

    Does it mean DisplayCAL will pick up my System wide ICC?

    Only the 1D calibration (VCGT).

    Which profile?

    The one you’re about to create. My recommendation is to always embed calibration (which should be the default).

    1. Thank you very much for fantastic immediate reply!

      So, if I want to:

      use an existing display profile (as long as it’s an ICCv2 profile) by choosing “<Current>” under “Settings” in DisplayCAL instead of creating/installing a new profile.

      How exactly do I proceed in LUT creation? Choose “Current” in DisplayCAL Settings, set up all tabs manually?

      And if I created profile based on  my system wide OSX .ICC display profile, should I enable Use Mac Display color profile for viewers?

  4. How exactly do I proceed in LUT creation? Choose “Current” in DisplayCAL Settings, set up all tabs manually?

    Choose the “Resolve” preset, then directly afterwards choose “<Current>”. Go to the 3D LUT tab, disable “Create 3D LUT after profiling”. Adjust 3D LUT options as outlined in the Wiki, click “Create 3D LUT…”. Voila 🙂

    And if I created profile based on  my system wide OSX .ICC display profile, should I enable Use Mac Display color profile for viewers?

    No, the 3D LUT will take care of colors.

  5. As soon as I disable “Create 3D LUT after profiling” the button to create LUT is greyed out. I guess my ICC made with basiccolor is non compliant… will try to make an sRGB profile with DisplayCAL and then make a 3D LUT based on it.

    Thank you again!

    1. As soon as I disable “Create 3D LUT after profiling” the button to create LUT is greyed out.

      I have the same problem, although I calibrated with Display Cal so the profile should be compliant. Did it work with you after you created a new profile with Display Cal, or is the button still greyed out?

  6. ok, now I figured it out. Here’s how I got it:

    1. I use my profile settings, then I click “Enable 3d LUT tab” in “Options”.

    2. Then I go to the Profiling tab and change Profile type to “XYZ LUT + swapped matrix”, click on the little wheel button, disable “enhance effective…” and select “Low quality PCS-to-device tables”.

    3. Then I go the 3D Lut tab and disable “Create 3D LUT after profiling” and “Apply calibration (vcgt)”.

    4. Now the “Create 3D LUT” button is not greyed out anymore.

    Is this correct, Florian? Using “current” the way you described earlier in this post didn’t work, because the “Create 3D LUT” button was greyed out.

    1. Is this correct, Florian? Using “current” the way you described earlier in this post didn’t work, because the “Create 3D LUT” button was greyed out.

      That’s right, using “<Current>” (meaning the currently assigned display profile) on the 3D LUT tab is not possible. You have to select a profile under “Settings”.

  7. Ok thanks for clearing that up , Florian! I really appreciate your help!

    Now that I installed the LUT as Viewer LUT in Davinci, I am little bit confused about the result.

    First of all, I am on a macOS 10.13.1 Hackintosh with a LG 31MU97 wide gamut Display connected to a NVIDIA 980ti 6GB graphic card using Displayport1.2. Before I calibrated the system according to this wiki using your standard for Video (D65, Rec. 1886) with LUT enabled, I did a hardware calibration using True Color Pro from LG to 6500K, 2.2 gamma and 80cd/m2 (my room is quite dark). Click here for the report.

    I graded some sample-footage (with LUT installed & “Use Mac Display Color Profiles..” switched off), and the first thing I noticed is that on the edit page the viewers looked completely different after grading (too saturated, reddish). It looks like the Viewer-LUT only applies to the Color tab in Davinci, am I right?

    Then I exported the sequence in ProRes 422HQ and opened it with the Quicktime Player and Safari. To my big surprise, in both programs the clip looked almost like in the Davinci viewer (although crashed shadows), whereas in VLC and IINA the same oversaturation and red tint as on the edit page in Davinci appeared. Is this behaviour normal?

    I always thought that the Quicktime Player was not to be trusted, or am I wrong? People always told me to use VLC for viewing on a computer.

    All I need is an image I can rely on, otherwise color correction and grading in Davinci is pointless. Oh, bye the way, I use an ACEScct workflow with ACES 1.0.3. with the Sony SLOG2 Daylight IDT and the Rec.709 ODT.

    Here’s what I mean, on top in the middle is my Davinci viewer, on the left side are Safari and Quicktime, right beneath and on the right side there’s VLC and IINA:

    And here are the settings I used to calibrate the monitor:

    1. Sorry, I just noticed that the embedded images don’t work. Here’s a link: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ml0j5hsz7gziors/AACU834RdaPks2l1moEFTsd8a?dl=0

  8. It looks like the Viewer-LUT only applies to the Color tab in Davinci, am I right?

    Possibly.

    Then I exported the sequence in ProRes 422HQ and opened it with the Quicktime Player and Safari. To my big surprise, in both programs the clip looked almost like in the Davinci viewer (although crashed shadows) whereas in VLC

    No surprise here, QT Player and Safari use the system color management, while VLC has no notion of color correct rendering at all.

    I always thought that the Quicktime Player was not to be trusted, or am I wrong?

    For a quick preview it may be ok.

    1. do you have an explanation for the crushed blacks? should I use a 3d lut with srgb tone curve instead bt.1886. although I did calibrate to bt. 1886 according to your preset.

      1. do you have an explanation for the crushed blacks?

        It’s an OS X bug. it only affects Apple software (i.e. Preview, Photos, QT Player etc) and software relying on Apple’s color management functionality, not 3rd party apps that implement their own color management.

        1. Ok, thanks for your answer!

          Can you recommend a good video-player for macOS that does proper colormanagement?

          I tried IIna which is based on mplayerwith colormanagement activated, but I don‘t think it works properly. I used name: „icc-profile-auto“ value:“yes“. As far as I understood this should tell the player to use the displays icc-profile.

          Just to be sure if I understood calibration, profiling & colormanagement: It doesn‘t matter which gamma curve I chose in the  calibration tab, e.g bt.1886, gamma 2.2 or sRGB. After profiling the display and creating a 3d LUT, it  always shows the tones in Resolve corresponding to the gamma I chose for the 3d LUT. So the gamma-correction from the calibration tab applies only to noncolormanaged environments?

          1. Can you recommend a good video-player for macOS that does proper colormanagement?

            I’ve heard good things about mpv (which is a fork of mplayer), but haven’t used it in a while (probably over a year).

            Just to be sure if I understood calibration, profiling & colormanagement: It doesn‘t matter which gamma curve I chose in the calibration tab, e.g bt.1886, gamma 2.2 or sRGB. After profiling the display and creating a 3d LUT, it always shows the tones in Resolve corresponding to the gamma I chose for the 3d LUT. So the gamma-correction from the calibration tab applies only to noncolormanaged environments?

            Correct, yes.

  9. Hi all

    I just wanted to check if anyone knew if this same process would work for creating a 3D  LUT, not for Resolve but to upload into an Eizo GC247x?

    My understanding is that using Color Navigator NX one can upload LUTS for the monitor, does anyone have any experience with this work flow?

    thanks in advance .

    Adrian.

  10. Hi Florian, first thanks for proving some very useful software.

    I am trying to Calibrate my reference monitor in Resolve 15. I follow the instructions given and connect Resolve and Displaycal using the IP address. However as soon as I do that, I get a display patch on my main monitor. Your instructions suggest that I move that to the right place, but there is no way to move that window onto the Reference Monitor as the Reference Monitor is not part of the Mac Desktop. I have watched another person doing this on YouTube with older version of Resolve and DisplayCal, and once they connect Resolve to DisplayCal, they see the patch appear inside of the Resolve Color page, which then does show up on the Reference Monitor.  What am I doing wrong, or is this a bug due to a change in Resolve 15?

    Thanks, David S

  11. Hi Florian, your software is very carefully built and performs some very clever operations, so thank you again!

    Can I make a suggestion for how to make the software easier to use when calibrating a Resolve Monitor: At the point in time where it comes up and says Waiting to connect on IP address xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx, may I recommend that you tell the user that they now need to go to Resolve and bring up the Monitor Calibration and select SpectraCal Calman. If your other users are like me and try to use software without reading the documentation, this step is totally unintuitive, and I wasted many hours looking around the web before I finally found the right documentation which made that step clear. I also see that other users have struggled with this same thing.

    Separate issue: I have experienced many freezes with DisplayCal where it simply freezes with a patch displayed, and has to be restarted to try to complete the operation. Is there anything that I can do to help you debug why this is happening?

    Many thanks, David Skok

    1. Hi,

      Can I make a suggestion for how to make the software easier to use when calibrating a Resolve Monitor: At the point in time where it comes up and says Waiting to connect on IP address xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx, may I recommend that you tell the user that they now need to go to Resolve and bring up the Monitor Calibration and select SpectraCal Calman

      That’s a good suggestion. Will add it to my to-do list.

      Separate issue: I have experienced many freezes with DisplayCal where it simply freezes with a patch displayed, and has to be restarted to try to complete the operation. Is there anything that I can do to help you debug why this is happening?

      As always, logs of the run are a good start.

  12. In an attempt to calibrate/Create a calibration LUT  for a monitor connected to Resolve with a BMD Ultra Mini Monitor and I’m having an issue with the IP connection between Resolve 15.2 and DisplayCal.  I’m running both these on a 2017 imac Pro, Is that my issue?  I’m following the steps in the wiki and when I enter the given IP address I get a connection failed message.

    1. Possibly a firewall issue, but since you are running Resolve and DisplayCAL on the same machine, you can avoid using the network entirely and use a local connection by entering the IP address 127.0.0.1 or localhost.

  13. Thanks so much for your reply!  That worked!  Now that I have connection I’m able to click “start measurement” . After doing this the measurement window pops up but I’m not able to get it to go to my SDI monitor via BMD Ultra studio mini monitor.  The measurement window is just on the computer screen.

  14. Hi sir Florian,may I ask you.??

    I was make 3dlut for resolve using your workflow suggestion, and I’m successfully calibrating it.And I’m input 3d lut in 3D monitor lookup table.It was successful..

    But the problem is when i change at color viewer lookup table to No Lut selected, On the viewer it’s still display monitor out (not change to before I applied Lut) .I look many tutorial on youtube (dave dug dale 2nd youtube chanel). He was same problem to me, but in comment he was successful just change it “use video monitor selection” to “no lut selected”. But for me, the looks in viewer still same with 3dlut I applied in video monitoring…

    My question is,Im I wrong with my setting on display cal app?..Or its just davinci resolve wrong setting on my project?. Or its a bug?

    my machine ; Macbook pro MR942 (Touch Bar 2018),

    ultra studio mini monitor HDMI to BenQ SW240

    Davini resolve 15.2.4

    sorry if my english is bad..

    ANDI FROM INDONESIA…

  15. sorry my mistakes just uncheck hide ui overlays.And all worked….!!!!

  16. Hi,

    I created 3d lut for Resolve. Everything looks good, but I have some doubts. I would like to be sure that I did everything right. My settings are:

    Resolve defoult (2.4 gamma, video levels output)> Black Magic Mini Monitor> Eizo CG2730 (native gamut, 2.4 gamma, video levels input).

    What raises my doubts is the Displaycal settings regarding the signal level. Do all the settings in Displaycal (in the Display & Instrument tab and 3d lut tab) should be on the Full / Data range, or should I change something? That’s probably a stupid question, but I do not understand one thing – if the monitor gets a signal in Video Levels, how is Displaycal able to measure it correctly if all the calibration and creation of 3d lut settings are made for Full range?

    Thank’s for grate software 🙂

  17. [corrected…]

    Oh love this is here, a gift to colorists!  Question — I’m angling to get an accurate Rec.709/BT.1886 GUI preview in the Color page viewer in Davinci Resolve Studio v16.1.1, on an iMac Pro.   I followed exactly the steps for “Creating a 3D LUT for the GUI color viewer”, including iterative gray balance calibration.  Following the instructions I installed and used the generated profile for the iMac Pro display, and placed the LUT in Resolve’s LUT folder.

    However, the only closest-to-correct looking result (when looking at SMPTE color bars) occurs with Davinci Resolve settings:
    1. “Use Mac Display Color Profiles for Viewers” ON.
    2.  With the newly created LUT NOT loaded in “3D Color Viewer Lookup Table”, instead choosing only “Use Video Monitor Selection”.  (Loading it results in correct gamma but washed out colors.)
    3.  Using “Davinci YRGB” instead of “Davinci YRGB Color Managed”.

    The resulting color bars display is surprisingly authentic (only with these settings, otherwise way off), the closest I’ve ever seen on a computer display (reinforced when evaluating through a physical blue filter)… but, given these settings described above in order to achieve it, I surely have done something way wrong, yes?  🙁

  18. I think I see what’s happening.  The calibration is happening twice, even though  “Apply calibration (vctg)” is disabled.

    More details, if desired:  I cannot activate the 709/1886 (that is, 2.4) profile for the system at the same time as using this 3D LUT for the Resolve color viewer.  However, any other LUT for the system, such as Rec.709 2.2, or sRGB, or P3 or factory, then the 3D LUT for viewers in Resolve seems to work as intended — to be sure, as long as “Use Mac display color profiles for viewers” remains OFF.

    So you — well, at least I over here with 16.1.1 on the iMac Pro — can do one of the following but not both:

    Mac system with 1886 applied; 3D Viewer LUT = “Use Monitor”; “Use Mac profiles” = ON … OR
    Mac system without 1886 (2.4 gamma) applied; use the 3D 1886 Viewer LUT; “Use Mac Profiles” = OFF

    Meanwhile, I still haven’t figured out the “Davinci YRGB Color Managed” scenario, as that’s just a mess for me with this LUT!  Stays off.

    Cheers – B

  19. I think I see what’s happening. The calibration is happening twice, even though “Apply calibration (vctg)” is disabled.

    No. When the 1D calibration is not applied to the 3D LUT, it needs to be applied in another way. Otherwise, output will not be correct.

    “Use Mac Profiles” = OFF

    When using a 3D LUT, “Use Mac Profiles” should be off.

  20. Hello, please tell me, is it possible to configure the display of my Macbook pro 16 without using an external control monitor with the UltraStudio BMD? I’ve been trying to figure this out for a week now! Using the instructions in the wiki “Creating a 3D LUT for the GUI color viewer”, I couldn’t achieve what I expected to see in the end. It was very important for me to see the same color and gamut that I see in FCPX in the DR viewing windows. (I take the reference image in FCPX) I want to describe my method of building the LUT for DR, maybe I made mistakes, which entailed the incorrect display of color and gamma in the DR viewing window.

    1) Spyder 5 was used for calibration.
    I calibrated the display of my Macbook pro 16 (DCI-P3) and used the standard “Laptop gamma 2.2” preset with the corrections “Spectral: LCD PFS WELED IPS 99% P3 (Macbook pro Retina 2016), color temperature 6500K. Gamma 2.2. Received profile monitor installed on macOS.

    2) I’m trying to build a LUT for DR
    -I use the standard preset “Video 3D LUT for Resolve …”

    In the Display & instrument tab
    – As amended:
    Correction “Spectral: LCD PFS WELED IPS 99% P3 (Macbook pro Retina 2016)
    – Resolve display
    – Mode LCD (generic)

    In the Calibration tab
    -Amended:
    -Interactive display adjustment, set to “on”
    -Tone curve Rec. 709 (in the pop-up window, click cancel)

    Profiling tab I leave by default

    3D LUT Tab
    As amended:
    -Color space of source Rec. 709
    -Gamma key curve 2.2
    -Create 3D LUT after profiling, set to “on”
    -Use calibration (vcgt), set to “enabled”
    -From an external device to PCS, set to “enabled”

    I click Calibration and characterization (in the pop-up window, click yes)

    Further, following the instructions (DisplayCAL), I carry out the calibration in the Color tab in Resolve.

    I use the received LUT in Resolve following the instructions:

    Color Space and Conversions:

    -Color coding: Davinci YRGB
    -Select color space and halftone separately, set to “off”
    -Input color space. Rec. 709 Gamma 2.4
    – Color space of the timeline of Rec.709 Gamma 2.4 or 2.2 or (Scene)
    -Exit color space Rec.709 Gamma 2.4
    – (For windows use MacOS color proof, set to “off”)
    -LUT table for 3D output to the viewing window: installed 3D LUT Resolve after calibration …

    As a result, what we have after such manipulations:
    -Gamma is different (from the reference (specifically for me) FCPX)
    – The color is different (from the reference (specifically for me) FCPX) goes into more green shades …

    From all of the above, I want to get an answer from DisplayCAL developers as a result:
    – is it possible to get a Macbook pro 16 display
    reference colors? (without using external monitors and UltraStudio BMD)

    – The resulting color after calibrating DisplayCAL as far as it can be considered true (accurate)

    I do not understand! hundreds of thousands of people use DR, have all these people gone through this procedure and figure out how to set up color management for DR?

    PS: I am not a professional, as you understand. I just want it to work out. Because DR with its color grading tools is much more attractive to me … I don’t want to delve into engineering knowledge, monitor settings and profiling =) I just want Resolve to show me the reference color.

    Are there any statistics of people whose experience was successful in calibrating Resolve for Macbook pro using DisplayCAL software?

    Regards, Nick

  21. It was very important for me to see the same color and gamut that I see in FCPX in the DR viewing windows

    FCPX color management is somewhat broken in the sense that it seems to use a tone response that is neither BT.1886 (unsurprisingly) nor 2.2 (or sRGB). Unless you figure out what exactly it is that FCPX is doing, all bets matching it are off.

  22. Hi!If the reference monitor is not connected via DeckLink, but it is a second desktop monitor and it used in Davinci Resolve for reference viewing via the “Video Clean Feed” option. How do I properly calibrate it? How do I get a 3DLUT for this monitor? What should be the sequence of operations? Thank you!

  23. Hi! I’ve followed all the instructions, but I can’t make a LUT3D for Resolve with low dE (best average 1.07, best peak 2.44), especially in the grayscale (RGB gray balance (>= 1% luminance) average absolute weighted ΔC’00 = 1.56; RGB gray balance (>= 1% luminance) combined Δa*00 and Δb*00 range = 2.86).I’ve tried several different settings combinations, results vary but the point remains the same. What can I do? Thank you!

  24. Hello Florian,First of all, thank you for the amazing piece of software that you have selflessly created and shared with us. I’m currently trying to calibrate my 2018 LG C8 TV with DisplayCAL to be used as a reference grading monitor with Davinci Resolve. Do you have any best practices for calibrating LG OLED TVs? I did the calibration already and got pretty decent results, but I just want to make sure I did everything correctly since I’m a bit confused specifically about video and data levels in calibration.The TV is connected via a BM Decklink Mini Monitor 4k and my colorimeter is an X-rite i1 Display Pro. I did a full DDC reset for the TV with Calman Home for LG Software, since I already tried calibrating with that software once before but found the results to be not so great. I have disabled TPC and GSR in the service menu of the TV and turned off all dynamic contrast and brightness functions in the regular menu. I also chose LG WOLED 6-series as my colorimeter correction profile. My target color space is Rec.709 Gamma 2.4.  I did the initial interactive pre-calibration phase in DisplayCAL with the TV’s RGB and OLED light controls and got a good balance with 100nits peak brightness. Here’s a few questions that I have yet to find an answer to:I understand that the calibration software is supposed to be in data levels mode for reference monitor calibration, is that correct?Should white level drift compensation be applied even though I have turned off all of the dynamic functions in the TV?Should my Resolve project settings video monitoring section be set to data or video levels when calibrating and when grading in general?After the calibration, DisplayCAL gives me a pop-up windows saying the following: “The display device’s video card gamma tables 1D LUT calibration is non-linear, but the 3D LUT contains applied 1D LUT calibration. Make sure to manually reset the video card gamma tables to linear before using the 3D LUT, or create a 3D LUT without calibration applied (to do the latter, enable “Show advanced options” in the “Options” menu and disable “Apply calibration (vcgt)” as well as “Create 3D LUT after profiling” in the 3D LUT settings. Then create a new 3D LUT).” Now, I tried doing latter operation since I have no idea how to do the former one, but my new LUT looks exactly the same when applied in Resolve as the one before doing this operation. What should I do here?I would greatly appreciate if you’d have the time to reply since this information seems to be borderline impossible to find anywhere.Best regards,Antti

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