[SOLVED] Good affordable monitor for amateur color grading?

[hbenthow]

I'm looking for a new monitor. I want to color grade 1080p Blu-ray quality video on it, so I want one with accurate colors, brightness, and contrast. I'm doing it as a hobby, so I don't need a super-expensive professional-level one, but I do want it to be as accurate as possible as I can get with my budget. I also want it to be easy to calibrate without having to get expensive calibration hardware.

I'm on a limited budget, so I'd prefer something $200 or cheaper, but I might be willing to go up to $250 if the monitor is significantly better than other options.

One of the stickied threads recommended using the form below, so I did.

1. What Is Your Country Of Origin? United States.

2. What do you plan to do with this monitor? (ex. Games, Movie Watching, Photo Editing, etc.) I want to use it for general use (web browsing, video and movie watching, etc), as well as color grading 1080p Blu-ray quality video (as a hobby, not a profession). It needs to be HDCP-compliant.

3. What resolution and screen size do you want? 1080p should be sufficient. My computer desk can't fit too big of a monitor, so probably nothing too much larger than 24-26 inches. 24 inches is probably ideal. Smaller might be acceptable, depending on the other qualities of the monitor.

4. What refresh rate do you want? (ex. 60 hz , 70 hz.) I'm not sure how much it matters, as I'm not a gamer (I play videos games once in a blue moon, but they're older ones like "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time"). I'm open to anything that's fast enough for movie-watching and smooth web browsing.

5. How much are you looking to spend? No more than about $250, and ideally $200 or less.

6. Brands Preferred (ex. Samsung, Acer, Asus, AOC, HP, Viewsonic, etc. ) I'm open to any suggestions, although there are a couple of Viewsonics that I am currently especially interested in advice about, as I will detail further down.

7. Brands Not Preferred (state reason why) None at this time.

8. Are You Buying More Than One Monitor? No.

9. How Many Displays Can Your GPU Support Maximum? And what GPU and driver version are you using if applicable? I'll be using it with the computer that I recently ordered, which is a Dell OptiPlex 9020 Mini Tower with integrated Intel HD graphics. I'm not sure how many monitors it can support, although I assume that it can support as least two if one uses Displayport and the other uses DVI.

10. What Port Do You Want To Connect To (ex. DVI-D, HDMI, etc). Displayport.

11. Is This Monitor A Primary Display Or A Secondary Display? Primary.

12. Is This A Secondary Display For A Laptop? No. It's for a desktop.

So far, I've found the two Viewsonic monitors below, which both apparently have very accurate colors. The second is more expensive and more advanced, but (not fully understanding the technical terminology) I'm not sure whether the improvements it offers would be relevant for my needs.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07JR9R5YS/

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01HSABSGE/

Do you know of any better (or similar-quality but cheaper) options? And out of the two linked above, would they work equally well for my needs (meaning that the cheaper one would be the better purchase), or would the added benefits of the second one be things that would be useful for me?

If a monitor comes factory calibrated (as these two do), does this mean that I wouldn't have to calibrate it at all (just plug and play)?

 

[gondo]

I checked Acer, Dell, HP, Asus, BenQ, Viewsonic, and a few others. With 4K being the standard today, most monitors are 27" or 32", 4k, and a pro grade calibrated monitor is in the $1000 range give or take.

In the budget end you have some 24"/27" monitors which are not bad but also hover around $400. Some others in your price range don't have the feature set you are looking for. I think you already did your homework and that Viewsonic VP2468 is perfect. It comes pre-calibrated, and as the monitor and LEDs age it provides the features to allow you to recalibrate. From the reviews I read the grayscale is also pretty good. It seems to be the best editing monitor in it's category.

To answer your questions you don't need to calibrate the monitor when you receive it. It seems to come from the factory very well calibrated. But as the monitor ages and the LEDs and backlights fade, etc... you will want to recalibrate occasionally. The VP2468 gives you the features required to do a hardware/software calibration which is key for professionals doing photo/video editing.

Also the 2468 has the 14bit 3d lut for better color gradients. As far as I can tell the 2458 does not have this feature so the color processing and gradients should be superior on the 2468 hense the extra $50.

 

[hbenthow]

To answer your questions you don't need to calibrate the monitor when you receive it. It seems to come from the factory very well calibrated. But as the monitor ages and the LEDs and backlights fade, etc... you will won't to recalibrate occasionally. The VP2468 gives you the features required to do a hardware/software calibration which is key for professionals doing photo/video editing.

Also the 2468 has the 14bit 3d lut for better color gradients. As far as I can tell the 2458 does not have this feature so the color processing and gradients should be superior on the 2468 hense the extra $50.

Thank you. I decided to order the VP2468.

 

[GHM401]

I just bought an Acer VG240YU 23.8". It's a 2560x1440 gaming monitor for $229+tax on Amazon.

• 23.8" WQHD (2560 x 1440) Widescreen IPS Monitor with AMD Radeon FreeSync Technology
• Zero Frame | Refresh Rate: 75Hz
• Response Time: 1ms VRB. Power - 19.42 W (Power On)
• 2 speakers, 2 watts per speaker
• Ports: 1 x Display Port & 2 x HDMI 2.0 (Display Port Cable Included)

 

[hbenthow]

I just bought an Acer VG240YU 23.8". It's a 2560x1440 gaming monitor for $229+tax on Amazon.

• 23.8" WQHD (2560 x 1440) Widescreen IPS Monitor with AMD Radeon FreeSync Technology
• Zero Frame | Refresh Rate: 75Hz
• Response Time: 1ms VRB. Power - 19.42 W (Power On)
• 2 speakers, 2 watts per speaker
• Ports: 1 x Display Port & 2 x HDMI 2.0 (Display Port Cable Included)

Thank you for the suggestion, but while that looks like an excellent gaming monitor, the Viewsonic that I ordered has much better color features, which are what I'm primarily interested in (as I want to use it for color grading).

 

[gondo]

He's doing color grading and video editing which requires an IPS or OLED monitor. Since OLED doesn't exist for computers a good IPS it is. I wonder why OLED isn't becoming mainstream yet? A good 27" OLED would sell so well for PC. Maybe it's the burn in that's killing it's use for PC.