11/7/13 Color Bars and How To Use em | VideoUniversity

COLOR BARS AND HOW TO USE EM

by Hal Landen

HD Calibration Disk for Monitors, TVs, Displays, Blu-ray Players and more.

Color bars are an artificial electronic signal generated by the camera or by post production
equipment. They are recorded at the head of a videotape to provide a consistent reference
in post production. They are also used for matching the output of two cameras in a multi-
camera shoot and to set up a video monitor.

Before we proceed, you should know that computer monitors are quite different from
video monitors and TV sets. You are seeing this on a computer monitor so you will not
have the same kind of controls or images as on a video monitor. In fact, if you create
graphics on a computer monitor, its very easy to be fooled into thinking you have a great
looking graphic for your video. But the only real test is when you see that image on a
properly adjust video monitor.

The graphics on this page are for example only. Youll want to use real color bars generated
from a camera and viewed on a VIDEO monitor or TV set. Send engineering feedback on
this article

To Set up a Video Monitor or TV

1. Allow the monitor to warm up for a few minutes

2. Dim the room lights and block any reflections on the monitor

3. Feed color bars to the monitor either from a camera or house bars

from your editing system

4. Set the contrast also called picture to its midpoint

5. Turn the chroma also called color all the way down until the color bars

are shades of black and white

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Diagram of Colors and Values

6. Notice the three narrow bars labeled 3.5, 7.5 and 11.5 on the bottom right. These are the

Pluge Bars which stands for Picture Lineup Generating Equipment. Adjust the brightness
control until the middle (7.5 units) pluge bar is not quite visible. The lightest bar on the
right (11.5 units) should be barely visible. If its not visible, turn the brightness up until it
becomes visible.

Since 7.5 units is as dark as video gets, you should not see any difference between the left
bar (3.5 units) and the middle bar (7.5 units). There should be no dividing line between
these two bars. The only division you should see is between 11.5 and 7.5 (Note this same
technique is used in setting the b&w viewfinder on your video camera.)

7. The next step is to set the contrast control for a proper white level. To do so, turn the
contrast all the way up. The white (100 unit) bar will bloom and flare. Now turn the contrast
down until this white bar just begins to respond. The image below shows what it should
look like at this point.

Correct NTSC Color Bars without Color

The image below is INCORRECT.

Incorrect NTSC Color Bars without Color

The above image shows a monitor whose black level (brightness) is too high. Of the three

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pluge bars, only the 11.5 pluge bar should be visible.

NOW for the colors

First a shortcut to adjusting hue: With a little experience you can avoid the next two steps
by simply eye-balling the yellow and magenta. The yellow should be a lemon yellow
without orange or green. And the magenta should not be red or purple. And youre done.

But heres another way: Many professional monitors have a blue-only switch. If your
monitor has one, switch it on. If your monitor does not have a blue-only switch, you can
use a piece of blue lighting gel. Hold it to your eye like a viewing lens. If you see any of the
red, green or yellow colors, double the blue gel over to increase the blue effect.

By using the blue-only switch or a piece of blue gel, you have removed the red and green
elements of the picture. Only the blue remains. If the tint and color (also called hue) are
correct, you should see alternating bars of equal intensity as in the example below. With a
little practice, youll be able to eye-ball this step fairly precisely.

8. With the blue switch on (or your blue gel in front of your eye) turn the chroma or color
until

the grey bar at the far left and the blue bar at the far right are of equal brightness. One
trick is to match either the gray or blue bar with its sub-bar.

9. Adjust the hue control until the cyan and magenta bars are also of equal brightness.

You can also match either of them with their sub-bars. Now the four bars gray, blue, cyan,
and magenta should be of equal intensity. The yellow, green and red (which are black in the
diagram below) should be completely black.

Heres a diagram:

Blue Only Diagram

Now heres what it looks like in color.

Correct Blue Check (minus Red & Green)

You should now have a properly adjusted video monitor. However, if flesh tones dont look

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right, you may need to make further adjustments to the chroma and hue. Thats why
engineers say (half jokingly) NTSC means Never Twice The Same Color.

Correct NTSC Color Bars

Heres what these same color bars look like on a waveform monitor:

Color bars on a waveform monitor

Once you have set up your monitor, leave it alone. Unless you have a waveform and
vectorscope, its the only instrument you have to see how accurate your video is. This is
true of your camera viewfinder, your field monitor and your studio monitor.

After youve set up a few monitors, youll soon know what proper bars look like and then
youll be able to easily eye-ball it with a fair amount of precision. For more information on
the video signal, see the engineering article.

But before you get too technical, why not think about making your video business more
PROFITABLE!

Also see PAL Color Bars contributed by Sheldon Kennedy.

Update: Im grateful for the many great emails Ive received about this article. One email
resulted in the article being used, with my permission, in a sophisticated defense system.
But of all the great email I have received, my favorite was from the Inventor of the Color
Bar Generator. I have included that correspondence in a separate article.

Facebook Comments

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14 THOUGHTS ON COLOR BARS AND HOW TO USE EM

Nicholas Scott October 7, 2009 at 4:59 pm
What a beautifully concise explanation . If only the author of the
DVE set up disc could have learned from you .Thankyou.

admin October 7, 2009 at 6:28 pm

Glad you liked it. You should see our new Blu-Ray test disc
http://www.videouniversity.com/shop/blu-ray-test-dvd-kit

Stephen November 24, 2009 at 6:58 am

I refer other camera assistants here for a clear explanation of the
set up process of the monitor. Thank you for posting such a clear
explanation.

lea November 25, 2009 at 3:08 am

thanks for this ot help me with my media studdies so much. =]
thanks again

Lean November 28, 2009 at 8:13 am

Reaaaly good explanation

- Digital Film Student

Vance December 6, 2009 at 8:28 am

This is a good article minus any video

hieroglyphics. But even after proper calibration

for CRT or LCD the fact remains that many folk

play DVDs in their default computer players

which I have found make even good video look

too dark. Is there a fine line between proper

monitor calibration and the dvd computer player?Can I adjust for

both worlds ?

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Taco January 13, 2010 at 1:57 pm

@ Vance

I believe this has to do with colorspaces. Computers default to 0-

255 colorspace and a TV expects a 16-235. If you have a high
quality TV you may find a Studio Color or PC Color option. This
should solve your problem if not:

If your using Windows Id recommend ffdshow tryouts and look at

the Output and RGB Conversion. If your using Linux I recommend
Mplayer with SMPlayer and read the Mplayer Man pages.

swapnil March 25, 2010 at 11:24 pm

please tell us exact procedure to adjust pal monitors using color
bars from camera

Suzana May 12, 2010 at 5:02 am

Great information..!

Under the displayed photos in this article it says

NTSC Color Bars

I am working in PAL, is there any difference or can I adjust my

monitor with the above guidelines.

Suzana

bk May 28, 2010 at 5:14 am

It would be great if this could be updated with the new smpte hd
color bars. I am not quite sure what all the extra bars are for and if
I need to worry about them.

Dixon August 6, 2010 at 9:33 am

Thanks for the great resource. I agree with #10-bk. As our TV
station SLOWWWWLY transitions to HD acquisition, Im curious
about the HD bars and set up.

greet August 25, 2010 at 7:53 am

Thanks. Your article helped me calibrate a new DLP projector
which insisted in overdriving the picture.

Jim Ross February 20, 2011 at 9:29 pm

Thanks Hal, using this settled a lot of arguments with students on
the proper calibration of my display monitors in-studio.

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Tim Nelson March 4, 2012 at 10:21 am

Very concise explanation! I have recommended that my students
visit your site to get a different overview of the process.

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