Quick Look - LG 31" DCI 4K Monitor

[Les Hillis]

I wonder if an LG31MU97 "brand new" (?) for 400€ is still relevant these days. I'm looking for a 27-32 inches monitor for editing. Actually judging color and luminance with FCPX vectorscope and waveform on a 2015 MBP screen. Better buying a newer LG 27UL850 or a Benq Pd3200U (470€ and 780€ respectively)?

I ended up getting a second LG 31MU97-B while I waited for the first one to get repaired (about 2 1/2 years ago). Then that replacement monitor had to be repaired for the same fault as the first one (internal power-board replaced). There's been a third fault since then, that luckily hasn't required repairing. It's made me wary of buying any further LG monitors altogether.

Apart from the reliability issues, I think the LG 31MU97-B's are still perfectly useable for non-critical work (they were never high-end anyway), but I'd definitely be looking for alternatives if I had to get a new monitor today (can't even find new 31MU97's here anyway now that I've looked).

I haven't been following closely the latest monitor releases, but the LG 27UL850-W does look like the closest thing to what the LG 31MU97-B's once were, just cheaper, smaller (27"/31") and 3840 x 2160 instead of 4096x2160.

Looking at the 32" BenQ PD3200U and checking out it's manual, that's what I'd be choosing if I had to pick between it and the LG 27UL850-W.

There's also a 27" BenQ PD2700U to consider.

There are also some Asus Proart 4K monitors that are a bit more (and a lot more) expensive, not sure about the value there.


I'm guessing you already know, but for anyone else who doesn't, whichever monitor you get, first get an X-Rite i1/Display Pro ( https://www.xrite.com/categories/cal.../i1display-pro ) and download DisplayCal ( https://displaycal.net/ ), if you haven't already.

A big reason to get these monitors over some of the others is that their colours can be adjusted with those calibration tools.

[Alvise Tedesco]

Thanks for your advices. Anyway, while I've been hesitant (mainly for those supposed reliability issues I heard of), they rapidly sold (there were 3). I thought I'd ask a friend who runs a digital high-tech magazine to calibrate. I Didn't know calibration instruments could be that affordable. I'l look at it

[James Jacob]

do you normally grade in redlogfilm rather then one of the redcolor spaces?

[Phil Holland]

do you normally grade in redlogfilm rather then one of the redcolor spaces?

Depends on who you talk to and what color pipelines they use.

RED's most recent and flexible workflow is IPP2 which features a Color Space and Gamma of REDWideGamutRGB and log3G10. As the name suggests a very wide gamut and a new take on the log curve to contain a lot of dynamic range.

That said, I know various post houses that go to Cineon Log/REDlogFilm or Arri LogC mainly to deal with gamma related stuff. Color Space is a on a case by case basis it seems, but it's also one of those what are you trying to do, how do you want to do it, and what are you setup for sort of things.

Personal suggestion, get familiar with the IPP2 workflow.