SpaceMatch enables the colour management of any PC connected displays using graphic card VCGTs, avoiding the problematic issues associated with ICC Profiles when used within the film and TV media arena.
- Manage VCGT
- LUT Graph
- Save/Load VGCT
- Free Updates
- Yearly Maintenance Fee
- Windows OS
- Mac (via Windows Emulation)
£115
Ex. VATOverview
A prime application for SpaceMatch is to match the gamma and colour temperature of all VFX PC displays throughout a facility, without using ICC profiles, so allowing all graphics programs to operate without any unwanted colour issues.
An additional application is matching the gamma and colour temperature of on-set or production laptops, allowing footage to be reviewed as close as possible to the desired final look.
SpaceMatch can read existing active ICC profiles and convert them into suitable 1D LUTs, or can load 1D LUTs generated via ColourSpace.
Introduction
Accurate colour management is a critical part of any post-production workflow, and the use of non-industry specific creative systems within film and TV workflows can be a serious problem for post-production facilities if ICC profiles are employed. The ability to colour match the gamma and colour of temperature displays using 1D LUTs generated with ColourSpace means work can be accurately viewed on any PC based systems, without running in the issues associated with ICC profiles.
Note: For accurate display calibration 3D LUTs are required, which requires the use of displays with 3D LUT capability built-in, a LUT box placed in the image signal path, or the use of graphics programs with 3D LUT capability.
As with any Graphics Card based calibration, the calibration via SpaceMatch DCM is based on 1D LUTs, not 3D, so the calibration is gamma and colour temperature (grey scale) only, as Graphics Cards driven via the legacy VCGT mechanism cannot control display gamut.
This is true of graphics card VCGT calibration specifically, on any OS - it is architecturally a 1D per-channel mechanism, and cannot be otherwise. It is also still true of the legacy Windows colour management path generally.
(Mac's ICC based OS wide calibration can additionally apply a gamut correcting matrix, on top of the same VCGT style grey scale mechanism, but suffers a number of other colour related issues that makes it impossible to rely on such colour calibration - see Mac Colour Management for the full picture. Windows' own newer Advanced Color pipeline can likewise apply a gamut correcting matrix, via a different, non-VCGT mechanism - see Windows Colour Management. Neither platform's OS level pipeline performs true volumetric, 3D LUT correction.)
One of the main uses for SpaceMatch DCM is to ensure there is no internal ICC/Graphic Card calibration active, enabling clean HDMI output for external display profiling and calibration via the ColourSpace PC's inbuilt HDMI output.
See: HDMI User Guide.
SpaceMatch DCM loads LUT data via the legacy Windows graphics card VCGT mechanism. Whether this continues to apply reliably when Windows' newer Advanced Color pipeline (Auto Color Management, or HDR) is active on the target display has not yet been verified, and the two use genuinely different mechanisms - see Windows Colour Management for why. Until this is confirmed, disable both HDR and "Automatically manage color for apps" for the target display before relying on SpaceMatch DCM.
Windows VCGT Issues
The default Windows API/Reset process for the graphics card VCGT doesn't load a true Null LUT, as shown here. The peak value is lower than it should be, resulting in an inaccurate output throughout the entire LUT range.
By generating a true Null LUT within ColourSpace and using SpaceMatch DCM to load the LUT into the graphics card a true Null output can be attained.
