Yesterday Flanders Scientific announced a new XMP550 55″ QD-OLED HDR Mastering Monitor and today at Cine Gear 2023 we got to see it in person.
The monitor is extremely impressive and at the show, Flanders Scientific was showing some test material that really showcased its capabilities.
The XMP550 is a 55″ UHD resolution HDR and SDR reference mastering monitor built around a groundbreaking new QD-OLED panel featuring 2,000nits peak luminance, 2,000,000:1 contrast, and Flanders Scientific’s widest color gamut to date.
The XMP550 qualifies as a Dolby Vision mastering monitor that brings an end to the days of compromising between smaller reference grade HDR displays and larger non-reference client displays. The XMP550 delivers the best of both worlds with truly reference-grade performance and professional connectivity in a form factor large enough for both the colorist and clients to view.
Color Management
All FSI monitors come pre-calibrated from the factory and the XMP550 also features highly accurate volumetric Auto Calibration making it incredibly easy for clients to recalibrate the display over time.
You can simply plug a supported probe directly into the monitor and the advanced AutoCal routine will profile the monitor and use volumetric data to accurately target a very wide variety of available color management selections. 3D and 1D LUTs are calculated and saved on the fly as color management selections on the monitor are made, making for one simple and unified calibration process, all without requiring a computer.
Third-Party Calibration
The XMP550 is also compatible with popular 3rd party calibration solutions including Calman and ColourSpace. This allows you to quickly and easily perform your own custom 3D+1D LUT-based calibration with any program capable of saving into FSI’s calibration LUT formats.
The XMP550 utilizes advanced tetrahedral LUT interpolation delivering a higher degree of precision with better on screen performance than simple trilinear LUT interpolation.
Trilinear Interpolation
Tetrahedral Interpolation
QD-OLED
Other available OLED technologies are either too dim for HDR mastering or suffer from very significant volumetric collapse due to their non-additive RGB+W sub pixel structures making them unsuitable for HDR use cases that demand color accuracy. QD-OLED is truly RGB additive for white, thus avoiding color volume limitations, and easily exceeds 1,000nits peak luminance with plenty of headroom to spare.
Exceptional Off-Axis Viewing
The XMP550 has the widest viewing angle, with the least off-axis contrast and color shift, ever featured in an FSI display. So not only will a colorist’s clients benefit from being able to view a reference image on a large screen they will also have the flexibility to view the image from anywhere in the room without having to worry about the off-axis limitations often seen in other display technologies.
Advantages over FALD LCD
The XMP550’s accurate per pixel level luminance control means true black levels at all times with none of the small bright objection or motion artifact limitations found on FALD (Full Array Local Dimming) LCDs. The per pixel emissive design of the XMP550’s QD-OLED panel guarantees exceptional simultaneous contrast with all varieties of content.
With the XMP550 you can rest assured that compared to FALD LCDs:
- Highlight detail will not be obscured due to backlight zone flaring.
- Shadow detail and black levels will not be compromised by halation.
- There will be no color shift or artificial flicker with fast moving bright objects.
- No scene cut anomalies as can be found on some FALD that exhibit differential rise/fall times of LED backlight phosphors.
While the amount of halation can vary greatly between FALD LCDs, all FALD systems will show at least some degree of raised black levels and haloing when rendering a high contrast image like this example of a white circles on a black background graphic. The XMP550’s QD-OLED panel on the other hand can render these types of very bright white highlights while maintaining the intended deep black background.
Power Efficiency
The XMP550 is very power efficient compared to most other reference grade HDR display solutions. Display technologies like LMCL (Light Modulating Cell Layer) LCDs are highly inefficient as they not only need to pass light through two separate TFT layers, but also because their backlights always remain fully engaged drawing the same high amount of power whether displaying very dark or very bright images. When compared with bottom emission OLED technologies the efficiency of the XMP550’s top emission display structure means less power is required to attain the same luminance levels.
Advantages over Global Dimming LCDs
Reference grade HDR displays should be able to produce high simultaneous contrast, not just a bright image. Global dimming LCDs can either produce a bright image or a dark image, but cannot produce images that simultaneously have bright highlights and dark lowlights. Global dimming LCD specifications often quote high sequential contrast ratio figures, where a display’s peak luminance and black level are measured at different times, but this can be quite misleading as simultaneous contrast is problematically low on these devices for any HDR content mastering use-cases. The XMP550 features class-leading simultaneous contrast rendering both bright highlights and dark lowlights with incredible clarity and accuracy at the same time.
Native UHD Resolution
The XMP550 is a true UHD resolution monitor (3840×2160) that supports full screen viewing of HD and Ultra HD signals and will also accept 4K signals and scale them automatically to fit on screen while preserving native signal aspect ratio.
Scopes
The XMP550 comes equipped with 4K/UHD compatible real-time waveform and vector scope.
LUM Coloring (Customizable Exposure Check)
4 adjustment points from 0-100 percent allow you to establish specific target areas to be shown in false color or greyscale.
Markers
Choose from a wide assortment of standard markers and safety areas that can be displayed as lines, translucent overlays, or solid overlays. Lines and overlays have selectable colors for instant customization.
Full Specifications
Price & Availability
The XMP550 will retail for $19,995 USD and it is expected to start shipping in September.
