Affordable HDR Grading Monitors Come of Age

Only a year and-a-half ago, I despaired of ever being able to color correct and grade HDR video because the least expensive grading monitors started at $35,000. I gave my Shogun Inferno a whirl, but it’s absurd trying to grade footage on a 7″ display – and I never could get it to display the proper values anyhow. Mystery Box wrote a blog post about a bargain solution: using either the Atomos Sumo 19 or SmallHD P3X, $1,995 and $3,700 respectively. That was way back in December 2017. How the landscape has changed in just under two years! Specifically, Asus has astounded us with the release of their ProArt 32UCX monitor, a 4K HDR true 10-bit display boasting 1,200 nits of brightness, 1,152 local dimming zones, Thunderbolt 3 and able to support HDR10, HLG and Dolby Vision – all for just $300 more than the 17″ P3X!