Announced back in April at NAB (and with finalized specs and price in August), the XM monitor from Flanders Scientific is the company's first big push into 4K and HDR. For colorists working off 24" monitors, UHD/4K hasn't been a necessity, as color accuracy matters more in the grading suite than in pure resolution, and it's hard to see the difference between 2K and 4K footage on 20' screens. However, the market is pushing UHD/HDR, and Flanders is surely facing pressure to have at least 4K options in its lineup of popular and accurate monitors.

When announced, the biggest hurdle for the XM  was the high price and stiff monitor competition it would face. Happily, Flanders will be upping the size and changing the name of the XM monitor from the XM550 (55") to the XM650 (shockingly, 65"). This size change is a wonderful bit of news, even if it isn't much of a surprise. Considering the 65" model's popularity on the LG OLED (and the 65" size of the EZ1000 from Panasonic), Flanders needed to up the size of its monitors in order to stay competitive. By upping the size, it's now easier to focus on the places where the XM beats the competition, especially when justifying the price premium. It's much easier to focus on the XM's positives when the monitor sizes are identical.


Quadio_0Credit: Flanders

The XM650 is designed as a true facility-ready grading monitor. Of course, the EZ1000 is too, but that represents a Panasonic customization of a commercial model, and as such lacks features that facilities might want, including SDI and internal additional 1x and 3d LUT support. Beginning at launch, the XM650 will have full Quadlink SDI and internal LUT processing, along with an interface that has grading apps like Pomfort, HD 1080p downconverted loop out, and full 12bit 444 RGB or XYZ connectivity. This makes for great cinema mastering. 

No word yet on Dolbyvision support, but that would be another plus that would push it ahead of the pack. Also no indication on whether this will eventually drive scopes to an external computer via Flanders ScopeStream, but we can hope.

If you pre-order today, you can get $1000 off the price, bringing it down to only $11,995.

Tech Specs

  • 65" 3840x2160 UHD 10bit OLED panel 
  • 12-bit signal support, 4:4:4 RGB and XYZ
  • SDR Mastering Monitor 
  • HDR Preview Monitor 
  • 12Gbps SDI input and loop-through 
  • Supports 12G, 6G, and Quad 3G SDI connections 
  • Real-time downscaled 3G/HD-SDI output 
  • 3D LUT based calibration 
  • 4K compatible Waveform, Vector Scope, & RGB Parade