Monitors & Video Editing - Help Needed
 

I'm getting my editing studio up and running and I have a big question - what would you recommend for monitors. I'll be mostly editing promotional videos but I'll also be doing some graphic design and layout. Should I use two LCDs for editing and a broadcast monitor for color-correction? If so, what monitors (LCD and/or broadcast) would you recommend? Keep in mind that the LCDs need to be fairly accurate because of the graphics work. Should I consider CRT in stead of LCD? If a broadcast monitor is needed, how do I connect it? My graphics card is a Quadro FX 3450.

Huge thanks for your help,

Dale

For video work, it doesn't matter too much what you use for your computer monitors. But I would prefer LCDs since they don't interfere with each other and tend to have smaller bezels.

For SD work, you can preview material your monitor through a firewire device (e.g. DV camera) or a video input/output card by Aja, Blackmagic, etc. etc. A SD CRT would be worth getting... JVC, Ikegami, Sony, Panasonic are some manufacturers that make em. (Sony and Panasonic may not make CRT broadcast monitors anymore.)

If your Quadro has a SDI output that could go into your monitor (but your monitor needs a SDI input card). The FX4500 I think has it, but the other models don't?

2- For graphic design work, you probably want to use solutions designed for that... e.g. color probes like the Monaco Optix.

Some other info...
http://www.outbackphoto.com/tforum/v...p?TopicID=1700

I don't know too much about prepress... never played around with it much.

Thanks a lot, Glenn. Yes, my card does have DVI out put - two of 'em. Should I use the single link output or the dual link output to go to the broadcast monitor? I found this monitor on B&H - it allows DVI input with a separate card (F-CO1COMG), but I can't seem to find the card. Any suggestions?

Also, does Premiere Pro 2.0 have any problems sending preview out through DVI?

Dale, "SDI" and "DVI" aren't the same thing. Also, are you going to working w/HD too or just SD?


-A

Ah! My mistake. I knew that, but somehow my brain read DVI when it said SDI. I'm working only in SD.

Thanks,

Dale

So now I have another question: how expensive should I be looking at? The $600-$700 seem attractive, but will they be good enough? Also, is composite connection sufficient - in my experience, composite connection is to be avoided because of it's low quality. Oh, and I'm still really confused about how to connect the monitor to the computer. I'm assuming a firewire out to the Canopus ADVC110 and composite (if composite is the way to go) from the Canopus to the monitor would be the best way?

Thanks,

Dale

IMO using the composite connection can be useful in certain situations.

With the composite connection, the luma and the chroma signals are modulated together. The luma roughly carries the black and white information, while chroma carries color. Sometimes you get artifacts where the luma signal bleeds into the chroma or vice versa. You see this as those funky moire rainbows or hanging/crawling dots. If you use the composite connection, you can check to see if your signal is picking that up.

You can set the composite decoder to tradeoff between sharpness and lack of these artifacts. I would opt to show a sharper signal.

2- If you use the S-video output on your Canopus you'd avoid this. S-video carries luma and chroma separately, so the signals don't bleed into each other.