Finally! External LCD Monitor Solution < $200
 

The new Sony DVP-820 for $179. I have a dance recital Wednesday and am doing a live edit with a Datavideo SE-500. I was going to get the dual 7" screens that can come with it for another $1000, but my wife said, "I think you can find another solution..." So I went searching. Found this online and went to best buy and wanted to see the screen quality. It has 800x480 resolution on it (not common for Portable DVD Players!) They had 4 and not a single one on display. I asked the kid if I could see on in action. He said, "NO." So I said, "I'm gonna buy 2 if I like it." He did it, popped in a movie, and I was blown away! At 2 feet from the screen, it reminds me of a HDTV scaled down to 8 inches.

One thing that is totally awesome about this unit is that it swivels 180° and allows you to fold it flat. Basically like its closed but the screen is facing outside...

This is too big and heavy @ 2.7 pounds to mount and carry on the camera, but for creatively mounting to a tripod during ceremonies or stage performances... YES its perfect! I'll be using these for my wedding ceremonies and other things (gotta make a mount of some sort) and if I get more live switch gigs, I'll get 3 more of these for the cameras.

I got home and hooked my Canon A1 up to it. Looks beautiful and obtaining critical focus is easy as pie. A great thing is you can set aspect ratio on it, so if you shoot 4:3 for some reason, you can set the screen to 4:3. With some minor tweaking of settings, I got the colors and brightness looking really close to my A1's LCD. Viewing from angles is really good. Maybe you could mount that sucker on the bottom of a Glidecam 4000 sled easy???

If you need an external shooting monitor... look at this. I'll almost guarantee you won't be disappointed (unless you are just a plain old too picky type of person.)

OK, thought I'd share. Time to go play some more.

How is the screen for focusing? Better than the LCD with peaking on the camera?

Am I right in pointing out this device takes Composite-in only? That makes it a lot less viable for critical focus when shooting HD to my mind. How do you find it in this respect Jerome?

Did you guys read the full post? I said, "obtaining critical focus is easy as pie."

I hooked it up from the BNC terminal to a BNC cable, then to a BNC:RCA adapter then plugged the RCA Composite into the monitor. Shot a few things around here and yes, obtaining critical focus is MUCH MUICH MUCH MUCH easier!

I wouldn't waste your all's time and mine in posting this if it wasn't good. Go buy one and try it out, if you don't like it, take it back. I love it.

Thank you for posting! I expect I will get one of these.

I need something to play back onto for the people I am taping sometimes. The reviews on this unit say the screen is outstanding. And if it is useful for focusing, that is great!

By the way, I have noticed that it comes in several colors, too. The 6 hour battery life as well as the ergonomics are also excellent.

will it flip for my adapter?? or will i have to turn it upsidedown?
EDIT:woops after readin it again i saw that it closes, making my question just stupid! hahaha i have an A1 to, and i think you just convinced me on a new toy=)

Upside down. It won't even really look upside down unless you look at the Sony logo.

So can this be cabled to an XH A1 (composite?) and be used as a monitor while filming? So if I have a client breathing down my back, can they see what I am actually shooting, while I am shoot it?

Or is it just for playback?

Thanks.

Jonathan

reading the specs of the dvd player, it does have a composite input. (in the form of a miniplug, so you'll need one of the rca to miniplug adapters like you'd use to hook a portable mp3 player up to a stereo.)

A lot of portable dvd players have a line input, but the quality of the screen and the input is so poor that its not useful for much. I've put this one on my shopping list to use as a framing monitor for my jib... and an occasional field monitor for finnicky clients.

cheers,
-a

I took the bait...
 

Based on Jerome's review of this device I decided to go purchase one today, and I would have to agree with everything Jerome put in his review.

Going from the 3-inch horizontal LCD viewer on my Sony HVR-V1U to this 7-inch horizontal display is wonderful. I too was able to easily obtain accurate focus using this device.

Some additional comments/notes...

1) The display (both monitoring and playback) is a little grainy. It definitely isn't bad (by my standards), but if you are a stickler for "super sharp" then this probably isn't for you. As Jerome said, and I am saying it again too... I found focusing with this soooo easy!

2) This device connects via composite [RCA] connections. My Sony HVR-V1U doesn't have an RCA composite video connector, so I had to connect the specialized composite cable (the one that came with my video camera) to my video camera, then put a female-to-female [RCA] connector on that, then connect that to the cable coming out of this device. I'm not sure if that contributed to the grainy-ness or not. I don't necessarily like this method, but it is all I currently have available.

3) In support of Jerome's comment about matching colors... I too was able to come very close to matching the colors and brightness of the LCD viewer on my HVR-V1U.

4) The supplied [rechargeable] battery claims 6 hours of run-time. I haven't had it long enough to test that.

5) Playback via my video camera worked very easily. The quality of the image was no different than that while monitoring (slightly grainy). As a playback device I was pleased with it (it definitely beats having people huddle around the 3-inch viewer on the camera).

6) I'll more than likely need to create some kind of hood for this. I haven't tested it in sunny conditions yet, but I doubt it would be much different than direct sunlight on the LCD viewer.

7) I'm sure some of you already know this, so I'll say it for those that don't... The default output setting of the HVR-V1U simply sends the video to this device, not the on-screen information you see on your LCD viewer. But the HVR-V1U has a menu setting to direct the on-screen information to this device as well. One additional note to this though... when I enabled Peaking, the peaking colors did not get directed to this device... don't know why, it just didn't.

Overall I think this is pretty sweet, and the price was perfect (for me) as well. Not sure how I'm going to mount this device to my camera/tripod yet, but I'll cross that bridge some other time.

Thank you so much for the recommendation Jerome!
Andrew

P.S. I did take pictures of this device next to the LCD viewer on my video camera as a side-by-side comparison. However, I see that I don't have rights to attach images. So, if you have any interest in seeing the side-by-side let me know and I will email it to you.

Jerome, thanks for the heads up on this little gem. I've been looking for something for my HD-200 as I've really been having some vision issues lately.
I got a unit yesterday and used it to shoot a training video today.

Other than I'd like to have the viewfinder info displayed, I was able to follow the trainer's pinball moving ( this guy keeps me on my toes) with the monitor sitting a good 3-4 feet away with no problems. and the 6 hr battery is very nice.

Yes you can see it while shooting.

Andrew... thanks for the supported feedback. I used my 2 tonight for the rehearsal of the dance recital I have tomorrow. Worked GREAT! In fact, one fo the guys at the church came by and asked what screens I was using and told him they were portable DVD players... he didn't believe it! As far as the graininess, I saw some, but not too bad. Its not something we need to watch movies on, but for $180, it works just fine in my book. Better than a $700 on camera LCD I've seen before. ;)

No problem... thought I'd share because I have seen MANY posts about this subject. Your camera should have a setting to show or hide the TV Screen Data... different manufacturers call it something different.

You're right. I know I could do this with my DSR300, the JVC is just more menu driven and I didn't get a chance to go thru the settings.

To answer some of the questions about is it good enough for critical focus.
in the shooting I did today it passed with flying colors, but I'll give it a real test this weekend when I shoot my Neice's wedding.

Jerome,

Thanks so much for this information. I'll be buying one of these, just as soon as I can get my hands some money and on an XH A1.

Best wishes.

Jonathan

I'm torn between trying one of these out with the HD200...or realizing that the almost $200 might be better put toward a "real" monitor, even though considerably more expensive.

One person mentioned "creatively mounting" this to a tripod, but no one else has commented -- how in the world can you mount this thing to anything?

The (understandable) lack of a standard tripod screw mount on this device might be enough for me not to want to even hassle with trying it out, no matter how good the price/performance ratio is. Or maybe I'm overlooking some incredibly simple, stable, and not too jurry-rigged-looking solution that doesn't involve having to custom craft a mount out of aluminum sheeting, solder, and duct tape.

Thanks for the recommendation. Focusing with a 35mm adapter has been a chore. HD camcorder manufacturers could help out by allowing more than a 2x zoom (Z1, FX1, EX1) for focusing by allowing up to 8x and adding focus zones. The zone could be seen in expanded view and moved around with the joystick. Sony, look to the Nikon D3/D300 live view modes.


Also, what is the battery configuration? The specs read:
"Remote Control, Batteries for Remote, Owners Manual, AV Cable, Rechargeable Battery Pack, AC Adaptor, Car Battery Charger "

I think Bogen/Manfrotto still has that accessory tray that clamps to a tripod leg that was typically used for smaller crt monitors back in the day.

Btw, for $180 I'd expect at least component inputs :D

Thanks for that -- I did a quick search and only came up with some sort of "accessory tray" for holding film, etc. I didn't pay attention to its dimensions, but it's basically just a flat tray -- nothing that's going to hold the monitor securely and allow you to move the tripod around, although I supposed you could zip-tie it to the tray, running the ties over the top-loading DVD tray.

If anyone has any ideas and can point to a specific mounting device, that would be appreciated. Not sure what those of you who are now using this monitor are doing to hold it. Ideally, I'd like to be able to keep the screen folded back on itself and mount it on a Noga arm -- the question is, how?

(And yes, component inputs would certainly be nice ;-)

Yea I was curious if they had what I had remembered & couldn't find it. It was a one piece deal, with a clamp, arm & platform. Looks like that's still possible by piecing together the items needed though.

I just got this device yesterday, so how it is going to be attached (or accompany me) while I'm out shooting has yet to be addressed. For right now (and what I do) using it in the carry bag I purchased with it is totally adequate.

In my mind's eye, I'm envisioning using a bracket like this:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...=285116&is=REG

...and then seeing if I can mount a tilting music stand head on it. Then, put velcro on the music stand platform and the back of the monitor to hold it in place. If that bracket attaches to the legs of my tripod then I think I will have a nice setup with good "swiveling" options. Maybe I'm dreaming too much, but right now it seems feasible... I'm still researching parts to try and [cheaply] make it all come together (and hopefully no duct tape).

I just bought one of these today as well; hopefully the picture is good enough for focusing until I can spring for a Panny monitor.

If it is, I was thinking of possibly using a vacuum-suction mount like this one http://www.filmtools.com/6succupw14sp.html to attach the unit to an Ultra Light Systems or Zacuto Arm. These vacuum suction cups can hold on practically forever on the right surfaces.

As per this thread, I followed the links Hart Boyd posted. The platform he mentions has been discontinued, but the other items are still available, and after a little digging I found everything in a B&H Kit:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...or_Holder.html

I'm not sure if those straps will get in the way of the screen, but it seems worth looking in to, for someone with the cash.

Thanks for that info. One concern is obviously how/if those straps will work out. The other concern is what I mentioned initially -- next thing you know you've spent as much on the mount as on the thing itself, plus it's probably gonna be a pretty kludgy affair just to get around the basic fact that this device doesn't have a simple screw mount for universal attachment... The mounting issues, in addition to the whole composite-only (plus needing adapters because of the weird jack), starts making it a bit of a headache. I'll be interested to see whether the image quality for the price is worth the fuss of hooking this whole rig up and using it...

Hi All,

Not sure where you folks are wanting to mount your Monitors, but for real cheap, easy to make, and safe - here's a couple I've made and used over the past few years.

Harold

I wouldn't want to rely on that oft quoted figure.

I bit as well, picking one up this afternoon. According to the owner's manual it will hit 6 hours run time IF:
1. You turn the LCD backlight down to the absolute minimum.
2. You use headphones, not the standard built in speakers.

I have no problem with #2, but if you actually do #1 the picture is way to dark.
On the other hand, if you're using it as a monitor rather than a DVD player,
that should be a positive as the drive motor(s)+laser electronics are doing nothing.

Regardless, it's a huge upgrade from my current camcorders utterly pitiful LCD screen.

The final icing on the cake for me was having $100 worth of BestBuy gift certificates from Christmas time.
So my actual out-of-pocket cost was under $90 USD.
I'm certainly happy.

I bought these to initially be used as preview monitors for my live switcher. I used industrial strength 2" velcro to secure them to the box lid I constructed with the mixer and such. Works great.

I could see that kit you showed from B&H but instead of using the straps on that plate, I'd just grind off those edges of the plate and remove the straps and use the velcro. That stuff will hold a tank together.

I don't have time right now, but when I do, I'll put together something to mount this with the goals of 1- relatively low cost 2-not look like a home hack job 3- it works.

Good idea about the velcro. Thanks for looking into this -- I might wait and see what you come up with, before I drive myself crazy and order too many pieces...

Composite only is not bad! Its not a weird jack. Its a 1/8" male mono plug and you could get a BNC to the 1/8" jack all in one cable without use of adapters. Mounting can be done easilly (although I haven't went through this yet, but it folds flat and looks like a regular monitor and NOT like a portable DVD player.) Its not a headache.

You've already heard people say how good the image quality is. Go see for yourself.

Thanks, Jerome. I know it sounds like I'm complaining, but I actually ordered it yesterday ;-) I just have so many projects going on already that I'm loathe to have to spend too much time making a square peg fit into a round hole -- but it sounds like some of you have good ideas about the mounting...

I use the Bogen clamp-on platforms for my CRT monitors and they work great.

I am sure there is a way to make them work for an LCD.

Maybe you could glue/epoxy a female recptor like on the side of a light to the monitor and not use the platform, just the post the platform mounts to.

Too bad this monitor does not have component inputs. It sounds like it works fine, but it would have more detail with component.

I tested mine out quite a bit last night with an HV20/Letus Extreme combo and I found it to be perfectly acceptable for focusing/framing; MUCH nicer and easier than using the small LCD. The screen is actually quite nice; bright and sharp, even with composite signal. Great find!

It will certainly hold me until I purchase an HPX-170 later this year at which time I'll decide whether or not I'll need a more 'proper' and sturdy field monitor.

Next task; experimenting with different mounting options.

What kind of batteries does this portable DVD player use?

It is a rechargeable battery that comes with the device. Roughly 1/4" thick (it's not right in front of me, so don't quote me on that... I'm going off of memory) and it attaches to the bottom. It almost looks like a slim second bottom when it is attached.

Thanks for the battery info, Andrew. Please let us know how long this thing runs for you. I would hope that running it without the DVD player would run longer than the six hours stated in the on-line specs.

Also, I'm hoping to use this player to flip the output of my RedRock M2 35mm adapter. Does this DVD player flip its image if you turn it upside down? I think I've seen them mounted in cars upside down, and I'm hoping this one does not do that.

(Man, I wish Sony included the image flip function in their EX1)

Finished Design & Construction
 

I pondered many design options for mounting this thing last night, then went out over lunch today to see what parts I could find. Here's what I picked up:

1 Drum Cymbal Boom Arm - $10
1 Multi-Purpose Clamp (probably for drums) - $10
1 Small Piece of 16 gauge Sheet Metal - $8
2 Strips of 4"x2" Velcro - $2.50

After 30 minutes of effort here's what I ended up with:

- Picture of all the parts used for this mount.
http://home.new.rr.com/ark/MonitorMount/DSC08119.JPG

- Picture of the clamp attached to the tripod leg (Manfrotto 055XPROB tripod. Maximum diameter for these legs is 30mm.)
http://home.new.rr.com/ark/MonitorMount/DSC08116.JPG

- Picture of the drum cymbal boom pole attached to the sheet metal.
http://home.new.rr.com/ark/MonitorMount/DSC08117.JPG

- Pictures from various angles.
http://home.new.rr.com/ark/MonitorMount/DSC08114.JPG
http://home.new.rr.com/ark/MonitorMount/DSC08115.JPG
http://home.new.rr.com/ark/MonitorMount/DSC08120.JPG
http://home.new.rr.com/ark/MonitorMount/DSC08125.JPG
http://home.new.rr.com/ark/MonitorMount/DSC08128.JPG

This setup gives me quite a few configuration options. The sheet metal base swivels left/right 360-degrees. The boom elbow allows for 180-degrees of tilt. The boom bar allows for 360-degrees of rotation around the shaft. The boom arm can slide (lengthen/shorten) anywhere out to 1 foot. And even the clamp around the tripod leg can be rotated 360-degrees around the tripod leg. Oh, and don't forget that the screen on the DVD player allows for tilting 180-degrees, and rotating 180-degrees.

I setup my tripod a number of ways that I commonly use it, and was able to easily adjust the mount based on how I would like the monitor to be positioned for that setup. That's "easily" based on my definition of that word... (Note: The clamp around the tripod leg is [thankfully] a wing-nut with a quick release, so it is pretty easy to put on and take off.)

Construction wasn't too difficult at all, as most of the parts connect with wing-nuts. Forming and cutting the sheet metal was the only part that involved "labor". The sheet metal I purchased was an adequate width (6 inches) so I only needed to cut it to length. First I drilled the hole for the cymbal boom arm. Then I put the sheet metal in a vise and bent it. Then I used a Dremel tool with a cutter-disc to trim it to length. Then I used a metal file to get rid of jagged-edges.

I'm thinking that I will trim some of the metal off the mounting plate (where the cymbal boom arm attaches to the sheet metal). I think it will look better if I cut off the sharp corners and give it a tapered look. I'll probably round the other sharp corners at the top of that piece.

I ordered & picked up one of these today from Circuit City. There was a package deal I noticed (that isn't obvious at first) for the same $180 if you just bought the player... includes a Targus DVD player case & Sony earbud headphones (says roughly an $80 total value) free.

Image quality is as good as some are saying here. And for $180 for the player alone, I think you get a little more than you pay for.

While waiting to pick up my order, I noticed on a shelf nearby that had those digital picture frames. There was a $250 Sony unit (DPFV900) that looked really nice, same 800x400 rez, very lightweight... but of course no inputs at all. I'm sure some wizbrain could probably hack this thing in some way :)

I was checking out the Sony Picture frames but they don't play video. Too bad.

Although I'm excited about having a light weight monitor, it's hard to drop $200 when you could put that into a laptop and view Firewire output. Adobe OnLocation (I think this used to be DVRack) is looking more interesting.

pal?
 

Hmm. just noticed it only lists ntsc support. anyone see a menu option for pal on the video input of this unit?

thanks

Yes, there is also a PAL version of it. Here in Europe it is the DVP-FX850.