Field Monitor

[James Lilly]

I am looking for a fairly lightweight (no more than 20 pounds or so) tv or field monitor to take with me while doing interviews for a TV station. Something so that others can see what is on camera and I with my bad eyes can get a better view of what I'm shooting. On the cheap side I could by a 13 inch TV (don't know if any accept Svideo) and be done with it, but I'm hoping that there is something better out there that doesn't cost 800 dollars. Something with better resolution, accepts Svideo if I'm lucky, etc.

Any help with this is greatly appreciated.

[David Farland]

I sometimes use my 17" computer monitor for monitoring.
It's an Acer AL1731 ($US300) with 1280x1024 pixels.
The inputs are:
VHS (PAL/NTSC)
SVHS (PAL/NTSC)
VGA
DVI
Audio jacks driving 2x2W speakers.

It weights 8Kg and has a screen response time of 15ms.
It's just an average computer lcd so I'm sure you'll find many eguivalents.

hope it helps,

David Farland

[Jacques Mersereau]

Many people use the Sony HR 8" PVM monitor. It takes sony's brick batteries
so you can run it without wall power. Another choice is the Panasonic 7"
pro LCD. Both of these options cost close to a grand. I have a 14"
sony and though it is great, it is pretty big to cart around.

As is the case with most everything, you get what you pay for, but I there
is a new 7" LCD that is like $299 and is supposed to be good. I think I read
about that somewhere on this board.

[Cary Lee]

If you have a laptop that is fairly recent in processor power..You can get DV Rack from seriousmagic.com and it will pretty much do everything you need when your in the field. And it records you footage using your hard drive and in turn removing digitizing in post.