New monitor - which specifications are vital?

[Brendan Marnell]

I will need 15" PAL monitor for editing with Canopus DVStorm 2 & Premiere Pro 1.5.

What specifications effect (1)image quality (2) connectivity and (3) onward conversion. Sound will be unimportant for my purposes.

Phillips 15PF8946 specifies Aspect ratio 4 : 3 only ... does this scupper all other ratios?

Please offer advice and recommend minimum specs for good editing and playback. Any brands/models <$500 good enough?

Thank you.

Brendan Marnell

[Rob Lohman]

Are you talking about a monitor to view the video signal or a
monitor for your computer?

[Brendan Marnell]

Thank you for the question Rob.

For viewing video signal is the short answer.

I'm going to use kvm so as not to have 2 keyboards but I think my PC Dell monitor isn't up to working with video signal.

Brendan

[Rob Lohman]

I'm lost now. You say video, but then start talking about a KVM
switch (which isn't for a video monitor)....

[Brendan Marnell]

No, Rob, it's me ... I just hadn't understood that van Bavel's "Shooting Digital" Ch.5 is about framing issues in relation to shooting not about choosing external monitor ratios for viewing. I now see where 4:3 aspect ratio fits in ... it's the standard ratio. Thank you for taking time to bear with my stupidity and sorry for wasting your time.

But I still have the impression that my pc screen won't be up to projecting my video after I've worked on it and that I will need an independent monitor (even a good quality TV screen)to get video image- viewing quality. Am I making any sense?

Brendan

[Rob Lohman]

The reason you usually want a TV or better yet a broadcast
monitor (is what it is called) is to better gauge how the final
image will look (in realtime) on such systems. How do colors
look, motion and how much am I loosing (since a TV crops the
borders) etc.

It can also help in recovering a bit of space on your computer
screens which you can use for other things. Most people seem
to like to have two screens attached as computer monitors (to
display the timeline etc. on one and other screens on the other
[like color correction, or notes etc.]). Then have a third screen
which is a TV or broadcast monitor to view the video signal.

To output this you will need a DV camera that supports such
pass through (and DV IN), a DV deck or a analog <-> DV converter.

A computer monitor has no trouble displaying a video signal,
whether it is in 4:3, 16:9 or any other aspect ratio. It just might
be hard to judge the looks on the signal. Keep in mind, however
that TV sets vairy WILDLY on looks as well. What might look
great on my set might look bad on yours. That's why there are
(calibrated) broadcast monitors to at least have a reference on
how it should look (still no garantuee that it will look great at
persons X house ofcourse).

A TV can always display a 4:3 and 16:9 signal, however the 16:9
might not display properly (ie, stretched) if the TV does not
understand an anamorphic (what 16:9 is) signal. I think all
widescreen TV's understand 16:9/anamorphic.

I hope this has explained it some.

In my opinion the most important aspect of a computer monitor
(where you see Windows etc. on) is resolution (for me the higher
is better, for example: my laptop TFT screen runs at 1680 x 1050,
yes that's widescreen) and color rendition (which automatically
implies getting a good screen with good color controls as well)!

[Brendan Marnell]

Now that's a great help, Rob, thank you.

That got me seeing for the first time what happens to my stills when I up my pc screen resolution from 1024 x 768 to 1280 X 1024 ... embarrassing, and I can't blame my Digital Rebel !

When my GL2 arrives shortly at least I'll understand the vital importance of pixels. I'm also wondering whether a laptop with a high resolution like yours would be a smarter way to go ... so much more mobile as well. What do you use?

Brendan

[Rob Lohman]

What do I use in what way? I'm do computer programming for a
living for now and my company bought me this laptop. Which is
really nice since I can have so much information on the screen.

I run Windows XP Professional as my OS and I edit with Sony
Vegas 5.

The more pixels on the screen, the more information you can put
up there (the smaller movies and pictures will look) and the smaller
text will become. Most people find my character size on this screen
way to small, works fine for me. But you can always increase the
font size or other settings to increase the look of certain things
in Windows, but not everything etc.

[Brendan Marnell]

Hello Rob,

Would you kindly have a quick look at this CRT monitor and comment on the upsides/downsides, apart from 23.5 kg weight not a problem ... slinging around 25kg bags of spuds is my warm up routine,

http://www.iiyama.com/uk/default.asp?SID=&NAV=236&PROD=2248

Brendan

[Rob Lohman]

iiyama is known for their quality screens, from what I can tell
(I'm not a screen expert by a long shot!!) it looks fine. However,
it is always good to check out a monitor in person before buying
one!

[Brendan Marnell]

At you again Rob

IIYAMA just reply-emailed me that their monitor " Pro 454 cannot display Pal."

In view of van Bavel's p.100
<< If you shoot on PAL you're going to need a PAL monitor and a PAL camera all during the editing process.>>

... where should I look for a suitable high resoluition editing/viewing screen or am I displaying my ignorance once more? I do wonder what format the Pro 454 displays in? Perhaps CRTs are all-inclusive (or exclusive ?).

Brendan

[Rob Lohman]

Why when talking about a computer monitor are you referring to
PAL? PAL and NTSC (and SECAM etc.) are analog TV standards.
They have nothing to do with a digital computer monitor.

A computer monitor does not display the signal you capture, your
computer (operating system + video card) do that. The monitor
just needs to understand the signal coming from the video card
(which it does).

Your operating system and editing program are displaying the
footage you captured. Any computer can work with PAL or NTSC
footage. There is no difference (in that way) in the digital computer
world!