Connecting PC Monitor and Production Monitor
 

What I Have:

Dell XPS PC,
Dell M992 PC Monitor,
Sony Trinitron PVM-9L1 Production Monitor

DDR ATI radeon 9800 XT with TV out and DVI
DVI-VGA adapter
Canopus ADVC 300---for transferring analog video to digital


What is the best way for me to connect the above two monitors to do editing with my Sony Vegas editing software? I want one monitor to be my preview monitor and the other (Sony) to be the master.

The XPS PC has DVI, VGA, and TV Out outputs.

The Sony Monitor has the following:
Line A: Y/C in and out, video in and out, and audio in and out.
Line B: Y/C in, video in, and audio in;
it also has something called a parallel remote connector in the back.


Thank You.

Are you talking for external preview? Or just have two computer monitors?

For external preview, Vegas uses firewire. So just hook up your firewire to the convertor and the convertor to the external monitor. Then click on the "External Preview" button above the preview screen.

For two computer monitors, use Windows to set up the two monitors and then you can place various pieces on each monitor.

The PC monitor goes into the video card.

THe NTSC monitor (Sony Trinitron PVM-9L1 Production Monitor):
Computer to firewire TO
Canopus DV-analog converter TO
RCA + Svideo (also known as Y/C) + audio/RCA cables TO
The corresponding inputs on the back of the monitor.

You don't necessarily need to hook up the audio cables, although it's a good idea in case you want to check your mix on the monitor's crappy speaker (it may have one).

You want to hook up both S-video and RCA. With the RCA connector, you have lower resolution and chroma crawl (S-video is higher resolution and no chroma crawl). Usually a lot of your audience have their setups using composite connections (RCA = composite).

Calibrate your NTSC monitor according to http://www.videouniversity.com/tvbars2.htm

If your monitor is a high-end Sony one, it will have a menu setting where the monitor can auto-calibrate itself. Otherwise just use the blue gun setting (low-end monitors do not have that feature).


In Vegas, in the video preview window, click on the little TV icon.

2- You could also make sure the computer monitor isn't too close. If it's a CRT, both monitors will interfere with each other. If it's a LCD, you can have it right beside the NTSC monitor.

You can also make sure there isn't any glare on your monitor. Shade the screen with your hand to hceck for this. Build yourself a hook for the monitor (i.e. out of black matte/cardboard/foamcore/whatever) and/or reposition lights and your monitors and put blinds/curtains on windows if necessary.

You can also try to match color temperature of your monitors. Calibrate the NTSC monitor to color bars first. Adjust brightness and contrast on your monitor to kind of match the NTSC monitor. Ideally, your computer monitor would be as bright or maybe even not as bright.

In Vegas, use the media generator to get white on both monitors. You want both whites to match without a tint to either monitor. Your eye will automatically white balance itself to what your brain thinks is white, which is usually the brightest object in your field of vision. You want images on your NTSC monitor to always appear white. That's the goal.

In your computer monitor, go into the RGB controls. Keep one of the colors the same while you fiddle with the others to remove any color cast. If the monitor doesn't have RGB controls, then it kinda sucks. Use the color temp preset that most matches your NTSC monitor's color. Then lower the brightness on your computer monitor probably.

are you planning on gettin Vegas 6?
depending on your config, it may b the answer to your problem, unfortunately i cant go into detail about it until its released :( Bummer

does your Monitor accept component input? the advc has an optional component cable..
at the moment Vegas 5 only has external preview via firewire as mentioned and at the moment, the only way to get a component output is thru that cable with that box....

Glenns gone into alot of detail about the current fix for your problem though

Wow Peter, you just can't wait until your NDA is lifted eh?

Now that it's out, what options for preview were added in 6?

Vegas 6 allows previewing to a secondary monitor in addition to firewire preview. So you now have two options.

That's what I thought - so now my question is this. I'm using an ATI 9800 XT card that has an s-video out. My main monitor is a Dell (Benq) 20" LCD panel running at 1200x1600 on the DVI out. If I connect a production monitor to the ATI card's s-video output and configure the ATI card to use its s-video out as the windows secondary monitor, then tell Vegas to send the preview to the Windows Secondary Monitor, will I get the same image characteristics on it as as if it were connected via a Decklink card or a 1394 DV card such as a Canopus or will its display be governed by the windows desktop settings and not be a true representation of the actual video?

Personally, I would test it both ways and, if they are different, trust the firewire version.

--> display be governed by the windows desktop settings and not be a true representation of the actual video


The display is treated as an additional desktop.

That's what I expected. Planning on getting a second LCD panel for the desktop and running both the DVI and VGA outputs on the ATI card eliminates the s-video out anyway. Looks like a 1394 capture card or Decklink card is the better way to go.

That's what I do. I've got 2 lcds for the desktop (nvidia pcix w/ dual dvi) and my prod. monitor is attached via svideo to a Canopus (via firewire). I had experimented with hooking it straight up to the svideo out on the card, but the TV out hardware is rubbish and looks awful.