Editing Monitor: Sony or Panasonic
 

I've been told that Sony is pretty much the industry standard...although I have an option on a Panasonic for 30% less ($700 vs $1000).

How important is it to have a Sony?

Thanks,

David

Sony would tell you that it's essential. ;-)

To some degree it probably depends on whether you do work for broadcast, where they probably do use all-Sony monitors. If not, you'll be fine getting a high-quality production monitor as long as it has SMPTE phosphors and other pro features such as underscan display and blue-only display.

With zillions of cable channels, local and otherwise, can you really be sure that nothing will ever be broadcast?

Whether or not some of your work ever gets broadcast is not the primary point. My remark concerned whether or not you routinely work with broadcast crews who use Sony monitors.

ken, im looking for a new monitor as well right now.

i have no idea what to look for though. what is the difference between the p-22 and smpte phosphors. also what major value does underscan and blue-only display have. kind of more what do they do?

thanks.

Well, I'm sure others can offer more deeply technical explanations. But here's the bottom line. Professional monitors using SMPTE-standard phosphors, for example, are calibrated to display very accurate colors. The displays of consumer television phosphors and displays, by contrast, are all over the map. Some are red-heavy, some blue-heavy. (Consumers tend to like oversaturated reds.)

Underscan enables you to display the entire video frame wall-to-wall.

Blue-only is a color calibration tool that enables you to periodically re-adjust your display to your source using SMPTE bars.

Run a Search here on monitors and you'll turn up a great deal of information.

thanks for the quick reply ken. you must be as bored as i today.

so underscan. how much is cut off then by monitors that dont have this feature?

and the color bars. how does one calibrate those. and how do you calibrate them to your footage. does that even make sense?

ive actually been using the search tool and found a great deal of info so far. some great suggestioons but a little out of my price range unfortunately.

thanks again.

Jeremy,

Underscan allows you to view the entie digital frame. Consumer TV's will display most of the full frame but there is no standard. You won't see the full frame on any consumer set. Underscan shrinks the image slightly to ensure that non of it is hidden behind bezel or beyond the edges of the screen.

Hit Submit to soon...

Color Bars are the standard that you adjust your other gear to, not the other way around. They can be generated by your cam, deck or NLE. When feed to your monitor, they provide the basis for adjusting color, contrast and brightness. Without them, you're just adjusting the set you your personal preferences.

excellent. thanks for the info.

that answers those questions.

thanks.

Just going back to the original question:

Sony PVM-14L2 or Panasonic BT-H1390Y (which is actually a JVC BN-H1310SU)?

All do blue screen, underscan, ... the Panasonic also does b&w.

The JVC manual is dated 1999, the Sony appears new for 2002.

The Panasonic is $700, the JVC $900, the Sony $1000.

The Panasonic has 750 lines, the Sony 600. (once you are over 576 for PAL I have no idea what this means).

Both take composite, component, and Y/C input.

The Panasonic is SMPTE-C phosphor, the Sony is P22.

Sony is the industry standard, the Panasonic was used at the Winter Olympics.

Any suggestions???

Technically the Panasonic is the better monitor. However, if you're not used to looking at SMPTE-C phosphors the picture may not look right to you. If clients are going to be looking at the monitor, get the Sony. The colors, color temp. etc of the Sony will be closer to what you and your clients are used to seeing.

David,

I've been asking some of the same questions in the last couple days.
With respect to the use of color bars, I found an article that talks about
calibration.....just found it very useful. If you go to www.videouniversity.com
and look under 50 ways to improve your video business you'll find a page
on how to use color bars. It's helpful if you don't have the budget for
pro monitors. All the best.