two 23" or one 30"
 

hi im getting ready to get a editing system and was wondering what i should get and why one 30" monitor or two 23" monitors and if the two why then. and with the 30" i plan on getting a color correction monitor as well. and is it posible to have two 23" and a color correction monitor as well if so how. do you do it. thanks matt

All of the new powermacs support two DVI monitors right out of the box, and they should also support the 30". Just realize that when you use two monitors you split the available video RAM in two. So if your graphics card has 128MB then each monitor will be allocated 64MB. This won't be a problem for FCP but might have an impact on Motion or other software that wants a lot of video RAM (I run motion with two monitors on a 128MB card without problem, but it is more responsive if I unplug one of the screens).

If you're editing DV instead of HD then you would drive your NTSC monitor via some device connected thru firewire, such as a deck, camcorder or firewire convertor box. If you're working with HDV then you basically have two choices. One is to use the "digital cinema desktop" feature of FCP which displays the video on a computer monitor and the other option is purchasing a rather expensive HD card which has component video output. The digital cinema desktop feature is nice, but doesn't display at full quality. You cannot use firewire to send realtime previews through your camera with HDV like you can with regular DV.

I have the 23" Apple monitor and love it. Others around here keep saying that the Dell 23" monitor is very good and costs a lot less. The 30" screens look very cool in the store. They are really HUGE though! I think they would be nice if you do CAD, edit big Photoshop files or 3d modelling where you want the maximum number of pixels on a single screen. Personally I go against the grain and am not usually a fan of dual screens, although I have one and sometimes use it. Especially with big screens, you end up mousing around a lot between the screens to get to the menu bar. I have a Samsung 1280x720 HD LCD with a DVI connection which I use with digital cinema desktop for editing HDV in FCP. That same monitor is also connected via component video to watch recorded tapes from my Z1 and also to a DVD recorder. If you get a second screen consider one that also has component video input so you can also do this kind of thing. Unfortunately the Apple screens only have DVI. The dell screen also has component input.

Get two monitors. The Apple 30" requires a special video card, and is HIGHLY overpriced.

And I would recommend the Dell 2405 24" monitors over the Apple 23". Cheaper and FAR better:

www.barefeats.com/lcd.

Dell: under $1000
Apple: $1299

well i work at apple and get a nice discount. so yah im going to get the 30 or two 23s and if you own a new g5 you dont need a different video card. but i still need to know how to have two 23" and one tv that is my final out put thanks

To quote the Apple site:

"Any new dual- or quad-core Power Mac G5 supports two Apple Cinema Displays, including dual-link DVI for one 30-inch model. Support for two 30-inch Apple Cinema HD Displays requires two dual-link DVI ports, available in configurations with the NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 or by installing an additional NVIDIA GeForce 6600 card. Support for more than two displays requires installation of one or more additional NVIDIA GeForce 6600 cards."

Not all stock macs ship with the required graphics card, but you can custom configure it to.

See my post above...

I use a 20" and a 23" and it works great. It's nice to have 2 monitors so you can split up your working materials. ie. source bins and project in the left monitor, edit windows and timeline in the right monitor. Ultimately with 2 monitors you'l end up with far more work space than one 30".

I tried a 30-inch and it seemed so big that I wanted to sit further back than my pretty big desk would allow. I know a couple folks who got used to their 30-inch monitors, though.

I also know a couple folks with two 23-inch monitors and they are quite happy with the set ups.

I have one computer with just a 23-inch monitor, and another with a 24-inch and a 19-inch monitor. Both work great....and I can use the money I save for storage and RAM <g>...and pehaps keep a bit of graphics card power to make Motion, AE, and 3D apps zippy...

As for how to hook up your TV...I drive my monitors off a Kona 2 board on the Mac...

Jim

You have to pay good money for "cool." I have a 30" and it rocks. However, you would actually have more screen real estate if you got 2 23" or 2 24" Dell's for less than 1 30". It really depends on what you want and what money you have and what config your desk is in.

I have speakers on each side of the 30", so it's nice to have just one monitor. I also do a lot of ProTools audio editing, so it's nice to have the extra long timeline without it being broken up between monitors.

The G5 Quad w stock PCIe card will run 1 30" and 1 24". When I first hooked it up, I put the 30" in the first slot and it wouldn't do full rez. Only then did I figure out that I had to switch the cables...worked like a champ.

By the way, getting 2 24" will also leave more flexibility in case you need to use one for an HD monitor either via Cinema Desktop or via an HDLink card.

KW