Cinema Disp or LCD TV
 

Which one would you guys suggest to use as preview monitor ???
The Cinema Display is 1920x1200 so you can see every pixel of the Z1, when the LCD TV is only 1280x720 but the LCD TV is not a computer monitor so should be better for color correction, correct ??
Any ideas here pls...

If you can lift heavy weights and have the space, a nice 30 inch tube HDTV is not that expensive, and works great.

Unfortunatly that kind of TV is not an option to me....it is either lcd tv or the a big screen lcd computer monitor.

Big tube CRT would be nice.... but how would you connect it to your Mac to view the desktop cinema preview in FCP? Or would you need a costly extra card (like AJA)?

Sony Fx1,FCP5, MAC, 30"LCD way to go
 

I bought MAC G5 with 30" LCD. Its expensive LCD i'm happy with it. I can see much more detail and difference from anyother monitors. At work i have expensive 20" CRT. But i was able to see much more detail of the same picture in my LCD panel. I would suggest LCD.

LCD's generally show sharper edges / more contrast but are less effective in accurately rendering color. OTOH, a lot of HD will end up being veiwed with LCD technology.

For photographic prints I think CRT is still significantly ahead, especially when one adds in cost, for video I am less clear.

my 2 NZ cents

Andrew

Gabor, if you can locate a May issue of DV magazine, there is an article in there by Adam Wilt which exposes a lot of the "gotchas" in dealing with HDV, including monitor selection and how to get your video to the external monitor, which is not simple, as has been suggested earlier. They may post the article on the DV mag website: www.dv.com

At a show yesterday, I ran across a video card for the PC that has a Component Out on a breakout box. Under $300 and works with the Cineform AVI. Check out the Nvidia Quadro FX 540 - looks pretty good and worth a shot.

I have a 17" Sony 16:9 LCD monitor at 1280x720 and a 22" Samsung 16:9 LCD TV at 1280x720. They may work well for your use but just be aware of a couple things.

First, they overscan like all consumer TV's, unless you hook them up via DVI or VGA. This may not really be such a big deal. But regarding the 22" Samsung; I really like the image on this screen but 1280x720 looks like a very low resolution display in this size when using as a computer monitor. You'll feel like you're reading the large print edition of everything! But using it strictly as a video monitor while editing works very well. Just realize the 1280x720 is a much, much lower pixel density than the Apple display of about the same size.

I figure that we HDV early adopters are in a unique position. We not only shoot HD material, but we are also our own audience. As such, I figure your preview monitor should be the device you enjoy viewing every piece of HD video on... and the bigger the better (as long as it's truly HD!!).

I'm actually a deserter from the "CRT HDTV is superior to LCD HDTV camp", having gone from a Panasonic 76cm CRT HDTV to a Sharp Aquos 83cm LCD HDTV.

I'm not sure our choices for how we decide to go about our purchases should be determined by the mindset of an industry that, (while we may admire it) has no respect for what HDV implies. The whole reason for 'preview monitoring' is geared to a process that doesn't have the flexibility that HDV can deliver.

Many people are going to find that for previewing their clips, they'll use the camera's own LCD panel, rather than take the time to set up the full monitoring equipment, or they'll just use a WS laptop to preview 'in the field' if they have too...

So... maybe you should take a look at both of your monitor choices; and imagine which one you'd much rather be using all the time, to watch all your HD stuff on.

How about this 26" JVC LCD TV for not a bad price...:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...=376377&is=REG

Gabor

The best LCD I've seen out there for the money is the 24" Dell LCD monitor.
It has the same resolution as the Apple 23", a slightly larger screen, and apparently better contrast. And it's cheaper.

Check it out here

It lists on Dell's site for 1,199 right now.
But I've seen them offer rebates in the past.

Another great resource for LCD info in terms of HD editing is at:

www.hdforindies.com
I think Mike covered the topic in his FAQ on that site.

What about a small 16x9 like this one:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...=262238&is=REG

from Sony? That's what I'm putting on my wish list since my boss said I could get an HD monitor for editing...

I could be wrong, but I don't think that's a 16:9 monitor. It looks like a 4:3 native screen that can display HD in letterboxed mode. Don't know what your definition of "small" is... It's about 14"x17"x11" and weighs 37.5 lbs! :-)

It appears that you need to add a card if you want to use this for HD, and that costs another $3,200. And for an extra $185 they will sell you a mask to cover the top and bottom of the 4:3 screen and make it appear to be 16:9.

Not trying to knock it down, it's probably great. But it's going to cost around $5,000.

Right on all counts, Boyd. I jumped the gun in suggesting that one without reading the fine print, or even looking at the photo, as it were. Sorry about that!

I am using apple 23" Cinema displays, and in most respect they are fantastic, however, they don't calibrate to match CRT's (and maybe thats ok) but also, and something to consider, it, is very hard to or impossible to see pulldown or interlace scan issues on them. Not usually a problem, but if you screw up, as I did, with a pull down/interlace issue (extra fields), you probably won't see it till it hits a crt. In my case it was a super easy fix, but it could have been a big problem under other circumstances.

<<And for an extra $185 they will sell you a mask to cover the top and bottom of the 4:3 screen and make it appear to be 16:9.>>


That's funny!! I'm going to make one for my old TV in the bedroom!!
A 4:3 to 16:9 conversion kit for old TV's!!! I'm gonna be rich!!!!

This discussion raises an interesting point. Since we're in the HDV forum I assume the goal is editing in some HD format. Now I understand all the issues with studio quality CRT monitors, but they come from a world where everyone watched TV on CRT screen.

Many (if not most) viewers of HD will be watching on plasma screens, LCD screen, DLP projectors, LCD projectors, etc. Does this change things?

A couple years ago I edited a lot of widescreen DV that was shown on a 44' wide screen with a 10,000 lumen Barco DLP projector. I used a 17" Sony widescreen LCD as a monitor while editing. I felt that what we projected on the big screen actually matched my LCD very well. In fact, in the theatre we had a good Sony CRT monitor connected to the Doremi deck that fed the projector via component video. The image on that CRT screen looked less like the projection than my small LCD screen did.

It would be nice to have an add-on card like this

http://www.digitalconnection.com/Pro...deo/mdp120.asp

that would output to Component monitors on the cheap. I looked into the Quadro solution and it's a PCI-Express card, which would require an upgrade of my motherboard. Which if I'm going to upgrade my motherboard I might as well get the Decklink card instead.