I got my DP1 today and was very impressed with the presentation of the product and packaging etc, it reminded me of buying a mac or other apple product.

In use though I've run into a few small issues, firstly I have a dead pixel in the screen which although not a huge issue in use is a bit disappointing. I'm having a problem getting a good quality image out of my ex1 via the component output, I can only describe the image as being noisy and nowhere near as nice looking as the cameras lcd. I'll take some photo's tomorrow but the image on the DP1 isn't really what I was expecting from a HD monitor. This may be down to the EX1 though, so I'd be interested to see if any other EX1 owners are seeing the same thing.

As an example if I point my camera at a piece of wooden furniture the cameras lcd shows the browns graduating in the wood as they should, the DP1 however is just showing a mass of noise across the whole gradient area as if the the gain was cranked right up on the camera.

The final thing that's a bit of an issue is that the two power adapters are US style plugs with no provision for use in the UK, I'll have t try and source some adapters which i'm sure are available.

I did have an issue where the DP1 wasn't showing all of the image that the cameras LCD was, but I've now solved this using the overscan feature of the DP1. With my setup I've set the display mode to 16:9 and then set the overscan as follows...

Hstart 402
Hsize 698
Vstart 453
Vsize 560

The monitor then shows the same image content as the on camera LCD, at least on my camera.

Id be very interested to hear from other EX1 users to see if the component output is also generating a low quality image / gradients compared to the LCD.

regards

Paul.

Hi Paul,

Funny, i just got finished responding to your email and then this post popped up in my alerts. Thanks for your compliments!

To address your issues - we apologize for your dead pixel. To be perfectly honest its the first we've seen and altogether have been very impressed with the quality of these LCDs. We'll talk more offline about that though.

Something that is easily overlooked is that we've heard a few people tell us that the image seems "noisy" and not as nice as the cameras LCD. The reason is, is that the resolution you're seeing on the DP1 is probably at least 3 times the resolution of your on-camera LCD. If you're using an EX1, which i believe you are i THINK (its described as 1920x480, so who really knows....) it's 640x480 somehow or in that range. So what this does is it hides so much of the detail and it generally looks "better", but when you're shooting video, ESPECIALLY HD, you really don't want to hide anything.

A lot of the time the camera will be producing noise because of low light or something and you'll have no idea until you pull the footage up on an HD display because the on-camera LCD hides it.

My recommendation would be to try your setup again but in a well-lit area so you know your camera isn't producing any noise or gain trying to brighten up the image and then see what you think.

Hope this helps, and apologies for that bad pixel :(

Dale

Hi Dale,

First I'd like to say thanks for a great HD monitor. Life is much easier with a screen of usable size. I've also found it is a great way to allow a client to preview what has been captured.

I was wondering if you could elaborate a little on the timing and procedure to update the firmware for those of us who preordered.

Thanks,
Garrett

Dale is SPOT ON in this response. The DP1 has an incredible amount of resolution, and thus detail, compared to the EX1's screen. I too was surprised at first to see "so much noise" in my living room for example, which is somewhat dim even in the afternoon. It shows a bit of noise at 0db and a notable amount at around 6db, which really surprised me at first since I couldn't even see the noise on the EX1's screen. However, upon reviewing it on the computer, it was spot on with what the DP1 was showing.

In bright daylight or a well lit set, the DP1 is as clear as a bell, as is the footage from my EX1.

It will take some getting used to, having that much detail, but I assure you - what you're seeing on the DP1's screen (detail wise) is far greater than what you're seeing on your tiny EX1 screen.

Enjoy!

I'm not sure that's it Dale to be honest, what I'm seeing isn't just natural noise from the camera, I'm used to seeing that with my footage once blown up in post. I'm also testing with -3db so camera noise is pretty minimal.

Please have a look at a photo I've just taken which shows the DP1's image alongside my EX1's LCD in my lounge. Yes it's a low light image but you can clearly see that the DP1 is showing a lot of weird colour noise.

http://www.videotrader.co.uk/images/dp1noise.jpg

Under certain conditions I'm also seeing green speckled areas in graduated colours which moves across the DP1 as the exposure changes so it appears to be at certain colour levels.

I look forward to your thoughts

regards

Paul.

Here's a two more images showing what I'm seeing, you can clearly see the colour noise on the Dp1 in the gradients of the shadows and on the fireplace in the black surface. This noise is not present on the EX1's LCD.

and... you probably haven't calibrated the display....

Did you see anything like this with yours at default settings Trevor? If you got the same effect and corrected it I'd love to know how you did it.

regards

Paul.

"blue gun"

A basic - but not entirely accurate to the DP1 - set of instructions can be found here: http://www.glennchan.info/broadcast-...alibration.htm

Yes.. alright.. it's pretty bloody good.

I got mine yesterday, shipped all the way to Aus and I thought I'd been short changed - the box was too light :-)

I've tried to remain objective but I'm a cynical old bugger by nature and thruth be told I would have been quietly pleased to see that Trevor Meeks overwhelming enthusiasm was misplaced - but it ain't

The monitor is solid, light and a joy to use. I've got a couple of niggles about the setup but I'll get past those. I really struggle without a manual of some sort (bring on the wiki!) I like manuals.

but - I can see, I can focus easily. My 53 year old eyes have been struggling and I often use autofocus simply because I don't trust my eyes - this monitor gives me my confidence back.

I'm so glad you like it Paul!

Could it be that the noise problem of Paul Joy has something to do with the PAL standard ?

Is anyone else using PAL with the Monitor ?

Or has the problem been solved in the meantime Paul ?

Thanks!

Peter

Hi Peter, good thought, I just tried switching my EX1 to NTSC and it seems to stop the odd colours that are appearing sometimes. If I point my camera at a white bed sheet I'm seeing areas of blue pixels in the gradient areas when in PAL mode, but in NTSC these do not appear.

The colour noise in dark areas are still the same in both modes though, well lit areas seem okay but any shadowed areas or dark objects are not being displayed correctly.

regards

paul.

So, then it's a PAL/NTSC Problem that will be, or is :) already solved.

There's one more thing that keeps me from ordering immediately:

The battery system.

Could a standard V-Mount be attached ?

How is the back of the monitor ? Is there a way to attach something like:

16x9 Europe GmbH - Sony V-Lock Mount Swit S-7000S Sony V-Lock Mount S-7000S

One would still have to have such a 12V plug on the end. But at least a standard battery.

How "voltage tolerant" is the DP1. I guess very tolerant as most devices.

Has anyone tried this or any information about that ?

Thanks!

Peter

Hey peter, good to see you here. Just saw you pop up on the Redrock forums as well!

I do have to point out that attaching a V-mount to the back of the SmallHD completely goes against what this monitor is about. The V-mount batteries weigh about 3 times what the DP1 does - the DP1 batteries are small, light, and they last well over an hour each. This means that you can buy two (as many of us have) and have one on charge while you use the other. Swapping them out takes a mere 5 seconds or so - can you spare that every hour? I sure can! The batteries are inexpensive too - you can get one for far less than that bracket you linked to. Getting two, three or four even would cost a lot less than one V-mount...

That being said, as Dale pointed out, they do plan to offer other battery mount options in the future. Just be patient, and I'm sure whatever they come up with will be brilliantly integrated, affordable and very functional!

just my $0.02 (or £0.012)

I did a long testing session today to calibrate my dp1 and "master" the controls. Seems to all make sense now. If you go into advanced and edit the blue color temp setting to have R and G at zero, then the "blue" color mode works exactly like blue gun. After mucking about i feel like I've got the bars really close. There is some issue where blue light spots, like sunshine in a dark tungsten room, are showing up as extra-blue. I'll keep playing around to see if i can minimize it.

I've used far more expensive monitors that couldn't get this close for colors (and obviously, not rez). I really only counted on the dp1 as being a focus monitor, but I'm thinking that contrast and broad color might be judged with it as well. Mighty exciting.

As to the noise/pal issue... I can reproduce this, but only on the analog input. HDMI doesn't show the same color banding. It appears that the digitizer loses detail in dark underexposed areas. Not sure yet if thats a pal-only thing.

Cheers!

The back of the monitor is a big flat surface with 2 1/4-20 taps and 4 smaller taps (used for the smallhd battery mount). If you want to mount a v-lock plate, you absolutely can. The mounting holes likely won't line up, but you should pretty easily be able to machine an intermediate plate with holes for the v-lock and to line up with the dp1.

I'm pretty taken with the $60 smallhd batteries, but no reason you couldn't bolt on something bigger. Quite a bit bigger, really, as the threads are tapped right into the body. If your mounting solution can hold it, i reckon you could bolt a 7ah lead acid battery to the back. The monitor isnt the weak link there.

If you can find a mounting diagram for that v-lock i'll be happy to compare it to the back of the dp1 and see if there's a direct-bolt solutions. Cheers!

Are you saying it does that odd banding behavior with the component input or composite? If it's with component then that's a definite deal breaker for me since the A1 has no HDMI. :-\

I'm using the A1 in Pal territory and not getting a problem with 'banding' - I'll try it on some low light situations.

The banding showed up on the component input, yes. However, for me it only shows up in the darkest details, where the on-camera lcd was showing just straight black, so i'm not really worried about it. Anything even remotely lit is looking pristine for me.

I'm doing a series of tests with various rigs and shooters over the next week so i'll try to flush out the extent of the issue.

-a

calibration
 

there's now a good video tutorial on SmallHDs wiki outlining calibration and setting bluegun only mode up properly.

Really wish I had watched it before i started like an idiot to play with the advanced settings menu and then inadvertently change the normal template's RGB color settings - idiot!

Could anyone let me know what the normal templates out of the box RGB is supposed to be - figure I should fix what I've broken!

If you toggle to the second tab in the main UI there is an option that seems to restore the factory settings, I've used this quite a few times already after experimenting with colour values too.

Thanks for all the help and suggestions.

You're probably right, that a V-Mount battery on the back would be too heavy and bulky.
So it's probably a good idea to do both :)

Using the original batteries for on-camera use and get a V-Mount connector like

16x9 Europe GmbH - 4-PIN XLR Swit S-7100S - Sony V-Mount Connector S-7100S

that is then adapted to that "barrel"-type connector in the DP1.

Trevor:
or as a M2e solution maybe use the microPowerPod. :)
Probably the most elegant solution.

The last thing that isn't answered or I have overlooked is, if the DP1 accepts a range of voltage.
Experience shows that there is not exactly 12V coming out of the most batteries.

Somehow I can not imagine to use a USB-Like power-connector with an AC Adaptor with a US to German Adapter to charge batteries on set :)

Thanks!

Peter

Again, adapting a V-mount bracket (using an intermediate plate of some sort) to mount on the back of the DP1 would not be a problem structurally - the monitor is rock freakin' solid - but the problem lies more in the extra bulk of such a battery.

As far as the power pod goes, 1.) I'm not going to spend that much on another redrock accessory and 2.) it doesn't really allow the monitor to be used off of the camera rig, which I sometimes like to do (hand it to the director to review hand-held shots, etc) and 3.) again, the SmallHD batteries are so small and light that I can put my monitor up on the noga arm and not worry one bit about weight or balance...

Seriously, I'm not sure why people are so resistant to change... these batteries are pretty brilliant IMO.

As far as the voltage goes, I'd suppose you can probably give the DP1 anything from 11-13 volts safely, but of course you'd want to keep it as close to 12 as possible.... (and yet again, this is easily removed form the worry list by using the SmallHD batteries.)

Charging - I'm pretty sure the SmallHD battery chargers will accommodate 110-220 volts (like most other wall-plug accessories.) I haven't gone in to look and I'll confirm this shortly, but I'm pretty sure they'll take both voltages. You cannot charge the SmallHD batteries using a USB port, as they require a much different voltage/amperage than a USB port can provide)

I think the idea behind the mini USB formfactor charge receptacle on the battery was a.) to have a connector small enough to place on such a thin battery, and b.) to have a connector that is noticeably different from the output connector on the battery (which is a small barrel-type receptacle)

hope that helps :)

For those people using them in the UK, the power charger has an american plug but they plug straight into a normal 13amp shaver adaptor socket for use.

Ok, I guess You're right Trevor for most of the points.

I just want to keep the number of different plugs and adaptors as minimal as possible, as my equipment becomes less and less interchangeable that way.

I would like to have one battery system for camera, steadicam and monitor.
Also I like the sturdy broadcast equipment more than small plugs and adaptors with thin cables.

But it's also right, that the dp1 battery is cheap enough to just try it in practice.

Thanks!

Peter

Regarding all the battery discussion:

The DP1 will accept voltages in the range of 11-14v. However certain 14.4 volt batteries have a tendency to fluctuate way beyond 14.4v and therefore are currently incompatible with the DP1. So attaching that v-mount plate (which is something we may offer support for in the future) may be physically feasible, the voltage of standard v-mount battery will not work.

That said, we are currently developing a wide voltage converter that will be small and inexpensive that can accept virtually any voltage and regulate it out 12v to the DP1. Then we will begin development on other battery support, starting with the popular ones such as V-mount and AB.

We understand that some people want to throw a battery the size of a volkswagen on their monitor and not have to worry about it for an entire shoot - the DP1 was designed to be portable and functional without having to be weighed down by a huge battery, but we understand the need for more stationary applications.

Just grab a pair of pliers and bend the conectors on an angle - works fine for me

This looks like an amazing little monitor.

Any chance of it being able to take in an HD-SDI input eventually? Otherwise it would have to have an HD-SDI - HDMI converter linked to it.

HD/SDI to HDMI
 

Hey Dean

Got our DP1 yesterday and it's a fantastically built little sucker, really very nice for the price! Haven't been able to test it with the EX3 at this point as our unit is in for servicing and firmware upgrade, but I'm suspecting we may have the same issues as Paul Joy is with his EX1 and the component input, with noise.

So....the HD/SDI to HDMI converter option may be the best solution to this. As mentioned way earlier in this thread there is this one

AJA | Hi5 HD-SDI/SDI to HDMI Video and Audio Converter | HI5

Not cheap, and then we still need to find a solution to power it also (would be great if there was a regulator to run this off one of the DP1 batteries). There's also the question of whether or not it would actually solve the noise issue. Is anyone currently using this to feed from their EX?

guys, there is no noise issue. at least as far as i've seen with NTSC - but those of you using PAL may be running into something else eh?

Hi Trevor, I'd really like to get to the bottom of why I'm seeing different results to you. Can you confirm that in a low light environment you are not seeing results similar to those I posted at http://www.videotrader.co.uk/images/dp1noise.jpg ?

I get this effect either in NTSC or PAL so for me the signal type is not the cause. I'm still open to it being something wrong with either my camera or my Dp1 but I really want to know if other EX1 / 3 users see the same thing before returning either.

If the scene is fully lit then this isn't an issue, but that doesn't mean there isn't an issue at all as I do a lot of low light shooting.

Hey Paul,

I reproduced the same issue (though much less severe and only in the darkest of details) and forwarded my findings to smallhd. We likely wont hear any official word on the subject until they have it pinpointed/resolved. However, they are definitely aware and based on the tenacity they've shown for every other minute detail, I have every confidence they won't rest until its resolved.

So, you aren't crazy, and its not just you. Well, you might be crazy, but not on this one thing. hehe.

Lol, I'm sure my girlfriend would agree with you on that one :)

I've been doing more tests for Dale today and sending him the results directly, I hope they can resolve it too as I really like a lot about the DP1.

By the way, how are you guys keeping the screen clean? It seems to pick up fingerprints very easily and I'm not having much luck getting rid of them.

don't touch it.


or canned air and/or a microfiber cleaning cloth :)

The Verdict
 

Soooo, I'm thinking of getting the Ikan | V8000HDMI-S LCD Monitor Kit | B&H Photo Video when I started reading this thread. Any opinions on what I would be giving up with one over the other?

A lot of resolution.

The DP1 is 1280 x 720
The Ikan is 800 x 480

DP1 has 2.4 times more pixels.

Thanks Dean,

Another issue will be mounting, I have a very busy hotshoe, light and mic, so I'll need some type of other mountage. maybe a tripod mount for now.

I cant tell if you were asking about mounting solutions or if there is a difficulty mounting the ikan.

My favorite solution so far is a noga arm and a manfrotto QR

Noga | DG-1105 Locking Accessory Arm w/Shoe Mount | NO-DG1105-SA

and

Manfrotto by Bogen Imaging | 357 Pro Quick Release Adapter | 357

The quick release has threaded holes in the side that allow you to store your camera screws. Instead, you can thread the noga arm into that. I personally leave the whole QR assembly intact and put yet another qr plate beneath it. That way the screen can go with the camera if you want, or you can release the other plate instead and leave the screen behind.

Prolly a million ways to mount a monitor, but thats my fave at the moment. cheers.

Good response from DP1 folks
 

I emailed them with some questions, very nice and fast response. Decisions........hehe, I'll probably get it. Anyone have 800.00 bucks I can borrow.