looks possibly useful...Westinghouse?
 

Not exactly a name in high quality monitors, but with a 13 PIP capability, and could this little (19" diag) monitor be useful in the field for monitoring multiple cam's? Check the spec's out and give your 2-bits:

WESTINGHOUSE LTV-19W6 19" WIDESCREEN 1080I LCD HDTV = $329.00 $329.00

Display Specifications
Viewable Screen Size 19" Diagonal
Aspect Ratio 16:10
Native/Optimum Resolution 1440 x 900
Color Capability 16.2 Million colors
Connectors
QTY TYPE
2 Composite Video In
2 S-Video In
1 YPbPr In
3 Audio In (dual RCA)
1 Audio Out (dual RCAi)
1 Antenna In
Compatible Modes
NTSC 480p
HDTV 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i
PC 1440 x 900
Clear QAM
Picture
Contrast Ratio 500:1 (typ)
Brightness N/A
Color Gamut 75% NTSC
Lamp Life 40,000 Hrs
Viewing Angle 150° Horizontal
130° Vertical
Response Time 8 ms
Video Processing
N/A
Dimensions and Weight
1615" x 18.9" x 5.2" (with Base)
11.7 lbs (with Base)
14.8" x 18.9" x 3.2" (w/o Base)
10 lbs (w/o Base)
Audio
2-2.25 watt speakers
Cabinet Color
Black

forget it, it's crap
 

Sorry about that. Confused it with another monitor....

Actually, I think these monitors are excellent. I have two 17 inch widescreen LCDs, and I talked my best friend into buying a 42 inch 1080p LCD. For the cost, it's worth it. I've strongly recommended them for the budget-concious buyer, and I love my LCD monitors.

heath

sorry about that!
 

Heath, sorry about the disparaging remark! I was ticked off because I had just ordered that monitor, but had too many windows open and read off the wrong info when I finally ordered!

Your comment encourages me that if I'm stuck with this 19", then it's not a paperweight after all.

We really needed a lower cost "field" monitor for checking out material before moving on to the next site, as most is done remote. Since this will go in a van with other 110v AC equipment running on a 12v DC inverter, I didn't want anything very expensive, but just good enough to verify our captures. At that price range, it seemed qualified for this type work (especially since I confused it with an LCD that did multiple PIP's).

I'm glad you found this to not be a piece of junk after all, thanks.

I think W.H. is great, but if you need a field monitor, a CRT is better. Try a Sony Wega, as they're remarkably close to a Pro sony monitor.

heath

Heath are you 17" monitors similar? same brand?

How feasible would it be to use this unit with an inverter and battery pack and use it as a field monitor?

Both are great and look pretty good. But for field monitors, I don't use an LCD. I use a CRT SDTV or HDTV. We used a 9 inch Sony professional monitor.

heath

Hmm... which of the WEGA's are you talking about? I've had 3 of them myself. My first was a 27" 4:3 screen, and it had a nice image but I doubt that it measured up to a pro monitor. After about 5 years the power supply failed, which was great 'cause that was all the excuse I needed to junk it and buy a plasma TV :-)

I liked the 27" so much (before it died) that I got a 20" WEGA CRT. This one was a totally different beast, with a very disappointing image. In fact, if someone wants to come get it.... it's yours. I've tried to give it to friends but no takers, it's sitting in a store room with other junk I didn't want to clutter up my new home when I moved last year.

I had one of the smaller 14" models for awhile. It had a really bad picture, looked like any other cheap CRT TV but it cost more. The power supply on that one went bad after less than two years so I trashed it. I'm a big fan of Sony gear, my house is full of it. But I wouldn't buy another of their 4:3 CRT's personally. Or maybe I was just unlucky with these?

Some of the latest have nice images, obviously not up to snuff with a pro model, but we use it as a monitor B sometimes. Not bad at all.

heath

why not LCD?
 

Heath, we're doing this next series all in SD (for various reasons, mostly to delay upgrading to all HD).

We have a little 8" Varizoom SWIT (s1080B) for our crane, but it's just too small for 4-5 people to see together for a "field monitor".

Since room in the van is critical, I had opted to try a LCD instead of the heavy and thick analog CRT's. I was wondering if it's the lack of good color fidelity on the LCD's you don't like for field work, or what? Seems to me my newer LCDs are better than the old analog CRTs now.

Just wondering,

I know that consumer LCDs don't handle blacks or whites as well as CRTs, that's what I'd be worried about. Not sure about plasmas so much. You may want to try looking at this JVC pro CRT monitor, for under $1,000 (their pro LCDs are several grand, unless I missed something):

http://pro.jvc.com/prof/attributes/f...l_id=MDL101542

heath

and the resolution?
 

I saw that monitor advertised earlier, but I guess what turned me off was the resolution:

SD: 300 TV lines
HD: 230 TV lines

That does not seem like much of a monitor to me! It's got all the bells and whistles......but lousy resolution in my book. Or am I missing something somewhere?

It does indeed. Hmmm...I'll need to investigate that. You could always try a Sony Luma--they're nice:

www.sony.com/luma

hwm

don't spend too much...yet
 

The other day, I saw a number of tech articles about recent Japanese (and other) advances in flat panel tech, that lead me to believe that extremely high res LCD (or similar tech) monitors in practically all sizes are already a reality in labs and soon to hit our world. We're talking 4xHD.

One of the main reasons we're holding out before investing in better HD panels, is to ride the wave when it comes later this year. I guess, we'll just keep trying to "make due" for a few more months with SD (we do have a Sony A1 ... :) for our little Merlin...ha!), lower cost panels and Aspect plugins.

Our next editing box will definitely be a V-8 (dual quads) when we upgrade to full HD, and hopefully the newer flat panels will ride the same waves into our productions.