Yes, I did read a number of reviews, and the ones from the gaming community are all favourable, but I suspect their requirements are different to ours.

Fortunately, my graphics card has a DisplayPort output, so I should be able to access the full resolution.

Stoopid Alert here: Am I right to think that my HD 1920x1080 will appear in the middle of this ASUS, with a substantial border "black" around it? And that if I was to select 1920x1080 (if it can do that through drivers) reso I'd loose out on definition? In which should I even bother? I've been looking around too......

Grazie

[I]"Am I right to think that my HD 1920x1080 will appear in the middle of this ASUS, with a substantial border "black" around it?"[/I]

Yes, Vegas does this for you, the same as if you display SD on a 1920x1080 monitor.
From memory you can tell Vegas to scale the image to fit however as you've suggested this could cause loss of resolution.

[I]" In which should I even bother?"[/I]

I cannot think of a reason unless you'll also use the monitor for other duties where it would help. My Asus is 1920x1200 which means smallish black bars at the top and bottom which I find convenient as a source of reference black but I don't think I'd like black the whole way around the image.

Bob.

I currently have an Asus VG236H, an older 23" monitor with CCFL illumination, and my main reason for updating is to obtain a more colour correct monitor. I have looked around and all the 'proper' ones are out of my reach price wise, hence my looking at this one.

Is your Asus one of the professional series Bob?

[I]"
Is your Asus one of the professional series Bob? "[/I]

One of the ProArt series and I do like it and many others have said the same here in previous threads. There are better such as the HP Dreamcolor but the price goes up and up very steeply as you get into the more "pro" monitors and you also start to pay for features that incur additional expense to make use of such as a HD-SDI input.

Bob.

GeeBax
This would be a 10bit monitor and if remember it, there was a thread here about the 10bit capability of Vegas. Was the consent that Vegas actually doesn't preview 10bit via the Windows Display output? Did I get that wrong ?

Oldsmoke, yes, it appears that Vegas thru the preview output does not allow more than 8bits. It has also been true that in the past the hook up of BlackMagic when supported (upto Version 9 VPro officially) that BlackMagic offered pass thru of 10bit signal from within its own parameters. That appears not to help the choke that preview is placing.

So is there any benefit in having a 10bit monitor that is "only" connected to a graphic card using the standard windows interface?

Several Adobe apps appear to use the 10-bit output so if you're using one of those then perhaps there's a benefit. It's certainly conceivable that Vegas might someday support 10-bit preview through a graphics card, but it doesn't up through VP12. I wouldn't buy such a monitor if VP12 was my only consideration.

Rob

I have two ASUS ProArt PA246Q (1920×1200) 24" monitors which are also 10-bit and I love them. They are pre-calibrated a come with the calibration report in the box. You'll really like this monitor.

~jr

[I]" So is there any benefit in having a 10bit monitor that is "only" connected to a graphic card using the standard windows interface?"[/I]

Yes, consider this.

Most video cameras use 14bits for their image processing. It stands to reason that a display device which is doing the reverse of what a video camera is doing should be just as capable. It too has to do image processing as it maps one set of 8 bit values to what the actual pixels of the LCD display present to the viewer.

Bob.

I will also be using the monitor in conjunction with Resolve, and it is being driven by a GTX470 card, which appears to be capable of higher image bit depth.

What has Bob been drinking? The mapping and processing of a camera sensor is going on internally - the external signal would be most often 8bits to the transmission side - be it recording of a memory card, or even direct analog connectors on the side of the camera.
Mapping and processing are internal - just like 8bit sources mapped to 32bit video processing in VegasPro on a 32bit project timeline....it still gets to an 8 bit codec for transmission.
Now if you could hook up processing so that video pipeline to the monitor is a processing conduit that would be the form you are looking for.
8bit preview output of VegasPro seems to be clamped before it gets on the wire.

Bob

I doubt a computer monitor works this way but I can see how a TV would or a DVD player that does do upscaling. I also believe the image processing is done in the graphics card rather then the PC monitor; the monitor displays what the card presents... pixel per pixel.

[I]" I also believe the image processing is done in the graphics card rather then the PC monitor; the monitor displays what the card presents... pixel per pixel. "[/I]

No, high end monitors use look up tables for calibration.

The ProArt series lets you change colour space, white point etc in the monitor.

[edit]
From the PA246Q specifications:
SPLENDID Video Preset Modes : 6 Modes (Adobe RGB Mode/sRGB Mode/Scenery Mode/Theater Mode/Standard Mode/User Mode)
Color Temperature Selection : 3 Modes
Color Accuracy : ?¢E?… 5
Gamma adjustment : Yes (Support Gamma 2.2/1.8 )
Color Adjustment : 6-axis adjustment(R,G,B,C,M,Y)

[edit2]

From discussions elsewhere in "User Mode" you can recalibrate the monitor using a Spyder etc,

As I said previously there is a LOT of image processing going on inside these monitors and doing it at more than 8 bits makes a lot of sense. Traditionally monitor, printer and scanner calibration has been done in the computer using ICC profiles. This has changed.



Bob.

I have this one and love it:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ntt=LMD2110W&N=0&InitialSearch=yes&sts=ma&Top+Nav-Search=

It's close to price compared what you were looking it but worth it for an entry level pro monitor.


rocky

A look up table doesn't define how a 8-bit output from a graphic card is converted to 10bit display... or does it?

[I]"A look up table doesn't define how a 8-bit output from a graphic card is converted to 10bit display... or does it?"[/I]

A LUT is simply a way of implementing a transfer function. It can be at any bit depth however to keep the size of the LUT reasonable interpolation is often used.

Bob.

oh, yeah, and just as we said if the transmission chain is 8bit - the LUT is an interpretative 8bit - good grief.

I would bet that calibrating with Spyder which I do all the time on a good 8bit monitor of less price is not going to calibrate improvements of a 10bit monitor fed an 8 bit transmission. Lets be real world and deal with what most people can deal with.

Getting any new monitor isn't going to guarantee any more accurate grading unless you have a way to calibrate it. I use the Spyder4 from Datacolor.

http://spyder.datacolor.com/display-calibration/

That is exactly what I thought. If I feed the monitor 8bit I cant expect to see 10bit.

[I]"That is exactly what I thought. If I feed the monitor 8bit I cant expect to see 10bit."[/I]

Obviously not.
What's missing though is that the phosphors used in LCD monitors are not a good match to the dyes used to provide the RGB filtering in the camera i.e. the native colour spaces don't match unlike what they did with CRTs. More precision at the mapping certainly doesn't hurt to reduce the errors.

In any case we're hardly talking about spending significantly more money and the ProArt series has other features that I've used many times. For me the on screen alignment grid that the monitor provides and Vegas doesn't to the external preview monitor was worth the couple of extra hundred dollars alone.


Bob.