HD Monitor Questions

CClub wrote on 4/29/2007, 6:23 PM
If I understand correctly, to preview HDV in Vegas I need a monitor that has at least 1900 x 1200 resolution. I spent the afternoon at Best Buy, CompUSA, and Circuit City, and few monitors had that level of resolution, yet they call them all HD. Can a monitor with 1600 x 1200 resolution accurately preview HDV or rendered HD files?

Separate Question: if I have an nVidia 7800 GTX video card (2 DVI outs), can it support a second monitor (or HDTV) to preview HDV in Vegas or rendered HD files full screen ?

Comments

Steve Mann wrote on 4/29/2007, 11:25 PM
According to the FCC, any resolution greater than SD is HD.

I seriously doubt that you will find a consumer HDTV with a resolution as high as you are looking for. And you are likely confusing the poor sales guys at Best Buy who still don't know the difference from DTV and HDTV.

B&H sells a professional studio monitor (Panasonic BT-LH2600W) for $4,000, but it's maximum resolution is 1366x768. And it doesn't have an HDMI inputs.

Sony just introduced a monitor that does what you want - the BVM-L230 LCD video monitor. It is expected to be available this fall, at a suggested list price of about $25,000.



GlennChan wrote on 4/29/2007, 11:35 PM
There are two ways to monitor HD in Vegas.

Method A: Use a broadcast monitor (HD-SDI input and/or component input). There's a range of them out there... in the 'affordable' bracket, both Ecinemasys (about $5k) and Marshall make 1920x1080 monitors. I am guessing the Ecinemasys monitor is better, but I haven't seen the Marshall stuff.

I am guessing they would have decent de-interlacers among other picture quality improvements.

You may need a hardware card (Aja or Blackmagic) to do HD-SDI output. Check the hardware incompatibilities.

Method B: Use a computer LCD monitor (with at least 1920x1080 pixels) and monitor in Vegas, using Windows secondary display device as the video preview device. Make sure you enable color management, and check the studio RGB setting.

I don't believe Vegas' de-interlacing is very good.
MUTTLEY wrote on 4/30/2007, 11:01 PM


GlennChan, what is the specific name for the "studio RGB" setting of which you speak?

- Ray
www.undergroundplanet.com
MH_Stevens wrote on 5/1/2007, 4:31 AM
A very common HDV monitor loved by many here, including myself, is the Dell 1900x1200, 24", now about $700
JJKizak wrote on 5/1/2007, 5:35 AM
Newegg has Sony, Samsung, NEC, HP, and other 1920 LCD monitors all for $669.00 each.

JJK
Coursedesign wrote on 5/1/2007, 9:23 AM
There is a world of difference between a computer monitor and a true video monitor.

Still, there are some that are purposely designed to do a good job at both, with some money spent on video signal processing for showing a good "TV picture."

If you have to go this route (which is quite reasonable), read the reviews carefully.
John_Cline wrote on 5/1/2007, 10:03 AM
I love my two Dell 2407s as computer monitors, I sure like having a 3840x1200 desktop, but for any kind of video work, they leave a lot to be desired. They don't look anywhere near as good as my 34" XBR960 CRT HD display.

You asked if they could accurately display HDV or rendered HD material. The answer is, NO. You have to spend a LOT more than $700 to get accuracy.

I have, however, had excellent results using a MyHD HDTV tuner card and a Viewsonic P810 21" CRT computer monitor (which I spent a lot of time calibrating.) The MyHD has a hardware MPEG2 decoder and will play HDV files natively, in fact, any MPEG2 files at up to 40mbps.

John
JoeMess wrote on 5/1/2007, 10:41 AM
Remember, a large portion of the budget LCD monitors out there only resolve 6 bit per color channel. (Yep, 18 bit!) If you intend to do color correcting and matching, you need something way better.

Joe
GlennChan wrote on 5/1/2007, 12:44 PM
Muttley:
Preferences,
Preview Device (tab)
Device: Windows Secondary Display

Check use color management
Check "Use Studio RGB (16 to 235)"
MUTTLEY wrote on 5/4/2007, 2:24 PM


Sorry for the late follow up question but GlennChan, when "Use Color Management" and "Use Studio RGB (16 to 234) are checked" the drop down for the Monitor color profile is unlocked and I'm not sure which to pick. I'm using a Samsung SyncMaster 206BW LCD but don't see anything that screams "I'm the one!!!". Any clue?

- Ray
www.undergroundplanet.com
GlennChan wrote on 5/5/2007, 12:13 AM
I don't believe that setting does anything. I tried very extreme .icc profiles and it doesn't make a visual difference, so that's why I say that. In color managed apps like Photoshop, changing those ICC profiles really does do something. So I'm not sure what the deal with those ICC profiles are.

I would just pick sRGB, since that is the standard for computer monitors.