Comments

JackW wrote on 4/5/2011, 6:48 PM
You shouldn't get flicker with flat screen monitors. Do a test shoot and see what it looks like.

Jack
musicvid10 wrote on 4/5/2011, 7:39 PM
Whoa.
"Flat Screen" can mean CRT or LCD/LED.
Which are they?
Are they NTSC or PAL?
Refresh rate?
GenJerDan wrote on 4/5/2011, 8:19 PM
What camera? Some (many?) have adjustable shutters you can tweak to match the monitor scan rate.
PeterDuke wrote on 4/5/2011, 8:58 PM
Can you record the monitors electrically rather than optically? Is the source already digitized that you can get your hands on?
Xavion Kron wrote on 4/5/2011, 9:21 PM
We have already done a test and the monitors do flicker in the background.

The cameras are Cannon GL2's
musicvid10 wrote on 4/5/2011, 10:03 PM
"Is there a way to record without the monitors flickering?"

OK, so it's not important enough to tell anyone if the monitors are CRT or LCD, whether they are NTSC or PAL, and what frame rate you are shooting.

Best of luck.
Yoyodyne wrote on 4/5/2011, 10:33 PM
Hmmmm, I imagine you've already done this but just to be thorough....

Try setting all the monitors to a 60hz refresh rate (if possible) and set the shutter of the cam to 60 too. This is for NTSC land of course, in PAL country go for 50.

If that don't do it try the clear scan function. Here is a (not by me) tutorial on Youtube.



Hope this helps and good luck.
Xavion Kron wrote on 4/6/2011, 6:51 AM
Thank you everyone!

Today I will find out if they are LED/LCD or CRT, i'm sure they are NTSC.
Byron K wrote on 4/6/2011, 10:14 AM
If the video doesn't need to have live monitors going and you still have problems with flicker you can green screen the monitors and over lay the monitor video in post.

I assisted a video shoot setting up a portable ATM machine. The ATM team and I showed up early to get the ATM up but we could not get the wireless to work because the signal at the location we were at was non existent . The producer showed up he just placed a green cardboard over the monitor and filled in the ATM monitor in post. When I saw the actual commercial I couldn't even tell the monitor was green screened.

He said that they normally prefer to green screen the monitors because the actual monitor shots sometimes don't show up very well, may have the wrong logo or theme, have striping or flicker. This made a lot of sense because the ATM monitors have a optical layer that disallows viewing from the sides so the monitor shots would not have worked anyway.
CVM wrote on 4/7/2011, 2:31 PM
The Canon GL-2 has a nice little feature which allows you to adjust the shutter speed to match the refresh rate of CRT monitors. I forgot how to get to it, but it's accomplished using the menu functions. Not sure if it can match multiple monitors though. Worse yet, is the exposure issue... unless you blast the talent with light, the monitors are going to be blue light blobs. Yuck. Good luck!! BTW... let me know if you want to buy another GL-2... I'm selling mine. :-)
mtntvguy wrote on 4/7/2011, 6:00 PM
Turn the monitors off and then put what ever content you want on them with picture-in-picture when you edit. It's fairly easy to do in Sony Vegas, and even easier with a NewBlue FX plug-in.