I still dream of the day of 3 23" lcd monitors. Maybe even 30" someday. Still, a 22" crt must be pretty sweet.

I’m trying to decide if I should go to 2x17” or 2x19” LCD's. I’m afraid that 2 19” LCD’s will take up too much desktop space. Are most of you who use dual LCD’s using 17” or 19”? (ok, this is the part where you all convince me that 2x17” are fine because they are a whole lot cheaper!!!) ;-)

~jr

JR - just did a comparison for you, from this side of the Pond on 17 and 19 Samsungs .. cooo . .the prices on my 17" has plummetted! The 19" was what I paid for my 17" in Nov 03:

19" : £267.03 > > > £346.62

17" : £170.66 > > > £236.48

I know my prices are in GBPs . . buit I think you'll get the "picture" . . get the picture . .larf . . Bottom line, JR, what could you do with the - top do$$ar prices - extra £200 saving? Nice piece of s/w? Another £200 gadget for your system or camera?

Hmmm...oohh really like to see a grown man squirm! Shall I? .. Shan't I? Dithery do! Dithery di! . . .. ;-)

Grazie

I have just hooked up my brand new ViewSonic 19" LCD Model VX910. My 5 yr old Dell 17" CRT just dropped dead in front of me a couple of nights ago without any warning. I went back & forth about CRT vs LCD and finally gave in. I picked it because of the 16 ms repsonse time, 500 contrast and DVI input (which I am not using yet since my card is analog-only). Too bad just about all 19" LCDs are native 1280 resolution. I feel like I'm back in the old 640 VGA days (everything looks too huge and I am used to working with tiny).

Wonder if I could overdrive it to 1600 (for temporary applications) if I had the right graphics card? I was also concerned because the dot pitch is higher on alll the 19" models than on the 17's (.29 vs. .26), but I can't see any difference. My eyes are probably the weakest component in the equation. Too bad it's almost impossible to test these things out properly in the stores. Looks great, though, and I am sure I'll get used to it.

I almost got a Samsung 19" CRT (it was very cheap) and was also considering a 21" ViewSonic CRT. This was my attempt at a reasonable compromise. Cost about $450 after rebates at Best Buy.

For the last week I've been running Vegas on 1x17" Samsung and 1x23" HP. It's OK just using the 23" for the HD preview window but running Vegas over that much real estate I get seriously lost. The Apple mob can have their 30" monster, you'd need to double the depth of your desk so you could get far enough back to take it all in.

Bob.

JR, look at the px in the book...I'm using 2 17"s in my personal office, and actually 2 15"s in the studio and on my editing system. The training system is a pair of unmatched 17" monitors too.

Less IS More!

Grazie, I have a deep respect for your posts and opinions. But I feel obligated to offer a polite but alternate opinion. Sometimes more can be more.

I'm in the very lucky position of having a pair of 20" Compaq LCD monitors running 1600x1200. (These have a different use for my day job.) I have them immediately adjacent to each other, centered, about 30" in front of my nose. They form a gentle "V" so that the center of each screen is pointed directly at me.

I use one entire screen for the timeline -- my current project has 5 video tracks and 20 audio tracks. The second screen has the preview window, VU meters and several other vegas detached windows.

After using this setup for a few hours, it is almost painful to move back to my laptop screen which is 1400x1050.

Best Regards,

John.

With all the requests for new features in Vegas, what I would really like is either a detachable vcr control or a duplicate on the preview window, or just on the preview window.

That would make dual monitors perfect.

i use a view sonic graphisics series g810 (20 inch), two viewsonic panels, and a viewsonic hd ready projector.

when editing video, bigger is not always better.

but 21inches is great. i would go no smaller than 19 inch monitor.

no pun intended.

You could probably do a year or two with dual 17"s before upgraditis comes back.

I use 2 17"s. It's very nice. I use a consumer computer desk, so I had to rip one of the speaker shelves off to get them to fit.

I use 2 17's and it's not enough. It seems to be enough for other apps (I use Nuendo a lot), but not enough for Vegas. Go for the 19's at least. Of course what I'd REALLY like is 2 23's as a work space and a 30 for picture, but this is just a dream right now.

A few years ago I bought a refurbished Dell D1626HT for $400 at a computer show. It is a 21" trinitron monitor made for them by Sony. It has worked flawlessly. A year and a half ago Overstock.com had them on their website for $150 SHIPPED (It weighs over 60 lbs). I bought another one, tested it for a month, then put it in the basement to use if and when this one burns up. I will never go back to using a small monitor for video editing.

John

I should have known there would be no definitive answer. ;-) I’m leaning toward 2-17” because the 19” are still rather expensive and large. I saw Gary Rebholz using two 19” LCD’s at the NAMM show and they just looked huge and took up a lot of real-estate. My workspace is small. I use ACID a lot and just want to be able to keep a VSTI synth open while I’m playing around. The second monitor will be great for that and the video preview window (which steals real-estate from the busses). I just wanted to be sure people were still using duel-17” It sounds like a lot of you are.

~jr

Alot depends on the screen resolution that you are comfortable with as far as desktop space.

I used to have a 17" crt and 15" both set for 1024x768. I had trouble reading anything on the 15"

Now I have 21' and 17". The 21" is 1024x768 which gives me tons of room and easy to read.
The 17" is set at 800x600 which makes it easy to read and makes the preview big and still leaves extra space.
Now everything is perfect (for me) and I would hate to go to anything smaller.

Johnny,

I know you don't like Dell systems, but their Ultrasharp LCD's are pretty nice, very easy to adjust too. Good price on the 17" right now, 10% off and free shipping. PCWORLD has it listed as it's number 2 17" LCD right now and the one that beat it is $200 more. I have the previous model the 1703 and it's pretty nice.

DELL - UltraSharp 1704FPV $315 shipped.
Sometimes you search the coupon sites, you can get it for under $300.

Thanks Buster. This whole thing started because I bought my kids a Samsung 17” LCD for their PC and I really like how easy it is to read. I had my eye on the SAMSUNG 710N-2 which was only $259 at newegg.com but now its back up to $306! :( I guess I’ll have to wait some more (‘cuz that’s $100 more when you’re buying two). I have to look for a Dell coupon although it has a slower response time (25ms) compared to the Samsung (12ms).

~jr