Preview to external monitor - which one?

SueG wrote on 8/2/2008, 8:35 PM
We are trying to produce a better looking video and think that previewing the video on an external monitor as we are working on it would be a good idea.
My question is . . . what kind of external monitor do we use - and why.
Do we use a HD Television or an hdmi monitor (like a computer monitor) or what?
I have the converter unit (Grass Valley advc110) and had it hooked up to my home television - it worked fine. Just not sure what kind of monitor to purchase to give us the best look at things.
We are using Pro 8.
thanks for any help -

Comments

GlennChan wrote on 8/2/2008, 9:23 PM
Ideally, if you have the budget for it, get a broadcast monitor.

For SD, you can get a CRT for around $600+. A CRT is the best monitor type you can get for SD (LCDs don't do SD very well).

If spending that kind of money doesn't make sense, then a consumer CRT would be good just to check your work on and spot things like interlace flicker and overscan. You can try to turn all of the image cheats off and try to calibrate the monitor as best as you can... but these monitors just aren't designed to be accurate. They don't try to have accurate color, sacrifice performance elsewhere to make the image brighter, etc. etc.

2- Do you need to monitor HD?
SueG wrote on 8/2/2008, 9:35 PM
Thnks for the information -
As for question 2 - I really don't know - do we need to monitor HD?
We have Sony HVR-Z1U Hd camcorders and shoot in HD.
Do we not need to preview on an exteranal monitor if we use this format?
GlennChan wrote on 8/3/2008, 9:36 AM
1- You don't need to monitor HD unless your end product is HD.

2- If you do need to monitor HD, one of your options is to use a second computer monitor as "windows secondary display" (device?) under external monitor properties.