Comments

Spot|DSE wrote on 5/21/2004, 10:23 AM
What's the budget? You won't find anything new for sub 400.00 that's worth looking at.....Sony's got some low end PVMs that are great, JVC has some 12" monitors for around 600 that are pretty good. Used is good if you can be assured it's still calibratable and not burned out.
BPB wrote on 5/21/2004, 10:43 AM
Hi Spot
Let's see..hmmm ...my budget ..where have I put that again :-)
.....I'm thinking 4-500...I just need something to get started with.
Thanks
BB

Sounds like Chicago was great! Congrats!
riredale wrote on 5/21/2004, 10:53 AM
If you need pro accuracy and can afford the price, then Spot's exactly right. But in my view, anything is better than no monitor at all, since the image you see in the Preview window on Vegas can't be trusted at all for final judgments regarding color and contrast.

What I've found is that even a super-cheap 13" Kmart special offers surprisingly decent image quality, but there's an important caveat: you need to hook it up to regular video broadcasting so you can dial in what "good" video looks like on it. In other words, once the TV shows decent quality on a network show, chances are pretty good that if your video has a similar look, it will be reasonably close to perfect.
BPB wrote on 5/21/2004, 11:03 AM
Thanks riredale..that is sort of what I was thinking...as what looked good on my lcd was way washed out and too bright on my tv.
i have been crusin ebay and realized how little I know about pro monitors..
I have some reading to do.
bb
BPB wrote on 5/26/2004, 10:12 AM
Is a PVM 1390 by Sony a good choice? Some used ones on Ebay
TVCmike wrote on 5/26/2004, 11:18 AM
I was thinking that someone could take one of these "cheap" monitors and adjust the overscan area so that it comes completely inside the viewable area with the controls inside the set. That way, you wouldn't have to guess what your actual output is, though the safe action/title areas could still be monitored from within Vegas.
John_Cline wrote on 5/26/2004, 12:01 PM
Of course, you could use color bars and actually calibrate your monitor instead of guessing...

Color Bars and how to use them

John
TVCmike wrote on 5/26/2004, 1:44 PM
I wasn't actually talking about color calibration. I was talking about adjusting the actual scan area of the monitor such that the actual entire image can be viewed without impediment from the television's plastic case. I'm well aware about color calibration using SMPTE patterns, but that wasn't at all what I was talking about. You'd also need some kind of blue gel to look through in order to calibrate the monitor since there's no feasible way to turn off the red and green guns on a regular tv.
John_Cline wrote on 5/26/2004, 1:52 PM
Sorry TVCmike, I was responding to an earlier post from riredale that suggested "calibrating" the TV by viewing network TV programming.

Actually, studying "professional" programming viewed on a properly calibrated TV is one good way to judge one's own productions.

John
TVCmike wrote on 5/26/2004, 2:26 PM
Oh heh...the confusion is unfortunate. No hard feelings :)

And yes, I agree that studying broadcast programs on a calibrated set is a good way to judge relative quality.
rdolishny wrote on 5/26/2004, 2:41 PM
>> What I've found is that even a super-cheap 13" Kmart special offers surprisingly decent image quality

I respect your opinion, but I could not disagree more. NTSC stands for Never The Same Colour (I'm lying, but it's a common joke) and your monitor is your proof to paying clients that you've got something you can guarantee. Consumer TVs change colour and quality as they heat up much more than Pro. "Really Good" TVs just don't have the dynamic range to handle things like really dark scenes or especially really bright scenes without distortion or noice or clipping/clamping.

You're looking for advice so I'd visit B&H or something like that local and get a professional monitor that will only be 12-14 inches probably but make sure it's got things like a Blue switch, 16:9/4:3 toggle ... and some really good ones from Ikegami have safe markers you can toggle on and off. As a professional I'd rather have a $600 12 inch pro monitor than what many guys do with a $2000 42"+ living room set.

Or get both! :)

- R
John_Cline wrote on 5/26/2004, 3:02 PM
I almost hate to dredge this up because it got a bit ugly, but the subject of "Walmart TV's" vs. professional monitors has come up before and was pretty much thrashed to death here:

Walmart TV Hot Topic

John
rdolishny wrote on 5/26/2004, 5:24 PM
Whew ...! That was a fun old thread! Made me tired just readin'.

The tip about the Commodore monitors was great. I have two in a box in the room next to me right now.

- R
BillyBoy wrote on 5/26/2004, 10:33 PM
You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.

Spot|DSE wrote on 5/27/2004, 12:23 AM
They're alright, but I'd stick with something newer. Biggest fear about an Ebay unit is that you might find a monitor out of calibration that can't be brought back to spec, maybe has a weak or out of spec power supply, which is one of the big differences between a "Circuit City" monitor and a "real" monitor. Used units should be guaranteed to not shift color after warming up, etc...
I wish Sony had some 'lower end' monitors like JVC does. We use 9" JVC's in the field and in our training room all the time. But the PVM L20/L14's are inspiring as hell.
Jay Gladwell wrote on 5/27/2004, 4:24 AM
But the PVM L20/L14's are inspiring as hell.

I've never found hell to be very inspiring! ;o)

J--
farss wrote on 5/27/2004, 6:22 AM
Perhaps a good starting point might be to calibrate the existing LCD monitor on the computer or maybe it is calibrated and the TVs out?
logiquem wrote on 5/27/2004, 7:26 AM
Does anybody ever tried to tweak the display setting to mimic NTSC rendition (color, gamma, etc.) on a computer lcd display?

This would be very usefull for me in some situation (live capture with my laptop in particular).

BTW, an important consideration about monitoring is image deformation. I have a pretty decent JVC Image Art 14 " in term of color and contrast but just monitor a perfect grid image in it and take a look at the deformation. Ouch!