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Cinema Display or Panasonic BT-LH1700
Hi guys,
We have purchased a MultiBridge Extreme for our new editing suite, and we are looking for a LCD for monitoring.
Presently our acquired material are mainly DVCPro HD 720P. If I understand correctly, Apple Cinema Display will map pixels for pixels and for 720p, there will be black bars on screen?My question:
1) Which is a better buy, the Apple 23 inch (cheaper) or the Panny BT-LH1700? Which monitor rendered better color, even though I know both are not suitable for critical color correction.
2) Which of this monitor give you a better 4:3 SD visual on screen.
3) We are also considering the BT-LH2600, which is a 26inch. Is 26 inch too big a monitor for editing (considering our suite is not big) BTW, we have mixed comments from our editors regarding the size. Actually a 20 inch Panny will be most suitable for us.
thanks
joe
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8 Replies
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26 inches might be big but if you can place it farther away it can be nice to be able to change focus from the computer screen to the viewing screen. I had been editing a project on a 14″ monitor for ages and then just sprung for a cheap (relative to the 14″ monitor) 21″ TV so I could see the image bigger, and put it a little farther away…and WHAT A DIFFERENCE. You need to really SEE what you’re doing!
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the Apple Cinema display, and any direct LCD display, like the Dell 2407FPW, Sony SDM-P234b, or HP2335, has no ability to display a STANDARD DEF signal, and when you try using the HDLink, it looks like crap. HD looks fantastic with the Cinema Display, but Standard def does not. This is one of the major advantages of buying the Panasonic. There is no 20″ model – the next size down is the BT-LH1700W, which is 17″ (and has a built in waveform monitor). It is very nice, and about $2600 US.
Bob Zelin
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For those who have worked with the Panasonic BT-LH2600 or 1700, what is your take on them as regards professional-level color/brightness/contrast correction? Though the hype suggests they qualify, but being LCDs, I’m a bit skeptical. Appreciate any opinions.
Thanks,
Bill Buchanan
Buchanan Film Co. -
I am confused as to what concerns you. You are NEVER going to get a replacement for a CRT monitor. Even though the resolution of the Panasonic is technically better than a Sony PVW-20L5/1, I will never get used to LCD or Plasma – but you and I BETTER get used to it – because CRT’s are OVER. Sony announced that even the hi end $35,000 BVM’s are at the end of their life cycle. These products (CRT monitors) will no longer be available very very soon, and your color correction will have to be based on what people own (your clients, ad agencies, conference rooms, end users, etc.), and this will be on PLASMA or LCD – not CRT monitors. In 3 years, only Grandma, and die hard old school color correction guys will have CRT monitors – everyone else will have LCD or Plasma.
So for right now, the Panasonic BT-LH is about as good as it gets. Like it or not.
Bob Zelin
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Bob:
What concerns me is that which concerns any director/content provider: that our work when broadcast matches as closely as possible the image characteristics we established on our online production monitors. I currently use a CRT, but it’s SD. Like most folks in production, tooling up for HD is no longer a choice.
Your point that we should setup our imagery based on the end users’ equipment is well taken and is not without merit. And it’s an argument that has infuriated every director worth his/her salt since color TV. I’m a fan of considering the end users’ equipment, not basing my work on it.
That said, from what I’ve seen and read, the plasmas and LCDs and DLPs are rapidly approaching the image reproduction of the better CRTs. So, if the LCD at hand can do the job, so much the better.
So, let me pose my question again to those who are currently using (or have witnessed the use of) the BTLH1700 or 2600 in their editing suites. What’s your take on this component for broadcast production?
Thanks,
Bill Buchanan
Buchanan Film Co. -
I use the Panasonic BT-LH1700 and 2600 all the time. In my mind, there is no question that this series of monitors is far superior to the Sony LUMA LMD-232. The Panasonic BT-LH1700W only has a resolution of 1200×768, where the BT-LH2600 is 1366×768, for more accurate 720p resolution (1080i looks just fine). The real reason to get this monitor is because it is possibly the ONLY LCD monitor on the market that displays standard def interlaced video properly. The image quality of a Dell 2407, Apple 23″ Cinema, or HP 2335 is fantastic for HD (as good or better than the Panasonic), but Standard Def is unwatchable. Put a Blackmagic HD Link on an Apple Cinema display, and watch standard def SDI – it looks like crap – and so does everyone elses DVI converter (it’s not the converter – it’s the way the montitors handle SD interlaced signals).
I don’t know what monitors you have been using in the past, but most people NEVER had the luxury of Sony BVM series monitors. Most people had (in the last 10 years) Sony PVM series monitors, from the older PVM1954Q, to the PVM20M2U, PVM20M4U, and the end of the line PVM-20L5/1. All of these, other than the 20L5/1 never could display HD anyway. So the Panasonic makes this a “best buy”, and it is certainly becomming a very popular monitor.
Will you like it for HD – yes. Will your clients like it for a standard def job, compared to your old Sony PVM-20M4U (for example) – probably not. But I did a job recently with a horrible Sony consumer LCD monitor (32″), that had the chroma cranked all the way up, and the Disney client thought it was the best picture they ever saw. So who was I to argue ?
So much for “true color”.
bob Zelin
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Thanks, Bob. Appreciate your detailed response. Probably going to roll the dice on the 2600.
Bill
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The 2600 has excellent color, very close to a BVMA20F1U monitor, the main difference is the blacks are not as deep as the CRT, but it’s very close. For the money, it’s a no brainer, the BVM HDSDI option is already much more expensive than the Panasonic 26″. Is the BVMA20F1U better, yes, but do you really want to spend $20k on a monitor? When you can get 90% of the way there for 1/5 the price?
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