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3 Monitor System for Premiere Pro
What is the best way to set up an HD three monitor system for Premiere: Display Monitor, Timeline-Source Monitor and Bin Monitor. Are there alternatives?
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14 Replies
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Hi James,
You can run TWO displays off the computer graphics card and lay out the Premiere windows to suit your needs, then for monitoring the video, I would go with a BlackMagic Intensity Pro or Matrox MXO2 Mini device.
Either of these will drive actual video monitors (analog or LCD/LED, SD or HD)to provide a much better viewing experience than a computer preview offers.
I’ve been working this way for over 10 years – DPS Velocity, Matrox RT.X100, RT.X2, and now MXO2. Love my video monitors!
Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers -
ive also been interested in doing something like this for some time but never had the technical knowhow, but I hope you dont mind me jumping on board James.
Jeff do you mean something like this pci card? If so would you still use the 2 gfx card outputs for monitors and then just output to large LCD via this pci card? DOes premiere pro recognise all of these types of cards and will it enable 100% full screen playback out of it without seeing any of premiere’s playback controls. That’s really what I’m after but that item seems way too cheap for that…
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Hi David,
That is correct. Special drivers are installed as a plug-in to Premiere so that the video playback data is sent to the Intensity card (or MXO2 device) for output to your display. The pricing is very reasonable on the Intensity.
I like the Matrox MXO2 Mini because it is an external breakout box (convenient connections) and it offers 10-bit hardware up-down-cross convert on both capture and playback, plus has some Matrox RT Effects filter plugins and accelerates some Premiere effects as well.
Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers -
Along with the vendors Jeff P. mentioned, AJA makes some good hardware for video I/O.
In fact, that’s the system I’ve been using for a few years: 2 computer monitors (driven by an nVidia card), with an AJA card feeding an SDI video monitor (JVC).-another Jeff
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wow this is a revelation to me… I always thought the hardware devices to allow full screen playback on a TV were nearer the £1000 mark!
I will have to look into the finer details like which monitor/tv is best to use in about a 24″ size and also whether they connect generally by HDMI, DVI etc…
Thanks very much guys, this is great
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oh one more thing.
would it be possible to have the source window on the TV instead of the output one? Or perhaps both on 2 TVs? Would this require 2 different PCI cards? -
[David Payne] “I will have to look into the finer details like which monitor/tv is best to use in about a 24″ size and also whether they connect generally by HDMI, DVI etc”
David– if you are aspiring to a level of professional production, you should really get a SDI-input video (not computer) monitor for the output viewing. They are expensive (relatively), but can be accurately calibrated. It is also important to find a monitor that accurately displays field-based (interlaced) material. I can’t believe how often I see “broadcast” spots with reversed fields.
-Jeff
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Jeff,
Everything I shoot now is progressive and to be honest I can’t ever see that changing. Is this still as important with that in mind?
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Hi David.
If you’re only dealing with your footage, then probably not such a big deal. If you have to deal with footage from other places (other shooters, stock footage, client footage, etc.), then you do want to be sure about field issues–and not trust what clients tell you they just gave you ;>).-Jeff
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Jeff,
You’re right, depending on price I suppose it’s better to be safe than sorry. Could you recommend any particular model/supplier?
Do you just mean any LCD TV with a DVI input or is it more specific?
Really appreciate your continued help.
David
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