16:9 Studio Monitor Options?

[Bob Zelin]

The Sony LMD-2030 is about $1100 at B+H Photo.

The Panasonic TH42PH10UKA is about $900 at B+H Photo.

If you want to use an Apple 23″ Cinema, you can absolutely use these with either the Blackmagic HDLink or the AJA HDP, which will convert
HD-SDI to DVI.

If you don’t want to buy the converters, then get a Dell 2408WFP for about $600, and this has analog Y Pb Pr HD inputs that you can feed from an AVID, Blackmagic, AJA, MOTU or Matrox capture product. (yes, in HD).

I have given you solutions of professional products in your price range.

Anything else ?

Bob Zelin

[Matthew Abourezk]

Thanks Bob,
I appreciate your input. As I mentioned, the world of HD is new to me and I am having to ramp up quickly. Quite an alphabet soup.

I started looking up the equipment you told me about, and I think I fell asleep with my eyes open. Not out of boredom, but out of confusion.

If it isn’t too much trouble, could you give me a sentence about why these pieces of hardware exist and what benefits (besides just converting my Apple cinema display) these would give me? On the surface, it seems like I shouldn’t bother paying out $2,000 to convert the signal to a $1,000 computer monitor… maybe I should just pony up the $2,700 for a regular HD monitor???

I know I am missing something here… but I don’t know what I don’t know. (Like maybe I don’t know that there is no way to output an HD signal from my computer to an HD monitor without installing one of the cards you mentioned?)

Thanks Bob.
Matt

Talkingbox Digital Media Group, Inc.
http://www.talkingboxdmg.com
(203) 327-6617

[Bob Zelin]

Matt –
I gave you answers and prices, and you STILL want to spend $2700. What is wrong with you ?

Falling asleep with all this info – get out of the business. It’s getting MORE confusing. More choices, more formats, more file conversion types, more HD compression ratios. If you are to be in this business (unless you are the script writer, director, actor, or makeup person), YOU HAVE TO KNOW ALL THIS STUFF. This is a career, not a hobby.

Answers below –

Bob,

I started looking up the equipment you told me about, and I think I fell asleep with my eyes open.

If it isn’t too much trouble, could you give me a sentence about why these pieces of hardware exist and what benefits (besides just converting my Apple cinema display) these would give me?

REPLY – it is your job to take these model #’s and go to a site like
http://www.bhphotovideo.com, and see what these items are. It is your job to become familiar with these products.
The LDM-2030 is an inexpensive 16:9 LCD HD monitor.
The Panasonic TH42PH10UKA is a 42″ HD Plasma display.
The Dell 2408WFP is a 24″ LCD monitor that can be used for video.
The AJA HDP and Blackmagic HD Link are around $500 and will allow your Cinema display to display video.

On the surface, it seems like I shouldn’t bother paying out $2,000 to convert the signal to a $1,000 computer monitor… maybe I should just pony up the $2,700 for a regular HD monitor???

REPLY – IF YOU WOULD LOOK UP THESE MODEL #’s on the internet, you will see that you are NOT spending $2000 for a converter. You have to do SOME WORK – what the hell else are you doing this evening, watching a sitcom on TV ?

I know I am missing something here… but I don’t know what I don’t know. (Like maybe I don’t know that there is no way to output an HD signal from my computer to an HD monitor without installing one of the cards you mentioned?)

REPLY –
again, I am confused by your question. If you are EDITING IN HD, this means that you own a HD Capture card. If you have a MAC based FCP edit system, and have no capture card, becuase you import your footage, and just want to output the HD image, with minimal aggrivation, the Matrox MXO (look it up on Google) will let you take your DVI port on your MAC and convert it to a Y Pb Pr signal, that you can send into an inexpensive Plasma display to watch HD.

THIS STUFF AINT EASY. Neither is the use of FCP, Premier, AVID, and everything else that we do for a living. ITS WORK, and it requires studying and knowlege to survive. And the competition is fierce. Everyone on these forums works their asses off to learn all this stuff, so they can stay in this business. You have to do the same.

Bob Zelin

[Joey Burnham]

Don’t let Bob scare you, but he’s right.

I swear by my Panasonic BT-LH1700W.

https://catalog2.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ModelDetail?storeId=11201&catalogId=13051&itemId=94264&surfModel=BT-LH1700W

Really, really great for the price. Yes, they’re upwards of 3k, but welcome to the world of HD. Now if you’re talking about HDV, don’t bother. HDV is really just anamorphic SD in my book.

Joey

[Matthew Abourezk]

Yo, Bob,

It is good that you are working your ass off. I am doing the same. 18 hour days are getting the best of me, and I just tried to take a shortcut and ask for what was essentially a review by you as to why you suggested the equipment that you mentioned. Do you read reviews about equipment? If so, does that mean you should get out of the business because you are lazy? Not at all. It means you are smart to get the input of others who have used the equipment. My guess is that you do not just buy a piece of equipment after having read the manufacturers specs, that would be dumb. And although you need to learn a lot about being polite, you don’t seem dumb.

All I was asking for was your input about what the benefits were of the equipment you mentioned.

I was making a joke about falling asleep with my eyes open…. relax buddy, we are all in the same boat. Maybe time for you to take a vacation eh?

Regarding me getting out of the business…. uhhh… I’ll bet you a thousand dollars that I made more money from HD this year than you did, even though I am still learning about the hardware to drive it all. I am an expert FCP editor, I was an engineer for Apple’s Mac OS Engineering team for four years, and have been shooting professional video for 18 years.

One thing I have learned in all of those years is that a little bit of knowledge goes a looooong ways, but being a jerk to those around you will cut your career short.

Puh.. puhh puhhhlease don’t bother responding to this thread anymore, your input is not appreciated, or respected.

Talkingbox Digital Media Group, Inc.
http://www.talkingboxdmg.com
(203) 327-6617

[Matthew Abourezk]

Joey,

Thanks for the info. Much appreciated.

Talkingbox Digital Media Group, Inc.
http://www.talkingboxdmg.com
(203) 327-6617

[Chris Brown]

Some great options out there:

– I prefer the Sony LMD-2050W, not the 2030. Definitely better than the 2030.
– The Panasonic panel mentioned above is great…in HD mode. The software in this panel does a horrid job with standard definition. I own the Sony panel above and standard def looks outstanding.
– There are still some JVC 17inch HD CRT’s out there. Get the analog HD input card – handles every SD and HD resolution and framerate. I own one of those too, and we put it in our color correction/main edit suite.

If you can get an HD CRT, get that – it will still blow away current LCD’s for color critical work. The current Sony LMD LCD series is great…but our JVC CRT still beats it. We use a discontinued Sony 36 inch consumer HD CRT (16:9) as our client monitor. Some of the broadcast engineers around here love it – you can calibrate it to bars and have no problem – plus it’s a 1080i tube with analog and HDMI HD in.

The JVC model we have is the DT-V1710CGU. We bought direct from JVC when they sold their NAB show stock 2 years ago and saved almost 50% on the thing.

Videographer/Editor
Creative Director
Union Digital, Inc.
https://www.uniondigitalmedia.com

[Del Holford]

Boys Boys
Matthew has the creds and so does Bob. Nice website Matthew. You’ll rarely go wrong with one of Bob’s answers but you may have to put up with some muriatic sarcasm in his striving for excellence.

One new monitor on the market is HP/Dreamworks 2480xz color critical monitor. Priced around $3500 it offers 30 bit color (10 bit x RGB) and 1920×1200 with a 4 port USB hub. It will probably occupy 5 new FCP suites we will be installing this fall. Best to both of you.

Del
fire*, smoke*, photoshopCS3
Charlotte Public Television
del underscore edits at wtvi dot org

[Bob Zelin]

Isn’t this what Matt wrote in his orignal post –

It sure would be nice to spend $800 for an Apple cinema display, instead of $3,300 for the low end Sony flat panel.

SO, he wants an $800 hi end solution. Your replies of Panasonic BH-LH series, JVC DT-24 series, ecinema, CineTal, OmniTek, TV Logic, Sony LMD2450, etc. are NOT WHAT HE WANTS. He wants an $800 answer.
So I gave him what he wanted – CHEAP CRAP for $800 bucks. The “low end” Sony flat panel is the LMD-2030, which is $1100 at B+H. Is it a piece of crap – YOU BET IT IS. But this is STILL too much money, because he wants to spend $800, and things that an AJA HDP costs $2000 (it’s $679) or thinks that a Blackmagic HDLink costs $2000 (it’s $409). But he CANT BE BOTHERED looking this up on google, and then wants to WHINE like a baby because I am answering his question with detailed model #’s and prices, AND meeting his price point, but he doesn’t like my “tone of voice”. Well, I answered his question long ago – if he wants to see HD, and spend LESS than $800, he can get the Dell 2408WFP (now on sale at Dell for about $600) and will get an ok picture for UNDER $800. The wonderful monitors that everyone else has listed cost A LOT OF MONEY, and dear Matt has specifically stated that he almost fell on the floor when he saw that a Sony flat panel was $3300. SO, he DOES NOT want to spend $3300 (or above), so all answers and suggestions for great monitors above $3300 are not what the customer wants.

So Matt – EAT ME !

Bob Zelin

[Del Holford]

[Matthew Abourezk] “It sure would be nice to spend $800 for an Apple cinema display, instead of $3,300 for the low end Sony flat panel.

Obviously, there would be trade-offs in the savings, any thoughts are greatly appreciated.”

Yes it would but as the thread has shown, that’s probably not going to happen. I’ve got a 23″ cinema display on my FCP and when playing full screen it looks good but I really don’t trust the blacks. If you are going to go HD you have to see it correctly. If you don’t buy a decent monitor (and several color critical monitors have been mentioned) you will never see it correctly. Having started HD in 2001, we have a Sony BVM 20 which cost us around $35,000 and an Ikegami 14 digital HD CRT that cost nearly that. Those are in the edit suites, not the tech cores. Fortunately the $12-20K eCinema and CineTal LCDs are being superceded by the JVC and HP/Dreamworks LCDs at much better price points. In HD you can’t trade-off quality or you’ll be hurting yourself and your clients.

The saga continues…

Del
fire*, smoke*, photoshopCS3
Charlotte Public Television
del underscore edits at wtvi dot org