Anybody looked at that new Panasonic HD LCD monitor, BT-LH1700W.

[Richard Martz]

I haven’t seen this but it probably looks fantastic. Interesting but although it is expressly intended for HDTV you probably won’t be able to fully appreciate the fact that it is HD. Recent tests done on smaller HDTV monitors have shown that unless the picture passes 36″ in diagonal measure the viewer cannot discriminate between a high quality (but ordinary) NTSC signal and an HDTV signal. So if this is for clients then it is probably a waste of $. However viewing HDTV on location through an SDTV monitor produces considerably less than desirable results. I’m really hopeful that this monitor will give true results on location when shooting HDTV. That is where the real need is and where there is great promise.

I just want to know that what I’m looking at is pretty close to what I will see when I’m back in the edit suite. Nothing can be more disappointing than starting an edit and seeing footage that looks entirely different than what you were looking at in the field. THe big problem is in the black detail. When shooting in HD there is considerably more detail in the blacks than you can see when viewing on a monitor. THis causes people to mistakenly overexpose footage. Remember that when HDTV is overexposed it destroys detail that cannot be returned even with color correction.

Recently we shot on a mountain top in North Georgia when the sun was just coming up. Sun was about 5-10 degrees below the horizon and clouds were just beginnning to be illuminated below us. Beautiful. Weather was cold and clear. We were shooting HDTV – 1080i. It was nearly pitch black when we started. When I got back in the studio we were doing color correction on the footage so I decided to see how much I could push the blacks. I was amazed that areas that seemed perfectly black actually had incredible detail. I was able to push the color correction envelopes so that you could actually make out not only the major details of the landscape but also the details of leaves on trees in what otherwise started as a completely black.

[Dan Riley]

We haven’t gone HD yet but will very soon. My problem is in
advising what monitors to buy. I need one for color correction
that should be 20 to 25 inch that’s next to the LCD computer
monitors that would replace our Sony HR CRT 20 inch.
Then I wanted to put a 42 inch plasma (or something
like that) that would hang above and back a bit for the producer
or client to view. The client viewing one is not for critical viewing
but does need to be accurate. But the one next to me
needs to be a nice looking monitor. And we can’t afford the
$25,000 for Sony’s 25 inch CRT. If Sony or somebody
would make something like they did with the PVM line,
and it was 3 or 4 grand, that’s fine. But I’d love to get away
from CRTs and find a nice LCD. I don’t think the Apple 23
is quite there. Not the right inputs and not geared toward
video or broadcast work. But that Panasonic is. But it’s only
17 inches.

Dan

[Torrey Loomis]

Dan,

Have you seen these?

https://www.ecinemasys.com

Torrey Loomis
President – Silverado Systems
Apple Pro Video VAR
Apple Xsan for Pro Video Certified
1108 Sandwick Way
Folsom, CA 95630
(916) 806-7189
tloomis@silverado.cc
https://www.Silverado.cc