apple cinema HD 23″ display, help me decide

[David Bogie]

Get the Apple.

bogiesan

This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: “For crying out loud, read the freakin’ manual.”

[Chris Gorman]

OK, I just ordered the Apple Cinema HD 23″ and the MXO. Thanks to all of you for the input.

[Stefan Boyland]

I am curious. I have the Kona Lh card in my computer for capturing analogue HD signals.
I have not used the output for monitoring HD material…yet.

In your opinon, using a 2nd Apple Cinema Display (say 23″) with the Kona Lh card, how would you compare that setup for color correcting and editing, to adding a professional CRT monitor from Sony (either an HD monitor for like $5K or an SD monitor for 1K)?

Does the Kona Lh card do something so the LCD display shows very accurate colors? How accurate? Good enough for decent HDTV work? Good enough for a feature film?

Lastly what about comparing (as a monitoring solution) the Lh card to the MXO Matrix…purely as far as observing the images…will you get the same quality image using say an Apple Cinema display or is one more color accurate.

Thx so much in advance…your posts are very good..the ones I read at least.

[Shane Ross]

[Stefan Boyland] “In your opinon, using a 2nd Apple Cinema Display (say 23″) with the Kona Lh card, how would you compare that setup for color correcting and editing,”

You can’t. The LH doesn’t have DVI outs, and the ACD doesn’t have Component ins. I have the Dell and that does have component inputs, and I have used that with the Kona LH…but the image is NOWHERE near broadcast quality. Even if you got the AJA HDP, that converts HD SDI to DVI, it wouldn’t be color correctable. Because you cannot set up the monitor to color bars. Only the MXO in combination with the ACD allows this.

[Stefan Boyland] “how would you compare that setup for color correcting and editing, to adding a professional CRT monitor from Sony (either an HD monitor for like $5K or an SD monitor for 1K)?”

The professional CRT or LCD would win, hands down. NO contest. Now the MXO and that solution…that solution would still win, but the ACD would be close. The MXO/ACD is a low cost solution. Not quite as good as the $5k to $12K solutions, but still very good.

[Stefan Boyland] “Does the Kona Lh card do something so the LCD display shows very accurate colors? How accurate?”

Nope…it doesn’t. Not accurate.

[Stefan Boyland] “Good enough for decent HDTV work? Good enough for a feature film?”

No and no.

[Stefan Boyland] “Lastly what about comparing (as a monitoring solution) the Lh card to the MXO Matrix…purely as far as observing the images…will you get the same quality image using say an Apple Cinema display or is one more color accurate.”

I have the Matrox MXO and the Kona LH and a Sony PVM-14L5 HD CRT monitor. Side by side they are close. Blacks are better on the CRT, as is the saturation. But to my eye the color and hue were spot on. I’d trust the MXO/ACD for color correction, and I have. A good low cost solution. But does it compare to a DaVinci room with a high end HD CRT? No.

Good, Cheap, Fast. Pick any two.

Shane

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