Best affordable professional montior.

[Blast1]

[LeoJuly] “What is the best affordable external professional monitor on the market?”

What do you consider affordable??

[Vince Becquiot]

If you are looking for HD, Dell makes this one:
https://reviews.cnet.com/lcd-monitors/dell-ultrasharp-2407wfp/4505-3174_7-31899303.html

Bob Zelin seems to think it’s the best buy for the price. I’m thinking of getting one myself. I don’t think it has the calibration controls of the true broadcast monitor, but the price sure seems right…

Vince

[Harm Millaard]

The Dell is not a professional monitor.

In a recent test the clear winner was the JVC DT-V24 L1D, boasting not only exemplary color calibration on this full HD display, but also the full complement of connections, 2 x HD/SD-SDI, DVI, RS-232, RS-485, comp. RGB, external sync, audio, etc. All for a measly

[Leo July]

I’m looking for a professional exterior monitor for use with a Standard Definition (SD) camcorder not an HD one.

[Jeron Coolman]

I have a Dell 2407WFP that I bought specifically to monitor the component HD signal from my Aja Xena card. The image looks horrible. I even plugged in a Blu Ray player and HD DVD player. Both look horrible as well.

It is a great computer monitor though…

[Harm Millaard]

and throw it away next year when you switch to HD?

Does not make much sense in investing in the best professional monitor, based on outdated technology. But you can have a look at the Sony PVM-20 L4.

Harm Millaard

[Vince Becquiot]

As I said, I am relying on Bob’s review, I assume he knows what he is talking about (See article in the last Cow mag)

I did see this monitor hooked to FCP, and it looked pretty good to me. My friend seems pretty happy with it as well.

How did you calibrate it, and what do you mean by “Horrible”?

Sorry if I sound harsh, but that’s the term I usually hear from people who don’t understand the difference between CRT and LCD. On default setting most LCD’s gamma curve is way off, boosting brightess and giving vivid colors for store shelves.

I am willing to listen to a review, but you’ll have to be more specific…

I do agree with Harm that it is not a “pro” monitor (although the term is relative), mainely because of its lack of calibration controls, but very few independant editors can see themselves forking out $7000.00 for HD monitoring right now.

As for your question Leo, not knowing your budget, I would look the Ebay route for a SD monitors. Many are selling near new items as they are transisioning to HD.

The SONY PVM series is a good start.

Vince

[Jeron Coolman]

What I mean by horrible is, my cheap off-brand $400 27″ LCD HDTV looks three times as better than the Dell.

My LG 24″ equivalent (don’t remember the model number off hand) monitor with component and HDMI inputs that was over $100 less than the Dell, looks twice as good as the Dell. Still not as good as the HDTV.

The Dell looks like it is trying to “convert” the 1920×1080 signal the source device is sending to it into some other format instead of just displaying what is being sent to it; e.g. it is obviously not displaying 1920×1080 pixels. It is supposed to support that resolution and it is “tweaking” it some how to make it look horrible. It is kinda like looking at a poor HD to SD down-conversion, but the picture being displayed isn’t SD. If you do some searching in the Dell forums, you’ll see I’m not the only one complaining about this.

I have 6 different HD monitors/TVs that I’ve plugged into the component out of the HD deck, Aja Xena, HD DVD and Blu Ray player. One is a top of the line Sony tubed TV, one is a “middle of the line” HD projector, 2 are LCD TVs and the other 2 are LCD computer monitors that are supposed to be “HD ready” with “HD support” via other connectors besides a DVI for computer.

The image of the HD component connection (the only one I tested) on the Dell is by far the worse of any of the monitors from any of the 4 sources.

I couldn’t see how any amount of calibration could have fixed the image enough to warrant trying to use it as an HD monitor for any purpose.

How was the monitor connected to FCP? It looks better when I connect it to the 2nd DVI of my video card and use the built-in PPro CS3 feature to use the 2nd monitor to monitor the timeline. (Which is why I say it is a good computer monitor)

But if you want to use it as an HD monitor for things like a Playstation, Xbox, HD capture card, HD cable box, Blu Ray player, HD DVD player, etc. I highly recommend just about anything else.

I agree that nothing but a professional monitor can replace a professional monitor.

[Vince Becquiot]

To Harm,

Well, he did say he wanted an SD monitor. I can see some nice PVMs on ebay for about $170.00 (by the way that’s why I said ebay and not B&H), not much of a risk, even if it’s for a year or two. I myself don’t see anyone buying Blue ray or HD DVD burners, so SD might be here for quite a while in the non-broadcast world.

To Jeron,

Good point, I can see that being an issue with AJA, since the monitor is 1920×1200 native. You would have to use a card that accounts for that and sends bars on the bottom. I am surprised that the monitor doesn’t have a settting for that…

Vince

[Jeron Coolman]

[Vincent Becquiot] “Good point, I can see that being an issue with AJA, since the monitor is 1920×1200 native.”

It isn’t an issue with the Xena card. It is an issue with the monitor. I have sent a 1920×1200 native signal to the monitor from more than one source.

The monitor is NOT capable of displaying a native 1920×1200 image from a component connection, it is performing some sort of conversion on the image to an obviously different resolution or format. (This is what people complain about in the Dell forums)

Which is why I ask how the FCP system was connected to the monitor you saw. It looks far better connected to the DVI out of a graphics card with the NLE sending the image to it as a dedicated computer monitor to preview the timeline.