CRT Preview Monitor Suggestion

[Bob Zelin]

the perfect product is no longer manufacturered. It’s the Sony PVM-20L5/1 – you can still get the Sony PVM-14L5/1, which is only 14″. Other than that, you will compromise between great HD and crappy SD, or great SD and no HD.
Of course, you can get 2 different monitors – then there are lots of suggestions.

Bob Zelin

[Kevin Wild]

Bob, I’m curious. I’ve heard you rave about this monitor before. What was so good about it? Was it the only SONY CRT monitor with rez enough to do both SD and HD?

Thanks.

Kevin

[Walter Biscardi]

[Kevin Wild] “Bob, I’m curious. I’ve heard you rave about this monitor before. What was so good about it? Was it the only SONY CRT monitor with rez enough to do both SD and HD?”

It’s a true Multi-format SD / HD monitor with SMPTE-C phosphors at a really really good price. That’s what makes it so good. We run both the 20 and 14″ models here and they are great for true color correction. As Bob notes, they are no longer made because of the phosphors in the monitors. I tried to get another 20″ a few months ago but had to settle for the 14″. It’s small, but you can easily do CC with it.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
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[Bob Zelin]

Why yes Kevin – it was the only PVM series Sony CRT monitor to support both SD and HD-SDI. Today, to stick with Sony, you have to buy a monitor like the LCD Luma series to get both SD and HD-SDI, and as has been discussed here many times, Standard Def for LCD’s is a terrible image, so without the 20L5 series, you would be forced to go with BOTH a CRT (like the still avaiable PVM-20L2 which does not do HD) and a HD monitor, like a Cinema display with AJA HDP, or similar.

Bob Zelin

[Greg Leuenberger]

any idea where i can find one of these monitors – besides ebay?

-Greg

[Bob Zelin]

The PVM-14L5/1 is still available at B+H Photo. Most people today will get a cheap consumer TV (or a more expensive PVM-20L2) for SD, and then get a large screen, or 23″ LCD (Cinema, Dell, etc) with AJA HDP or Blackmagic HD link for the HD signal. If you get a large LCD or Plasma, you can use the K-Box to drive the analog HD component input.

Get used to this idea – 2 monitors. The PVM series is almost 100% gone now.

Bob Zelin

[Alan Okey]

I’ll vouch for the PVM-14L5/1 as well. I just got one last November, along with the BKM-120D SDI input board. It has SMPTE-C phosphors, 800 lines of resolution, and it supports a wide variety of SD and HD formats (1080/24, 1080i, 1035i, 720p, 480p, 480i). It looks fantastic.

By the way, the price of the HD-SDI input board recently dropped to $1500 at B&H. Back in November it was selling for around $3K. That means you can pick up the 14″ Sony with HD-SDI for right around $3K. Not bad. Then again, I’m not sure how visible the difference is between HD-SDI and analog component HD on a 14″ monitor…

Some people are saying good things about the JVC DT-V1710CGU and DT-V1910CGU HD CRT monitors as well, although I have not seen them in person. Specs are similar to the Sonys – they support the same SD and HD formats as the PVM-L series, and they have input cards for composite, Y/C, component, SDI and HD-SDI. The 17″ model has 800 lines, the 19″ has 900. Both have true flat CRTs. To get a true flat CRT from Sony, you have to pony up the big bucks for one of the higher end BVM models. The Sony PVM-L series monitors come standard with composite, Y/C and component/RGB inputs, but the JVCs don’t come with any inputs installed – you need to buy input boards for them separately.

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Alan Okey] “Then again, I’m not sure how visible the difference is between HD-SDI and analog component HD on a 14″ monitor…”

I had a rental unit onsite once doing HD work, and even though you can’t get a really good a/b since it takes a few seconds to change between HD-SDI and analog, I couldn’t really make a discernible difference between the analog and SDI signal, not enough to justify the expense anyway. I would get the HD-SDI if you need the component out of your capture card for something else. Then again, you could get a d/a such as an aja mini converter and be able to take the d/a anywhere you want to go. This is just my opinion and food for thought. It really depends on your setup and what you need the analog output for.

Jeremy

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