Dell 2407 as on set monitor?

[Shane Ross]

Dang, I am going to have to have my producer bring up his camera and test them on my 2045s and see how it looks.

But the Dells were designed as computer monitors and the Panasonic as a reference monitor, so there is bound to be a difference.

Shane

Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net

[Frank Nolan]

Yeah Shane,
I have no doubt there would be a difference and having the waveform in the corner of the 1700 is a great asset, but for a difference of around $2000 I thought it would be worth looking into.
BTW, you use the 2405 for a fullscreen playback of your HVX and Varicam footage don’t you? How does that look?
Do you have it hooked up to the output of a Kona card?

[Shane Ross]

[Frank Nolan] “BTW, you use the 2405 for a fullscreen playback of your HVX and Varicam footage don’t you?”

I used to use it for full screen playback of the timeline using the Digital Cinema Preview option. It looked great. But that is coming off the card via DVI, so it is bound to.

[Frank Nolan] “Do you have it hooked up to the output of a Kona card?”

I haven’t hooked up my HD card to it as my HD card is a Decklink HD and is SDI only. That is connected to my PVM-14L5. Comparing the image from the Dell and the PVM there is no contest…But that isn’t your question. I haven’t connected anything to the monitor via Component yet, which is why I am asking my producer to bring up the camera.

Shane

Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net

[Walter Biscardi]

[Frank Nolan] “The new Dell 2407 which is the update to the 2405 is now selling for $747. Being that it has component inputs how do you think it would look as a set monitor (for focus etc.) for a Panasonic HVX200? It’d be a lot cheeper than the BT-LH1700.”

As Shane notes, the Panasonic was designed as a reference monitor so the question is really do you want to trust a Computer monitor on your set or do you want to trust a reference monitor designed by a broadcast company?

I know it costs more, but if I’m going out on the shoot, I’m not bringing a computer monitor that was not designed to travel and not designed for video production usage. Have you actually seen the Pansonic monitors? They’re rugged and built to travel. I just installed a Dell 2407 in main suite for the second monitor and it’s plastic all the way around. I would not do too much travelling with this thing.

I’ll look at the component feed when I get down to the office and see what it looks like from the 1200A deck.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Frank Nolan]

[walter biscardi] “Have you actually seen the Pansonic monitors?”

Yes, I’ve seen it on set as well as in the edit bay and the quality is great.

[walter biscardi] “I’ll look at the component feed when I get down to the office and see what it looks like from the 1200A deck”

Thanks Walter, I realize the Panasonic would be a far superior monitor to travel with and have on set, I was just curious to see if the dell could be used as a monitor for checking focus and for viewing. Sometimes due to budget you have to cut corners somewhere.

[Walter Biscardi]

It’ll probably be another day until I can run some component cables to try it out. Forgot I need RCA connectors and I’ve got some storyboards due tonight.

One monitor I would definitely recommend for field use is the Sony MFM-HT75W HD LCD display. It’s a 17″ HD / PC monitor that has excellent color resolution and sharpness. It’s a bit more rugged than the Dell I think as the back of it is more solid. We have used it on location and for both HD monitoring and editing via the DVI input.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Frank Nolan]

Thanks Walter,
In researching the sony I also came across a panasonic HD LCD. Have you seen this one?

https://www.overstock.com/?page=proframe&prod_id=1862229

[Walter Biscardi]

[Frank Nolan] “In researching the sony I also came across a panasonic HD LCD. Have you seen this one?”

Nope, but for that price I can’t see how you would go wrong. All the consumer Panasonic products I’ve seen have pretty much the same color reproduction as the pro products. Especially the plasma screens are pretty much identical to our pro plasma.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Frank Nolan]

Well I read some reviews from people who had purchased both and it seems the sony is the winner so I bought one from overstock.com for $509. So I’ll let you know how it works after a trial.