LCD monitor specs

[Renee Bergan]

david,

i’m fully aware of all you pointed out and dont’ really need a lesson in this, i’ve been in this industry several years and know how these forums work. to my demise, i suppose, i did not consider that “non computer” LCD monitors/plasmas would be part of the equation here or else i would have been more specific. I thought for once my request was fairly simple and did not need the usual specs (what platform i’m working on yada yada).

i fully understand that there are hundreds of monitors out there which is why i’ve asked several times what specs i should take into consideration when choosing…an answer i have still yet to received despite all the conversation..

thank you everyone for the suggestions on brands, Dell, and others. what i would still like to know is what resolution, contrast and other specs i should be considering. is it just the more the better?

[Ed Dooley]

If you reread your original post and all the replies, I hope you’ll see that you *weren’t* very clear at first about what your use was, and I also hope you’ve since learned, you can use the same monitor for both purposes, with different inputs (cards or external boxes). When you say “monitor” and “video editing” it can be taken 2 ways, a video monitor, or a computer monitor for editing video. I suggested the Dell 2408s (and I believe Walter, or maybe David, said they also used them). Lots of people use the Dells, as I said, so look at the specs of the Dells, for example, and you’ll see what other monitors compare to them in resolution and contrast.
Ed

[renee bergan] “i fully understand that there are hundreds of monitors out there which is why i’ve asked several times what specs i should take into consideration when choosing…an answer i have still yet to received despite all the conversation..

thank you everyone for the suggestions on brands, Dell, and others. what i would still like to know is what resolution, contrast and other specs i should be considering. is it just the more the better?”

[David Roth weiss]

And my point Renee, is that you can’t expect precise answers on technical matters without precise questions. The fact is, even your subject heading for the entire thread is vague, even misleading, as your question is about computer displays.

So, had you simply said, “I need one or two new high-quality computer monitors for my edit bay, what specs should I be looking for?,” you might have gotten an answer you were looking for.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.

[Walter Biscardi]

[walter biscardi] “I was seriously considering the 24″ TV Logic LCD display to replace my CRT’s, but tomorrow we’re having multiple HD monitors demonstrated by Flanders Scientific Inc, you can see their yellow banner on the left side of this forum. Their 24” is about $3,200 or $3,500 and according to the reps, they are outstanding. So we’ll see and there will be article upcoming about these monitors soon.
“

As an update to this, we had the all day demo here in our shop and I’m ordering three new LCD monitors from FSI. 2 of the LM-2450W and 1 of the 1760W to replace our CRT’s. They really are THAT good! Absolutely shocking to me that they reproduce the colors so accurately and display black perfectly.

Now I can sell my Sony CRT’s! yay!

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.

Read my Blog!

STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR Apple Color Training DVD available now!

[Alan Okey]

You simply cannot rely on manufacturer specifications for choosing computer monitors. Manufacturers routinely quote ridiculous specs for contrast ratio, brightness and pixel response time. Many actual tests of these monitors using precision instruments reveal that the specs that manufacturers quote are often either bogus or not applicable for real-world use. Once monitors are properly set up with proper gamma, black level and something less than an eye-searing full brightness backlight setting, their specs will be different from the quoted ideal specs.

Your best bet is to read lots of reviews and talk to people who have a lot of experience with various monitors.

Having said that, the Dell LCD monitors are quite popular with many users of this forum.

[Renee Bergan]

Like i said before i’m usually quite clear when posting, i did not think that my request would be confused for video LCD/plasma displays…duh, of course…i see the wrongs of my ways.

thank you all for your advice both for computer monitor displays as well as others.

I’ve done some research and need to ask a hair more bit of advice.

First, comparing the Dell 2408 with 2409, it seems the only difference is the connectivity with the 2408 offering more: a display port, component & composite video, s-video, and a 2nd dvi port. The price difference for these additional features is $170. Now we’re talking to a person that’s been using, gulp (i’m embarrassed to say) antiquated crt computer displays with either vga or dvi connections to he Mac Dual 2 Ghz Power PC G5 and editing in FCP with only the SD format. As i anticipate moving into the HDV and possibly true HD world, how would these additional connections make a difference? (Please forgive me for my ignorance here) Again my work is almost solely based around documentaries (hence why my budget is so modest).

I do have an older stand alone video monitor (panasonic bt-s1360) which i’m not sure how will work with HDV/HD if at all (it does not support video shot in 16 x 9), so I need to upgrade a video monitor as well. From my understanding, to have a computer display monitor also act as a true video display monitor with broadcast specs, it seems you got to lay down the bigger bucks ($3k+) as some suggested in this thread. Again, since my budgets are meagor and i have a very modest editing suite, I like the affordable panasonic plasma option. However i did glance at the Matrox MXO or MXO2, etc. If i got something like that down the road, can i turn these dell computer flat screen displays into true video monitors or am i totally missing something here? Again forgive me for any ignorance here…

and thanks again for all the support. i look forward to your kind replies!!!

renée