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LG Thunderbolt Monitor 21:9 UHD
So we got a couple of these new(ish) (I think they’ve been out for a few months) LG thunderbolt monitors. In light of the iMac 5k and no apple retina alternative for the nMP, I thought I’d post some thoughts on the LG.
Here’s a link to BH’s page for the monitor:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1040788-REG/lg_electronics_34um95_34_ultrawide_qhd_led.html
The 21:9 screen is embarrassingly large and wide. At first it’s like the phablet of computer monitors. It is vesa mountable which is great. I put it on an arm immediately. You have a bit of work to do to position it far enough away from the face to not move the neck too much when scanning left and right. Yet, you don’t want it too far away because the resolution will make text a touch too small, at least for my old eyes.
The manual makes interesting references to the nMP! As if the monitor was purpose built for it. It has some features that are cool, but not quite right. Like, you can create multiple desktops when you install their software and you can plug in two computers – one in t-bolt the other in hdmi and the screen can split in half to be used by the two computers or sources simultaneously. But the resolutions of the two get squished anamorphically or get letterboxed to 21:9 and made tiny. when they straighten this out, it could be cool to have two computers plugged in and use that app that shares one mouse and keyboard between two computers…
It has two thunderbolt ports which allow you to daisy chain, but the manual gives a warning about daisy chaining too much because I suppose the resolution of the image eats up a good deal of the t-bolt bandwidth. It also has usb3 and usb2 on the back which go through the thunderbolt signal.
Opening FCPX and setting viewer resolution to 75% or 50% and going full screen in the app gives you an amazingly long space to spread out a timeline. I think the editors are going to love this. Also the screen has a non-reflective coating and the contrast is respectable, not great, but respectable. I haven’t tried messing around with color settings to see how well the screen matches to an external reference monitor.
Price wise – it’s about the same as Apple’s current thunderbolt monitor. For 300 more they have a curved one. I kind of like the idea of the curved one because it could help being able to view the whole screen without turning your head. However, the curved model apparently isn’t able to be vesa mounted. The monitor tech specs are a little better on the curved version as well.
All in, it’s a nice monitor for the new mac pro. Great resolution and doesn’t break the bank compared to the apple version. The 21:9 screen seems to be made for long timelines. I think people are going to like it when they get their hands on it.
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8 Replies
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This monitor fascinates me- but I’m still inclined to go for a second 27″ Apple screen cause- heck! I’ve already got one and they’ll match… and second, while the very wide screen gives you lots of horizontal timeline real-estate, I still feel you have more flexible layout options with the second screen.
Of course, as I’ve said before, the second screen option I want most is the one they don’t offer, which would be to throw the Project (and presumably Timeline Index and Effects Browser) to the second display, giving you OODLES of vertical height for complicated timelines.
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It is not an UHD monitor really. For 400 dollars more you could have bought the Hp Dreamcolor z27x, the best monitor under 20K for critical work. It even covers 99% of DCI specs.
Santiago Martí
http://www.robotrojo.com.ar
Red One M-X, Red Epic X waiting for Dragon update, Red Pro Primes, Adobe CC, Assimilate Scratch -
I’ve had one hooked to my 27″ iMac for 2 – 3 months. The length alone is super useful. Looks great and, if you set it on something about an inch high, lines up almost perfectly with the iMac screen. Hard to work on a normal aspect monitor now…. 🙂
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~ My FCPX Babbling blog ~
~”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”~
~”The function you just attempted is not yet implemented”~ -
I’m powering it and a Dell 2K off my Macbook Pro. And been able to use the Macbook Pro screen. Pretty cool.
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Just wanted to say thanks for this post. It motivated me to go from not knowing about them to buying one in the span of 2 days. Can’t wait, timeline real estate always drives me nuts and this looks like it could completely solve that!
I went the flat model, not just because its cheaper, but its VESA capable out of box and I worry the curved screen could preceptively distort what I think I’m looking on critical work. Someone had a great post about how that was happening to them with the curved monitors in Lightroom…
Thanks again!
Director, Editor, Colorist
http://www.trsociety.com -
[Nicholas Kleczewski] “Can’t wait, timeline real estate always drives me nuts and this looks like it could completely solve that!”
It will. You’re gonna love it. Now they need to make a “retina” version to pair with the 5k iMac… 😉
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~ My FCPX Babbling blog ~
~”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”~
~”The function you just attempted is not yet implemented”~ -
While running it with the iMac is there any sort of lag or does the iMac power both displays fine? I’m looking at doing the same thing. So I appreciate and insight you have on this! Thanks for your time in advance!
Joe
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[Joe Moody] “While running it with the iMac is there any sort of lag or does the iMac power both displays fine? I’m looking at doing the same thing. So I appreciate and insight you have on this! Thanks for your time in advance!”
Works perfectly. Keep my browser on the iMac screen and the Timeline /Viewers on the LG. 🙂 Here’s the computer specs FWIW…
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~ My FCPX Babbling blog ~
~”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”~
~”The function you just attempted is not yet implemented”~
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