Monitor suggestions….yes, again! :)

[Scott Shucher]

I recently mentioned in a previous post that I work regularly with both a PVM and and a Luma series monitor.

I own a PVM20L5, a CRT SD/HD monitor. It looks great for both SD and HD. Unfortunately Sony discontinued the PVM series. It was a good value in the 2800 range. I nearly bought a Luma series 23″ widescreen, but decided at the last minute that the Luma did not have enough inputs(I needed at least 3).

You can always go with a Sony BVM-A series crt monitor. (I didn’t because I need to send my kid to college someday) I don’t remember how much it was, but it wasn’t pretty.

I’m glad I didn’t go with the Luma, because I do some work at a facility that has lots of Lumas. HD looks fair playing back. The blacks are not black enough for me. But SD playing back in a Luma looks embarrasingly terrible.

If you are going to be regularly viewing SD on a Luma monitor, you’ll be very disappointed.

No experience with any Panasonic monitors.

G5 2.5ghz DP, 2.5Gbyte RAM, FCP 5.0.2, OSX.4.3
QT7.01, Kona2 w/Kbox, Atto UL3D, Medea RTRX640, Huge MV 1.8Tbyte, Radeon 9800XT

[Walter Biscardi]

[Ron] “Any thoughts on the Luma series?
I know we ALL love the Dell 2407, but I read that it sucks with SD images.
What about the Panasonic LH 1700.
other brands/models?”

If you’ve read all the responses, then you should know that across the board, the Sony Luma series is panned as a horrible monitor.

No, we don’t all love the Dell 2407, I would never use it for video monitoring. I use mine for computer display and that’s it.

Panasonic has the best monitors in that price range period right now. 1700 or 2600 take your pick.

Panasonic Plasma screens are even better and can almost faithfully reproduce what I see on my Sony PVM20L5/1. Plasma screens can display true black, LCD screens can’t. The Panasonic LCD’s come really really close.

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

[Ron Thompson]

Thanks for the quick replies.

Walter: I can live with ‘really, really close.’ So Lumas are OUT. Got it. Just want to make sure I wasn’t missing any models. I’ve done some work at a HD facility that had a Luma monitor, and it wasn’t bad. But I don’t remember the model…. 10bit uncompressed HDCAM (blah, blah, blah)…so maybe that all made a difference. I dunno. About the Plasmas, I’d love to do it, but 1) they don’t seem to come in small sizes– I’m looking in the 15″ to 25ish” range for my space 2) Working in broadcast, I’m concerned about burn-in, and loss of quality over time. I’ve seen too many plasmas suffer. Granted they are on 24hours a day in some cases. Would you use a plasma for color correction??

As I mentioned, NAB is coming to town, I’m sure I’ll be able to touch a few of the Pannys before I decide.

Thanks
Ron

[Ron Thompson]

Thanks Scott.

Sony really fell off the map in the monitor department. I have PVM here that I swear by, and will use it until it dies. Its a shame they stopped making them.
Since I have two kids to put through school one day too…I’ll also hold off on the BVM.
I hear what you’re saying though…INPUTS is everything. Part of the reason why I’m leaning towards the LH1700. It has all the I/O’s my PVM has, plus SDI and HD.

Peace
Ron

[Bob Zelin]

As all the others have stated – the Panasonic’s are terrific, the Sony LUMA’s are horrible.
We can sit here all day and discuss how LCD’s and Plasmas can’t be used for color correction, but by 2008, there will be NO MORE CRT MONITORS, so you better get damn used to doing color correction on Plasma and CRT’s – because if you think that someone is going to go into the “refurb your old CRT” business, you are dreaming. By 2010, those $35,000 Sony HD CRT monitors will all be soft, and NO ONE will ever see a CRT ever again after that.

Bob Zelin

[Ron Thompson]

Thanks Bob.

Good point. And by 2008 we’ll all be delivering for You Tube and iPods anyway.
A $35,000 monitor today would be a poor investment I guess.

Ron

[Walter Biscardi]

[Ron] “As I mentioned, NAB is coming to town, I’m sure I’ll be able to touch a few of the Pannys before I decide”

that’s the best way to decide anything. Also look at their Plasmas. We’re running the 50″ model here and it’s outstanding. Still need to bring the 37″ model into the second suite, but we’re still trying to figure out exactly what we’re going to do with monitors ourselves.

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