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Monitors: Single 23″ or dual 19″ for FCP?
Trying to decide between 2 setups. I have a dual 2.5 G5 with the 9600XT video card that I’m going to be using for FCP (80% greenscreen work for now) and I had the opportunity to use it with a 23″ recently and had forgotten how nice it is to have that much space. So I’m looking at a Sony SDM-P234. OTOH, having a pair of (4:3) 19″ panels would have it’s benefits as well. Even though I would lose less than 200 pix in height, i would gain 640 pix in width. So my other idea is a pair of ViewSonic VP930Bs. Both are fast enough for video and gaming, get great ratings on Toms Hardware and the prices are pretty close with the 19″s saving me almost 20%. The sony does look nicer and would have half the number of cables cluttering my desk, but the viewsonics would save me $200 and are height adjustable where the sony only tilts. Does anyone have experiences wtih either of these monitors in production (and gaming) that would help me decide? Thanks.
d3 `-{>
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7 Replies
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My 2 cents:
I have 2 19″ CRTs for my FCP setup, and I’m starting to drool for a Dell 2405. Although the 200 pixels
in height seems like a little thing, having 2 or 3 or 4 video tracks and up to 8 audio tracks in one timeline,
any extra height will be greatly appreciated. A 23″ monitor can also be used as an HD monitor too,
something that will become more important to us as we do more HD stuff (and something a 19″ can’t do).
Ed (who really wants *2* 23″ monitors!) -
We have a couple of the viewsonic 930’s and a couple of the 191’s, which is what the 930 replaced. For the price these are great monitors. We use them on both our FCP and avid systems. They give a great picture and two give you all the room you need to work. As long as you have a good production monitor, then I’m sure you’ll be happy with 2 930’s. My 2cents.
Jeremy Newmark
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I have two FCP stations, one with 2 19″ CRTs and the other a 23″ Apple display and a 19″ Samsung LCD for my bins. I like the latter set up the best.
Have a wonderful day.
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OK, we’re tied up at 1-1, lol. J/K, I do apprecieate your comments.
One thing I might mention is that I don’t have a production monitor because all my stuff is flash-based or streaming. If we end up doing DVDs or something I’ll get one, but for now I preview everything on-screen.
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I have a 23″ cin and 17″ – I will never go back to “4/3″ monitor again. The FCP timeline width is great! When I can I will upgrade video cards and pick up a 30” too!
JP -
Here’s another alternative- go to a Best Buy / Circuit City type store and look for the Westinghouse LCD model # LTV-19W3. It is a 1440×900 LCD panel with DVI, D-Sub, YUV and YRB component input. I paid $399 on sale (normally around $469). I have it side by side with a 20″ Apple display and it matches well. It can also double as a HD capable field monitor with audio inputs for playback. Since it’s not a true 1920×1080 display, it does have some scaling artifacts, but for the field work and as use as a second Mac monitor, it’s a pretty cheap alternative to a Cinema Display or the even the Viewsonic.
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Thanks for the input, everyone. I decided on the sony and it looks amazing even though haven’t calibrated it yet. There is not one dead/stuck pixel which I’m amazed at. (and relieved, actually; the warranty assures 99.9% good pixels, so that means 230 pixels have to be bad before they replace it?) Amazon had a great deal on the monitor and shipped it extremely fast especially considering there was a blizzard here over the weekend.
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