[Brian Lehrer]

Thanks for the response.

So are you saying that there is no way to edit in 30i NTSC?
Basically the deal is I have to shoot film at 24fps, then the lab gives me the footage back(telecined, I guess) on 30i NTSC Tape. Then I have to edit that tape at 30i and output at 30i. Is there no way to get production sound in sync? I will be slating with a clapboard.

[Brian Lehrer]

Shane,

Sounds like Dell pragmatism beats out Apple’s pretty shell. Thanks for helping out!

Brian Lehrer

[Brian Lehrer]

Bob,

I completely understand where you are coming from, and I appreciate your advice. But worry not, I’m definitely not trying to create a little business of my own. I have worked jobs and paid internships in the industry for the last few years, two of these jobs in Post-Production areas. This semester at school is too overloaded for me to work as well, but next semester I will, and due to your advice, I will likely try to get a job where I can learn about this advanced equipment first hand. Thank you very much for the advice.

And yes, I agree, given the opportunity, I will jump to edit my work for free in a professional environment – My partner works at a post facility currently, perhaps he can work something out.

As to a disk drive, I already own a large G-RAID, which works fine for my purposes.

As for buying equipment for myself, the way I see, all I’m really shelling out for that I wouldn’t otherwise is the Matrox box, which is not cheap, by any means, but it is certainly in a more affordable range at $450 or so. So what I purchase remains to be seen, but per you and Shane’s advice, I will definitely not drop $2,000 on a monitor, but I may be willing to spend $450 on the matrox mini and hook it up to a compatible 1080p 1:1 pixel HDTV, and get something I can work with, at least until I become more advanced. I have definitely figured this much out now.

Although, as a side note, I’d love to know what kind of monitors you guys use to edit with (just for general editing space, not color correction). Do you use Apple monitors or another brand?
In fact, if you were willing, I’d love to hear what you guys work with as a whole system, just curious to see what the pros use.

Anyways, thank you for the advice and help,

Brian Lehrer

[Brian Lehrer]

Thanks for the great response Shane – you’ve been immensely helpful.
You completely get what I was going for, not a pro system, but something that will work “ok” and I can practice on.

Sounds like the MXO2 or MXO2 mini plus a decent HDTV like a Panny Plasma or maybe a Sony XBR9 will serve me pretty well for my purposes. I could use a new 1080p TV in my room anyway, the one I have is 720p and it’s so-so. My birthday’s coming up!

And thanks so much for the info regarding the NLE’s coexisting. I would never have known that.

And yes, I have been to Europe for awhile and it certainly is eye-opening. Makes it hard to return back home to the States.

Anyways, thanks so much for you all of your help Shane and Bob,
Sorry if I came across in a poor light, I certainly didn’t mean to.

Best wishes,

Brian Lehrer

[Brian Lehrer]

EDIT: I think Shane did explain above that even with a broadcast quality production monitor, the video coming out of the DVI is still the wrong color space, and so the Matrox MXO would be needed between the computer and such a monitor.

Thanks for clearing that up Shane.

[Brian Lehrer]

Bob,

I didn’t mean to antagonize you or anybody else…My sincerest apologies.

I’m not trying to have a professional super station at home with my macbook pro. I was a producer on a friend’s 35mm short film this year and we had it edited by a professional editor at a professional facility with professional equipment. The movie was color graded on a DaVinci. I know what real serious pro work requires. Please don’t get the impression that I’m expecting miracles.

I am well aware of how much better a Mac Pro tower is when compared to a laptop. However, I need a laptop for portability, and I don’t have enough money right now to buy both a tower and the laptop for myself.

I have my own apartment, I am a film student (who works as well), and I’m not trying to get the best of everything that will work with everything for no money. I didn’t mean to give off that impression…if I did, I sincerely apologize.

All I wanted to solve was this:
I have a about $2000-$3000 or so to drop on a monitoring solution for the editing that I do at home. I just wanted to see if I could find a way to put out something from my macbook pro (Which will unfortunately be included with Snow Leopard when it ships) that is more accurate for color grading(using Magic Bullet or Color) on my projects than just using a typical computer monitor in the usual fashion. I generally work on smaller scale projects for student films, ranging from SD to HD in the near future. These projects are outputted to DVDs or Tape, and played back on HDTVs or sometimes large scale projects at the film school auditoriums. Any really serious pro projects will be edited somewhere else, although I would hope to be able to edit low quality reference files at home for the heavy stuff.

I don’t understand why I won’t be able to install all three NLE’s on the same computer partition and have them function? Does it screw up performance?
I really only use Avid to play with stuff I edit at school on larger Avid systems. Therefore I use the Avid Student edition at home, which has NO hardware attached or needed. I generally use FCPro or Premiere for editing.

Anyways, I’m sorry I upset you, and I didn’t mean to come off as ignorant, obnoxious, or whatever it seemed to you. I just came to this forum asking for help. Considering how you reacted to my last post, I don’t expect you to respond to this post, but if you did, it would mean a lot to me. I had hoped this forum was about sharing knowledge with those who are in need of it as I am.

I’ll probably get the MXO2 or MXO2 Mini (even though they don’t yet work with Snow leopard) and an HDTV. I’ll probably take your advice and get a larger plasma, because I in fact have plenty of space in my apartment – its not so tiny. (If I have thousands of dollars to spend on a new computer and monitor, I have enough money to afford a pretty spacious apartment). Although, I was just confused why I wouldn’t buy an approximately $2,000+ OK production monitor and use that instead for a similar price as an Matrox + HDTV. So far no one has been able to clearly answer this question, and whether I could plug a production monitor straight into the DVI on the computer or would I need a Matrox even with a broadcast monitor? these are the questions I was hoping to answer.

But if all this is a waste of time as you suggest…maybe I’ll just stop trying altogether and not bother color correcting at home for short films, which I have been doing with pretty good results so far. I’d rather not give up though.

Thank you for your help, assistance and advice.

Best wishes,

Brian Lehrer

[Brian Lehrer]

Shane,

Thanks for your continuing help. I’m trying to figure out how to get what I want. It is my plan to acquire all three NLEs, so I should be able to figure it out with one of them, either Avid, Premiere or FCPro.

As to the DVI connection, I know that it is not useful for color correction without a Matrox MXO. If I hooked up a monitor to the DVI without a matrox mxo, it would only be for general editing purposes, not color correction.

However, I’m unclear as to whether DVI is still useless if it is actually used to hook up to a professional broadcast monitor (a few thousand dollars). It seems you can find okay (slightly old but still HD) pro broadcast monitors from JVC from around $2,000 with HD-SDI and DVI-D inputs. Is it still inaccurate then? Would you need the MXO even with such a pro monitor to use it properly? I’m sorry I’m a bit confused but is that what you’re saying? That no matter what the DVI will send out the wrong goods?

As to the other attractive option of using a Matrox MXO2 or MXO2 Mini with a monitor or HDTV….
Would you recommend using a computer monitor (dell ultrasharp, apple cinema display, HP Dreamcolor) or a HDTV? Which will yield better results? Either way I’m looking at screens that aren’t over 32″ MAX. I’m looking for around 17-25″ preferably.

Can you recommend some HDTVs or computer monitors that you think would work best with the MXO2/MXO2 mini? Or qualities that I should look for? The Panny Pro Plasmas you mentioned are too big for me most likely. (I also own a 720p 26″ Sony HDTV and a 40″ 1080p Sony HDTV, but these consumer items are probably useless.)

Lastly, where does the HP Dreamcolor monitor fit into this conversation? I see you raved about it on another post and my curiousity is definitely peaked. It seems to have remarkable capabilities to act as a reference monitor, there’s some info here:
https://h20331.https://www2.hp.com/hpsub/downloads/LP2480zx_videoapps_WP_Oct08.pdf

and here: https://www.tomsguide.com/us/dreamcolor-hewlett-packard-monitor,review-1096.html

Can this solve my problems?

And LASTLY -about time, right? :), are Apple Cinema Displays ok for general editing usage as the monitor directly connected to DVI or minidisplay while I use the expresscard — MXO2/MXO2 mini — whatever monitor as color correction monitor? (giving me two monitors(one for color, one for general) + Macbook Pro screen). Or are the Dell Ultrasharps better? Or is the HP Dreamcolor the “dream” problem solver?

Sorry for these complex and long questions, I’m just getting really confused and you actually know what you’re talking about.
I’m just trying for a few thousand dollars (hopefully on the lower end of that figure…) to get a more or less color-accurate solution that I can color correct with from my Macbook Pro. I know it’s not perfect, but what can I do to make something like this happen?

Thank you SO MUCH,

Brian Lehrer

[Brian Lehrer]

Also,
another thought:
If the combo of the monitor/HDTV and the matrox starts to get close to $2000 (and still has issues: Snow leopard, Premiere on Mac not supported?? Avid?)…wouldn’t I be better off getting something like a JVC DT-V20L1DU Professional LCD Monitor ($2000) or the slightly cheaper model without HD SDI inputs (DT-V20L1U). These are pro JVC broadcast 20″ monitors. Couldn’t I hook these up to the DVI port of my Mac and have a real broadcast quality color correction solution for SD and HD? Am I missing something here?

Lastly, where does the HP Dreamcolor monitor fit into this conversation between broadcast monitors, Matrox Minis, HDTVs, comp monitors, etc. I see you raved about it on another post and my curiousity is definitely peaked.

Thanks,
Brian Lehrer

[Brian Lehrer]

Shane,

Thanks so much for your speedy help! Cleared up things a lot.
Only questions remaining:

– So, are you recommending I use an HDTV (like a panasonic) over a computer monitor (like the Dell UltraSharp)? This will yield better results? Just wanted to make sure.

-If HDTVs are indeed what I should hook up to my matrox MXO2 or MXO2 Mini, you recommended Panasonic Pro Plasmas. Those seem a bit big for my purposes. I was looking for something smaller (22-36″, but definitely 1080p) to color correct on. Any other recommendations in the TV department? Or if I can’t go with a bigger plasma screen, is it better to go with an HD computer monitor (like the Dell Ultrasharp?) Also, I already own a 720p 26″ Sony Bravia HDTV and a 40″ 1080p Bravia HDTV – could these be potentially useful? What qualities am I looking for in a HDTV to use with the Matrox MXO2 or MXO2 Mini?

-I know you said the Mac displays were no good, and they certainly have frustrating design flaws and are costly, but are they fine and clear for use as a primary monitor for editing? I’m speaking for the purposes of giving more space to edit when used with the MBP, etc, not for the color correction hooked up to the Matrox, of course. (You said I could use two monitors + MBP with the matrox hooked up to one and the main display out hooked up to another).
Or…is the dell ultrasharp 24″ really much better than the apple.

Once again, thanks so much for all your help. You guys are really incredible.

Regards,
Brian Lehrer