[Jeron Coolman]

What I mean by horrible is, my cheap off-brand $400 27″ LCD HDTV looks three times as better than the Dell.

My LG 24″ equivalent (don’t remember the model number off hand) monitor with component and HDMI inputs that was over $100 less than the Dell, looks twice as good as the Dell. Still not as good as the HDTV.

The Dell looks like it is trying to “convert” the 1920×1080 signal the source device is sending to it into some other format instead of just displaying what is being sent to it; e.g. it is obviously not displaying 1920×1080 pixels. It is supposed to support that resolution and it is “tweaking” it some how to make it look horrible. It is kinda like looking at a poor HD to SD down-conversion, but the picture being displayed isn’t SD. If you do some searching in the Dell forums, you’ll see I’m not the only one complaining about this.

I have 6 different HD monitors/TVs that I’ve plugged into the component out of the HD deck, Aja Xena, HD DVD and Blu Ray player. One is a top of the line Sony tubed TV, one is a “middle of the line” HD projector, 2 are LCD TVs and the other 2 are LCD computer monitors that are supposed to be “HD ready” with “HD support” via other connectors besides a DVI for computer.

The image of the HD component connection (the only one I tested) on the Dell is by far the worse of any of the monitors from any of the 4 sources.

I couldn’t see how any amount of calibration could have fixed the image enough to warrant trying to use it as an HD monitor for any purpose.

How was the monitor connected to FCP? It looks better when I connect it to the 2nd DVI of my video card and use the built-in PPro CS3 feature to use the 2nd monitor to monitor the timeline. (Which is why I say it is a good computer monitor)

But if you want to use it as an HD monitor for things like a Playstation, Xbox, HD capture card, HD cable box, Blu Ray player, HD DVD player, etc. I highly recommend just about anything else.

I agree that nothing but a professional monitor can replace a professional monitor.

[Jeron Coolman]

I have a Dell 2407WFP that I bought specifically to monitor the component HD signal from my Aja Xena card. The image looks horrible. I even plugged in a Blu Ray player and HD DVD player. Both look horrible as well.

It is a great computer monitor though…

[Jeron Coolman]

In that case, you should be able to turn off system sounds in the Control Panel somewhere, then turn off the sound chip in the BIOS and uninstall the drivers.

You might even be able to get by with just disabling the sound chip in the BIOS without turning off the system sounds.

[Jeron Coolman]

Jeff,

If you could do this, it may be something you don’t want to do. Windows plays its system sounds at a rate around 20-30kHz which is probably less than the rates you are using in your NLE or DAW application (above 40kHz). If Windows wanted to “beep at you” while you are editing, it could/would cause a sample rate conflict.

This is why some ASIO drivers only allow one application to “use them” at a time (e.g. DigiDesign). The Aja ones may not have this limitation, but I’ve never used my Xena to monitor sound.

Having your built-in mobo sound chip dedicated to Windows sounds might actually be a good/preferred thing 🙂

Jeron

[Jeron Coolman]

[peter mcauley] “The key to Red working is that the Split Screen View button is NOT activated no matter what action is chosen in its sub-menu.”

Thanks, that was it!

The Split Screen View button was activated. Once I de-activated it, I could get Red to work.

Maybe Boris could get a better error message, an FAQ item or knowledge base article somewhere that would make it easier to resolve in the future?

I know I’m going to forget this, do it again, and forget about the Split Screen thing 🙂

I appreciate the help, Peter.

[Jeron Coolman]

[Tim Kolb] “…I’m not sure what the other specifics of your usage would be, so just like Jeron, I don’t really have a direction to go without writing a small book and unfortunately very few of us have time for that…”

I envy your tact, Tim 🙂

This was the point I was trying to make. I assume the OP wants help deciding what to buy, but he needs to help us; help him, by spending some real effort describing what he wants.

In lieu of that, someone has to donate many hours of their time writing a detailed thesis on every difference between the two solutions. That is like spending all day shooting arrows into the dark hoping to hit the mark, when the OP could just turn on the lights, and make it easier to aim.

If the OP won’t spend any effort writing to provide some more information, it makes it hard for someone else to take the request seriously and put any real effort in trying to provide the information.

I can understand that maybe the OP doesn’t know enough to ask the right questions or maybe English is not his primary language, making it difficult to communicate the right questions or information.

[Jeron Coolman]

You are welcome. I’m glad all you card about is SDI 10 bit capturing. That should make your decision very easy.

Good luck with your decision.

I hope the card you choose works well with whatever applications you are going to use it with and with whatever media formats you will be capturing into (uncompressed or compressed). Hopefully you choose the right disk controller and the right hardware to support it if you are capturing into uncompressed hd. Hopefully, if you are capturing into a compressed format, the codec will perform well with whatever software applications you are going to be using that needs to work with that codec.

I hope whatever monitor (broadcast, computer, tv) you plug into the card in whatever manner you choose, (SDI-SDI, HD-SDI, Component, Composite, etc) works just great for your needs as well with all of those applications you will be using with the card.

I also hope whatever source material are editing, be it dv tape, hd tape, hdv, etc., gets ingested properly into whatever format you have chosen to work with.

I hope you are happy with the interaction between the card and whatever deck or camera you choose to connect to it and that you don’t have any problems if it involves deck control via RS422.

[Jeron Coolman]

[rwspires] “Capture … In and out .. SD and HD 10 bit”

Both solutions capture SD and HD 10-bit basically the same way. It isn’t like one captures better than the other. There isn’t much to be said to compare the capture functionality of the two.

This is an Aja forum, so the advice to buy a Xena should be expected.

If you want to be more specific than 3 incomplete vague sentences, by asking certain questions on functionality or how a specific application supports one or the other or specific workflow questions then maybe that would make it easier for people to give you the information you are looking for.

[Jeron Coolman]

Xena

[Jeron Coolman]

[rwspires] “Getting ready to build a system. Thoughts on this comparison?”

For the types of projects I do, Aja seemed a better choice.

The better you can describe how you plan on using the card; e.g. type of footage you work with, basic workflow needs, delivery formats required, etc., the better information someone can give.