portable dvd player as camera monitor?

[Reese-015]

I'm having some trouble getting a sharp focus on my camera with the Letus35A, what seems sharp on the camera lcd screen often doesn't look sharp on my monitor.

So I guess the best solution would be something like a more high-res camera lcd monitor, right? And I thought the cheapest solution would be something like somehow mounting a portable DVD player to it and use that screen. Because they usually also have rechargeable batteries, meaning I wouldn't have as much problems with the power for shooting on location in comparison to when using an lcd monitor specifically made for on-camera use.

Most portable DVD players have an AV-in, which I guess means I can hook it up to my camera's s-video?


Or does anyone have an idea for a better solution (that's just as cheap)?

[Alex.Flory]

I think what normally happens is that on an lcd screen on a camcorder, the video will always look sharper. But when you send the video to a TV monitor, the video footage is less sharp. I always get this problem with my Panasonic MX500 camcorder. When I thought the video was crisp and sharp on the lcd, i am always disappointed when viewing the same video on a tv. So I dont think it would do you any good buying a separate lcd.

What camcorder are you shooting with? I think the better 3 ccd camcorder like DVX and HD camcorder will produce sharper videos.

[Reese-015]

I think what normally happens is that on an lcd screen on a camcorder, the video will always look sharper. But when you send the video to a TV monitor, the video footage is less sharp. I always get this problem with my Panasonic MX500 camcorder. When I thought the video was crisp and sharp on the lcd, i am always disappointed when viewing the same video on a tv. So I dont think it would do you any good buying a separate lcd.

What camcorder are you shooting with? I think the better 3 ccd camcorder like DVX and HD camcorder will produce sharper videos.
A Sony dsr-pdx10p, it's a decent 3ccd cam. I forgot to mention: the biggest reason I'm thinking about getting the portable dvd player is I can somehow mount it upside down so the image is flipped again from the adapter.

And a higher resolution lcd should make it easier to focus in any case, right?

[stinkpot]

... portable dvd player is I can somehow mount it upside down so the image is flipped again from the adapter.

I'm in process of slapping together a diy 35mm adapter and have quickly tried the dvd player upsidedown. So far it looks great but I don't have anything mounted yet.

The portable dvd player I have is made by Polaroid and has an extremely bright screen. Bought it two or so years ago and it was the brightest and clearest in the 7" range at the time.

Anyway, for me the whole upsidedown dvd player looks promising.

[Reese-015]

I'm in process of slapping together a diy 35mm adapter and have quickly tried the dvd player upsidedown. So far it looks great but I don't have anything mounted yet.

The portable dvd player I have is made by Polaroid and has an extremely bright screen. Bought it two or so years ago and it was the brightest and clearest in the 7" range at the time.

Anyway, for me the whole upsidedown dvd player looks promising.

Great, good to hear!

[FiddlerMD]

just be aware that a LOT of portable lcd's have a vertical res of 234 .. i still don't know why that is (i've been scrtaching my head over it for years).. horizontal res can be up to 1440 sometimes but vertical is still 234.. i'm guessing it has something with the driver chips or manufacturing costs, but good thing to see .. i'm guessing you'd want at least 480 vertical

[mikkowilson]

the secret behind the 1440 horizontal is because they are counting the Red, Green and Blue sub-pixels seperatly. If you combine them into the true pixels you only have 1440/3 = 480 ... much more on par with the vertical 234.

- Mikko

[siniarch]

I've tried this solution also. The best protable DVD player that I found was a Toshiba Hi Res Screen 800x600, just like the marshal monitor. Pretty sweet screen with a wide viewing angle. (not like another cheap screen I bought that if you are not right infront of it it looks awful.) They even have a version of that DVD that flips the screen around and it folds down. (much like a tablet PC) the problem with these is that their AV input comes from an RCA Jack (which looks the same as your headphones jack) and you loose alot of resolution from it. If your camera is SD then it might work just fine. but if its HD its not good enough. playing a DVD through the DVD Player looked awesome. but AV input even from HVX looked "not so good". Good luck.