17” field monitor problems with Canon 5D mkII.

[cogito]

I bought a 17” led lcd FSI broadcast monitor (LM 1770W) to use both in the field with a Canon 5D mkII, my 7” Marshall is just too small. Although I get 1080 out of the 5D to the Marshall and to a flat-screen TV, the FSI displays only 480. This is of course for preview and playback, I realize the 5D switches to SD while in record mode.

I tested the 5D on the TV logic 17” monitor(LVM-171WP), no problem. But the Panasonic 17” (BT-LH1710W) has the same problem as the FSI.

What 17” field monitors are you using for a Canon 5D? Are you getting HD?

[saneproductions]

I use an AJA HDMI to SDI adapter with a panasoic 17" feild monitor and I only get HD when playing back footage, not when recording. It is a good way to check a test shot, but you are stuck relying on your lcd.

This is the single biggest weakness of this camera if you ask me.

[Bram-FSI]

Just to clarify, this is not the fault of the Panasonic or FSI monitors. It is a shortcoming of the camera for not being able to read the full extent of these units' EDID information and being able to determine that they do support a 1920x1080 signal over DVI. That being said, FSI is working on a workaround to resolve this shortcoming of the camera.

Disclaimer: I work for FSI.

[mcgeedigital]

I use an AJA HDMI to SDI adapter with a panasoic 17" feild monitor and I only get HD when playing back footage, not when recording. It is a good way to check a test shot, but you are stuck relying on your lcd.

This is the single biggest weakness of this camera if you ask me.

I use the Blackmagic converter myself.

At least with the 7d you get 1080 when recording.

[saneproductions]

I use the Blackmagic converter myself.

At least with the 7d you get 1080 when recording.

really!? With the 7d you get HD out ofthe mini hdmi port while recording?! Damn, I should have just gone with 7d over th 5dII for that reason alone. Oh well, maybe this is something that will be fixed in the firmware... Someday .. Sigh

The LCD on the 7Dstill turns off when you plug in mini hdmi right?!

[cogito]

Update: Spoke with FSI today. Their engineers are re-writing code to solve the 5D situation. They just got a 5D in the shop this morning so they can test.

I’ll update again when I know more.

[mcgeedigital]

The LCD on the 7Dstill turns off when you plug in mini hdmi right?!

Yes.

[Bram-FSI]

After getting nowhere with Canon on this we went the brute force method and tried every possible modification to the monitor's EDID to determine what it is that causes the majority of DVI equipped displays not to work with the 5D Mark II. Now we know that the issue is that the Canon outputs YCbCr when getting 1080 out of the HDMI connection. Most DVI equipped displays have sRGB color space and RGB display type listed as defaults in their EDID because more often than not they are used with computers. Even with this listed the Canon should ideally be able to feed the monitor YCbCr if asked to, because many DVI equipped displays can support both YCbCr and RGB over DVI, but all the Canon looks at is these defaults.

So long story short all FSI monitors will work with the Canon 5D Mark II from now on. If you own an FSI monitor and a Canon 5D Mark II already just contact us at support@flandersscientific.com and we can get this resolved for you quite quickly.

If you own another brand of monitor with DVI inputs only and can only get 480 output in live view and playback then ask that company if they can revise their display's EDID so that RGB display type or sRGB color space are not set as defaults, that should solve the problem.

[cogito]

I received a new FSI 1770W monitor today with the new code (they would have sent it earlier, but I was shooting out of town.)

The FSI 1770W now displays 5D output at full 1080 resolution via HDMI/DVI, both with the standard Canon firmware and also when using Magic Lantern.


Excellent monitor and even better customer service:

-FSI addressed the situation right away (Canon didn't even understand the problem.)

-I spoke directly with FSI engineers.

-FSI contacted me with updates and the solution, rather than me bugging them for answers.

-FSI bought their own Canon 5D so they could test the re-written code.

-FSI shipped out the new monitor before I shipped the old one back so I wouldn't have to be without one.

-FSI paid for shipping both ways.


I have no connection to FSI, but believe in supporting companies that make good products and back them up.