Advice for video card and monitoring setup.

bbooze

bbooze

Member
I have mainly used "all-in-one" computers like Emacs for the past few years, so I could use some input for a fairly newb putting together a workstation. I am going to need to use it for FCP, After FX, and any audio and 3d modeling I need to do for the next few months, hopefully I will get a seperate Mac for animation in the fall, but I can't assume that. I just got a JVC HD-100 cam fwiw.

1) What video card should I get? The Kona 3 seems to get allot of thumbs up, but is it totally neccessary? I only have a 1/3" CCD camera now, but might get a 2/3" camera in the fall once some newer models hit the market, I need a card that I can rely on for about 2 years in other words. Is there a cheaper option available for uncompressed HD? Or should I just get the Kona 3? I would like to run 2 monitors if possible, is the workflow pretty solid with a Kona 3 and two monitors? Is this card or another availble up to professional 3d standards as long as it meets HD playback requirements? Kona 3 = $2800 as far as I know, and some other cards are either more or less of course, I'm a little perplexed on what to bank my next two years video card selection on.

2) Computer monitors. I like the idea of 2 monitors at a time, but I'm utilitarian enough to throw it aside if it's problematic. Many seem to favor the Dell 24" monitor, they are $750 or so... quite resonable, but I just priced a Viewsonic 20" wide 1600x1050 @ $400, I could get two of them side by side for $800. Is this not realistic? Remember that I want to be able to do high quality 3d on this particular machine. If those monitors won't do quality reproduction of animated work, then I will gladly get an Apple product, or whatever it takes.

3) Monitor out from FCP. I have only done standard def in the past (16mm transfered to BetaSp, etc.) so I am looking at a learning curve at to why typical post production environments seem to favor very expensive HD monitors, I am unfamiliar with these regretabley. Is there a standard for HD compositing? And if so, what is it?
I just went to a Fry's Electronics shop to view some of the consumer tvs on the market right now. @ $1,000 a 32" Viewsonic LCD tv 1366X768 caught my attention, but the picture wasn't particularly great (it didn't have contrast ratio listed). However, a Samsung 26" LCD TV, 1366x768 looked great during a high def cooking show (lots of colors) broadcast, it listed most of the same specs, but a 3000:1 contrast ratio... I take it this is a very important stat I should be looking for?... if only because the Samsung's picture seemed so crisp to me. Trying to find my bearings, I watched a Panasonic Plasma 50" for awhile, I didn't think it was all that great; it's stats were 1024x720 and 10,000: 1 contrast ratio.

Does no one in a serious capacity use consumer goods like these? Money is not an issue, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't mind it better spent paying crew etc. Can anyone help advice a regretably uninformed director/editor? Audio and animation will be hired out fwiw.
 
bbooze said:
[...] What video card should I get? The Kona 3 seems to get allot of thumbs up, but is it totally neccessary? [...]
Click to expand...
I can't speak for the Kona 3, but I've used the Kona 2 for several color-correction and online sessions and it's a great card. I'd say both Blackmagic and AJA make great cards, but for some reason, many editors lean towards AJA cards. For HD Monitoring, you might find that some of the less expensive AJA or Blackmagic cards will be "good enough" for you. Unless you need the high end output options of the Kona 3, you can get away with the lower-cost cards for HD output and monitoring. Since new hardware is coming out all of the time, get what you need today, for tomorrow there will be a better card coming out.
 
bbooze said:
[...] I am looking at a learning curve at to why typical post production environments seem to favor very expensive HD monitors, I am unfamiliar with these regretabley. Is there a standard for HD compositing? And if so, what is it? [...]
Click to expand...
If you're going to do critical color correction, then you need a monitor you can count on to deliver a baseline reference that you can calibrate and trust. This would be a professional monitor with the right colorimetry, in short, a CRT that has SMPTE-C phosphors or an LCD display that mimics the colorimetry of SMPTE-C phosphors (actually colorimetry & gamma of Rec. 709 but let's not get lost in the tech details here). If you color-correct using anything else like an Apple Cinema Display or a Viewsonic LCD monitor, you're basing your decisions on a montor that does not have the right colorimetry and thus you are basing your color correction decisions on a fiction, and your clients are going to see something completelydifferent. Now every monitor in homes are different out there, but you can't worry about that, the only want to maintain sanity is to color correct using a trustworthy reference standard.

Sony offers the PVM series of CRT monitors that feature SMPTE-C phosphors, a popular and affordable model is the PVM-14L5 (there's also the more expensive BVM series for more demanding users, but I assume we're on a budget here). Something like the PVM-14L5 would be an excellent choice for critical color correction. Until recently people shyed away from LCD monitors for color correction, however, at NAB I spent some time looking at images with an LCD montor that I'd be willing to color correct with: the Panasonic BT-LH1700W, wow, for a LCD it looks amazing, I'd say it's "close enough." The Kona card will provide HD SDI out you can use to feed HD directly to the BT-LH1700W. Sony also has a new line of LCD monitors that begin to rival the colorimetry of CRT, as do several other vendors. I'm sure there have been many threads on monitors for color correciton...
 
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bbooze said:
I have mainly used "all-in-one" computers like Emacs for the past few years, so I could use some input for a fairly newb putting together a workstation. I am going to need to use it for FCP, After FX, and any audio and 3d modeling I need to do for the next few months, hopefully I will get a seperate Mac for animation in the fall, but I can't assume that. I just got a JVC HD-100 cam fwiw.

1) What video card should I get? The Kona 3 seems to get allot of thumbs up, but is it totally neccessary? I only have a 1/3" CCD camera now, but might get a 2/3" camera in the fall once some newer models hit the market, I need a card that I can rely on for about 2 years in other words. Is there a cheaper option available for uncompressed HD? Or should I just get the Kona 3? I would like to run 2 monitors if possible, is the workflow pretty solid with a Kona 3 and two monitors? Is this card or another availble up to professional 3d standards as long as it meets HD playback requirements? Kona 3 = $2800 as far as I know, and some other cards are either more or less of course, I'm a little perplexed on what to bank my next two years video card selection on.

2) Computer monitors. I like the idea of 2 monitors at a time, but I'm utilitarian enough to throw it aside if it's problematic. Many seem to favor the Dell 24" monitor, they are $750 or so... quite resonable, but I just priced a Viewsonic 20" wide 1600x1050 @ $400, I could get two of them side by side for $800. Is this not realistic? Remember that I want to be able to do high quality 3d on this particular machine. If those monitors won't do quality reproduction of animated work, then I will gladly get an Apple product, or whatever it takes.

3) Monitor out from FCP. I have only done standard def in the past (16mm transfered to BetaSp, etc.) so I am looking at a learning curve at to why typical post production environments seem to favor very expensive HD monitors, I am unfamiliar with these regretabley. Is there a standard for HD compositing? And if so, what is it?
I just went to a Fry's Electronics shop to view some of the consumer tvs on the market right now. @ $1,000 a 32" Viewsonic LCD tv 1366X768 caught my attention, but the picture wasn't particularly great (it didn't have contrast ratio listed). However, a Samsung 26" LCD TV, 1366x768 looked great during a high def cooking show (lots of colors) broadcast, it listed most of the same specs, but a 3000:1 contrast ratio... I take it this is a very important stat I should be looking for?... if only because the Samsung's picture seemed so crisp to me. Trying to find my bearings, I watched a Panasonic Plasma 50" for awhile, I didn't think it was all that great; it's stats were 1024x720 and 10,000: 1 contrast ratio.

Does no one in a serious capacity use consumer goods like these? Money is not an issue, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't mind it better spent paying crew etc. Can anyone help advice a regretably uninformed director/editor? Audio and animation will be hired out fwiw.
Click to expand...

More than one professional post house use 32" or 36" consumer Sony HD CRT monitors for client viewing. These are not color critical SMPTE C, but if you know what you're doing when calibrating you can get the red close enough that it won't be a big issue.

These are usually used as the "producer" monitor so, the DP doesn't have someone leaning right over their shoulder next to the BVM.

They will also give you far better blacks than the Mits and display 1920x1080i and scale 720 quite well. A little more bang for buck with Toshiba's consumer 26" CRT but Sony is a better pic overall. For about $1K -$1300 it's an excellent pairing with 2x 20" 1650x1050 panels which are a real steal from folks like dell right now.

I'm on PC. But, everyone I know with the Kona 3 is very happy.

I.
 
Illya-

Curious. Do you remeber the model of the Sony HD CRT being used for client viewing?
Perhaps the XBR series?
Thanks
Michael
 
Thanks for the replies.

I went with the dual 20" Dell monitors, they had a $100 off per unit deal going on, so it seemed a no brainer.

On the video card, the Kona 3 does seem the solid way to go. It's more card than I need right now, but that's not to say I won't need it in 18 months. The Kona 2 is still available at a couple dealers for $450 less... but I talked to AJA and they said that the Kona 2 would not work with the newer dual and quad G5s, so that's out.

For the HD outputting I guess I'm am settling on one of these combos...

- the new Varizoom 8" for field. Plus that 13" Sony for studio color correction that was previously mentioned. Plus (maybe) a 37" Westinghouse 1080i tv in the future... more for the cinema simulation experience than for any specific technical need.

- the 17" Panasonic that was mentioned, for both field and studio... and the Westinghouse again possibly later on just for jollies. It's a shame that these (17" Pana's) are so new that nowhere is there a cheaper than $2800 avenue to aquire them.

Whim and possible bargains will be the decider next week. Thanks again for the help.
 
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