Good video editing monitor to go with the af100.

T

taras4444

Well-known member
Hey all, just a quick question - I've got a pretty sweet small hd dp 6 for field use which is awesome. However, I only edit on my 17 inch laptop, which albeit very nice, does make it difficult as the footage edited will only be a small box on that screen. I read a really interesting book on editing the other day by walter murch, and he suggested that if editing on a small screen, we can sometimes compensate by choosing close ups etc over wider angles as the close ups let us see the emotion in the actors eyes easier.

This got me thinking as it is without a doubt something I do, so i wanted to ask what you guys use for editing? I was thinking of buying a decent monitor that i could attach to the laptop and use purely for a full screen playback of my footage. Are there any standard ones most people use, and do I have to worry about colours etc being correct? Or do you reckon I could get away with buying a nice 22 inch hd screen and using that?

ANy advice is much appreciated,
Thanks Taras
 
Depending on the ins/outs of your computer, you should be able to get away with any decent 24"+ monitor or TV. Also a 17" laptop editor, I have a 24" Acer computer monitor at my home desk, and have also routinely used various HDTV's at home, relatives' houses, hotels, other offices, etc.
 
I use a domestic HDMI tv screen on my home edit setup - it's no good for real colour correction, but I do find it really helps with viewing from a composition / editorial point of view. You'll need an i/o box so you can see the programme out properly; something like a matrox MX02 mini (actually I wouldn't recommend that particular one unless you're on a pc - on a mac it suffers from really serious driver issues which I'm told aren't an issue on pc) - but it all depends on the outs from your laptop.
 
Hey thanks for all the helpful replies. That's good news about being able to use a HDMI tv screen, does anyone know if there are any that will play both pal and ntsc? As I currently live in the uk but am going to canada next may for a year, and so am trying to ensure my equipment can be used equally in both places. Also Tom, what does the matrox actually do exactly? I have a windows laptop so it shouldnt be an issue for me, but checking it out seems quite expensive. Plus you mention the tv isnt good for real colour correction but on the matrox site it mentions colour reproduction? I'm a tad confused sorry, cheers again taras.
 
TomLenham said:
something like a matrox MX02 mini (actually I wouldn't recommend that particular one unless you're on a pc - on a mac it suffers from really serious driver issues which I'm told aren't an issue on pc)
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I've been using a matrox MXO2 mini for three years on two different macbook pros with no problems. Goes out to a 24" Dell. Back to OP - I agree it can be disillusioning to watch everything on what amounts to about a 4" size box on your edit screen as opposed to a larger screen. I often times catch something I didn't see when I playback on the larger monitor.
 
Hey glad you agree Karl and good to hear, still could you explain to me what the matrox actually does? Is there no way to display what's on my laptop to the tv without the matrox?
 
taras4444 said:
I only edit on my 17 inch laptop, which albeit very nice, does make it difficult as the footage edited will only be a small box on that screen. I read a really interesting book on editing the other day by walter murch, and he suggested that if editing on a small screen, we can sometimes compensate by choosing close ups etc over wider angles as the close ups let us see the emotion in the actors eyes easier.

This got me thinking as it is without a doubt something I do, so i wanted to ask what you guys use for editing? I was thinking of buying a decent monitor that i could attach to the laptop and use purely for a full screen playback of my footage.
Click to expand...

I've been facing the same problem, with the added difficulty of wanting to do some color grading which requires a well calibrated monitor capable of Rec.709. I've been seriously looking at the Flanders Scientific LM-2140W. Would work with my laptop, and with my camera in the field. It's loaded with features; the wave form monitor and vector scope would be useful in editing and in the field, and the focus assist would certainly be useful in the field.

For the laptop I use PPro, and can use two monitors -- the 17" LCD from the laptop for the controls, and the LM-2140W for preview. At 21" it's big enough you can see what's going on (2-3 feet from your face it's certainly big enough), and the dual monitors vastly reduces the distractions.

This is the best value I've found so far. Now all I've got to do is find the cash. Sigh... :(
 
I suggest you take your question down to the appropriate NLE forum where you will find others using your NLE and who are more likely to have a solution.
(Its not much to do with the camera at all)

Different NLEs and different laptops have different external monitoring solutions and requirements. You have not identified either of these elements.
 
KarlSutton said:
I've been using a matrox MXO2 mini for three years on two different macbook pros with no problems. Goes out to a 24" Dell. Back to OP - I agree it can be disillusioning to watch everything on what amounts to about a 4" size box on your edit screen as opposed to a larger screen. I often times catch something I didn't see when I playback on the larger monitor.
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I'd love to know your set up with the MXo2 mini. I have a regular MX02
 
Sorry Shooter, I don't mind mods moving this to whereever is appropriate. The nle is adobe cs5.5 and my laptop is custom built, but pretty decent. I spoke to the builders and they assured me it's graphics card is good enough to output to one external monitor.
 
Matrox MX02 or BlackMagic Intensity Pro are simple in/out boxes - you can pay a lot more for ones that are more efficient and do more things, but if you simply want to send a signal out to your hdmi TV, then these work fine. They're needed because they take the programme out from your NLE and send it to the hdmi. If you just plugged in a hdmi TV as a second monitor, it wouldn't work the same way - it would stretch or replicate your screen rather than giving you a full screen view of your edit. cvp.co.uk sell them both.

The Matrox does work on macs, but other people may have not encountered the issue I have, which is this: I use Avid primarily, but also Premiere and After Effects (I know, I should move across to Premiere completely but I can't stop loving Avid!). The big problem is this - on a mac, Matrox have a driver for Avid that works fine. They also have a driver for CS5 that works fine. They DO NOT have a driver that works with both. If you want to go, say, from Avid to After Effects, you have to uninstalll one driver, reinstall another AND do a complete reinstall of After Effects for the driver to see it! I did tell Matrox that this was pretty ludicrous and they agreed. PC have a unified driver so it's not an issue of you're on Windows but on Mac it, for me at least, makes the Matrox unusable.
 
taras4444 said:
Sorry Shooter, I don't mind mods moving this to whereever is appropriate. The nle is adobe cs5.5 and my laptop is custom built, but pretty decent. I spoke to the builders and they assured me it's graphics card is good enough to output to one external monitor.
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CS5.5 will playout to a second monitor but I just dont know how one does that from a laptop.

Because..I guess you will only have one video out connection from the laptop. This I believe will only play out the same as what the laptop screen is displaying. ie it can display to a larger screen but it will only be a single.

Now..I have no idea what laptop connection you would use for the other 3rd party "box" solutions. ie Firewire, USB and how that will work for CS5.5

TIP ; Hover the cursor over the source or program monitor in CS5.5 and press the tilde key. "~" for a larger monitor screen
 
Hey just been doing some initial research and found this http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dell-U2312-...f=dp_return_2?ie=UTF8&n=340831031&s=computers Seems like it's often used for picture editing etc, so maybe the leap to editing video would be just as good. Any one used any of these? I was thinking initially about getting this perhaps and then maybe the matrox. One quick question, in regards to monitors and tv displays, they can play back both ntsc and pal generally fine right? (As I plan to be taking it around to both NTSC countries and PAL when filming with the af100.)
 
The technology in a "video monitor" and a "computer monitor" are different. Although with the popularity of HDMI the lines are getting blurred.

As long as you are physically able to connect a second monitor to your laptop then it can be used as a desktop extension. And you can make your video playback fullscreen. But that doesn't make it a "video monitor".

An expensive video monitor is useless anyway unless it has been calibrated - our company pays someone hundreds of £££s every six months to calibrate our monitors.

A true video output from your NLE must be provided by some kind of video output device - a piece of kit (costing anywhere between £200 and £6000) connected via Firewire, Thunderbolt, Expresscard or PCI and designed to work specifically with your NLE. They can be made by Matrox, AJA, Blackmagic or Motu (there are maybe one or two other brands as well). They then connect to your decks and monitors via SDI or HDMI (or component or composite). They also feed the audio to your mixer and speakers and some have RS422 to remote control decks.

This being said - if you are not making content for broadcast television you may be able to get away without a true video monitor - you wouldn't be the first one.
 
taras4444 said:
...in regards to monitors and tv displays, they can play back both ntsc and pal generally fine right?
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Um... no.

Very few computer monitors can display in Rec.709 (HD) or even Rec.601 (SD). The closest you can get with a computer monitor is generally sRGB. That Dell monitor can show you "purdy pictures" but it's not a TV and isn't going to respond like one.
 
CHeers for the info, and so your saying the dell doesnt display hd? Even though it lists it on the product page :S
 
Hey been looking at the matrox M02 mini some more, customer opinion on most sites seems divided. Many swear by it and others claim it doesn't often work. Just wanted to ask, to use it with a laptop and windows 7, do you need an "express card"? I see this mentioned a lot with mac users but any one use the marox M02 mini straight out of the box with their pc laptop? Also a lot of people discuss it as being handy to encode your work, do any owners use it to create their final project/files as opposed to using adobe premiere export? Thanks as always, it's a little confusing!
 
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