I'm want a good monitor for post production at home. Where do I begin?

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oxband

Well-known member
I'm thinking of getting a monitor to do accurate color correction and other post production stuff at home. I currently edit with FCP 7. I have no idea where to begin, what to tihnk about, what to look for. Are there differences between the types of monitors? I know this is a painfully vague question.....but what would be a decent monitor that gets the job done but doesnt break the band? I'll pay for quality; I just dont need top of the line.
 
For color correction you need an external video monitor connected to a capture card or similar device via SDI or HDMI. Most consumer HDTVs lack the controls & calibration options for this, BTW, although a lot of people have had good results using Panasonic consumer plasmas when they're properly calibrated by a pro.

Take a look at the AJA Io expess or Matrox MXO2 for lower cost video output from your Mac. If you have a Mac Pro tower, you can also use a Black Magic Intensity Pro.
 
I do online editing (professionally) and I can tell you that there is a monitor out there that a lot of online editors will swear on for accurate color. (it is a consumer monitor)

Panasonic VIERA Plasma monitors

Plasma plasma plasma. Have not seen an accurate LCD
 
Do i still need a good video card if i want to connect my MBP to the plasma and get the right colors?
 
Also, just to get what you're proposing (and i know no one answer is cor), if all i want is a mnitor not for the field but for color correcting at home, these Sony screen's are going to do me as good as pro level ones that are many times more? I was told by one person to just think Flanders, but those prices are high. of course, i dont mind paying for quality.....if i need too...
 
Blackmagic card going into a Panasonic pro LCD or say an HP Dreamcolor would be what I'd consider baseline. You could get away for $2-4K depending on options. Also some nice Thunderbolt devices about to come out from AJA/Blackmagic. Really depends on the budget.

-Noah
 
You need to have an video IO device...yes. You have a MAC BOOK PRO? Does this MBP have Express34 or Thunderbolt? If so, your options are anything from the Matrox MXO2 line (They all do PCIe for towers, and Thunderbolt and Express34 on laptops)...or the AJA IO Express (if you have Express34) or AJA IO XT (if you have Thunderbolt). If you have Thunderbolt, you can also use the Decklink Intensity Extreme or UltraStudio 3D.
 
I have been looking a production monitor to use with my Final Cut work flow. I just till recently was doing SD work and had a good Panasonic output monitor. Now I went to HD and need a new monitor. I came across this Sony LMD-2110W 21.5" Professional LCD Monitor. The price is within my range of under $1000, I need HDMI as that is what my Black Magic card will do (my camera does HDSDI but I dont need it). I am looking to see if anyone has any expertise using this monitor. If not what monitor in this price range would work. I do not do any broadcast work, my final output is DVD or Online. So any ideas out there?

Thanks
 
oxband said:
I'm thinking of getting a monitor to do accurate color correction and other post production stuff at home. I currently edit with FCP 7. I have no idea where to begin, what to tihnk about, what to look for. Are there differences between the types of monitors? I know this is a painfully vague question.....but what would be a decent monitor that gets the job done but doesnt break the band? I'll pay for quality; I just dont need top of the line.
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Here's the thing. To do color grading, you need a monitor that will show you accurately and repeatably what your picture looks like. That is, it has to show you where black and white actually are, it has to be able to show you the colors accurately and show you where the edges of the gamut actually are, it has to show you the proper display gamma for the Rec.709 color space used by HDTV, and it has to show you a perfectly linear grayscale so you don't see any color casts or have any color differences as you move from shadows to midtones to highlights. This kind of accuracy and precision are difficult, and therefore expensive, which is why a broadcast monitor tends to cost a lot more than a similarly sized HDTV.

Most computer monitors are insufficient, because they don't support Rec.709. There are a couple, like the EIZO CG243W which costs nearly as much as a low end broadcast monitor, without all the broadcast monitor features.

It's true that you may be able to get away with using an HDTV for a monitor. But you'll have to calibrate it, which adds considerable costs (you'll want to find an ISF or THX certified professional to do this). And the TVs drift, so you have to re-calibrate them every six-12 months. If the HDTV is ISFccc capable, it's easier to get a solid calibration, but this is only available on the top end HDTVs (what did you expect?). Other that that, the HDTV will give you no other help. No scopes, no front panel adjustments, just a good picture. Usually a huge picture -- I don't know of any sub 55" plasmas with ISFccc. I'm thinking something like the Panasonic TC-P55VT50 (is it out yet? IDK).

The alternative is a low end broadcast monitor. I'm thinking something like the Flanders Scientific LM-2140W which should probably suffice for the majority of color grading. Or the LM-2461W if you want even more accuracy. Either of these is about 1/4 the picture area of a 55" plasma. So it will fit on your desk. And you can get field kits so you can mount them on light stands and take them in the field to monitor you captures. They offer a dozen or so selectable scopes like luminance waveform and vectorscope (I don't know how anyone can color grade without at least these two, and both are very useful in the field to help judge lighting setups), and field help in the form of adjustable focus assist and exposure alarms.

It all comes down to how much money you have to spend, and how much you think it's worth to you to get your color grades right. How close is close enough? Only you know the answer to that one.
 
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Bruce Watson said:
It all comes down to how much money you have to spend, and how much you think it's worth to you to get your color grades right. How close is close enough? Only you know the answer to that one.
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Thank you for the information. I like the Flanders, however due to what I can budget currently it is out of my range for now. I tried to see the specs of the Sony and it is their Entry Level Production Monitor. I know its not broadcast, however I am not there yet maybe soon as work picks up and I get better. I tried looking for used monitors also and nothing is really out there, or should I say at a reasonable price, better to just buy new. I will keep looking for now till I am ready to jump or get pushed one or the other.

Regards,
Robert
 
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