Monitor question

I

Indyreel

Well-known member
I am working on my first feature film and am shooting on the GH1. I will be editing with Adobe Premeire Pro CS5.

I can't afford a "real" monitor, but was hoping to get some input on a decent $300 range monitor to edit the GH1 footage with.

I checked best buy and saw an LED 1080P monitor and it looked good, but, the blacks were so black that I am afraid of desaturating my GH1 footage too much. My thought was to get an LCD and edit on that.

I know this is a newbie comment, but I could really use some imput.

Thanks.
 
An "LED monitor" is actually just a type of LCD. Because all LCDs (including LED models) are backlit, there is no such thing as blacks that are too black. Frankly, such an idea is nonsensical because who wouldn't want black that is truly black instead of just a dark shade of gray? In fact, the holy grail for home theater enthusiasts is a seemingly infinite contrast ratio. Seriously, people go on and on about contrast ratios and black levels in places like AVS Forum. Essentially, a higher contrast ratio necessarily means better picture quality.

That's one of the main reasons why people are eagerly awaiting the release of affordable, big-screen OLED displays (which is entirely different technology than LED-backlit LCDs). The few OLED TVs that are already on the market offer the best picture quality anywhere. OLEDs are not backlit; instead, each pixel is an individual light source, which means that black is achieved by simply leaving a pixel turned off. This results in a true black that is not achievable by any other existing technology. Your local Best Buy might have a display unit of the Sony XEL-1, the world's first OLED TV. See for yourself how stunning the image is.

There are some displays that do have black levels that seem too low or "crushed." In this case, the problem is with gamma, not the contrast capability of the display. But I don't see how that has anything to do with "saturation." Why or how would you "desaturate my GH1 footage too much"? Saturation has to do with color, not contrast. A 100% desaturated image is black and white, but the contrast would be same as with a 100% saturated version of the same image.

I will say one thing about contrast level to contradict what I said above. True black may not always be desirable if the goal is to emulate a film image that is seen projected in a theater, since there may not be a true black in that image.
 
Thanks for the input, everyone. I was about to buy a TN based LED monitor from best buy, for editing my feature film. I am now looking for an IPN based monitor.

This is the one I am thinking about buying. It's the VP2365WB.

If anyone has input on this, please let me know.

Thank you again.
 
Indyreel said:
Thanks for the input, everyone. I was about to buy a TN based LED monitor from best buy, for editing my feature film. I am now looking for an IPN based monitor.

This is the one I am thinking about buying. It's the VP2365WB.

If anyone has input on this, please let me know.
Click to expand...

Again, take a look at 32" LG TVs get any HDMI based notebook (in same store) and TFT test utility, switch TV to PC mode and test it out. Make macro photo of matrix to be sure that it is S-IPS.
VP2365WB is e-IPS based (cheaper version) and not very much reviews.
Normally you need good calibration and bunch of adjustment and economical monitors don't have it. Good ones are not cheap (normally they are H-IPS today).
 
When you say editing, are you simply referring to cutting? Or are you going to do colour grading with this monitor?

For the user interface of the "non linear editor" (NLE - FCP, Vegas, Premiere etc) you could cut on just about anything. Its only when you come to the grading that you need accurate colours. And because a monitor is IPS does not mean its colour accurate or can be calibrated so.

BUT, like anything on a budget it depends on how far you want to take it.

Look at it this way - your shooting a feature on a GH1. Are there far superior cameras to shoot a feature on? Yes. But, can you shoot a feature on a GH1? Hell yes.

Same goes for colour grading and monitors, but there are options as with anything. For example if youre on mac, you can use one of these to get you closer to where you need to be http://www.matrox.com/video/en/products/mac/mxo/

Is that perfect? No, but it does a good job.

With this tool connected to a decent IPS display you can also use the xrite eye one display 2 to calibrate.
 
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