Monitor recommendations for editing?

R

Richy Lacey

Active member
I'm looking to get a reasonably good monitor for editing purposes.
Priced under €300.
Does anyone have an opinion on the Asus PA238Q? - review
PA238Q specs
Panel Size: Wide Screen 23.0″(58.4cm) 16:9
Color Saturation : 100% (sRGB)
Panel Type : IPS
True Resolution : 1920×1080
Full HD 1080P : Yes
Pixel Pitch : 0.2652mm
Brightness(Max) : 250 cd/㎡
ASUS Smart Contrast Ratio (ASCR) : 50000000:1
Viewing Angle (CR≧10) : 178°(H)/178°(V)
Response Time : 6ms (Gray to Gray)
Display Colors : 16.7M
 
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I'm not sure of the person above but I'm looking for a video monitor to preview video footage for around the same budget. I was looking at this

http://www.whathifi.com/review/tx-l24e3

Do you think this would be OK? (I know it wouldn't be ideal) would anyone have other suggestions? from what I've read so far a TV is better than a monitor for color accuracy.
 
I'm looking for a monitor to use for a multiscreen setup with Premiere.
Not sure of the exact setup I'll have, but it'll definitely be used for colour correction.
The Asus monitors I linked to above are individually colour calibrated.
They're aimed at graphic designers so was wondering if the spec would suit video work. The refresh rate is said to be a little low for gaming.

I know a few video people who use TVs for editing. That may be more of a convenience thing rather than there being a good technical reason for it.
 
Take a look at the HP zr24w. Its a very nice IPS 24" monitor supporting a wide gamut and a high res or 1920x1200. I owned one for a month or so before upgrading to the Dell U3011 and really liked it, I just wanted the 30 incher.
 
Which did you go for in the end? It's really difficult to find a definitive cheapish (£400) option for a good external monitor on this forum. Not much discussion and doesnt seem to be an out and out winner so it's tough.
 
Richy Lacey said:
Not sure of the exact setup I'll have, but it'll definitely be used for colour correction. The Asus monitors I linked to above are individually colour calibrated. They're aimed at graphic designers so was wondering if the spec would suit video work.
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Computer monitors can be used for just about any NLE activity except video color correction. Because computer graphics and video do not share a common color space.

To accurately judge color and luminosity of blu-ray, DVD, or broadcast TV, you need a monitor that shows your images in the correct color spaces (e.g. Rec.709), with the correct gamma, and the correct color gamuts. In other words, you need a broadcast monitor.

Most broadcast monitors also provide very useful tools as well, such as RGB parade scopes, waveform monitors, and vector scopes. Without these, I don't know how you could ever make your images broadcast safe.
 
Thanks everyone for the info, I'm still struggling to decide a month later! When i return from Canada I am going to be attempting to seriously get into some wedding and music video work. But I also would like to learn grading for my films, so wanted to ask is this rec 709 colour spaces etc really important for short/features that i will be entering in film festivals? Would it even possibly hinder my chances of success if one of my films did not comply to broadcast colours? If so then i will have to seriously consider spending the extra cash on a good monitor sigh... if not though i was looking at either the computer monitor dell ultrasharp (lots of good reviews etc, http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dell-Ultras...1_3?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1342384913&sr=1-3 or an eizo monitor and to use my tv to check the colours OR possibly to get a cheapish good TV and calibrate it as good as i can get for colour grading and having a bigger screen to edit with. What would you guys opt for? The tv or the monitor? (I'm moving from the UK to canada next year so dont want to have problems taking a british tv over there though...)
 
taras4444 said:
...wanted to ask is this rec 709 colour spaces etc really important for short/features that I will be entering in film festivals? Would it even possibly hinder my chances of success if one of my films did not comply to broadcast colours?
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An interesting question. A large part of "getting the colors right" is to use them as a tool to help tell your story. If your colors aren't right will it detract from your story? Will it distract the viewer and make them think about "what's wrong with that picture" instead of following the story?

Some (most?) stories depend a fair amount on the viewers' ability to "suspend their disbelief" and get into the story. If the jury members find that they are distracted by your color grading and drop back to reality and start seeing your technical merits instead of following your story, do you think this will hinder your chances of success?

For a lot of films the answers to the above may be surprising -- many documentaries for example can get away with fairly shoddy color grading and can actually enhance their story by getting the colors somewhat wrong in that it can enhance the gritty reality of it all. But a scene in a rom-com where the lead actress should be lit with with a nice candle orange glow and instead shows a bit of a green tinge is going to jerk people right out of the story.

It's your work, so you'll have to decide. Just how important is it to have a good color grade?
 
Hey thanks for the speedy reply. Yes I understand that side of the colour grading effect and how important it is to suspend their disbelief. I meant however, more in the technical sense as in TV shows need the colours to be broadcast standard or something right? So would an independent film require the same broadcast standards, and if not would a film festival reject a film possibly on it not fulfilling this criteria?
 
taras4444 said:
... as in TV shows need the colours to be broadcast standard or something right? So would an independent film require the same broadcast standards, and if not would a film festival reject a film possibly on it not fulfilling this criteria?
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Most festivals are looking for submissions on DVD or Blu-ray, but each festival has it's own requirements. Check their submission guidelines and act appropriately. The reason for the trend toward DVD / Blu-ray is that they need a format that the jury members can take home with them and watch on TV. If that's what your festival requires, then I would think that your submission will need to look good on TV, and that brings us right back to broadcast standards.

If your film is accepted and slated to show at the festival, you may need another format, like DCP (digital cinema package). That's well beyond my experience though. At that stage you're probably looking at hiring it out to a finishing house. DCP has a raft of requirements that would be fairly difficult to meet outside of a proper finishing studio, especially the audio. But if you need DCP for final screening, that should show up in your submission guidelines as well.

All that said, most people who volunteer to be part of a film festival jury are film geeks. They love films. These people can and often do let some of our technical failings slide -- if, IF, we have a good story to tell. And this brings us back to meeting standards so that our technical failings don't detract from the story. It doesn't have to be Hollywood level (or none of us would ever be shown), but it has to be reasonable so that they can see through to the story.

Interestingly, the quickest way to the reject pile seems to be bad sound. But that's another thread entirely.
 
Hey thanks again. Some interesting food for though. Entirely agree with the sound (something i learnt the hard way it must be said!) Still means i have to make a decision asap though as to whether get the dell/eizo monitor and check stuff for colour grading on a tv or just shell out on a tv and colour calibrate it with the spyder or something.... hmmm decisions decisions, which would you opt for?
 
Back to monitors for editing... viewing angle is pretty huge for me. I've recently got a viewsonic and when I sit back in my chair, the top of the screen darkens noticeably. The best computer monitor I've ever used is the Apple with the metal frame; however, Dell made a monitor with the same panel that was stellar and about half the price. I owned one for years until the PS finally started going wonky.
 
I use two big monitors for editing, photoshop, etc. But for checking color and grading for client work (IE no "Send it out for grading" budget) I use my on-camera marshall with a Matrox Mini HDMI.

So I have the screens for editing and palettes, but the video signal itself (from, say FCPs canvas or AE's project window) is converted to broadcast and goes to a $12 HDMI splitter, then to the small Marshall and a 22" HDTV mounted above my computer screens. The Marshall has blue-only and gets calibrated with color bars, the TV gives me an idea of "on the average TV" (and is also a nice huge window to check for noise, keying problems, etc., and is good for over-the-shoulder client sessions).

Seeing how I already owned the Marshall, the Matrox was $400ish and decent HDTVs are cheap these days, it's been great. You can get a a blackmagic card to do the same thing for well under $200.

I've mentioned this setup before and someone went all anal on me, "that's not a grading system"... but how many one-man shops have $3k grading monitors? How many wedding or corporate guys do, or send their stuff out for grading? Every broadcast spot I've done has been graded using my Marshall as a reference... they all look great when I catch them on TV in my living room. It's better than no calibration at all, or working from your mac/pc screen.
 
Hey thank you so much, this has been exactly the type of response I've been searching for. I totally agree to, it might not be a $3k grading suite but if it works it works! Do you think my small hd dp6 monitor could be used in the same way as your marshal? And if so do you use the matrox to calibrate that, or just the tv? (Which TV do you use by the way, as that in itself theres so many! With HD tvs do you know if you can use them both for NTSC and PAL footage (as I have my af100 and will be filming both in the uk and taking my stuff over to Canada as well). Thanks again dude, this is very encouraging!
 
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