TV vs. monitor

Color sampling and pixel definition will be much more tuned on a monitor. I edit with a tv as an outsource monitor just for reference... because I am a poor SOB. lol BUT, if you can afford it, edit with a true monitor. You'll be glad you did.
 
A lot fo people use TVs as monitors these days, and some are decent, but some really suck. I was on a gig where a there were two cameras, My DVX and a guy with his new XL2 who walked in with this huge tube model 25" TV. I have flat panel 14" and we set up cameras (why the director would even consider doing a gig with these two different camera I don't know) and the director was blown away with images on my screen and disturbed with the images from the XL2. The spent spent 1/2 hour looking through his manual trying to get it to look more like mine, then we swaped s-cables plugging his camera into my monitor and it looked so much better - still not as nice as the DVX, but better. I've been on couple igs that were using the XL2 and I really dislike the look it captures - though it may just have been bad DPs.

SOme things to keep in mind when buying a monitor is what it's for. SOme give high def, and cost a lot. SOme are switchable for 4x3 and 16x9, some are switchabel for pal or ntsc. some are filed monitors and can run off batteries, which most TVs can't.

Mine is very cheap because I've known for some time I'd be buying an HD camera in the near future and am holding out to see what type of newer cheaper HD monitors come out when I get to that point in time.
 
Well I just picked up a Sharp Crisia 17 inch lcd widescreen that comes with AV in / out plus svideo in and so far pretty happy with it........ Best part .... its very light and portability is less of an issue. I am currently making a DIY light shade to fit on it also.
 
The best advice I can give you is to take your camera into the store with an s-cable and hook it up to several of the the flat sceen LCD tvs on display and see which ones look the best. The most expensive may not be the best. You will likely pay between 300 to 500 for something decent in the 13 to 15 inch range.

I don't recommend going any larger that 15. You want it to be mobile and lightweight so it's easy to mount on things you may have in the future like a jib. You may also want to consider one that runs on 12v DC.
 
Studio monitors are different beasts, they need to hook up to your computer and no TVs have those connections.

Also bear in mind if shopping for an LCD TV as a monitor that you need to make sure it has s-cable hookup, not all do.
 
A good monitor has means for corretcng every aspect of the miage, calibrating through color bars hence giving you an accurate result of what you are getting. TVs have each it's own color, contrast and brightness and it is impossible to trully caibrate them .,Have you ever gon to a TV store? Compare the same images on all the differet TVs. It's not even close! How would you trust a TV to tell you how is the image you are getting...
 
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