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Monitor advice

Aug 8, 2012 4:31 AM

I’m converting from mac to pc for my editing system. There are a lot of thoughts on bang for the buck systems but non of them discusses what monitors that provides adequate performance.

What monitors would you recommend for video editing and witch give you the best bang for the buck? What display-technologies to look for and not?

1741 Views 20 Replies Latest reply: VHC-CO-IT, Aug 14, 2012 8:05 AM

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1. Harm Millaard,

Aug 8, 2012 6:59 AM in reply to Jim-Lar

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What monitors would you recommend for video editing and witch give you the best bang for the buck? What display-technologies to look for and not?

Sorry to be so sarcastic, but this question is similar to:

What car would you recommend for traveling and which gives you the best bang for the buck?

You must be a magician to answer that question correctly, because you have no idea of the budget available (it could be $ 10K or $ 800K), you have no idea what 'traveling' means (10 miles once a week or 500 miles per day with X passengers and Y cargo) in this case, so any answer is just a wild guess, likely to be devoid of anything realistic.

If you can fill us in on your requirements and budget, we may come up with a suggestion.

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2. John T Smith,

Aug 8, 2012 7:23 AM in reply to Jim-Lar

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>adequate performance

What works for ME is a 27 inch Samsung SyncMaster P2770 for about $300

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3. ECBowen,

Aug 8, 2012 7:36 AM in reply to Jim-Lar

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The best solution provided you calibrate it is the Asus PA246Q. The default color profile has some issues so calibration is a must. However the price point is so attractive that even adding the colorimeter you are still far cheaper than many production monitors.

Eric
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4. Jim Simon,

Aug 8, 2012 8:12 AM in reply to Jim-Lar

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You can't really use the computer monitor to judge the quality of your video. For that, you need a properly calibrated external TV.

So..any computer monitor that fit's your budget and size needs will do.

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5. ECBowen,

Aug 8, 2012 9:05 AM in reply to Jim Simon

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This completely depends on your delivery. If you are delivering to Web then you want the material previewed in RGB which means you want the computer monitor. If you are delivering to broadcast then you want the material in YUV so the TV is best. Film is also in RGB. BDR's and DVD's are normally YUV however this is changing because many LCD and LED TV's are handling RGB by default due to console gaming. So this is in Flux.

Eric
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6. Jim Simon,

Aug 8, 2012 3:49 PM in reply to ECBowen

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It's not really about YUV or RGB, though. There will be little or no difference between conversions.

The issue is more one of accuracy. With the computer monitor used for the GUI, the operating system, graphics driver and even the program you're using to play the media (such as PP) can and do interfere with the signal you're watching. You have no idea if you're seeing it accurately. That's why you need a way to get the unaltered signal out of PP and onto an external, calibrated TV.

(By the way, DVDs and Blu-rays's will always be YUV 4:2:0, as they can't hold any other signal.)

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7. ECBowen,

Aug 8, 2012 4:09 PM in reply to Jim Simon

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Calibration is what Colorimeters are for and yes you can absolutely monitor accurately with computer monitors calibrated via a Colorimeter and ICC profiles. That is what these were standardized and designed for. Example of Colorimeter below. The Spyder series is another

http://www.xritephoto.com/ph_product_overview.aspx?id=1454&catid=109&a ction=overview

Windows 7 supports ICC profiles which override the video card settings for color output. The application settings should follow the ICC Profile settings if you are using standard ICC Profiles. ICC standardization was done to sync multiple devices to 1 color profile standard for symmetry.

With Proper calibration you know exactly what you are seeing and how it will look in the RGB color world.

The Blue ray players now allow you to output RGB instead of YUV. You may not have a BDR encoding now to RGB but the player will covert the signal. So yes the RGB output is there and likely will change encoding options in the future. Hence why I stated it is in flux.

Eric
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8. Jim-Lar,

Aug 9, 2012 2:09 AM in reply to Harm Millaard

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Thats true Harm.

I guess for me the best bang for the buck is finding the threshold where you get enough accuracy for the job and more invested money doesn't give that much more performance. It seems that most hardware has this threshold.

I know from a background in graphic production how important a good enough monitor is. Going with macs for a long time I haven't given this much thought but now I have to chose in a jungle...

My budget is around $800-900 and I’m looking for a 27” monitor with a resolution of 2560 x 1440. I will mainly deliver for the web so I guess I can get away without a proper reference monitor. Having to calibrate a monitor to get it right will not be a problem since I own the gear for that already.

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9. Jim-Lar,

Aug 9, 2012 2:13 AM in reply to ECBowen

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Thanks Eric!

I’m looking for a 27” monitor with a resolution of 2560 x 1440. What would you recommend for that spec?
How will the Dell 27" LCD UltraSharp U2711 stand up to the ASUS PA246Q 24"?

I have read a couple of technical articles and they seem to concur that Leds tend to crush the blacks more than ccfl that maintains more detail in the lows. Is this true?

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10. Harm Millaard,

Aug 9, 2012 3:07 AM in reply to Jim-Lar

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Dell has a successor to the 2711 available in Japan, the U2713HM, a full LED backlit 27" screen with 2560 x 1440 resolution, 350 cd/m2, 42 W energy consumption using an Advanced High Performance IPS panel for around € 515. Looks like a great deal to me.

The Dutch article about its announcement is here: http://tweakers.net/nieuws/83618/dell-introduceert-27-inch-ah-ips-sche rm-u2713hm.html

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11. ECBowen,

Aug 9, 2012 7:24 AM in reply to Jim-Lar

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If you require the 2500 resolution then the Dell U2711 would be choice 1 and the Dell Harm mentions would be choice 2. Both are in your budget.

Eric
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12. Harm Millaard,

Aug 9, 2012 8:43 AM in reply to ECBowen

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Why would that be, Eric? In my book a significant advantage of the 2713 over the 2711 is the new panel, AH-IPS versus H-IPS and only 42 W versus 113 W with the 2711. The 2713 appears to have the price advantage as well.

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13. ECBowen,

Aug 9, 2012 9:03 AM in reply to Harm Millaard

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Looking at the specs though the 2711 still has the advantage in color range and it supports up to 10 bit color. It has a built in factory Adobe RGB profile. The response time is little faster on the previous panel. The 2713 is definitely a cheaper option and great for the price. However if the budget allowed, the 2711 looks to still be a better solution for editing overall.

Eric
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14. Harm Millaard,

Aug 9, 2012 9:12 AM in reply to ECBowen

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2711 still has the advantage in color range and it supports up to 10 bit color.

The same is claimed for the 2713. The response time is slightly slower than the 2711, but is that relevant for video editing?

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15. ECBowen,

Aug 9, 2012 9:23 AM in reply to Harm Millaard

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The Specs on the Dell website dont show that unless they have more than one version of the 2713.

http://accessories.ap.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=au&cs=audhs1&l =en&s=dhs&sku=210-40773&redirect=1

Eric
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16. Harm Millaard,

Aug 9, 2012 9:47 AM in reply to ECBowen

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Eric,

You are correct. My problem is that I only had the Japanese site and my Japanese is so rusty...

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17. ECBowen,

Aug 9, 2012 9:50 AM in reply to Harm Millaard

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Haha you can speak Japanese to?? We Americans are such slackers

Eric
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18. Harm Millaard,

Aug 9, 2012 11:48 AM in reply to ECBowen

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Well, I started out with Mandarin, something like 妈麻马骂吗 , mā má mǎ mà ma, and then gave up on Japanese, because this was a big enough challenge for a simple mind like me. It is already a challenge to keep up my language skills of Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Latin, Mandinka, Papiamentu, Portugese, Spanish, Swiss-German and Wolof. Notice the complete lack of Arabic, Korean, Russian and Scandinavian languages. I'm pretty limited, but with time, maybe I can learn some more... Next step is probably Bulgarian and Turkish.

It is somewhat similar to learning Ajax, CSS, DOM, HTML, Joomla, JS, Jquery, MySQL, PHP, and the like.

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19. Jim-Lar,

Aug 10, 2012 5:07 PM in reply to ECBowen

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Thanks a lot!

I Will gwt the Dell U2711!

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20. VHC-CO-IT,

Aug 14, 2012 8:05 AM in reply to Jim-Lar

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[Personal comment deleted]

By the way, Dell monitors suck. 52% of people suggest you do not buy that monitor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824260038&Tpk=De ll%20U2711

Those are pretty bad reviews and exactly what you'd expect from Dell. Anyone can throw out a monitor model they like but you know what they say about teaching a man to fish...here's my starting point. I get a price range, I go to newegg, go to power search, tell it want LED backlit, 1920x1080, and HDMI then I click on the price range under monitors and sort by best user rating. Something in the first 10 will be perfect, it's practically guaranteed.

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