Issues with external HDMI monitor
PeteGould Sep 15, 2011 12:36 PMHi all.
This is a somewhat complex problem to try to explain, so bear with me while I explain it in steps. This involves Premiere 5.5 as part of the production bundle. I have footage shot with a Panasonic AG-AF100 in AVCHD and footage shot with several different higher-end Panasonic cameras in P2 format. All exhibit the same symptoms so I don't think the footage is the issue. All footage in this discussion is shot in 1920x1080 which is the native resolution of both monitors in question.
This is a two-display system based on a GEForce GTX470 display card. Connected to the two channels on this card are a Viewsonic VX2739wm monitor on the desktop and a wall-mounted Sony KDL-46HX701 for viewing in the room.
Outside of Premiere, if I open a raw video file from one of these cameras in Windows Media Player, it is displayed in a window (as expected). On the Sony monitor in particular, the pedestal is running about 10IRE too high (visual estimate - could be even more), causing it to have that signature washed-out, milky look. If I then go to full-screen mode, the raised pedestal disappears, and the image looks the way it is supposed to (subjectively it looks as though the resolution also increases markedly; this could either be the subjective increase in resolution that comes with increased contrast or it could be that dynamically scaling the image down to fit a window has a significant resolution cost, or both). I can toggle between full-screen and window (with the window maximized) and watch the pedestal jump up and down and the subjective resolution increase and decrease while the footage item plays. The only way the image looks right is when it is in full screen mode. On the Viewsonic monitor, the pedestal level remains elevated regardless of whether the footage item is in a window or in full-screen mode. In other words, playing footage subjectively looks much better on the Sony than the Viewsonic display, but only when in full-screen mode on the Sony.
Inside of Premiere, the Viewsonic monitor is used as the editing monitor and the Sony is activated via Sequence/Sequence Settings/Playback Settings/External Device. When activated in this way, it is always operating in full-screen mode. Yet when operated in this mode, the pedestal is raised by about 10IRE and the subjective resolution appears decreasde as it is when playing in a window inside of a Windows Media Player window. There is no obvious way to get the Sony monitor to output from Premiere with the levels seen when playing the raw footage item directly in Windows Media Player in full-screen mode.
Any thoughts on known issues or areas to check would be appreciated. I've looked through the forums for similar issues but it's not always easy to figure out what to search on, so mea culpa if this is already covered somewhere.
Best,
Pete


