In this article, you will learn that the best way to connect can go way beyond the physical connections you see on your NLE’s professional interface and HD evaluation monitor. Believe it or not, it sometimes also depends upon whether you are editing interlaced or progressive… and also, whether your NLE’s professional interface card or box delivers an RGB or component signal over whatever video output connector(s) it has. Read on and you will see how this often does matter, and does affect the way you should connect!
There was a time just a few years ago when we wouldn’t have considered using LCD for critical video evaluation, in SD or HD. That has changed for two reasons: 1) There are now several LCD monitors on the market which fully handle ITU-R BT.601 color space for SD, and ITU-R BT.709 color space for HD. 2) Most of the HD audience is watching on LCDs or Plasmas anyway.
I have selected four monitor models in the “affordable” price range, all of which have been marketed for the purpose of critical evaluation. The list prices for the bare monitor (without colorimeter or possible converter box) range from US$2195 to US$5995. There are two models from JVC, one from HP, and one from Panasonic. All of the models I selected offer ITU-R BT.709 color space. (JVC no longer mentions this essential fact in the latest JVC Vérite brochure, but Edgar Shane, JVC’s engineering manager, assures me that absolutely all JVC DT-V series monitors automatically process HD signals in BT.709 color space.)
As you will see in the comparison chart, the monitors listed have a lot in common. They all are 24” diagonal (except the Panasonic, which is 25.5”. Panasonic doesn’t currently offer a 24” model in this category.); they all have 1000:1 contrast ratio; and they all have the capability of monitoring both 1080HD and 720HD on a 1:1, pixel-by-pixel mode.
1:1, pixel-by-pixel monitoring is important to bypass the monitor’s scaler, especially when you are creating a moving transition, and want to rule out whether any artifact you may be seeing is due to the way you programmed the move… or to the result of the monitor’s own scaler. All four monitors covered in the comparison chart allow 1:1 for both 1080HD and 720HD sources. In the case of 1080HD sources, the image will fill the screen horizontally (at least). In the case of some of the monitors listed, the extra 120 vertical pixels are used to show data. In the case of 720p in the 1:1 mode on a 1920x1200 or 1920x1080 panel, obviously there will be a very large border which will completely surround the image. My recommendation: If you are editing 1080HD, monitor it 1:1 all the time on these monitors. If you’re editing 720HD on these monitors, have the monitor scale the video up to fill the screen horizontally most of the time, and only select 1:1 manually if and when you need to verify whether a motion artifact that may pop up in a motion move is due to to your programming in the move, or it is due to an artifact in the monitor’s scaler.
The Other work around for the dreamcolor is to use a blackmagic HDlink Pro togo from an HD-SDI source intot he DVI port of your dreamcolor. This gives access to the dreamcolor engine and full rec 709 color support.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 05/23 at 10:13 PM
Thank you Marcus. That wouuld work, but is not an ideal solution, since the DVI input is only 8-bit. The solutions I recommended are true 10-bit solutions. It would be a shame not to use a 10-bit solution knowing the DreamColor’s 10-bit/30-bit panel. But thanks for your comment. It may be helpful for somehone who already owns the HDLink Pro and wants to use it temporarily.
Posted by Allan Tépper on 05/24 at 01:40 AM
Alan:
I am still confused as to how I can might my twoer Mac to a Dreamcolor Display using the Aja Hi5-3G. My Mac (2 X 2.26 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon) is equipped with an ATI Radeon HD 4870 video card. It has one DVI and one Mini Display Port output. Can I connect the Aja Hi5-3G directly to this card, or will I need another card?
Lang
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 05/26 at 02:08 PM
Lang,
No, the Hi5-3G is to connect to an HD-SDI output from an existing professional interface, which apparently you don’t own yet. You need a professional interface. If you mainly edit 720p, it could simply buy an IoHD from AJA… or any of the three Matrox units mentioned. Then you wouldn’t need the Hi5-3G.
Posted by Allan Tépper on 05/26 at 02:19 PM
Alan:
Bummer. So you’re saying I need to spend at least a couple of thousand dollars more in order to connect properly to the Dreamcolor Display? I’ll need a “professional interface” plus either a Gefen or Aja converter in order to accomplish the task?
This is all very confusing to me.
BTW, virtually all my editing will be of 1080p footage from my 5D Mark II.
Lang
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 05/26 at 02:27 PM
Lang,
I believe that the 1080p footage from the 5D Mark II is 29.97p. So far, none of the professional interfaces output 1080p29.97 as pure progressive. (They currently put it out as PsF or interlaced.) I will publish immediately if and when this changes. You could either have the IoHD or Matrox cross-convert to 720p on the output, to satisfy the DreamColor, or purchase the Gefen or Hi5-3G to continue monitoring 1080p.
Posted by Allan Tépper on 05/26 at 02:37 PM
Alan:
I don’t need any capture capability, just the ability to play back my 5D Mark II 1080p 30fps quicktime files (or ProRes 422 versions) and color correct using a color-critical monitor such as the Dreamcolor Display. I will also need to be prepared to deal with 1080p 60 fps footage, as the faster frame rate becomes available in new cameras.
So what interfaces will I need? Or do the right ones even exist yet?
Lang
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 05/26 at 02:37 PM
OK. I think I got it.
I now understand that my least expensive solution would be to purchase a Matrox MX02 Mini ($450) and allow it to cross converter my 1080p 29.97 fps signal to 720p 59.94 fps on output to satisfy the Dreamcolor’s demands?
This yields a loss in resolution, but great color accuracy for grading in Color . . . for only $450 in addition to the cost of the Dreamcolor Display.
Is this correct?
And then, if I want to spend extra money, I could add an Aja Hi5-3G ($690) that would wangle things so that I get a true 1080p 29.97 fps output from the Matrox MX02 Mini that satisfies the Dreamcolor demands, thus giving me full resolution, along with great color accuracy.
Right? Or am I still confused?
Lang
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 05/26 at 03:00 PM
Lang,
The first paragraph you wrote is true: You can purchase a Matrox MXO2 Mini and allow to cross-convert your 1080p29.97 to 720p59.94 on output to satisfy the DreamColor and have its color engine active. Obviously, this won’t reduce the spatial resolution of what your are actually editing, but only the monitoring of it.
However, the 2nd paragraph won’t really apply, since the MXO2 Mini doesn’t output 1080 PsF (only 1080i, true interlaced), at least not at the present time. For that you would need a more expensive device. I know that the US$1595 MXO2 will put out true 1080p29.97 PsF. I have to check whether the new lower-cost i/o devices from AJA put out PsF. At first you could use the MXO2 (or possibly one of the new AJA devices if they put out PsF) as in paragraph 1, and then later add the Hi5-3G. (Blackmagic products’ documentation indicates that they put out PsF, but only at 23.976p, not at 29.97. If this changes, I will update this.)
But remember: if you are short on budget and are willing to monitor 8-bit, you could buy an Intensity Pro for the new price of US$199 and use with a JVC DT-V24L1 which is only US$2195 and supports 709.
Posted by Allan Tépper on 05/26 at 06:00 PM
Very interesting story and posts everyone!
Does anyone have any suggestions for monitors and solutions in a lesser price range? I am helping to set up some suites for people whose budgets are often less than $1000 for monitors. I understand that you get what you pay for and am willing to concede the fact that the monitors won’t be 100% accurate for color correction. In most cases we would have Black Magic gear including one system with an intensity pro and one with a decklink HD Extreme. We would like to use these as client monitors that are also capable as color correction monitors knowing that our results won’t be perfect.
For instance I did a short last year which was color corrected on a apple 23inch cinema display which had been calibrated with a spyder color correction unit. Later, we took the short into a lab and watched it on proper HD monitors during the output. The results were surprisingly good and more than acceptable for us.
What are your thoughts on this? I am currently looking at HP LP2475w 24 monitors connected via HDMI for this purpose. Any thoughts? I would love to hear peoples opinions on this segment of the market
Cheers
Evan
Posted by Evan Warner on 05/28 at 04:14 PM
Evan:
As you know, I am also looking for inexpensive yet adequate options. One possibility is purchasing a Matrox interface (such as the MXO2 Mini) and using their software “color controls” to, as they profess, “turn your HDMI screen into a professional-grade video monitor”. See Matrox info about choosing an HDMI monitor here:
http://www.matrox.com/video/en/support/mxo2/system/monitors/
I wonder if Allan can comment on this solution.
It would probably be 8-bit monitoring and monitors such as the HP model you mention aren’t exactly professional, but would this approach nonetheless suit our purposes? For 720p? For 1080p?
BTW, thank you Allan for previous posts. I’ve been out of town for a couple of days and was just able to read your response to my 5/26 post.
Lang
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 05/28 at 06:22 PM
I have an AJA ioHD and a LaCie 324 10 bit monitor with HDMI, DVI and RGB analog, less than $1000. Any chance of a test with these components? What might opinions be? What about rec 709 compliance? Camera is EX1, sfw is Final Cut Studio 2.
Thanks,
Jim Wiseman
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 05/29 at 02:40 AM
Evan, Lang, Jim
If you find a lower-priced solution with these specs, please let me know. I am not sure whether the LaCie 324 actually has a 10-bit panel. You may have noticed that the JVC DT-V24L3D and the Panasonic BT-LH2550 both have 10-bit input, and 10-bit processing, but actually have an 8-bit (24-bit) panel. However, in the advertising they don’t mention the panel spec. That spec is only available directly from the product manager or engineering director directy, by special and specific request. This is very likely the case of the LaCie 324 a well. I also don’t know for sure whether the LaCie 324 has the 709 color space. I will try to find out both. It is much more debatable how important it is to monitor 10-bit, as the 709 color space. The 709 is really a must for HD color correction. I think that both JVC and any other manufacturer which does have 709 would be best served by promoting that fact. JVC has 709, but neglected to mention it in the lastest brochure or on the website. LaCie doesn’t mention it on their website, but may or may not have it.
Posted by Allan Tépper on 05/29 at 12:34 PM
Hey guys,
Good information to know! I hadn’t really looked at the Lacie before. I will try and dig deeper into that. So what you are saying is that 709 is the most important factor followed by 10 bit.
For one of my clients those specs might be doable if not right now then conceivably sometime in the future. For the other, he is really looking for the best playback monitor for the buck. The more adapt at color correction the better but he isn’t will to spend the kind of money needed to get a 709 monitor. From your subjective point of view, how close can he get with a good S-IPS 8 bit computer monitor hooked up to an intensity pro?
Posted by Evan Warner on 05/29 at 03:32 PM
Not sure what it means, but LaCie says their 324 LCD Monitor has a vivid “92% NTSC gamut panel”. Perhaps this is equivalent to 92% of 709?
See the following review:
http://www.engadget.com/2008/09/10/lacies-new-lcds-put-ntsc-to-shame/
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 05/29 at 04:35 PM
