What to look for in LCD Screen

[Brian Doyle]

Guy any tips on what to look for in a LCD screen. I'm looking to get a lexus35 or something similar and know I need to 180 flip but what about the image quality? I need something that I'll be able to get a sharp manual focus with.

I see a lot of "deals" on eBay for lcd screens for car dvd players. What should I be looking for in terms of stats? I saw something that explained the numbers and how they are misleading here but for some reason the search post option is not working for me here. Any ideas for what works?

[Bill Porter]

800x480 is better than so-called 1152x234 or 1440x234 units. I say "so-called" because they are really only 384x234 or 480x234.

[Marcus Marchesseault]

I have a 7" 800x480 lcd on the way. I'll let you know how it works out. It is model VM7000 from ebay seller short-circuit.com. He has a store that sells car computer parts. There are also a couple of models from Lilliput that might work. They appear to use the same lcd but are packaged differently. The one I ordered has s-video and VGA input. I'm hoping it can size properly for DV formats and it would be nice if it has flip modes so I don't need to mount it upside-down. Some of these monitors will do the flip because they are intended for rear-view camera use in vehicles.

[Marcus Marchesseault]

I forgot to say, in case you can't wait for my review after my lcd comes in. NONE of the monitors smaller than 7" or 8"(4:3) seem to have full resolution. Most of them, including the expensive packages sold by photo/video stores are about 320x240. When one of the numbers is really high and the second is small, it is because they are counting the R,G, and B dots as pixels. For instance, the 1440x234 is really 480x234. If you are going to get an adapter that makes following focus critical, you probably don't want a low-res monitor.

[Marcus Marchesseault]

WOW! There is a whole lot of incorrect information about these small LCD monitors! I am about to start pulling somebody's hair out over this issue. EVERY single web site has information that conflicts with the item description on someone else's site. Most of the sellers try to hide the actual resolution by telling the number of "pixels" expressed as a single number. For instance, "high-resolution with 280,800 pixels" really means 400x234! They arrive at this number by multiplying the horizontal by the vertical then multiplying by three since there are three different color dots per pixel. They are ignoring the definition of pixel and misleading people by quoting the number of RGB dots.

The monitor I got, the VM7000, does not have s-video capability and it stretches the video wide up to the 800x480 resolution. The seller is going to do a full refund, so I am asking about his vm80 that is 640x480 that should at least play in the correct aspect ratio. Considering that the monitor does no resizing on video input, I doubt if it will display 16:9 video properly. Be careful, because these monitors may advertise video scaling, but it may only be for the vga input!

The good news is that the customer service seems good and the 640x480 (true full pixels) monitor is cheaper.

Another problem I am having is actually finding the models that the manufacturer make for sale. Ebay has most of the lilliput monitors, but there seem to be many models missing. Lilliput theoretically makes monitors perfect for our purpose, but they don't seem to be for sale.

I am awaiting a response to my questions about the vm80, but I believe it does not have s-video input. I just may get it anyway since it is affordable ($199) and will at least have the corrrect aspect ratio.

Marcus

[Frank Vrionis]

http://www.mp3car.com/store/product_...roducts_id=136


http://www.lilliput.cn/products1.htm

[Marcus Marchesseault]

The first link is exactly the same as the monitor I bought. Unfortunately, the 7" monitors don't seem to actually have s-video. Many resellers have it in their descriptions, but if you look at the cable after buying one, you realize what looked like an s-video connector is actually a proprietary connecter for attaching the vga cable. Also, according to the lilliput link, only their 8" monitors support s-video.

[Ben Winter]

http://www.lcd4video.com/

Anyone with technical know-how think this is a good monitor? Excellent price...

[Steev Dinkins]

Originally Posted by Ben Winter

http://www.lcd4video.com/

Anyone with technical know-how think this is a good monitor? Excellent price...

That's not the real deal. Yet again, another low-res monitor, when there are higher res monitors trickling into the market. I'm wondering when manufacturers will make the switch and stop this madness.

Although there are cheaper monitors - http://short-circuit.com/details/monitors/vm7000.html and http://xenarc.com/product/700y.html, how to power them and mount them upside down is guess work.

I'm steering towards the following as a pro solution:

http://www.lcdracks.com/monitors/vr70p-dp.html

Powered by something like this:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...ughType=search

-steev

[Marcus Marchesseault]

Ben, that monitor is about the same size, but has about 1/4 the pixels of the VM80 at short-circuit.com. Carmp3.com is another site that someone earlier in the thread posted that has some suitable monitors. The Lilliput 809GL-80NP/C/T looks like it may actually have most of the feature we need.

Unfortunately, EVERY SINGLE SITE that sells these monitors has information that is inconsistend or downright misleading. For example:

# High resolution display - up to 1024x768 (HxV) formatted
# Supported computer display resolution up to 800 x 600

This is cut and pasted from mp3car.com's own description! They can't even get two lines right next to each other to agree. The REAL resolution of this monitor is 640x480 according to the manufacturer's website. That is not a bad resolution, but I would expect people to come somewhere near telling the truth about their specifications.

Beyond the resolution, many web sites are incorrect about whether or not their monitors support s-video input. As far as I can gather from the available information, none of the 7" 800x480 monitors support s-video input. The 809gl-80np seems to be one of the few that have the s-video connector and it is an 8" model. The VM80 (a lilliput-made no-name-brand) supposedly has an optional s-video adapter, but it may not be actually available. The good news is that it goes for as low as $170 on ebay.

The Marshall monitor that Steev is looking at looks nice, but it is a bit pricey and no higher resolution than the other 800x480 monitors from Lilliput. If money was no object, I wouldn't think twice about buying it since it clearly has the right inputs and 16:9 and 4:3 capability. I would probably opt for a larger battery. That Bescor 36Watt/hour battery will last probably just under 4 hours and I have frequently gone past that while shooting. Unfortunately, longer battery life means more weight. I have sealed lead-acid batteries from another device that I will be using.

[Kurt August]

I have purchased this one on the cheap for 180 euro.

http://www.kt-shop24.de/pd-640325045.htm?categoryId=0

And cheap is what you get. It does it's job well, but video keeps looking a bit blurry, although (or because) it's a 800x600 resolution. And don't even think about fine colours. It has no 16:9 - 4:3 switch (automatic), but almost no overscan.

But at least, it's better than some 320x240 professional monitors!

That 999 dollar monitor looks good. But unfortunately, in Europe we have 576 vertical lines, not 480, and if I would spent that kind of money, I want it all, including overscan.

Doesn't Laptop + Software make more sense these days, I wonder.

[Toenis Liivamaegi]

Compaq TC1000 10" tablet PC could be one solution. Combined with firewire, external HDD, DV Rack and screen flip software it could be quite OK solution and one gets footage directly to HDD for about $500 without software

>>>> http://search.ebay.com/compaq-tc1000_W0QQfkrZ1QQfromZR8

Combine that with external USB sound hardware etc...

T.

[Will Kennedy]

Be careful regarding the full screen edges. Many lcd screens using the monitor-out signal crop 1-2% from the edges. This may not seem like much until you find the boom mike crept into the screen at the very edge.
This is not relevant if using the firewire out signal and software preview such as dv rack.

[Marcus Marchesseault]

Will, yeah, overscan is going to be an issue with the LCDs that aren't specifically designed to show it. I have decided to ban boom mics from my independant productions and do ADR in post. For other people doing live events, be careful.

"Compaq TC1000 10" tablet PC could be one solution."

I have thought of the laptop solution, but with the add-on drive it's just too much to be carrying. The most important thing to have is monitor that can be mounted on the cam to help focus. Next, it would be nice to have a computer doing acquisition and critical image monitoring. Some day it will be feasible.

[Ben Winter]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=5832470883

Looks good?