So I am upgrading my macbook pro FCP system to a MacPro and will get some sort of HD video card (haven't decided which). I was tired of not being able to see real time output of the HDV and XDCAM footage I am cutting.

I do not have it in the budget right now for the 3-5 thousand dollar HD broadcast monitoring solutions from Panasonic/Sony/etc. I may at some point, but most of the editing I do for broadcast goes to a finish editor in a million dollar studio anyways.

My questions are this: I have a very nice Sony HR Trinitron Broadcast CRT that I use with SD stuff. The HD cards can downconvert in real time to SD (right?) and will this be a good monitoring solution for me in terms of color correction/grading. I can see myself getting a consumer HD monitor with an HDMI connection but I do know that I cannot trust the accuracy as far as colors are concerned. Will the SD CRT do the trick for that.

Also, I was just reading about some Spyder calibration tool. Does that work well. If I do Digital Cinema Preview in FCP on an HD LCD monitor like a Dell or Apple can this tool calibrate it to a closer broadcast standard?

I am new to HD monitoring so any advice would help. Thanks.

B

1. The card can down convert if the card can down convert. It is up to you to choose which one you use. Recomendations: Zero.

2. Will the CRT do the trick? I have no idea, neither will you till you try it. The answer is "probably".

3. Spyder? No idea.

4. Apple/ Dell monitors? Hmm, think it unlikely.

Sorry if this comes across as a bit iffy, but there's not a lot to go on from my perspective.

If your output is going to a million dollar editing suite for "final", I can't even see why you would bother with all this, quite frankly.

If you're cutting for content, to be mixed with "what" in a "finishing" suite, what is the point?

I can't see that anything you can do with your budget is going to match what they see with what they have, so, where does that leave you?

Up a Gum tree without a bloody paddle, as far as I can see (blame Paul Hogan (Crocodile Dundee), weren't me, honest!).

As I realise this was about as much use as a condom at a Church social, please accept my consolation prize - I could have said nothing at all!

You might want to give the Q some more thought and have another stab later, else accept it's one of those, er, well, er, don't know questions.


CS

Thanks for your, er, answer Chris. My point was that the work I am doing for broadcast (maybe 10%) gets sent to another editor for finalizing, but the rest of the stuff I do, I am finishing myself, so I do not always have the access to the million dollar suite.

So let me rephrase my question as, yes, this is a priority to me to be able to correctly monitor my projects.

B

Take a look at the Matrox MXO. It is mighty sweet. It is a breakout box that connects to either a dell 24 inch or an apple 23 and can give you pixel accurate monitor of 1080p and advanced monitor tuning abilities.

We have one and it works well. It can be calibrated very well and can function as a legitimate broadcast monitor (on the low end of legitimate but still legitimate).

pretty in depth articles here...

http://lfhd.blogspot.com/2007/11/matrox-mxo-20-review.html

It's a pretty sweet middle of the road solution and it travels well.