I've posted a similar message before but didnt get any responce so im hoping this time someone will be able to help as this is a real problem for me right now.

Im trying to find the most acurate way to monitor my 25p footage when im editing as i feel my current setup is somehow wrong. Ok so heres what im doing right now...

1920 x1080 timeline in Sony Vegas 8 to edit my 25p hq footage which is outputted via firewire to a sony 1080i vtr deck which then feeds a composite output to my 14" SD jvc monitor. In my properites within vegas i have my deinterlace method set to OFF and use 32bit float with gamma at 2.222 and apply a computer to studio levels filter to my video track (i have to do this otherwise my smpte bars dont display the 3 verticle black and gray stripes at the bottom which indicates im not in the right colour space).

Ok so with this setup im thinking maybe the fact my vtr deck is only designed for 1080i hdv that it may be having an affect on how it is displaying my footage on my monitor, which by the way shows considerable amount of line twitter on straight edges. I was thinking that i may be better off buying a consumer hdtv to see exactly whats going on better seeing as im actually editing in HD and quite alot of colour manipulation. My work is usually printed to tape for broadcast or downconverted to DVD.

So is my VTR deck causing a problem? would i be better off with a hdmi connection to a hdtv? Knowing my scenario, what would you do?

Thanks, and this is critical to me right now so even a vague reply would be appreciated.

I didn't know you could even export the XDCAM format over firewire to an external monitor in realtim like you can with DV. Is this a Vegas thing, because I am pretty positive it cannot be done in FCP?

Yeh it works fine in terms of monitoring real time footage (well not so real time with vegas' preview monitor) but yeh once footage is on the timeline vegas will output it regardless of format to any monitor device attached. Im just worried that my chain of doing things is limiting my workflow and accuracy

I've done it in FCP through my Sony DSR-11. Seems FCP will do a downconvert and out of firewire. It's not pretty but it really does work in FCP too.

I didn't know you could even export the XDCAM format over firewire to an external monitor in realtim like you can with DV. Is this a Vegas thing, because I am pretty positive it cannot be done in FCP?

I have as one my Vegas external monitor a 42" 1080p HDTV. You must calibrate the TV to the EX1 camera. Connect the EX1 to the TV via component and point it out the window. Then adjust the TV (and the LCD while you are at it) to best represent reality.

I havent considered doing that before, i suppose along with bars this is a very good idea. How does the 42" look when playing back the ex1 footage, are you ever subject to line twitter? Also what card are you using to output a 1920/1080 image to the hdtv?

You could always get a decklink card. Depending on the card you'll get either HDMI or HDSDi/Component outputs.

is that what i'd need to get a full res image out of my computer to a hdtv then? I think i heard somewhere that different cards output different colour space, i.e. the nvidia cards output rgb colour space as opposed to yuv