I am thinking about getting an external monitor because it's hard to edit and then preview on the same screen for it is quite small. I just have some general questions. I believe my video card supports two monitors in which I want the monitor to be dedicated to the preview screen. Would I need an expensive monitor or a high performance monitor? I mean, I have some old 15'' monitors from my previous computers, but aren't sure if that'll work.

When working with the DV codec it is usually more accurate and consumes less computer resources to use a video (NTSC, PAL) monitor instead of a computer monitor so you see a more precise rendition of whayt the image will look like on a TV. You can usually use a DV camcorder or VTR as a realtime video preview source. Doing this does not put any wear on the heads, you are only using the electronics of the camera or VTR, not the tape mechanism.

Oh? Hmm... then what's the diff between a video monitor and a computer monitor? Video monitor meaning like TV? Well, what are dual or two monitors used for then that I keep hearing about?

Well it's also great to have more than one monitor for your computer, because then you don't need to 'window around' so much when editing. You can set up the timeline on one monitor, the list of clips and effects on another and so on.

Oh I see..... should I just then use my TV (which I have plenty) for the preview?

Yes, using a TV can be good but try to connect it through S-video and set up the color, contrast, hue and brightness to standar levels and sharpness to maximum (if it's an analog TV).

If you have nothing else but a consumer television set, that will have to do, but a professional Sony, Panasonic or JVC video monitor would be a much better solution.

With dual computer displays, some folks stretch the timeline across both displays, and will have their clip bins on one display and transition/effects bins on the other. There are a variety of ways to set it up.

I realize I have some reading to do.....but, since I'm here. I have a Nvidia Ti4600 vid card. It has TV out (s-video) and dual monitor support. Am I following this correctly? I could hook up a (TV) monitor to the s-vid and use it to preview instead of the small preview window in the NLE? Or does that require a second PC monitor? Is that mostly dependent on the PC, or the NLE software?

Hmmm. I think it will consume more system resources to use the S-video output on the card, and you will porbably not get as accurate a rendition of what it would look like on a TV. It is most likely better to have a camcorder or VTR handle the realtime DV to NTSC or PAL conversion.

David, you're using Vegas. The proper method for using an external monitor in Vegas is through the firewire port. You click the small "external monitor" button above the preview window, this will then send the output over firewire to your camera/deck/convertor which you then connect to your monitor. If using a camera, it has to allow "pass-thru" to convert the digital signal to analog. Also be aware that the audio will remain on the computer speakers.

I'm not sure if this applys to all NLE's but when monitoring through the VCR/Camcorder, on playback from the timelice, there may be a tiny delay from the preview on your NLE. It is most noticable in audio. If you are listening to the computer speakers and watching a monitor through a deck - you will likely think you have a sync problem. Monitor audio through the deck also - it goes away!

I know Vegas has a setting that can be adjusted to correct for that problem. The default setting has worked great for all of my editing systems.