Hello,

I was in B&H the other day in New York City and I was looking to get a monitor for my xl1s. I've heard about the
7" pana and a bunch of others.

I wandered into the portable dvd section and found that they can be used as a monitor as well.
Question? Has anyone used a portable dvd player as a monitor and how was the result?
I just need something to look at instead of the viewfinder.
I know it's not broadcast quality, but I think for my needs it might work fine and I get a portable dvd player at the same time.
I looked at the panasonic 9" portable, the screen also folds almost flat to the player and becomes an 1" or so thick. It also has 4:3 or 16:9 widescreen options and a bunch of other image controls. B&H also has alot of mounts and small video monitor tables that I can either attach to the top of the camera or side mount it on the tripod. For me again that would work fine.

Oh, yea! It's also half the price of the 7" panasonic
at $549.

Please give me your input. If I end up putting this together I will post a photo to show others.

Thanks in advance,
Matt

you need to look at the no. of pixels of the monitor. Most monitors for automobile intallation are 1400H x 234V. Way too low a rez on the vertical scale to be able to use as an effective monitor. The minimum vertical rez I'd settle for is 480.

<<<-- Originally posted by Matthew Lombardo : Hello,

I was in B&H the other day in New York City and I was looking to get a monitor for my xl1s. I've heard about the
7" pana and a bunch of others.

I wandered into the portable dvd section and found that they can be used as a monitor as well.
Question? Has anyone used a portable dvd player as a monitor and how was the result?
I just need something to look at instead of the viewfinder.
I know it's not broadcast quality, but I think for my needs it might work fine and I get a portable dvd player at the same time.
I looked at the panasonic 9" portable, the screen also folds almost flat to the player and becomes an 1" or so thick. It also has 4:3 or 16:9 widescreen options and a bunch of other image controls. B&H also has alot of mounts and small video monitor tables that I can either attach to the top of the camera or side mount it on the tripod. For me again that would work fine.

Oh, yea! It's also half the price of the 7" panasonic
at $549.

Please give me your input. If I end up putting this together I will post a photo to show others.

Thanks in advance,
Matt -->>>

I've done it. It's not the best way to go about it, but will work. You can't light with it because it doesn't give accurate color representation (and you can't adjust the color). Also, none of them really have the resolution for focus, and you can't mount it on the camera anyway.

It would work for a jib though - just to let you know what you're pointed at. Or if you're not going to be operating the camera but most know what the camera is pointed at. It will fulfill the bare minimum requirements for a monitor - it will show you, mostly, what the camera is looking at. But that's it.

Go here to read my post about field monitors

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=36435

The 7" Panasonic would be a good onboard monitor, but a good field production monitor is a must for any production. It can help with focus, color, determine if there are moiré problems, video noise, etc.

Get both.

What about other monitors with better resolution, like the Lilliput or the Xenarc?

I have got some comments from the Lilliput, but no one seems to be using the Xenarc.

Has anyone tried it?


Carlos

Hi Carlos,

This is just to correct some of the discussions I've seen on the forum about the Lilliput 7" monitor. I took some time looking into this and verifying all the facts before posting. Because if what I was reading was true, I definitely wanted to add these monitors to our product list. Unfortunately... it was not.
None of the Lilliput 7" monitors have close to a million pixels. The highest they have is 384,000. When they give the RGB at 1.1 million they are talking about dots. Three red, green and blue dots equal one pixel. Any company saying 1.1 million pixels RGB is trying to mislead the consumer as to the true resolution of the monitor by listing dots as pixels.
Unfortunately I am beginning to see an alarming trend develop. Even large corporations (like Panasonic) are beginning to use this listing in order to not have their product look inferior to their competitors. It does not mean that there is any better resolution... it is way of mis-representiong itself as something it is not.
By the way, we compared the top of the line Lilliput 7" to the Panasonic for 3 days straight. The Lilliput does look soft.

-Rob

Thanks Rob. I've been fairly curious about this myself.

Glad I could help... I must admit the allure of a 1.1 million pixel screen had my mouth watering. Unfortunately I lost my appetite when I uncovered the facts.

Who knows... maybe one day it will be a reality.

<<<-- Originally posted by Rob DuBree :
By the way, we compared the top of the line Lilliput 7" to the Panasonic for 3 days straight. The Lilliput does look soft.
-->>>


Rob,


Could you try the Xenarc 700YV? That is the one I think might be an interesting bet too.

The company is in the US and their products might be competitive.


Carlos

Hi Carlos,

We're always looking at other 7" monitors for our modifications and upgrades. Up until now, our "go to" model has been the Panasonic TC7-WMS1. Every other monitor we've looked at (and there have been dozens) either lacks in picture quality or does not offer the features of the Panasonic. If we can't make it better than the Panasonic, then we we will continue to use it, but we are constantly on the lookout.

We're also in the process of designing our own 7"widescreen from the ground up.

Do you know where I can look up some specs on the Xenarc unit?

-Rob

I know this is an old thread, but here's a link to the Xenarc specs.

http://www.xenarc.com/product/700y.html

Thanks Marc,

I'm always checking to see whats out there. I gave up looking for these specs a while ago... much appreciated.

-Rob