I read it's possible to use a SD monitor or even a TV setr with HD100 even when recording in HDV. My question is, what would be the disadvantages of using a SD instead of a HD monitor when shooting 720 25p?

The disadvantage is that you wouldn't be seeing 2/3 of the detail in your frame! HDV's frame uses 2.67 times as many pixels as an SD DV frame. So all you'll see on the SD monitor is a downrezzed version. May be somewhat useful for framing, but useless for helping you determine focus, for example.

And NTSC is not HD, so the NTSC peculiarities of color imprecision etc. may taint your impression of what your footage actually looks like.

This might be of interest. Here is a portable HD LCD monitor that was drawing crowds at NAB http://www.erg-ventures.com/products/85/index.htm. Might be a great solution for the HD100.

Any idea on the cost of this monitor?

Here ya go Tim, http://www.promax.com/Products/Detail/16680.

Thanks for the heart attack...lol...that is some significant doh-ray-mee for an 8 inch monitor.

But may be worth it.

Does anyone know a cheaper alternative?

You've got the 19" HD TV version from DELL, with HD Component inputs, and 1280x768 native. They are not as calibrated or dont have as many controls as that from that ERG model, but you can get one from $600 or less.

Notice that the 20" LCD version DOES not have HD component, just DVI and SD inputs, so you would need a converter from 720p HD to 720p DVI.

When ultra-detail and ultra-pro color monitoring is not needed ON THE SET/FIELD, the Dells would be your best options, they just let you see ALL the pixels and details, hence improvig your FOCUSING and framing.

I strongly DO NOT recommend them for broadcasting / NLE monitoring.

BUT... I was told that for "Collateral" they used the 23" from Apple, which nowadays are surprassed by the Dells. The reason was both portability and some scenes on the train where CRT ones would get interference from train's charges. And they used some on Star Wars set.

so... who knows... if they use them in Hollywood for some HDCAM productions...

L

Is there anything smaller out there, which doesn't cost an arm and a leg? 19" (unless it's a flat monitor) seems like a monster. Also, did they really trust LCD monitors in Collateral and SW for color and lighting? It seems to me, a LCD monitor wouldn't be any good for anything else but framing.

Hey Luis - welcome to DVinfo. I was in Buenos Aires earlier this summer doing video at Teatro Colon :-)

I have a couple consumer LCD's which are OK, but certainly not pro monitors. One thing to be aware of; every consumer model I've seen overscans.

I have a 22" Samsung LTP-227W 1280x720 which is pretty nice. Has component, s-video, composite and and DVI. I also have an older Sony 17" 1280x768 widescreen monitor which has been discontinued. This screen is powered by an external AC brick, and when I got an external battery for my laptop I found that it can also be used to power the LCD monitor:

http://www.apcc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=UPB80

You've got the 19" HD TV version from DELL, with HD Component inputs, and 1280x768 native. They are not as calibrated or dont have as many controls as that from that ERG model, but you can get one from $600 or less.

Notice that the 20" LCD version DOES not have HD component, just DVI and SD inputs, so you would need a converter from 720p HD to 720p DVI.

Hey Luis, do you have the model numbers? Thanks.

Hey Luis - welcome to DVinfo. I was in Buenos Aires earlier this summer doing video at Teatro Colon :-)


Hi Boyd! thanks for the welcoming. For what were you shooting in Colon Theatre?

About the MODELS:
19" LCD TV from DELL: W1900 (1280x768, 450nit, 600:1, component HD + DVI inputs) - $500-600
24" LCD Display from DELL: 2405FPW (1920x1200, 500 nits, 600:1, component HD+DVI inputs) - $800-1000

Both have many ways to display the 16:9/4:3 picture.

Then you have the ones from Apple which are worst and more expnsive.

About Collateral and Star Wars, yes, I checked out and both had worked with the Apple LCD displays with DVI (not even analog HD inputs).

With a good tripod you can easily have the 19" from DELL on your studio or field (if you have 110/220V near you or a power generator)

L

Just reading about monitor options for the hd-100.
What sort of quality would you be getting if you used a mac laptop as a monitor? I am planning a job where to cut down on kit we are going to use fcp5 to log and capture as we go. (and as a monitor) I know the log and capture window may not be full res but what about the mac its self, can it handle the pixels?

About Collateral and Star Wars, yes, I checked out and both had worked with the Apple LCD displays with DVI (not even analog HD inputs).

Would you know how did they take the component or HD-SDI out to DVi? Just curious.


With a good tripod you can easily have the 19" from DELL on your studio or field (if you have 110/220V near you or a power generator)

You could also use a marine or even a big car battery with an inverter to power it. :)

The 24" is a PC monitor and it would mabye take power from an external laptop battery. But I'm not sure.

Thanks Luis.

Log and capture would be a really lousy monitor for just about everything in my experience. There's BTV Pro which is a really nice Mac shareware package that will give you a full screen monitor, scopes and hard drive recording. Unfortunately, it's only for DV and I don't know if there are any plans to upgrade it. I'm not aware of any other Mac solutions for this, but maybe one has come along recently.

http://www.bensoftware.com/btvpro.html

Luis: I did the video projections for "Walkyria" at Teatro Colon in June. We used two 10,000 lumen Sanyo LCD projectors, one of them on a 16 meter wide black scrim from the front, and the other on an 8 meter wide rear screen. Quite a bit of the footage was 3d computer animation, and we planned to have more live footage but with labor and other problems at the theatre we had to scale this back due to lack of time.

Michael: I typed "component to dvi converter" into Google and got a lot of results, such as this:

http://store.a2zcable.com/viadcoorvgat.html
http://www.startech.com/ststore/itemdetail.cfm?ProductID=VID2DVIDTV&mt=Z

Boyd,
Thanks for the reply. Once the footage has been captured and i am looking at it in the viewer or canvas, how accurate a picture do you think the mac screen is?
I shot some stuff with my new camera and was struggling with the viewfinder and its brightness settings, (The brightness dial is very loose and bumps easily....). When i viewed it back on a friends large LG plasma (not sure of res) it all looked over exposed, but, when i imported the footage into fcp5 it is fine. No where near as over exposed looking?
I guess what i want to know is how true a picture am i getting by what i'm looking at in fcp?
I guess thats a pretty in depth question, like how long is a piece of string.....
thanks.

I have a Sony Z1, but haven't upgraded to FCP 5 yet (soon :-) so I haven't been working with HDV. But my impression is that the canvas and digital desktop windows are not that great in FCP. They're fine for what they're intended to do, but they don't show full resolution. Also, I'd think HDV on even the fastest powerbook would involve some compromises.

Just the other day I was rearranging my studio, and I had been using my 22" Samsung HD LCD to edit widescreen PAL DV recently. Since I don't have a PAL monitor I was using it via FCP's digital cinema desktop and I thought i looked pretty good. Since I was starting an NTSC project I decided to hook it back up in my usual way, using firewire to send DV to my DVD recorder which outputs component video to the same screen. I did an A/B test, and the component video connection to the screen was much, much better quality.

"I guess thats a pretty in depth question, like how long is a piece of string....."

Hah, ha.... the way I recall the story, somebody asked Abraham Lincoln "how long should a man's legs be?" and he answered "long enough to reach the floor." ;-)

A cheaper and larger monitor solution might be this hd-sdi to LCD Monitor adapter from blackmagic. Of course to me SD is good enough for stuff like feeding the Jib/Dolly operator with video. But for the Video Village this is better.

http://www.blackmagic-design.com/products/hdlink/

I know I'm a little late to this, but...

Those Dells you mention, I seem to recall someone talking about those having basically the same innards as the new Apple flat panel displays. Plus, I've used the Apple displays a ton, and they're near perfect. Sure, they're not completely color accurate out of the box, but that's where Blackmagic and such come in, with adaptors that'll allow you to show full HD res on these monitors, with reasonable color accuracy.

Here, read this:
http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/review_decklink_nattress.html

It isn't perfect, but it's not awful like you claim it is.

Oh, just realized that that box only works for HD-SDI. This page details a box that does it for component: http://www.adamwilt.com/HDV/hp2335.html#DVI

We just got our GY-HD100U and were at first considering using the ERG 8" monitors but ended up using the new Marshall V-R70P-HDA 7" which is actually pseudo VGA/HD at 800X480.

Yet it's 1/2 the price at $1400 and has all the option such as BNC component analog, S-vid and composite, bars generator, battery mount, aspect swtich and mounting plate.

At this small screen size, the HDV image looks awesome and it would be hard to discern any more detail unless you put your face up to the screen. It's really a nice montor for the price.

Dave Beaty