Portable TV set for on-field monitoring

[David Lorente]

Maybe not the best part of the forum to ask this, but here it goes.

When I worked with my oldie Beta SP I used to carry a 14" Sony Trinitron portable TV set. Of course, the quality of this set was years light under a true broadcast monitor, but since the Beta had only composite video outs, it was good enough to see focusing and rough color issues, and for framing it worked exactly the same than a 10 times more expensive monitor.

Now I want something similar to work with the EX-1. I have inspected the catalogues of broadcast monitors, and have been very disappointed that almost all the portable monitors are just 640x480, or 800x600 pixels in resolution at best, and with astronomical prizes! Knowing that my main concern to use an external monitor is to achieve good focus, I need the higher pixel count available, so I was thinking of buying an HD ready portable TV set, of roughly 20".

And now the question is: what brand and model to choose?

Sony has a portable series of Bravia LCDs, the model KDL-20B4050 being a good candidate for our purposes as the color reproduction will be somewhat fiable, but it's still a bit expensive.

So the debate is open: what portable set would you buy? What are you using if you already own one? All your thoughs are welcome!

[Dave Morrison]

I'll be interested in the replies, David. I'm in the same boat. I'd love to get the Carrion:
http://www.siniarchproductions.com/lsdsgn/carrion-b.htm
but it's a bit more $$$ than the Sony you pointed out.

[George Kroonder]

Apples and oranges.

The carrion is a battery powerd 10.4" monitor with SDI and component inputs that you can mount on your camera or steadycam rig and it has specfic field monitor features.

The 20" Sony is a TV.

Not saying you can't use a TV, possibly with something like a nanoView, as a directors monitor or even for camera setup (critical focus, color) to some extend.

Do think it would be an akward thing to mount on your camera though ;-)

George/

[Giroud Francois]

izzotek has a kit for a 15" lcd at full hd res.
you can probably hack a 15" old vga screen a mount the panel inside the old case.
if it not possible, building a case from a wallet (pelican) could give you the best "all weather" HD monitor on the market.
just make a window (with acrylic glass) on the side of the pelican case, mount the panel slightly (about 1 inch) recessed behind, so there is no direct light on it. For the price of the carrion , you can even add a cheap HD-SDI to component converter, so you got all the input that exist in video.

www.izzotek.com

[Dave Morrison]

Originally Posted by George Kroonder

Apples and oranges.

The carrion is a battery powerd 10.4" monitor with SDI and component inputs that you can mount on your camera or steadycam rig and it has specfic field monitor features.

George/

Not 10.4", it's 8.4".

[Andrew Hollister]

Here is an interesting thread I've been following for a while...
these kids are building their own lcd monitors (7, 10, 12) for their hv20's
http://www.hv20.com/showthread.php?t=3448&page=19

a long drawn out thread where they are buying LCD & controller board kits from manhattenlcd.com (somewhat suspect) and building home made cases from all over the place... all for a fraction of the cost of a Marshall.

No HDSDI but component and HDMI... but a bit more resolution than the typical carrion or marshall...

i've started designing a case to see how much it would be to get made by some local metal-gurus

[George Kroonder]

Originally Posted by Dave Morrison

Not 10.4", it's 8.4".

Sorry Dave, was working from the top of my head and skipped my usual fact checking. Serves me right.

Thanks for setting me straight.

George/

[Dave Morrison]

No problem, but it DID send me over there FAST to see if it got bigger all of a sudden! No such luck. :-(