Two monitors plus a TV?

Am getting a whole new system: a Mac Pro with FCS 2 upgrade. Have not edited in years, however, and am not sure how to optimize my displays. Am shooting in HDV and possibly capturing as Pro Res 422.

A FCP geek I respect a lot wrote this recently "Computer Displays are for your computer interface, not watching video." with a suggestion for a HDMI/720p TV to watch said video.

My intention is to get an inexpensive 20-22" LCD and a 24" HDMI/1080p Benq as my computer monitors. I know that I need a lot of real estate for my FCP functions -- timelines, etc -- but I can only afford a standard def, S-video-or-component-in TV for the video output at this point.

Does that make any sense? How would/should i be using the Hi Def Benq to watch the footage?

Do I really need 3 screens on my editing table?

Am not going to do any color correcting. That will be done by a friend at a high end post house.

<<<Do I really need 3 screens on my editing table?>>>

Of course. The left and right monitors are for managing the edits (Shuffle as necessary. We have two different editors and they arrange the two monitors differently.) and the television monitor (hopefully not a "TV" is connected to the show television output system, not the computer system.

Both of our on-line systems are wired like that.

I will say that our two computer monitors are large, glass and identical. If you want to see what the HiDef show "really" looks like, it takes up both monitors--remember, 1080 is four feet wide.

Koz

Kozikowski Wrote:
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>
>. . . and the television monitor
> (hopefully not a "TV" is connected to the show
> television output system, not the computer

That sounds wonderful, but I am working with budgetary limitations.

What about getting a second 1680 x 1050 pixel 22" monitor for all my FCS needs and use the 1080p 24" BenQ as the television monitor?

I could afford that and the HD footage should look great. Maybe that's not the function it's designed for but what am I going to lose? Especially if my cut is going to be corrected by an expert colorist on a very high level system?

im not sure i follow what youre saying, BUT you arent going to have success using a TV monitor doubling as a computer monitor.

I just purchased a new system and got two Dell 24" LCD's for $569 each. They are exceptional monitors for the money.

It is ideal to have 2 screens for workspace (timeline, viewer, canvas, bins, etc) and a third for viewing a full res output. But it is certainly no problem to be working off of one screen and viewing on the other. Just know that you will have to do a lot of scrolling through your clips and bins and be working with many fewer visible tracks in your timeline.

I would suggest the Dell LCD's if you can only afford two. The resolution is 1920x1200 on each so you could watch full res 1080p if you were cutting that, and if your bandwidth could support it. (Kaz - 4 feet? Am I missing something?). Then you have two matched monitors and when you can afford a nice big LCD or CRT for viewing it will add on to the system nicely.

Also, you may already know this but you are going to need a capture/output card that will support HDMI if you are dead set on your BenQ. I just outlined an the HD system/workflow I purchased/am working with in a post from a few days ago. Do a search and you should find it.

Gene,

You can use two computer monitors with your Mac Pro, depending on the graphics card; most of them now are dual DVI -- but go ahead and get the fastest one you can afford (I splurged on the ATI x1900). I think that most people prefer identical monitors for this, and you can pick up a couple 19" or 20" LCDs for this purpose pretty cheaply. Or, get at least 1 HD monitor (23" or better) and a smaller monitor for your secondary -- but only if you care about watching HD footage on your main monitor (like in Quicktime Player). But with your intended setup you'll want a third HD monitor of some kind for working with FCP and HD(V) footage so you don't necessarily need an HD LCD for your desktop.

(Just for the record, I only use 1 23" LCD on my desk and use the second DVI port for external preview. But that's just me.)

You'll need another card for viewing video on a third monitor. If you're working in HDV then consider Decklink's new Intensity Cards which offer HDMI output for only $250. Assuming you have a little cash left over at this point, you can buy an LCD TV with HDMI inputs to serve as your external monitor.

BUT:

You won't be able to trust the color output on the LCD TV. All the Pros will tell you that you still need an expensive glass CRT for that. But since it's way outside your budget and someone else will be color-correcting then don't worry about it. Just know that the video you're looking at is not chroma or gamma accurate (output color bars to it from FCP and calibrate it as best you can first). What a TV will show you (and what a computer LCD monitor WON'T) is interlacing, which is one of the main reasons to use an external monitor in the first place.
HTH,
JK

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SCQT! Self-contained QuickTime ? pass it on!

Quote
I just purchased a new system and got two Dell 24" LCD's for $569 each.

The Dells are now $569? Holy cow! Forget FCS2. I'm getting another Dell.

Michael Horton
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<<<(Kaz - 4 feet? Am I missing something?)>>>

It's a sweet spot problem, not a specification problem.

Return with us now to the days of Standard Definition. A 19" glass monitor is widely considered the "sweet spot" for viewing standard NTSC or PAL. If you go up from there, you start to see scan lines and odd interlace problems that really are there, but don't contribute to the quality of the image.

If you go down from there (and this is the problem we worry about here) you lose quality. Yes, you can judge NTSC image quality on a 14" monitor, just not as well. You can do it on a 9" field monitor, too, but the quality falls apart pretty seriously there. There's just nothing like staring at a nice 19" monitor to insure that your audience is seeing everything that you can produce.

From here it's just math. 640 pixels wide over 17", extrapolate to 1920. I get 4.2 feet.

If you go smaller, even though the panel is rated at full 1080 resolution, you are simply not watching everything in the picture. It turns to optical mush. And remember some of that is the panel's ad people, too. How are you going to prove them wrong?

Koz

Ahhh! Interesting indeed... maybe I can use this as fuel for the fire when my partners and I discuss what we should install in our edit bay for External Preview. That 46" LCD we were thinking of, just isn't big enough.

<<<That 46" LCD we were thinking of, just isn't big enough.>>>

And remember, my numbers are the long way, not the diagonal which is the number in the ads.


Before we get all throw-uppy over this, remember that you don't need to see every little detail to cut a show. Most people I know don't even glance at the QC Television Monitor until they get close to the end--or run into troubles. Most of the work is smashed into Canvas View.

We are talking about Quality Control. If somebody else is going to do Color Correction and Final Output, then whatever you're doing on the smaller monitors is probably just fine.

But, if you keep buying larger and larger panels and the picture keeps getting better and better, you haven't hit the sweet spot yet. Somebody downstream on a super DLP projector is going to call and want to know how come those chroma key edges are all sparkly on the show he paid for.

What sparklies? I don't see any sparklies.

Koz

I would suggest only using a single, high res LCD for FCP editing (like a 23" apple, or 30", and use the "TV" you mention for preview, if you're on a budget,... plus real estate on your desktop. The FCP display should be at least 20" though, any smaller and you'd be killing yourself! I actually find two displays for FCP a bit annoying,.. having to move the cursor across two screens is not really that helpful!

I work with a single display for FCP editing and use a CRT for color TV monitor. That works great,... I also do critical color correcting and find LCD's not color deep enough for critical color correct (I not only correct for broadcast safe, but to color for best/beautiful image). I'm also on something of a budget, and haven't really had the need to buy a second display. If I had the money laying around I might buy two Apple 23, or 30" HD displays and see how that works,...

I also use another system (for the last 2.5 years), where I do everything on an Apple 23", including the color correct, but look at a Sony CRT for final review,... and adjustments. That's just two monitors and it works fine,... though a 30" would be best!