monitoring DVCPROHD...

ive been playing with dvcprohd footage from a panasonic hvx and im having some interesting monitoring results.

my current system is set up for DV work all via firewire (g5 to dsr1500 to sony pvm) and video playback is set to firewire. when i fire up a dvcprohd sequence i can see parked playhead image over on my firewire connected sony pvm but it doesnt follow the live playhead and i cant scrub. it just shows up once the playhead is parked for a second or so.

now when i have video playback set to digital cinema full, i get smooth realtime monitoring over on my secondary monitor (an older mitsubishi diamond pro 19 crt" connected to the second dvi port on my radeon 9800 video card).

when i A/B the image quality from the pvm and the 19"crt, the look is nearly identical. the blacks are a little richer on the pvm but i think with a little tweaking i could get them fairly well matched.

anyway, im sure this isnt precise enough for all the "propeller-heads" out there, but i just thought this was an interesting discovery and WAY cheaper than a proper HD monitor and all the related cards and such...

Two ways:

Computer to DVCPRO HD Deck to monitor

Computer with HD Capture card to monitor. Cheapest cards are by Decklink.

Oh...third way. Matrox MXO...just released.

But for proper coloring you need an HD monitor...but just to view your SD monitor will work, provided the capture card has SD outs.

Not just for propellerheads: the gamma levels, interlace artifacts, the difference between computer color space and HDTV colorspace....

Use it for offline, though.

At our cash strapped studio, we will be using a Dell 24" LCD computer monitor for detail monitoring from its component inputs (something a 19" monitor cannot do), and a Standard def high-end production monitor for color correcting, and a consumer tube HDTV calibrated with HD bars and a sheet of blue filter for "common man" end results. Whew!

-Christopher