MBP external DVI monitor recommendation

Using HP monitors on a Mac
HP monitors are not supported in a Mac environment.
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wish I'd seen that before I bought two!

I have an HP2309m monitor - which I've recently started using as the external on my MBP. This works very well with 50i footage when using the HDMI output of the AJA IO Express, but results in choppy playback & field issues when used via DVI - presumably as HP monitors 'don't work with macs' and only support 60Hz refresh rate.

What are folks using as a decent, inexpensive, DVI external monitor for full screen playback (with HDMI input)?

I am using 2 of these but they may not be good for you if you need 50hz.

I bought one of these this summer:

[accessories.us.dell.com]

Great picture, and a lot of ways to get signal to it. In addition to HDMI, you can chose VGA, two x DVI. Also analog in composite and component.

It does list 60Hz as optimal refresh rate. I have not tried sending 50Hz to it, but if you can wait till this evening (or morning for you) I'll try that.

I usually feed it DVI via an SDI to DVI convertor box and it gives a pretty fair image. If I were grading I would prefer a Flanders Monitor, but for straight editorial it works well for me.

My only complaint is that it takes a few minutes to warm up. When I first power it on it has a distinctly green cast that takes some time to clear. I like to give it 15 minutes or so before I look at it to closely.

Hi,

I thought I'd throw a fly into the ointment...


Just because a monitor has HDMI or DVI connections doesn't mean it properly handles video signals. All monitors mentioned so far are computer monitors, not broadcast video monitors. This explains some of the mentioned behavior (and the low prices involved).

Even the HP Dreamcolor monitors don't handle native digital video signals (they only accept RGB color space progressive signals) and require a signal converter to work properly (see HP whitepapers for more info).

Again, this discussion has been centered on computer monitors, not video broadcast monitors. The computer monitors may work fine, depending on the situations, but only as a computer monitor, not for reliably and accurately previewing video signals. This stuff is rather confusing...


-Dave

P.S. - Also, it should be mentioned that computer display cards (in most cases) do not output a valid video signal via DVI. Cards with HDMI outputs may do so in some cases. This is one of the reasons why there are devices made to convert video signals for use with computer displays, as well as devices to convert computer DVI outputs into proper video signals.

@Vance

Thanks for that - if you do get a chance to try a 50Hz signal on the Dell and see if it is stuttering that would be great.

@Dave

Surely all monitoring is RGB - so there's some kind of YCrCb to RGB conversion going on somewhere in the process. As far as displaying fields goes the DVI route is a bit messy - seems like fields are mushed together to make a frame, but the AJA IOx HDMI route works well - full frame rate, no deinterlacing (video looks like video, progressive looks correct) and reasonable pictures for editorial.

I'm not doing the finish on this set up - just the edit. Big advantage with DVI route is the toggle between video playback and more screen real estate. But I get that it isn't the cleanest route for video and dedicated video monitors will be more suitable, and more expensive ;-)