[MacDV] LCD screens for DV editing ?

[Richard Brown]

No matter what computer screen you use, they are ALL useless for 
judging video color. It would be FAR better, if video editing is your 
game, to purchase a broadcast monitor instead of an LCD screen. With 
21" CRTs so cheap (+/- $600), it would be better to get a good, big 
CRT, and then a good broadcast monitor (I recommend the Sony PVM-14M4U 
which has SMPTE C phosphors as an excellent candidate.) The combined 
price of a big CRT and a broadcast monitor will come in about the same 
as a 23" Cinema Display.

The advantages of the wide screen LCD's are palette space. While LCD's 
can be calibrated for PRINT work, using very expensive analyzers, the 
same is not really true for video, which has a totally alien color 
space (NTSC) compared to the crisp RGB world of computing. NTSC video 
is fickle, within its own particular color space, and soft by computer 
standards, lacking any real resolution. Hi Def video makes claims on 
resolution, but at 25-30 to 1 compression (the consumer, at home 
standard for incoming or personally recordable Hi Def), the stuff is a 
feast for fans of aliasing problems.

Unfortunately, the future of TV is about choice, not image quality, the 
litmus test of which has been ongoing for years with satellite and 
digital cable, both setting incredible new lows for image integrity, 
but offsetting this with immense varieties of channels from which to 
choose.

But in the world of producing video, whether to suffer aliasing or not 
in transmission, the need for a broadcast monitor is paramount to any 
real video editing effort.

You might think to use a TV set for monitoring... forget about it. TV 
sets use special circuits to even out the disparity of broadcast 
signals, rendering them only PARTIALLY useful to editing. Broadcast 
monitors are an ENTIRELY different animal. I'll predict your utter 
amazement when you see your DV/DVCAM footage for the first time on a 
broadcast monitor. You'll think your in a Beta SP suite.

Richard Brown

On Friday, August 15, 2003, at 10:24 AM, Sean wrote:

> What do I need to know about DV editing before replacing my CRT 
> monitor with an Apple Studio Display or a PowerBook?
> I've read that pros who do a lot of PhotoShop work should stick with a 
> CRT. Is the same true for working with DV?
> Can you edit efficiently on a 12" PowerBook screen with iMovie? with 
> FCExpress?
> Does the extra real estate of a 17" PowerBook screen allow you to edit 
> DV more efficiently than a 15" screen or the 12" screen?
>
> Sean
>
>
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