Monitor for editing footage.

I am going to be purchasing a monitor to edit my footage. Do you guys have any recommendations on spec or brand?

It will be a 24" I think but I'm open to suggestions. Not to bothered about it being 3D compatible but if it is then that's fine. Looking to spend around £200/300.

Which specifications are important to consider when choosing a screen for editing?

If my currency converter is correct you are looking to spend between $300-500 which is not a whole lot. A professional grade editing external monitor can be extremely costly. The new Sony OLED small monitors are somewhere near 30K if I remember right. I assume it is an external monitor that you are looking for and not a computer monitor. Correct me if I am wrong on that.

No matter what monitor you buy you should wait for a burn in time of between 150-200 hours and then have it professionally calibrated by someone licensed to do so. They do a lot more than play with your brightness and contrast settings and have several instruments to measure your gray scale and pluge. Not every monitor can display pluge properly so that is a consideration. Do not expect salesmen at big box electronic stores to really know what they are talking about or what you are seeking.

Steve

I assume it is an external monitor that you are looking for and not a computer monitor. Correct me if I am wrong on that.

Not really sure what you mean by that. I would call a display attached to a computer a external display and/or a computer monitor...

Your right i dont want to spend 30k on a screen

All i'm doing is editing footage im going to be putting on the internet, sharing with friends or giving to dive centers. i'm just looking to view my footage on a larger screen whilst editing. Something which is better quality than my laptop. I have a pretty high spec laptop, but i didnt purchase a very good display for it as i knew id want to use something larger for the editing..

So, what should i be looking for? maybe i could adjust my budget once i know what the market is... Cheers

I was with a guy last week using one of these

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/7664...re_Monitor.html

No joke, the picture was absolutely mind blowing, OLED is amazing but expensive.

In Sony Vegas Pro 8 and 10 I preview to a Windows secondary monitor like this:

Can you do that in your version Kun? I'm not sure if you're using Vegas Pro or Platinum now.

Anyway my main monitor is a 2007 24" Dell 2407WFPb. For a couple of years I used it as my secondary monitor for previewing HDV full screen from Vegas Pro and I was very happy with it. When I went to dual 24" displays I was going to get another similar spec Dell but I ended up getting an Asus PA246Q which I now use as my preview monitor. It's a more advanced monitor than the Dell and you really need to know what you're doing in terms of colour management with a monitor like this or you can get problems such as over-saturated colours. i.e. You should calibrate it with something like a Spyder 3 and you should be loading a colour profile to it via software. It's good if it's set up properly and it's a very popular monitor amongst media people.

1920x1200 is a good native resolution. I would definitely spend no more than the cost of the Asus PA246Q. I would get no bigger than 24". If you do you'll just be pushing it further and further away from you. And I would check out the current Dell 24" screens that are in the price bracket below the Asus PA246Q. My Dell gear has been awesomely reliable.

Check very carefully for dead pixels using specialised software or just filling the screen with each of black/white/red/green/blue. I had a dead pixel on my Asus and it needed changing.

In Sony Vegas Pro 8 and 10 I preview to a Windows secondary monitor like this:

 

 

Can you do that in your version Kun? I'm not sure if you're using Vegas Pro or Platinum now.

 

Anyway my main monitor is a 2007 24" Dell 2407WFPb. For a couple of years I used it as my secondary monitor for previewing HDV full screen from Vegas Pro and I was very happy with it. When I went to dual 24" displays I was going to get another similar spec Dell but I ended up getting an Asus PA246Q which I now use as my preview monitor. It's a more advanced monitor than the Dell and you really need to know what you're doing in terms of colour management with a monitor like this or you can get problems such as over-saturated colours. i.e. You should calibrate it with something like a Spyder 3 and you should be loading a colour profile to it via software. It's good if it's set up properly and it's a very popular monitor amongst media people.

 

1920x1200 is a good native resolution. I would definitely spend no more than the cost of the Asus PA246Q. I would get no bigger than 24". If you do you'll just be pushing it further and further away from you. And I would check out the current Dell 24" screens that are in the price bracket below the Asus PA246Q. My Dell gear has been awesomely reliable.

 

Check very carefully for dead pixels using specialised software or just filling the screen with each of black/white/red/green/blue. I had a dead pixel on my Asus and it needed changing.

Thanks Nick, very helpful. I still have platinum, i haven't felt i need to upgrade yet. I checked the software and that option is available, which is good.

I also have had great success with dell products i checked the website and found this http://tinyurl.com/7bma4by

compares nicely to the Asus, what do you think? you mention 1920x1200 should i go for 1920x1080 if possible?

I will look into how to calibrate it. You mention loading a colour profile, could you give me more information on this?

At first glance, and without doing any research into the current market, that Dell looks good and the price OK. It's IPS, same as my Asus. I vaguely remember comments about Dell IPS monitors having a pink hue, but that would be several months ago and probably fixed by now, but you might check on that.

I don't know about 1920x1200 vs 1920x1080. Either will display full HD at 1:1 so 1080 sounds OK. 1920x1200 would give you a bit more screen "real estate" for other work though. But the market may have moved to 1080 since I was shopping.

For previewing video and other media you should calibrate your monitor, which means measuring what it is displaying and adjusting it accordingly so that you know what you're going to get when you colour grade footage etc.. There are calibration devices (colorimeters) around such as the Spyder and the Huey which will measure the output of the screen and then create and load a colour profile which adjusts the screen with software, as opposed to using the monitor's controls. I bought a Spyder 3 and I wouldn't actually recommend it because I absolutely hate the software that comes with it. Really unintuitive to use and the utility they provide for loading a colour profile conflicts with Adobe Flash Player and causes crashes.

Versions of Vegas Pro up to 10 allowed you to load a colour profile via that drop-down menu that you can see in my screenshot above. That has now been dropped in version 11. Presumably they now intend you to load a colour profile using the colour management features in Windows, which were greatly improved in Windows Vista. Unfortunately I am still on XP, on which Windows colour management doesn't really work properly, and I have ended up having to adjust my Asus using its controls.

There are software-only tools such as Calibrize that get you in the right ballpark and may be enough without buying a hardware colorimeter. Your graphics driver should have a utility too. My Nvidia driver has a "display optimisation wizard". The most important thing, if you have multiple monitors, is that your monitors match each other, and that can largely be done by eye.

Hey Nick,

How has that Calibrize download work for you? Thinking of using it on my MBP.

Steve

Get the Dell 24" U2412m, nice little monitor for the price. For internet use, you only need sRGB color so any IPS monitor should do.

I am going to order one of the dell models in the next few days.

i watched this video on the spyder3 and the results seem outstanding on the laptop sceen he uses it on. Is it this simple or am i missing something? Please explain how it causes adobe to crash.

Do you only have to calibrate it once or is it something you must do often.

Hey Nick,

How has that Calibrize download work for you? Thinking of using it on my MBP.

Steve

I used it once Steve, and remember being a bit underwhelmed by it. But that might have been because my monitors were pretty much correct anyway. Remember, if you're not actually physically measuring a monitor's output with a hardware colorimeter, software can only help you with the relationship between the colours. But in my view that's probably the most important thing anyway, since our brains do a "mental white balance" adjustment anyway and quickly get used to the overall hue of a monitor.

I am going to order one of the dell models in the next few days.

 

i watched this video on the spyder3 and the results seem outstanding on the laptop sceen he uses it on. Is it this simple or am i missing something? Please explain how it causes adobe to crash.

 

I had my computer set to run Spyder3Utility at startup, as Spyder intend you to. The computer was completely freezing when using web browsers such that even <CTRL>+<ALT>+<DEL> would not work and I had to just power it off. In the end I traced it to running Flash Player (e.g. YouTube) while Spyder3Utility was running. When I took Spyder3Utility off, the freezes stopped. Bear in mind my computer is running the antique Windows XP x64, so that might be part of the problem.

I found the other Spyder calibration software to be a nightmare. Weird layout, and various settings would be hidden after the first time I used it such that I had to dig through the operating system looking for obscure files to delete such that I could access those settings again. I was battling it for about a week. I will try it all again when I finally upgrade my O/S, but I'm definitely not looking forward to it.

Do you only have to calibrate it once or is it something you must do often.

You're supposed to calibrate your monitor regularly, like once a month, as output drifts as the monitors age. But once is better than never.

My computer monitor is self calibrating with its own drop down colorimeter. I have it set to remind me to calibrate once every 200 hours. It is a costly monitor but I appreciate high performance.

Steve

I have a Dell U2412M too. 24" 16:10 (1920x1200) IPS Panel. At the moment it's the best compromise between wallet and quality

Best