Hi Bryan,
It would be preferable to have an all-digital, full resolution workflow for maximum quality output to your monitor. You don't have to break the bank to achieve this. Here's a workflow which might work for you in SD, HD and 2K.
Your DeckLink HD Extreme 2 card already supports SD, HD and 2K via SDI so you just need to find a suitable monitoring solution for these formats.
The monitor you are considering is not a full resolution HD monitor so you won't see the full detail of your HD video and you certainly won't be able to monitor 2K video.
The converter you are considering converts SD/HD-SDI to analog which means the resulting output will include analog noise and be softer than an all-digital workflow. We also have an
SDI to Analog Mini Converter at a much lower price but I still would suggest staying with an all-digital workflow if you can.
I would recommend you consider the following workflow. Connect the DeckLink HD Extreme 2 card (that's the current shipping version of the DeckLink HD Extreme card) to a
HDLink Pro. This is an SDI to DVI/HDMI converter which also features 6 channels of analog audio output and includes a power supply. Connect the HDLink Pro to a 30" DVI display for full resolution, pixel-for-pixel monitoring of SD, HD and 2K video. Current 30" DVI monitors from companies including Apple, Hewlett Packard, Samsung and Dell have enough pixels to show full resolution 2K (2048 x 1556) video.
The HDLink Pro includes 3D LUT's so you can fine tune your monitor even if there are no controls on the monitor itself. The HDLink Utility software can be installed on a Mac or Windows PC and then connects and controls the HDLink Pro via a USB connection.
Several companies make fancy LCD or plasma broadcast monitors which have a box of electronics attached to them and then offer a DVI connection. These are generally expensive monitors and may or may not offer full-resolution HD display. The box of electronics seems to inflate the cost of the monitor and can sometimes introduce technicalities when using HDLink Pro to produce an image on the display. It is safer and less expensive to buy a straight forward DVI-based computer display and simply attach it directly to HDLink Pro. We test and use all of the current 30" displays from Apple, Hewlett Packard, Samsung and Dell and my personal favorites are the Apple and the Samsung displays.
I think if you compare the costs of the hardware you were considering, compared with the HDLink Pro and a 30" DVI monitor, you will find that digital HD and 2K monitoring is now surprisingly affordable.
If you don't need 2K monitoring, then consider obtaining a display with HDMI input. You can use the HDMI output of the DeckLink HD Extreme 2 card for full-resolution HD1920 x 1080 monitoring. This is uncompressed, digital monitoring so the quality is fantastic and, as always, it's best to use a full-resolution 1920x1080 or 1920x1200 display.
I hope this helps!
Regards,
Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design
