HD monitor hookup for edit bay?
by Doug Graham
on
Oct 27, 2005 at 8:34:07 pm
I've been reading specs on monitors, and display cards, and have gotten myself thoroughly confused.
I would like to run two Dell 2405 monitors in my edit bay, one for the program interface, and the other for full-screen video display.
I'm using Vegas 6, if that makes a difference.
My question is: what video display card to use, and how to hook it up? I currently have an ATI Radeon 9700 Pro. It has an optional s-video to HDTV adapter, but I wonder about the quality of that, and also whether it would show just the video image, or simply a duplicate of whatever's on the primary monitor. I've looked at the Matrox AVPe, which looks like it could do what I want (and another whole monitor besides!), but I'm not impressed by its specs for doing 3D animation work.
Re: HD monitor hookup for edit bay? by Ron Shook on Oct 27, 2005 at 9:18:54 pm
Doug,
[Doug Graham]"I would like to run two Dell 2405 monitors in my edit bay, one for the program interface, and the other for full-screen video display.
I'm using Vegas 6, if that makes a difference."
Yeah, it makes a difference in your options. Unless you are using the Dell strictly for 1080 HD display, I wouldn't recommend it as your video display. It doesn't scale well. SD and probably even 720p isn't going to look very good. The comparable 23" HP display which is a bit more expensive has much better scaling.
Next is the question of how you get a good TV display signal?
[Doug Graham]"It has an optional s-video to HDTV adapter, but I wonder about the quality of that, and also whether it would show just the video image, or simply a duplicate of whatever's on the primary monitor."
It's unlikely that any VGA video card, however it works, will give you an acceptable video display. You need to look to a Decklink card for that using Vegas. I'm not too up on just how that works and what it's capabilities would be, so you'd better ask on that forum. HDV is a bear in terms of WYSIWYG because no one can encode RT to HDV yet so you need to get a card that'll give you RT analog component out of your NLE, whether it's Vegas or something else, as you are editing with it to use with something like the Dell or HP. Otherwise you might as well just use the VGA overlay in the NLE and hope you can guess what it'll look like when rendered.
Re: HD monitor hookup for edit bay? by Derek Antonio Serra on Oct 27, 2005 at 9:27:11 pm
None of the less expensive solutions are that great. You can use the Parhelia APVe which will give you a HD component out to one of your Dell monitors, but if it works anything like my Nvidia PNY540 what you actually get is a video overlay, which just scrapes by IMHO.It will show just the video image, and not duplicate your primary screen though. The Decklinks are far better from what I've heard, but far more costly. I've seen HD output from the Canopus NX which uses a HD video card similar to Decklink and the picture looked great!
Derek Antonio Serra
Filmmaker
www.controversifilms.co.za
www.indv.co.za
Re: HD monitor hookup for edit bay? by Yoyodyne on Oct 28, 2005 at 3:17:57 am
From what I've heard Vegas can't actually use the component out on the Parhelia apve - It is a proprietary Matrox driver thing. Of course I have not tested this myself...
Re: HD monitor hookup for edit bay? by Doug Graham on Oct 28, 2005 at 2:04:47 pm
Thanks for the replies.
Maybe I'm making things harder than they are. Can I just use the second DVI connector on any modern video card to drive the second LCD monitor and display HD 1080i?
Re: HD monitor hookup for edit bay? by Derek Antonio Serra on Oct 28, 2005 at 3:14:08 pm
My system has the Nvidia PNY 540 which drives the 1080i from its breakout box, and one computer monitor. Another computer monitor is driven by a second single head Nvidia card, thereby giving me two computer displays plus a video monitor. The Matrox APVe does this all from one card.
Derek Antonio Serra
Filmmaker
www.controversifilms.co.za
www.indv.co.za
Re: HD monitor hookup for edit bay? by Derek Antonio Serra on Oct 28, 2005 at 9:08:50 pm
Gary, the output is OK, but when used with AspectHD there is an irritating jump on play as the overlay changes resolution. I would suggest looking at the Parhelia instead. IMHO neither offers a great solution, but it's better than nothing. I long for the day when HDV streams over firewire as is the case with DV, but I'm told that day is pretty far off...
Derek Antonio Serra
Filmmaker
www.controversifilms.co.za
www.indv.co.za
Re: HD monitor hookup for edit bay? by Gary Taylor on Oct 28, 2005 at 10:33:31 pm
Thanks Derek,
I am not expecting it to be perfect but I think it might do for one of my machines as a cheaper way to get analog HD out for a HDTV. It's just an option I have on the table although I am going to go with DVI directly for this application.
Thanks,
Gary
Re: HD monitor hookup for edit bay? by Gary Taylor on Oct 28, 2005 at 12:13:10 pm
Hi Doug,
S-video is a standard definition analog cable specification that is about in the middle of the pack in terms of standard definition quality. S-video is unable to carry a high definition signal and I am pretty sure your adapter doesn't upconvert to HD so I don't think most people would be happy with monitoring that way.
Most people really concerned about quality have either elected to get a capture card with analog HD outputs like the Kona2, KonaLH, or any of the higher end Decklink HD cards, or use a HD-SDI to DVI converter. The soon to be released Multibridge capture cards have DVI built in for external mowhich sounds very interested. The converter I have heard the most about is the HDLink which has been updated to HDMI, although i have also heard AJA HDP works pretty well too.
Of course the downside of all of these solutions is they might require an upgrade for your computer. Virtually every HD card requires either PCI-e or PCI-X which is only found on workstation motherboards, and already built systems are usually 3K+ although the new Mac G5 is only about 2K which is a real bargain.
I know Vegas is a pretty good editor but its support for HD capture cards is pretty new. As far as I know the only card supported currently is the Decklink and if the I thread I have linked below on the Decklink forum here at the Cow is any indication it might be a while before that solution becomes as stable as Final Cut Pro.
