BEST CRT/FLAT EXTERNAL MONITOR, FOR PERFECT VIDEO PLAYBACK

You've asked a real mixed question, so I'll give you a mixed answer.

For HD color correction, you will have to spend at least $15,000 for an acceptable HD LCD. For an HD CRT, the price point is way, way above that.

CRTs are going the way of the dinosaur - The EU has banned lead in all electronic gear, which means CRTs cannot be sold in any EU nation. There are only a few CRTs still being sold, and an acceptable HD CRT can run into the mid five figures.

So, what's your budget for this?

i'll give you another mixed answer; there is no perfect monitor due to the fact that no one sees the same as others.

currently, i'm looking at five sony bvm monitors all with the same image which is from one of my 6 sony bvp 900 cameras. like every morning before a show, i throw up bars and run through the calibration on all the monitors. like every freaken crt out there, there are subtle differences in all of these five bvm monitors. bvm's are very expensive and they don't all look the same. why? power supplies, tube age, yoke differences, who knows, it's a crapshoot.

lcd monitors are horrible, they make my eyes hurt and when i walk into the shading area of a production facility and see lcd's, i just know at the end of the day my eyes are going to hurt. i don't feel the color rendition of an lcd is as accurate as that of crt. currently, leitch is making a brand new lcd waveform/vectorscope. it's so horrible that reading tea leaves to measure my video signals would probably be more accurate and pleasureable.

but take this with the subjectiveness with which it's meant. in the truck next door, there are two video guys looking at ikegami monitors and they'll have completely differing opinions than myself as they see differently than i do.

you can't expect anyone else to make this choice for you. vision is like hearing and only you can make the decision of what's best for you.

just my two cents from a production truck outside a wet wrigley field hoping the baseball game is called today so's i can go home and away from these baseball fans.......

good luck

zeb

Here's another partly related comment:

I have diplopia, double-vision. When I first got hit with it about 9 or 10 years ago, while I was waiting for the lab to make my lenses so I could go out in the world again, I would sit in my Barcalounger about 20 feet away from my TV at home, and try to watch the screen.

Now try to imagine seeing two different screens, one with your left eye, the other with your right eye. They are offset enough from one another that you can see two complete screens, side-by-side.

OK, now here's the interesting thing: Since I am trained to notice subtle differences in video screens, I found myself seeing these two side-by-side images of the same screen, and one looks more green than the other, while the other looks more red than the one.

From what my optometrist told me, most people have the same color perception difference between one eye and the other. I'd love to set up a controlled test of this for high-level colorists to see if their eyes have similar perception differences.

Well, I thought it was interesting.

EDIT: This is not an easy thing to do, compare the vision from one eye with that from the other. You have to use your mind to consciously swap your dominant eye without losing the perception of both screens at the same time. It's very tricky.

Not only didn't you mention your budget for this purchase, you also failed to mention what size monitor you were looking for. Since its going to be used for presentation to clients, I'll assume you want something larger than 20". Sony's BVM-A24E1WU at $22,499.95 is pretty good, or go for the larger 32" BVM-A36E1WU at $36,999.95.

For a good listing of what's available, go to www.bhphoto.com then click on the Professional Video link, then Monitors, then Presentation monitors.

-DH

holy moly, brian!

now i really have a headache, thinking about that double-vision. i would more insane than i am now; double vision baseball, hockey, sports junk........

Prism correction in the lenses takes care of it. Until my vision changes, as it does from time to time.