alternative to professional broadcast monitors?

Broadcast monitors have functions like a blue only button, and they have calibrated phosphors (SMPTE)... they are more accurate, and typically much higher res than TV sets.

How much can you spend?

Jerry

I think if you know how to read color bars, a consumer TV set will tie you over until you can afford a broadcast monitor. As for the blue only switch, a dark blue gel can give you the same results. The reason behind the Blue switch and the gel is to calibrate the saturation and tint of your monitor with the bars.

You can find more information about calibrating with bars at: http://www.videouniversity.com/tvbars2.htm.

The whole broadcast monitor issue has become a bone of contention for me in recent.

Most of my work is for corporate although there is some broadcast and film thrown in.

I can't argue with the premise that its best to work with a broadcast spec PVM when you can afford to do so.

However even Sony are now pushing an LCD PVM.

Couple that with the fact that every electronics store you walk into with a large array of TV's cannot put 2 side by side and display a consistent image, not just that but there are inherent differences between a Plasma, LCD and LCD/DLP rear projection sets.

Then within the corporate environment you are faced with LCD projectors that vary widely if only because of bulb life.

Frankly the demise of the CRT has been good for the consumer to create a "Star Trek" living environment but bad for the content producer.

I have used high quality TV's (calibrated) and Pro PVM's and had no complaints about the end results produced using either. In the case of the former I usually check the programme on more than one set in the studio.

To my mind it has become a bit pointless in the corporate delivery environment to master and playback on site from Digibeta through a projector costing a fifth of the price of the player.

Ok well, just my 2d . . . . .

In other words trust your eyes and use the force and you will be fine.

Steve,

I agree with your main point – color-correction is a moving target.

However, as producers, we should produce to a recognized specification so our work matches other professionally produced content.

Although a consumer set will distort your work, it will distort all other work the same way.

Musicians, unless they are just jamming, tune to an external reference, not relative to one another. Color bars serve the same function as a tone generator.

Extending the analogy a bit further – some musicians have perfect pitch. I've know people who have the same sense about color.

For those us without this discerning eye, there are diminishing returns the further along the color correction path you go. I think this is part of what you are saying.

I also agree with your assertion that color correction is a complicated, messy business.

For people new to the business, this difficulty is not an excuse for not learning about an important part of our craft. It is a reason to make some compromises as we choose our monitoring devices.

It is important to make those compromises from a informed stand point. To make a good compromise, we have to know what we are giving up.

FWIW, I use a PVM 1354Q and a Leader composite waveform monitor and vectorscope.

The suggestion above to use a display monitor is a good one, I think. I also think Sony Luma LCDs and Panasonic BT-LH LCDs can be good choices as well. There are variations in color and grayscale reproduction in these choices, but as long as you know what the nature of the variation is, these tools can all work.

With respect,

Tom

s'matter of fact, Sony doesn't even offer a CRT broadcast monitor any more..

jason

Oh, they do... just not cheap... they have a 30"? or so monitor that is HD, SD et all... and it runs over $30,000... yikes.

All the above responses have merit, howeve nothing beats a broadcast CRT for accuracy. True, we are all at the mercy of how a viewer's set has been set up... however... it's a garbage in/garbage out situation. Your video will look better on anyone's set if you've color corrected properly on a properly setup video monitor.... a TV set is better than naught however.

Jerry

sure they do, it's the bvm series.

i'm going to take a completely contrarian point of view to everyone's (except steve's) argument and argue in favor of a cheap sony 13 inch wega flat screen tv from best buy.

consumer equipment will reveal flaws faster than the so-called "professional" monitors. i use the term "professional" lightly as any older panasonic crt was a hunk of junk and so are the sony pvm '"n" series of monitors. am i advocating that we all use rca or curtis mathis or zenith tvs? good heavens, no, however, too much is made about the quality of the display around here and not enough stink is made about the quality of measuring tools like scopes being used.

i simply cannot fathom how someone making money will spend many thousands of dollars on a display and then rely on the pathetic software scopes. the only software scope that i would rely upon if i were making money doing this would be the new avid plug-in that videotek (or is it tektronix? i looked just yesterday and can't remember) is now making. i can only hope they build it for fcp as well. but this is just my opinion.

how many of the folks using fcp are currently getting anything on the air? how many are going to a film out or even festival distribution displayed with a projector? now, how many of those folks are reading here and then get pounced upon for not using a "broadcast quality" monitor? how your product is being viewed is how you should look at when color grading but in most instances this is completely impractical and expensive.

my experience with broadcast quality is anything goes. i've shaded my shows to consumer tvs and transmission has never said anything to me. i've shaded my shows to ancient crt's that bounced down the road for the last decade and have never been retubed and need it. i've shaded my shows to the latest and greatest lcd monitors and have left at the end of the day with a splitting headache. the point is, there is no "broadcast monitor" standard (there are however, broadcast transmission standards that in the end, we all have to follow if going on the air) and yes a blue check is nice but there are workarounds and i have to use them. yes, a nice bvm is a joy to work with however i did a show just recently looking at 5 bvm monitors and not one of them looked like the next and i didn't have time to go in and properly calibrate crt bias so i picked the one i liked best and used it.

today i'll do a four camera espn basketball game that goes straight to webcast, ESPN 360. logic dictates that i should shade that show on a computer monitor but i won't be able to, instead i'll use the less than professional crt on this particular "mobile broadcast" truck.

again, these are just my opinions. fire at will.

zeb

sony's BVM CRT multi format monitors

http://bssc.sel.sony.com/BroadcastandBusiness/minisites/hdselect/HDsystems.shtml ?DCMP=HDSelect_Google&HQS=SonyBVM#

You can get a good used Sony PVM series monitor in the 9-13" range for as low as $100 on ebay. Search for PVM. Look for one with the blue only button.

I bought a used Sony PVM-1442 on Ebay for $200 and it works great. It is in great condition and it even came in the original box.

But...I had to buy a video capture card (decided on a Decklink HD Extreme) at $900 to get a good picture. Of course you have to buy cables too, $50.

So is it cheaper than new. Yeah and close to your budget.

My only advice is do research on the monitor and card BEFORE you commit to buying them. The inputs didn't match my Decklink card, so I had to buy adapters to convert Y/C to S-Video in. I really wanted RGB.

Good luck,
Mark

MacPro Mac OS X (10.4.8)

MacPro Mac OS X (10.4.8)