Video monitoring suggestions....

[pijetro]

History:
I'm an Adobe Premiere user, and up until now, all my output monitoring has been done via DV device out to a CRT broadcast monitor...(Premiere supports DV ouptut)..

I've purchased an HPwX9300 workstation with the included NVIDIA QuadroFX1400 Dual DVI card...
I can therefore look forward to working with a dual monitor setup....DV device to CRT monitor still holds true at this point...

Dilemma:
I'm looking into getting into HDV in the near future...This will be most likely done via HDMI/DV transfer, and Cineform workflow to the workstation...Basically, editing HDV as if it were DV....
Therefore, as far as monitoring goes, (colour correction, slowdowns, pans, etc...) what are my options??
I'm confused..

Question:
Do i require a second video card (SLI) to output to an HDTV LCD?
Would it support video output, similair to my DV device for such a setup?
Is my DV device moot for HDV??
Can somebody explain "Overlay" to me?

At this point, i don't even know if Cineform supports output to a separate monitor...

Thx...

[pijetro]

Alright, let me re ask the same question....

Is there a way to use my NVIDIA Quadro FX1400 card for Dual Monitor workflow, AND somehow output to and inexpensive Highdef monitor simultaneosly??

Thanx...

[edDV]

I'm wondering about the same issues. I need to find a post house engineer to ask. Sony Vegas has a solution using calibration of a DVI output to an LCD monitor. To be color accurate, the monitor itself needs certification.

The high end guys buy the expensive monitors. I'm wondering how us "little" guys can get a consumer LCD close. I'm hoping Adobe has this worked out in Premiere CS3.

[edDV]

Alright, let me re ask the same question....

Is there a way to use my NVIDIA Quadro FX1400 card for Dual Monitor workflow, AND somehow output to and inexpensive Highdef monitor simultaneosly??

Thanx...

Not that I can see. The big guys do all their monitoring off the SDI cards. The SDI to DVI/HDMI/YPbPr adapters have monitor calibration tools. The display card never is an issue.

This is a one man band little guy issue.

[pijetro]

Yes, BlackMagic and AJA Xena cards do away with most of these issues...
But at $1500 price tag, it's way too much card for somebody who will be ingesting over firewire anyhow...

As far as monitoring goes, the Matrox DV/HDV accelerators (ie RTx.2, AXIO) have monitoring output, and the APVe video card has dual DVI out+monitor out....But both systems have limitations, and if i chose to go the Matrox root initially, i wouldn't have needed to post...

But i'm opting for the software route...
Cineform has me sold, but i need monitoring assurances...

edDV wrote:

Sony Vegas has a solution using calibration of a DVI output to an LCD monitor.

Well, if somebody can confirm that i can use a DVI output for monitoring the video output only, then i'll go that route, regardless of serious C.C. I'll simply buy another video card..$ $.

@edDV
As you can tell, i'm not looking for serious colour correction, so an inexpensive HDMI monitor should suffice.
I'd simply like to work with HDV, as if it were DV, and have monitoring out natively via Premiere...

I'm actually surprised, that there isn't an inexpensive HDV/DV analogue to digital converter on the market, to output to monitor....Sort of like my Pyro A/V Link....

[edDV]

There may be a solution. I just haven't been paying attention since v6 Vegas. I'm doing a bit more HDV these days. It is possible to monitor HDV off the camcorder HDMI or YPbPr outputs but the timeline to camcorder path isn't there like it was with DV.

I'd like to see Premiere CS3 or Vegas take the lead on this to control the process.

[pijetro]

On the good side, Mac users who are on older versions of Final Cut Pro, and opt for this tiny instrument...

I didn't notice the cost, but irregardless, i think you might be correct with having to use the video camera as export...
If i can dig deeper into this issue, i'll post back..

Keep up the faith edDV...

[edDV]

Interesting box.

I'll need to find some solution this summer. I'll be shooting HDV on vacation. Keep me informed.

[rallynavvie]

My question to all this is why color-correction is still an issue with digital displays? I understood that color correction was needed when going from RGB displays to NTSC CRTs because the gamut was slightly different, but now that HDTVs have digital inputs is this still an issue? For instance my HDTV has the exact same gamut as my LCD monitor so why would I need to color correct for it then?

Or is this going to be for broadcast or use on SDTV as well? In which case wouldn't the simple DV out to CRT still work? I guess you'd have to downsample your image to output it but for color checking it would work.

I guess I'm saying that if you're using digital displays to edit for digital displays is your preview really necessary? I'm not yet into HDV, and hopefully won't be for some time now that I'm out of the video biz, but it seems to me like the preview display is pretty much useless now.

If you simply need an extra display you may want to look into another Matrox product:
http://shopmatrox.com/usa/products/datasheet.asp?ID=852
I think it'll work to clone a display to two digital outputs (DVI) as long as one of your DVI outs on that Quadro are dual-link. Nice card BTW, I had an FX1100 in my video workstation for a while until I realized I could get almost the same performance from a gaming card for a third of the cost.

[pijetro]

Hey rallienavvie, you might have a point as far as colour correction is concerned, but since i'm used to a DV source, and will be turning to HDV source in the near future.... an interlaced monitor is of upmost importance due to field dominance, where slow downs, pans, and resizing are concerned...

I was assuming that HDV shared these same characteristics as DV, since it's and interlaced source essentially...
Therefore, a progressive view would be useless...

Especially if i were to downres HDV to DVD output...

Quote:
"For instance my HDTV has the exact same gamut as my LCD monitor so why would I need to color correct for it then?"
But is that to say that your taped HDV camcorder has the same gamut as both???

I mean, there HAS to be a reason that HDTV monitors vary from several hundred to several thousand dollars..

[rallynavvie]

I mean, there HAS to be a reason that HDTV monitors vary from several hundred to several thousand dollars..

But if you open up that whole can of worms then you're going to need to color correct for every different technology used in HDTVs today: LCD, the new "blacker black" LCDs, plasma, DLP, etc. This holds true of interlacing issues as well since only CRTs can display interlaced formatting correctly, every HDTV has to de-interlace such a source for display.

I don't have an HDV camera, nor do I have plans to purchase one in the near future. I had worked with some HDV when it was first coming out but now the only HD source I have is screen captures of rendered 3D environments (gaming and the like) so I can do with it whatever I want; and of course it is also progressive until I transcode it otherwise. I'm guessing HDV uses interlacing simply for the compression it allows? I'm not too familiar with the format.

[edDV]

One major problem is consumer HDTV sets auto correct levels and color so you don't really see what you are adjusting. Broadcast monitors maintain nominal SMPTE with no correction. Also, I like to see what is going on with interlace. Progressive monitors are always deinterlacing.