CRT or LCD for Video Editing?

[VideoTechMan]

Been a very long time since I was here last. I have a quick question that I would like a little help on. I am thinking of building a new PC sometime soon with the newer specs for a new video editing rig, and one that will handle HD.

I still have two 18" flat screen CRT monitors that still work very well with my older computer that I built around 2004. And as I look at them when I do video work I know that CRT's are superior in color accuracy as compared to LCD.

For my new build, should I look perhaps into getting 2 LCD monitors for my work or should I stick with the CRT's that I still have? I do have a 40" HDTV monitor that I can use for previewing the video output as well.

Since I will be using Adobe Master CS4 Collection, what would be the most ideal video card to use (I plan to build a 64-bit system).

Thanks for any help!

[sincostan45]

I would go with LCD simply because older CRTs tend to loose brightness and color. I had a CRT monitor for a long time too, but the brightness slowly faded and it got to the point where any dark place on the screen was nothing but black, even with brightness turned up. So, IMO, I would go with LCDs.

What you could do is just get one LCD and hook it and one of your CRTs up to your new machine and then drag windows between the two and see how they're different. I know this puts you out some money if you don't like the look of the LCD, but it's just an idea to see what you like better.

[fitch.j]

If your aiming to have the system be as good as possible i would seriously consider LED monitors. They are coming out now and some of them are absolutely amazing as far as i have been able to see.

[Khaver]

I would get something like a 32" LCD HDTV with HDMI input to use as a preview TV and a graphics card with DVI or VGA for your 18" monitor and HDMI out for the HDTV. This way you have the workinig part of your editor on the 18" monitor and it's preview window on the HDTV. This will let you see how your footage will look on a real HDTV while you're editing.

[edDV]

If you are editing legacy SD interlace video you will want an interlace CRT to keep a handle on field order and "NTSC" chroma saturation issues.

Even if you are only editing 1080i HD source, it is a good idea to also preview a 480i downscale for similar issues. It may save you some make goods and get you paid faster.