What is a good, professional level, television/video monitor?
June 18, 2014 5:54 PM Subscribe
I need a professional level (able to color calibrate) television/video monitor to use a client monitor.
Ideally in the range of 50" and fully HD (1080p). I used to always buy Panasonic TH-50PF10UK 50", but they no longer sell them. I assume (hope) some model has entered the market at a similar price point and fulfilling the same needs. I'd love to hear what other people are currently working with and their thoughts.
As for use... I'm a post production professional and will use this as a client critical monitor for editorial , graphics, and color correction purposes.
Ideally in the range of 50" and fully HD (1080p). I used to always buy Panasonic TH-50PF10UK 50", but they no longer sell them. I assume (hope) some model has entered the market at a similar price point and fulfilling the same needs. I'd love to hear what other people are currently working with and their thoughts.
As for use... I'm a post production professional and will use this as a client critical monitor for editorial , graphics, and color correction purposes.
Is your workflow video or print?
If video get an average TV as your secondary monitor. Get a high quality computer monitor as your primary, so you can edit on that, but get the average one so you can see how the majority of people will see your work.
If print, get what's rated as a "soft proof" monitor. I forget the correct term, but the idea is that the monitor does close enough proofs without running it through your workflow.
If video, most monitors are going to be fine once calibrated. It always comes down to what you are willing to pay for, but I managed professional videographers and photographers for years and we bought midline.
posted by cjorgensen at 6:38 PM on June 18, 2014
If video get an average TV as your secondary monitor. Get a high quality computer monitor as your primary, so you can edit on that, but get the average one so you can see how the majority of people will see your work.
If print, get what's rated as a "soft proof" monitor. I forget the correct term, but the idea is that the monitor does close enough proofs without running it through your workflow.
If video, most monitors are going to be fine once calibrated. It always comes down to what you are willing to pay for, but I managed professional videographers and photographers for years and we bought midline.
posted by cjorgensen at 6:38 PM on June 18, 2014
NEC if money is no object, maybe samsung otherwise?
I've had two of those panasonics you mentioned. they were freaking great, but i sold them on and moved on.
NEC makes, imo, the best displays that do this sort of thing. They're also LCD, so they don't suffer from the bright picture auto-dimming issues the panasonics had. A lot of times i walk in to somewhere and they have a serious "pro" setup it's connected to... an NEC lcd. I don't have a specific model to link to, but that seemed to be the standard when i started hunting(and i understand why, from the NEC desktop monitors i've owned in the past). The price kicked me out of that race super quickly.
If you don't want to spend a kabillion dollars, the higher end samsungs calibrate impressively flat. I have a 55f7100 and if you look at AVSforum, it you can get it to calibrate pretty perfectly. The charts i saw were on-par with my old NEC CRTs. It has full control like the panasonics had, you just have to enable the "extended" controls. You can get a fairy high light output level for bright rooms if you use a "day" calibration as well, and in addition you can program a bright room and dark room calibrated setting with different backlight drive levels which it can automatically switch between using the ambient light sensor.(you have to enable the service menu to set this up, but still, i thought that feature was slick). What drew me to that specific model was the contrast, viewing angle, and for lack of a better word "dynamic range" compared to the plasmas i had owned. I'll also note i disabled all automatic backlight control/local dimming options and just don't crank the backlight up to insanely torch bright. It's still brighter than the th50ph9uk i had before, so whatever. Also, it's true 240hz so it will do 24fps locked with no interpolation/pulldown/stuttering. And 60, and 25, and 30, and 29, etc etc. I can never milk a stutter out of the thing. The highest input it accepts is 120hz, but it's internally 240. if you put a 24p signal in you're going to get 24p out of the screen.
I will note i'm not a video professional, i just like to have my screens calibrated before i use them for silly stuff like gaming and watching old movies. I only ever buy displays i can get really good accurate response from.
posted by emptythought at 7:56 PM on June 18, 2014
I've had two of those panasonics you mentioned. they were freaking great, but i sold them on and moved on.
NEC makes, imo, the best displays that do this sort of thing. They're also LCD, so they don't suffer from the bright picture auto-dimming issues the panasonics had. A lot of times i walk in to somewhere and they have a serious "pro" setup it's connected to... an NEC lcd. I don't have a specific model to link to, but that seemed to be the standard when i started hunting(and i understand why, from the NEC desktop monitors i've owned in the past). The price kicked me out of that race super quickly.
If you don't want to spend a kabillion dollars, the higher end samsungs calibrate impressively flat. I have a 55f7100 and if you look at AVSforum, it you can get it to calibrate pretty perfectly. The charts i saw were on-par with my old NEC CRTs. It has full control like the panasonics had, you just have to enable the "extended" controls. You can get a fairy high light output level for bright rooms if you use a "day" calibration as well, and in addition you can program a bright room and dark room calibrated setting with different backlight drive levels which it can automatically switch between using the ambient light sensor.(you have to enable the service menu to set this up, but still, i thought that feature was slick). What drew me to that specific model was the contrast, viewing angle, and for lack of a better word "dynamic range" compared to the plasmas i had owned. I'll also note i disabled all automatic backlight control/local dimming options and just don't crank the backlight up to insanely torch bright. It's still brighter than the th50ph9uk i had before, so whatever. Also, it's true 240hz so it will do 24fps locked with no interpolation/pulldown/stuttering. And 60, and 25, and 30, and 29, etc etc. I can never milk a stutter out of the thing. The highest input it accepts is 120hz, but it's internally 240. if you put a 24p signal in you're going to get 24p out of the screen.
I will note i'm not a video professional, i just like to have my screens calibrated before i use them for silly stuff like gaming and watching old movies. I only ever buy displays i can get really good accurate response from.
posted by emptythought at 7:56 PM on June 18, 2014
Their range matches a few of the your requirements, but not size, and likely not price.
Eizo ColorEdge monitors are pretty much the bees knees for colour correction.
posted by Packed Lunch at 12:23 AM on June 19, 2014
Eizo ColorEdge monitors are pretty much the bees knees for colour correction.
posted by Packed Lunch at 12:23 AM on June 19, 2014
If money is no object, and video is your gig, the Dolby PRM-4220 is a fantastic choice, but last I checked, it cost around $40k.
Also consider the Sony Trimaster OLEDs if you don't mind a smaller display. The PVM models are quite a bit more affordable than the BVMs.
If you're looking for a good plasma, the Panasonic VT60 is considered a worthy successor to the much venerated Kuro.
What color gamuts are you going to be working with? This is important, as if you need something like AdobeRGB, then you're gonna need a display whose primaries are saturated enough to match those specs. It would also be useful to have a display that can remap the primaries to different gamuts (such as sRGB) without quantization artifacts.
What instruments (colorimeters/spectroradiometers) do you have?
Are you going to be using a PC to drive the display?
posted by spacediver at 2:22 AM on June 19, 2014
Also consider the Sony Trimaster OLEDs if you don't mind a smaller display. The PVM models are quite a bit more affordable than the BVMs.
If you're looking for a good plasma, the Panasonic VT60 is considered a worthy successor to the much venerated Kuro.
What color gamuts are you going to be working with? This is important, as if you need something like AdobeRGB, then you're gonna need a display whose primaries are saturated enough to match those specs. It would also be useful to have a display that can remap the primaries to different gamuts (such as sRGB) without quantization artifacts.
What instruments (colorimeters/spectroradiometers) do you have?
Are you going to be using a PC to drive the display?
posted by spacediver at 2:22 AM on June 19, 2014
Response by poster: The workflow is video and the monitor is needed for color critical reference. It will be running from Mac <> Decklink Thunderbolt UltraStudio Express <> HDMI <> monitor.
The Dolby would be amazing, but that price is completely ridiculous. David Fincher can afford to color correct his films on those, but I am not David Fincher. Not yet at least.
So far I'm looking at The Panasonic LF60 Series, The NEC P553, and waiting to hear back from Boland on what the hell their prices are and which model they think is the best fit for my needs.
posted by matt_od at 10:02 AM on July 17, 2014
The Dolby would be amazing, but that price is completely ridiculous. David Fincher can afford to color correct his films on those, but I am not David Fincher. Not yet at least.
So far I'm looking at The Panasonic LF60 Series, The NEC P553, and waiting to hear back from Boland on what the hell their prices are and which model they think is the best fit for my needs.
posted by matt_od at 10:02 AM on July 17, 2014
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by chasles at 6:31 PM on June 18, 2014