I'm looking at some smaller broadcast T.V. monitors. Color, 13 inch probably. Any good suggestions? Don't need to have firewire in, but I sure wouldn't mind it. Don't think I can spend more than 1K and hopefully not that high. Thanks
Get a Sony PVM-series monitor. They cost more than $1K new, but you can buy a used, recapped and calibrated one on eBay for on the order of $300. Buying an as-is monitor is a high risk of getting a unit with all caps dried out and the calibration (which you can't do yourself) way off.
I recommend David Riddle Company on eBay, and have personally visited his store and bought studio gear there several times over the past year. He will not send you a burned-out CRT with ancient untested electronics.
PVM stands for Professional Video Monitor. There is also the BVM series for Broadcast engineers, but these are much bigger and more expensive.
Good to look for is blue-only and underscan buttons.
I recently purchased a JVC 15" tm-h150c monitor ~$650 from B&HPhotovideo and have had good results. Underscan, 4:3, 16:9 switchable aspect ration, blue check funcion for calibration.
Do that Dave and a year from now you'll end up spending more money again to get a "real" monitor. From your $300 price, you're looking at either the TM-A13SU, TM-A13UCV or TM-A130SU monitors. Do yourself a favour and consider spending $650 (or come up to Canada and get it for$675 CDN = $560 US) and getting the JVC TMH-1500CGU 15-Inch Monitor. I bought 4 of these last fall as replacement monitors for our student edit suites and have been very happy with them.
The monitor you're considering is what JVC calls a "Presentation" monitor. The one I'm suggesting is a true production monitor with underscan and a blue gun switch. It's 4:3 / 16:9 switchable, NTSC/PAL capable and has more than twice the resolution of the cheaper line. The monitoryou're looking at has none of these features. Trust me, once you get used to these features, you'll never go back to what is essentially a TV set.
I would've liked to go with the Sony PVM series that were recommended but they were more than twice the price and I had to watch the budget :-(