Thanks for the reply - I've been trying to stay up to date on all this and I have DSE's book coming, I guess I was just hoping for a little head nod one direction or the other. My main concern is the monitor - is LCD the new thing for monitoring? They are selling 26inch consumer CRT HDTV sets for about $550 now and they look fantastic - is this a bad way to go?

I guess I'll have to wait for NAB, I don't know how long I can take it though - I'm like a kid on Christmas eve...and I'm not even going to be able to be there...

thanks again!

I hear you on the 34" CRT HDTV love - I looked at the Sony 910 (I think it was at the time) and the cheaper Sony as well as a Toshiba and a Panasonic. I ended up getting the Panny CT34WX53 & it looks amazing. I just love that "put your hand through the glass" quality and the cabinet looks good too. The only compromise is size, which for my living room was fine, and weight, which is pretty bad - my TV weights 175 pounds!

I did see HD on the little CRT Toshiba (I think that was the brand) & it looked fabulous... and it's only 80 pounds or so. Thanks for the heads up on the phosphers, I'd use my big set as a monitor but there is no way I can get it up the stairs! I'm going out with the little Sony HDV cam tommorrow and I'll try it on some sets and try to report back.

thanks for the info,

John,

I bought the 910 a while back ( I believe based on some of your posts ;^) and I am thrilled. I read that the 960 has HDMI , a digital tuner, cablecard support, more features...

Do you know if the 960s picture is better than the 910? Is there an upgrade path for the 910 for the tuner and HDMI?

Jeff

Since no one mentioned it....Check out the Sony 234 monitor, they just dropped the retail on it by 400.00 yesterday. It's the one Sony lets me use when I'm doing HD and HDV demos. It is a SWEET LCD panel.

John is right about the MY-HD card and it will also record directly to the JVC D-VHS vcr. The quality is outstanding.

JJK

How do you plan on delivering your HDV production (in what format)?

I emailed a question to digitalconnection regarding using their MDP-130 for HDV, here is what they said:

Thank you for your inquiry. Unfortunately, the card is strictly for receiving/recording HDTV and we cannot recommend the card for use in the way you describe. We suggest you look into other products designed for video editing.

Granted this is out of context, but he was unaware of the card being used the way some on this forum are using it.

And I have noticed that a lot of the new monitors have firewire input jacks.
This is telling my feeble brain something.

JJK

Jeff:
What was your question?

JJK

I asked them the same thing I had asked here before, pardon the dupliction:

"Hello, I am considering the MDP-130 card because I want to make HDV video (and audio) from high res photo stills using Sony Vegas Video 5.0 and play the video files on a Sony XBR910 HD TV. Not overly interested in tuning HDTV to my PC, I just want to create HD media to play on my HDTV.
 
I have a P4 2.53Ghz, winXP SP1, 2GB RAM, dual head Matrox G550 video card with 2 non DVI 17" sansung 710N LCD monitors.
 
Will I be able to do what I propose above?
Will I still be able to still use my dual monitor setup?
Do I need the DVI daughter card?"

I think I will go ahead and get the MyHD card, looks like fun, I read some posts on the avs forum.

thanks,

Jeff

Wow - tons of great info - thanks a bunch! I'm very curious about the My HD card, I'm also a little leary. I have a buddy who had a heck of a time setting up a home theater PC - I think he was using an ATI HD tuner card with component out. If John is having good results with the My HD card though that's promising...and the AVS forum does indeed rock.

That Sony 234 sure looks awesome - serious edit bay eye candy - but still looks to rich for my blood. Also, can you really trust a monitor that only weighs 16.5 pounds;) I'm going to be checking out monitors today and hope to report back with some results.

Oh, Sony EPM - this is going to be for broadcast so the final delivery format will probably vary depending on the station. My main concern right now is being able to show eye popping HD in my edit suite - and also having some kind of color correction reference. For that I still tend to lean more towards the CRT side. I know all the "microdisplay" and plasma stuff is going to be the next wave but I still see tons of CRT's in everybodys house.

Thanks again for all the info ,
Yoyodyne

The MY HD card not only shows High Def Video, it has it's own remote control, auto set recording to either the hard drive file or D-VHS recorder, auto download programs from the Titan High Def programming website, saturation-brightness-contrast-blacklevel adjust, 5.1 toslink output, DVI or Analog output, simultaneous computer monitor and HDTV viewing, simultaneous computer mouse control and remote control from serial port, NTSC and PAL scaling, DVD control, virtual channel indication, and about another 1000 things that I forgot.

JJK

O.K. – here’s my report.

I’m afraid the dream of a $550 dollar HDV monitoring solution is still a dream. I went to our local Video Only here in Portland and they let me plug a Sony Z1 into all their sets – very nice of them. I plugged straight into a Toshiba 26HF84 through the component out of the Z1 and was pretty luke warm on the picture.

This set is a little 26inch CRT that goes for $549 and It looks o.k., but not “WOW”. I think the image is just to soft for any kind of reference work and for the money it just isn’t worth it in my opinion. FYI the video I was playing back was shot this morning and afternoon around town in CF30 mode, buildings, trees, flowers, a park - stuff like that.

I then plugged the Z1 into there video distribution system so we could get the Z1 output up on all there sets (this was an all component connection). The distro system looked pretty clean and the Z1 looked amazing on the Sony 34XBR960 ($1999), and very good on all the other sets. In fact it looked a fair bit better than their HD feed. I know that all the sets in these stores are on blowtorch mode but It was very interesting to see the image up on all of em’ at the same time, the 960 looked markedly better than all the rest but as a group the CRT’s looked pretty good.

We also checked out the LCD’s and plasma’s – man the picture is all over the place with these things. Some were just eye poppingly gorgeous and others were just a fuzzy mess. It seemed price had nothing to do with image quality either – they had $3000 to $5000 sets that were just scary bad. I know that a good tweaking would possibly fix a lot of these issues but I was surprised at how bad some of these suckers looked.

My favorite of the lot, which included a bunch of the latest models from everybody was the JVC LT26X575. This is a 26inch $1499 dollar LCD display and it was bang for buck the best. It has a resolution of 1366 x 768. Of course the Sony P234 has a 1920 x 1200 resolution and is about the same price. I could not find one around my area to check out but if DSE recommends it I must seek it out!

Last but not least, when I got home I plugged the Z1 into my Panny CT34WX53, Damn! I might have to carry that sucker upstairs after all – looks incredible.

So it seems like it’s the $1500 dollar price range for reasonable HDV monitoring (for sub 150 pound sets). I’m seriously thinking about getting hold of a used Sony 910 or another CT34WX53, I’d imagine they are going for under a thousand by now?

Well, there you have it and thanks for listing to me prattle on – hope this helps somebody…and thanks a bunch to JJK, John Cline, Jeff Smith & DSE!

Yoyodyne

You said a mouthfull John. Those Crt's require two "Arnolds" to move and a new support post under the floor. I also tried to find that Sony 234 monitor on B & H website but could not.

JJK

The other LCD Monitor that you might want to check out is the Dell 2405 24" LCD - now just $1,199. It's certainly on my list of "things to seriously consider buying".

I wonder how the new Dell compares to the Sony. J and R Computer world has the Sony for $1,550. They are a very reputable store here in NYC. I just checked Amazon uses J and R as a supplier and they have it at the same price.

http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Product_Code=SON+SDM-P234%2fB&JRSource=google.datafeed

On Dell's 20 inch model they got hit a batch of monitors that had bad back lights. They had a light leak problem where even when the screen was black you could see light areas. The 24 " model is not by that manufacturer though. Dell has been very good about replacing monitors with that problem. I believe they even pay for shipping.

Here is a review of the DELL

Thanks for the heads up Liam - it looks like it has the same resolution as the Sony and that price is certainly lower, I'll have to add it to my list.


Oooh, I just looked and it has analog component input - that does add a bit of flexibility...

Odd... I have been scouring the web for specs on the Sony and so far I have not found any mention of it having Component Video inputs. How would you connect your Z1 into this directly (is there a component to DVI converter cable)?

[edit] - looks like my post - and your edit crossed over the wires here. Yes - the Dell does have component inputs. Prior to looking at the Dell 2405 I was looking at the HP L2335 as that also provided component inputs (but it is $1599). Looks like the Sony really does not have component - so I would say that definitely would take it off my list anyway.

JJKizak said........ "There are a few previous posts on this subject, the last one which was answered by DSE and he kind of says it would be best to wait another month (until after NAB.) This is in my opinion a "hint" of possibly new stuff coming down the line. JJK"

Spot you said as much to me. Would you (or anyone else of course) now update this thread please with a current recommendation.

Mike Stevens