Grading Monitors - any recommendations?

[Fabian Weber]

I'm looking for a new grading monitor - any recommendations?

[Jeff Kilgroe]

What is your budget? What size of monitor are you looking for? How do you plan on feeding it / what type of signal?

[Matt Gottshalk]

FSI.

/Thread.

[Tom.Wong]

for a 5k ish panel, my money is always on the sony pvm-2541


once you go oled...

[Johnny Friday]

i went through a few low budget monitors....from Dell 2407 to 2410 and then HP dreamcolor and finally settled on FSI 3g 10bit monitor and very happy. BUT, there are better if you have more $$$...i go with a setup of: desktop monitoring: 2410 and Dreamclolor; then 50" Panasonic Plsma VT25 series (great monitor by the way--BUT PIECE of crap panasonic and warranty--many problems with these VIERRA series monitors)---then FSI 2461W on SDI....HP is set to B&W and others to color...to get a good represntation of different views....which you will need if going tv, web etc.....

[Jeff Kilgroe]

If you're looking for a desktop monitor, the FSI 2461W is a good one. Personally, I like the image a bit better on the EIZO CG232W and it has good calibration tools built in. The FSI has the nicest internal scopes, IMO, if you use the monitor scopes to double-check your output.

As we get into larger monitors, the Panasonic VT25 series is very good for a plasma, but they're getting hard to find now as they're 2 years old. The VT30 replaced them and it is now being replaced by the next generation model. VT30 displays seem to have a brighter image and therefore better contrast, however it tends to auto-dim in really bright scenes as the panel can only output so much power, it steps down the brightness. There are the "pro" series panels in the form of the BT300 models. They're actually VT25 (PDP13) generation panels. You pay a bit more for them and they don't support 3D and have a few other features removed that cripple them somewhat. Essentially the same calibration and adjustment controls between the BT300 and VT25. The only "advantage" to the BT300 models is that you can add the HD-SDI interface module, but it costs $2500 -- as much as the 50" display on it's own. Kinda stupid, IMO. The AJA Hi5-3G [or 3D] model will take HD-SDI, even 3G or dual-link and output 10bit HDMI. Works wonderfully and totally seamless and less than $500.

I do agree with Tom about the OLED displays. But I'm going to hold out for another generation or two down the road. To my eyes, even on the much more expensive model, Sony has still not completely fixed the flicker issue and a few other little glitches. But the image is excellent.

If you want to go bigger than the plasmas at 65" or so -- actually Panasonic's 85" is not too bad price-wise for something that big and you can still wall-mount it in most situations. Anyway, going bigger than that, you'll want to look into a good projector. Several good options out there for 1080p/2K systems, but it looks like RED is going to have a winner if they can get that 4K laser projector in our hands later this year or early next year.

[keith morton]

Personally, I like the image a bit better on the EIZO CG232W and it has good calibration tools built in.

What do you think about the EIZO CG275W?

[Tom.Wong]

If you're looking for a desktop monitor, the FSI 2461W is a good one. Personally, I like the image a bit better on the EIZO CG232W and it has good calibration tools built in. The FSI has the nicest internal scopes, IMO, if you use the monitor scopes to double-check your output.

As we get into larger monitors, the Panasonic VT25 series is very good for a plasma, but they're getting hard to find now as they're 2 years old. The VT30 replaced them and it is now being replaced by the next generation model. VT30 displays seem to have a brighter image and therefore better contrast, however it tends to auto-dim in really bright scenes as the panel can only output so much power, it steps down the brightness. There are the "pro" series panels in the form of the BT300 models. They're actually VT25 (PDP13) generation panels. You pay a bit more for them and they don't support 3D and have a few other features removed that cripple them somewhat. Essentially the same calibration and adjustment controls between the BT300 and VT25. The only "advantage" to the BT300 models is that you can add the HD-SDI interface module, but it costs $2500 -- as much as the 50" display on it's own. Kinda stupid, IMO. The AJA Hi5-3G [or 3D] model will take HD-SDI, even 3G or dual-link and output 10bit HDMI. Works wonderfully and totally seamless and less than $500.

I do agree with Tom about the OLED displays. But I'm going to hold out for another generation or two down the road. To my eyes, even on the much more expensive model, Sony has still not completely fixed the flicker issue and a few other little glitches. But the image is excellent.

If you want to go bigger than the plasmas at 65" or so -- actually Panasonic's 85" is not too bad price-wise for something that big and you can still wall-mount it in most situations. Anyway, going bigger than that, you'll want to look into a good projector. Several good options out there for 1080p/2K systems, but it looks like RED is going to have a winner if they can get that 4K laser projector in our hands later this year or early next year.

New firmware out for the oleds. Totally flicker free. Hard for me to look at any other monitor these days....

[Matt Ryan]

just out of curiosity what does everyone think about Vizio LED tv's? Are they able to be calibrated correctly? They were using Vizio's http://store.vizio.com/led-lcd-hdtvs/m3d470kd.html240hz passive 3d LED's.

The reason I ask is because I shot something at THE top video game company (well for SONY) and every one of their workstations uses a Vizio tv as their reference monitor. Everyone... Some doing color work, some textures, some character design, all dependent on accurate color right... I know they are cheap and not used in the film industry often especially for color critical work but this made me wonder...

[Paul Russell]

Love my Panasonic 65" Plasma. Unfortunately so do the family, so I have to only use it as a final test in the lounge.