Video Monitor?

[cwsand]

I'm looking to upgrade my video monitor setup from a CRT to flat panels. Just wondering if there's a preferred setup for Pro Tools - 2 regular sized flat panels or one widescreen?? I want to be able to have both the mix and edit windows available but I don't know if having both windows up on a widescreen is better or worse than having them each on their own monitor's. Anyone??

[jfitz]

Why not get two widescreens? I've been on a system that had that before, its pretty cool,

[dillon99999]

the answer to this question really boils down to what you prefer.
either way will work.

the less expensive way would be two 17" flat screens.

2 * 17 = 34"

so you would have to get a 32" wide screen flat panel to be equal to the same area as two 17" screens.

i think the last time i checked, a 32" costs considerably more than two 17" screens combined.

but if you have the money, then 32" is a more simplified setup.

the good thing about having TWO vs. ONE - what if it breaks, and you need it repaired.

the odds of two of them breaking simultaneously, are pretty slim.

so with the two screen setup, you have the added benefit of reduced down time.

hope this helps.

[dogselur]

Be careful which video card you use. I have a dell and tried two different cards with dual output, the second recommended by dell and they both made Pro Tools crash. Still can't figure it out. So until I get the energy to do more research, I've settled on one screen. Could just be a dell problem. Anyway, just do a lot of research and save some headache.

[Gunnell]

I had a regular old 17" then upgraded to a 19" widescreen. I actually used them both for a while just for the hell of it. It actually worked out well because I set the resolution on the 17" to match the hight of the 19" so I had some unused space on the 17" but I still had more room to work with. Eventually I set up another workstation and needed the 17" for it so I'm just down to the 19" widescreen for protools. But I'm perfectly happy with it. You definitely need (at least) two monitors though if you want to be able to have your mix and edits open at the same time. I think the best setup would be 2 widescreens.

[dillon99999]

the video card that i prefer is the ati X300.

they sell for $20 on Ebay.

i like this card, because it does not have a fan on it.

it only has a heat sink.

this makes it NOISELESS.

and it has dual video output capability.

you should consider using fanless peripherals where possible.

i even went through the trouble to buy a Scythe NINJA, which is a fanless heat sink for the dual core cpu (but i installed a case fan to remove heat, and the ninja is right next to that - just to make sure there is sufficient heat removal from the cpu).

and of course, i have a fanless power supply also.

hope this helps.

[cwsand]

Hey - thanks for all the advice! I may go with one flatscreen to start with and then upgrade to 2 soon after - assuming there aren't any performance problems with PT.

www.EastsideProject.com

[3JDamon]

I started with two 17" LCD's on an X300, then I got a third 17" LCD and an additional Radeon 7000 PCI card. The third monitor offers more benefits than the second. With two the windows still overlap a lot and you have to move stuff around all the time. With three, everything has its own real estate. The Radeon 7000 PCI goes for around $20 on eBay too.

[NeveSSL]

Here is my take on it:

I'm getting two regular 19" flat panels (Samsung 940BX... GREAT specs at an awesome price) and the reason I'm going with them is that you get more height out of regular 19"s. For example, a widescreen 19" will often have a native resolution of 1440x900. A normal 19" LCDs are usually 1280 x 1024. I personally want more height simply because my onscreen mixers tend to go up a little bit because of inserts and sends. This leads to actually getting more real estate on two 17" screens than one 34" at native resolution. However, a 34" will do smaller resolutions in a larger physical format, making them easier to see. Its a trade off.

Most 17"s now have the same native resolution as 17"s, which means that 17"s are going to be a bit more of a strain on your eyes (it will be the same amount of information in a smaller space... making everything look smaller than on a 19", even though its the same space, which is usually 1280 x 1024 now). On top of that, 19"s are rather affordable now. 3 or 4 years ago, they were around $500, now they're roughly $200. 17"s are only slightly cheaper. For example, the 19" that I'm getting is $239 from newegg (http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16824001080). It's 17" counter part is $199 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824001079) and these two are on the higher end performance wise (they have 1000:1 contrast ratio and 5ms response time).

With LCDs, you also want to run them at their maximum resolution because, unlike CRTs, they actually have pixels on them. If you don't run them at their maximum resolution (which is what the manufactures suggest), then you get multiple physical pixels trying to act like 1 regular pixel, and the screen looses clarity and becomes blurry. If you have one now, try it with your home LCD, or try one at work or wherever you can use one. Put it at the max resolution and compare that to a lower resolution in terms of clarity.

It's not just the physical size of the screens that count, but the resolution as well.

I hope this is clear... I've tried to make it as clear as possible, although I may have failed terribly.

As far as I know, this is accurate and, to put it simply, I prefer normal LCDs over Widescreens simply because I don't want to loose the height in my screen... but that's just me.

Brandon

[funkman21]

hi there,
Im using two 19" LG widescreens with a resolution of 1440x900. I find that it displays pro tools fantastically and the stretched viewing is perfect for the edit and mix windows. A couple of things to consider first, check your graphics card supports this resolution as some dont and secondly try and get a graphics card which has dual DVI outputs instead of using 2 DVI outputs on 2 seperate cards. I have two screens and two graphics card and i run each screen out of each cards own DVI output...the only problem is that the graphics cards are very slightly different spec (one is 512mb the other 256mb) this causes a slightly annoying colour imbalance which is hard to correct.

Good Luck

Keith