1:1 preview in Edius

[GrassValley_BH]

@SimonD:
If your laptop has a VGA or DVI output, just get another LCD display (I'd mount it where the customers can see it), hook it up to your laptop, and have the laptop's graphics hardware duplicate the overlay full-screen to the output. Then you can play your project full-screen (on the other monitor) directly from the EDIUS timeline.

[Khoi Pham]

Storm,

Ooops ... that was a finger slip :-). YUV is right. Of course, one can go up the price ladder with better processors, better LCD screens, etc ... but, we are not arguing about that.

I am saying getting to those people - get yourself a real Broadcast monitor if you really want to see what colours your video is throwing out at you. Not a Computer monitor.

I have a sony broadcast monitor when I do SD, but I use a Dell 2405 (calibrated) for HD editing and it is very accurated, when watching material on my 61 inch 1080p LCOS ( also well calibrated), everything looks just like the way it looks on the Dell. But then if money is not a concern, I would love to have those professional lcd. (-:

[Andy Tejral]

I really don't get what people do with that so called 1:1 preview on a pc monitor?
I like my preview's crisp in true color space on a broadcast grade monitor.

I know of a system by a well known 'broadcast' video company that does not have ANY option for previewing outside of the computer monitor. What was that company? Oh yeah, GRASS VALLEY.

Admittedly, the name of the program is NewsEdit but why include color correction features if you can't preview on a real video monitor? (I'm bitter about my companies choice of NewsEdit for a variety of reasons but that's high up on the list.)

OTOH, I've heard of plenty of people using Dell computer monitors as video monitors. I have no idea how good they are at it though...

[GrassValley_KH]

Save that layout too (call it something like "Large Monitor for Preview")

Then you can switch between layouts when doing a preview.

[tingsern]

Simon,

If you want to do that, a quick and simple solution will be -

a) switch EDIUS to ONE monitor mode (instead of two),

b) enlarge that monitor to as big as your screen can support - no "A" or "V" tracks - just one "VA" track.

Doable?

[SimonD]

Team
Going back to reasons for full screen preview from the timeline. I would use it frequently to preview to potential customers.
I make 'day movies' on dive boats and I'm not the only one.
My day involves shooting on a dive boat and underwater, cutting the footage together and showing a 20 minute creation to the divers on the dive boat during the cruise back to land.
Some of the smaller boats I work on do not have a reasonable place to store a TV so viewing the day's movie will be done on my laptop. To do this I have to render the movie out first so it can be played back 'full screen'. Since time is my 'enemy' every day, full screen playback from the timeline would be an asset.
Broadcast quality previewing is not a discussion point in my circumstances. My potential customers are more interested in seeing themselves, the marine life and getting a good impression of their day out.
After all the footage ends up on a DVD.

Full screen preview from the timeline in my opinion is a feature for expidiency not quality...

[STORMDAVE]

The world is changing, check this out:

http://www.cine-tal.com (A lookup table on the spot)

I am waiting for the prices on the XBR Bravia's to drop so I can grab one, calibrate the colors, and use it as a preview monitor. I'll still keep my Sony PVM monitor and use it to check the color via an SD project.

The expensive monitors have HD-SDI, so this is one of the other reasons why their prices are so high. The HD-SDI processors are very expensive as well, probably add $1,000-$2,000 to the cost of the display alone.

I think a good professional LCD in the price range of $3,000-6,000 is worth it if you really do require to be broadcast safe. True 1080p investment is a huge plus as well.

[GrassValley_BH]

Yes, it's all about the processing. Video-oriented displays "know" the response of the panel (and its backlight), so it "knows" how to drive the display to get a particular color displayed.

It's similar to how LUTs are used in the digital cinema world.

[tingsern]

Storm,

Ooops ... that was a finger slip :-). YUV is right. Of course, one can go up the price ladder with better processors, better LCD screens, etc ... but, we are not arguing about that.

I am saying getting to those people - get yourself a real Broadcast monitor if you really want to see what colours your video is throwing out at you. Not a Computer monitor.

[STORMDAVE]

Ting I hope you mean YUV :)

It's all about the processor inside the LCD...the panels are identical, except that in higher end "broadcast" LCD's they use much much better panels...not sure it justifies to buy a $20,000 LCD, but I am sure even a properly calibrated LCD will yield good results. A DVI or HDMI-to-DVI connection will yield good quality video when you use a native 1900x1200 (24" LCD). Or better yet, if your LCD has HD component in, you can use that instead.

[tingsern]

Andrew,

Look at my signature ... I am referring to that Panasonic - 17" LCD - Broadcast monitor. Using component out from NX card. That's what you should be looking at if you want to do colour correction, grading, etc ... You can't use a computer monitor for that - the colour space is totally different. Video is YUK whereas Computer is RGB.

[STORMDAVE]

Your EIZO is a great monitor, though not for video...it is great for graphic design.

[tingsern]

Get yourself a Panasonic 17" LCD - or 24" ... it won't cost you $3OK or even $10K .... Don't bother about Sony these days - they are just overpriced for the functionality you can get in Panasonic or JVC.

[STORMDAVE]

I really don't get what people do with that so called 1:1 preview on a pc monitor?
I like my preview's crisp in true color space on a broadcast grade monitor.

FCP has this feature....it's pretty sweet. I just use FCP to playback my AE comps, and I let my customers view them on my second 21" Wide LCD at full screen. I can scrub frame by frame and let them pick a frame that they want to see again.

I have a 14" Sony PVM broadcast monitor connected, but sometimes I need a bigger view...and since I don't have a 46" Bravia yet, I use this feature often. Obviously the downside is inaccurate color, but of course I am not using this feature for proper color accuracy. I have the Sony for that.

[Jerry]

"Broadcast quality" is a term thrown around quite a bit, but it's really void of meaning these days. It's just a derogatory term used in an excuse from someone who doesn't want to use a piece of footage - "I can't air that, that's not broadcast quality."

Look at the TV shows from the 80's. Is that "broadcast quality" today? Or look at TV news. We get cell phone video and MySpace video shown... is that "broadcast quality?"

As for the original 1:1 preview question, there are a few reasons to preview video:

1. Color correction
2. Positioning
3. Motion artifacting
4. Timing

For #1 to be done properly, you need a broadcast-calibrated monitor and the actual output of the card. PC-display preview won't cut it.
One may argue that the end-viewer's TV settings will malign the image anyway, but the point is to have a good reference point, so the image looks reasonable no matter what evil preset the viewer is using.

For #2, PC display preview is an approximation at best, because the PC will show the entire image, regardless of overscan. Granted, overscan varies from display to display. Relative positioning, of course, is fine on a PC display - if you're lining one object up against another, etc.

For #3, the PC display preview is not useful at all. It doesn't represent what a standard interlaced display would show (because it's not interlaced), nor does it display what a progressive (LCD/plasma) display would show because it's not geared for TV (different scaling, etc).

For #4, the PC display is fine for this, as long as the preview is full framerate and the display refresh is the same as the end-viewer - otherwise you will see judder.

Numbers 2 and 3 were the reasons that I only used my Quadro card as an output for a week until I went with the NX. It just drove me batty. Especially, after using a rex card since 1996.