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glaustin
glaustin
Inspiring
March 20, 2018
Question

HD or 4K Monitor?

  • March 20, 2018
  • 2 replies
  • 1499 views

Hi Guys

Can I pick your brains please?  Over here in the UK, I'm on Pr CC2018. I run two monitors (one 24" Benq and one 21" Ilyama), giving me a total 43 inches of screen real estate, but I'm planning on upgrading to better quality. One idea is to buy better HD monitors, but one part of the equation is to future-proof myself by upping to UHD or 4K.

Although my camera (Sony PXW Z150) is UHD, I have so far only filmed QAVCHD, so 4K isn't essential at the moment. Having said that I am about to explore how well UHD works for my line of business (corporate and sports). Therefore I should welcome any feedback on the following questions::

If I film UHD, are there any problems editing on an HD monitor and what are those issues?

If I buy a UHD/ 4K monitor, what are the problems, if any, editing my HD XMF footage? I saw there can be upscaling issues.

Any other tips on 4K v HD (i.e., I use Outlook and Word 2016 on my current machine to prepare draft VOs/ scripts, production plans, etc. and exchange with clients, which I think could be a problem.

TBH, I'm leaning slightly towards two better quality 24" HD replacements, but I don't want to look back in one year and realise I should have put that money into a 4k/ UHD replacement.

Any thoughts would be ever so welcome. Apologies if I should have posted on the Hardware Forum, but I thought this is more about presentation than hardware as such.

Regards,

Graham

This topic has been closed for replies.

2 replies

E
excited_Genie16B8
Legend
April 1, 2018

Your filming choices aren't really a factor in GUI monitor selection at all.  Proper "image viewing" needs to be done via an external display connected to an I/O device like the Intensity from Blackmagic, or the T-Tap from AJA.  That display will depend on your filming specs to a degree.

The primary consideration for a GUI monitor is screen real estate.  If you have enough room to see what you're doing at 1920 x 1080, buy an HD monitor.  If you need more room, by a 1440 monitor.  Need still more room, get a 2160 monitor.

Just make sure the screen size goes up with resolution, or things will become to small to see.  (Always keep Display Scaling set to 100%.)

Having said all that, I believe Windows still does dual monitors incorrectly, so my preference would be for one monitor with enough room to do what I need.  You can create multiple, independent desktops in Windows 10 that may help with your work, since you're accustomed to having two monitors.

glaustin
glaustinAuthor
Inspiring
April 6, 2018

Thanks, Jim. That's helpful. At the moment, the Benq and Ilyama provide the screen real estate. But even though they are both 1920 rez, they are v. cheap and the general quality can be improved as I cannot fully calibrate for colour to match on them both, etc.

E
excited_Genie16B8
Legend
April 6, 2018

I cannot fully calibrate for colour to match on them both, etc.

That it correct.  But that applies to all GUI monitors.

I think Jamie LeJeune has it right in the following thread from the Blackmagic forums.  He's specifically talking about Resolve, but the idea holds true for all NLEs.  The upshot is, "The only image you can trust is to run SDI [or HDMI] out to an accurately calibrated reference monitor."

http://forum.blackmagicdesign.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=68410

glaustin
glaustinAuthor
Inspiring
March 26, 2018

Any thoughts out there?

glaustin
glaustinAuthor
Inspiring
April 1, 2018

Any advice would be really welcome...

Peru Bob
Community Expert
Peru BobCommunity Expert
Community Expert
April 1, 2018

Since you haven't gotten any responses, I'm going to move this to the Premiere Pro forum.

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