Computer monitor for video and photos editing?

Maybe my computer monitor just died.

I'll try and save it, but it is 3 computers old and came out in the early days of hdmi, so it does struggle to keep up with editing photos and video.

What do I need to know to get a good monitor for my use?  

Temporary fixed it.

Still going to need a new one in thenextfewweeks.  Suggestions?

R,

Do you have an idea of how large a screen you want and if you need anything like USB cables to attach from it?

Eric

Personally I like 1440 resolution and a 25” screen.  This makes for a nice, sharp image and not too big a footprint on the desktop.  My favorite is the Ultrasharp brand by Dell, but they don’t come cheap.

Do you need a 27” or larger?  It might be handy for lots of photo and video editing.

Do you wish for 2 monitors?  I find this extremely useful.

Do you want a budget monitor?  We can probably find one together.

Eric

You can put usb cables into a monitor?

This one is like 23" corner to corner with a cinema aspect ratio (wide and not very tall).  It's fine size-wise.  It's not something I care much about, I just want accurate colour that I don't have to reset every time I start colour grading a project.  

I need the footage to look accurate.
Right now I'm working with 1080, but I can see moving up to 4k or 6k in the next five to ten years.  I assume monitors still last more than 10 years before going on the fritz.

Although I suppose if it was too big, I might hurt my neck and back having to adjust to see the different parts of the screen.  

I do tend to do long times away from the computer (a week or more) and then spend several days in a row editing.  

I haven't bought my second hard drive yet (had a cough, don't want to go to the shops until it goes away, but it's probably smog caused thanks to the wildfire season, but still... polite) so I can take that money and add it to the monitor fund.  

I knew I would have to upgrade eventually, but I had hoped it would last another year.  

But still... Any idea what sort of price range we are looking at?  Amazon has them from $100 to several thousand.  I want the one that can do what I need but I don't know what the numbers are to look for.

Does a 1080 resolution mean that I won't get accurate results when I start editing 6k?  

(as a side note, editing in the higher res like 4 or 6 k then publishing lower is pretty common in youtube, that's why I assume I'll be heading in that direction as I'm already feeling the limits of working with 1080)

Yes, some monitors have a USB hub built right in.  I have this in my monitor and I find it extremely handy.  I like to be able to just sit down and plug a USB flash drive right into the monitor—it’s right there on the desktop.  I imagine you could hook up a little card reader for an SD card and accomplish the same effect.

Like I said, I am a fan of Dell monitors.  They are about the only manufacturer of the 25” size that was once very popular (now those are mostly 27” monitors).

If a 4K or 6k monitor is right for you, then awesome!  Just make sure you have video specs on your computer that are up to the task.  This commonly involves a graphics card.  They are not too hard to figure out.

At one time I really thought I wanted a 4K monitor, but when I looked at those, the pixels are so teeny tiny that native resolution text is almost unreadable.  And you really pay for that, those are not cheap monitors.  As it is, 2556x1440 or 2k resolution is great for me, but if you plan on shooting it 4K, it may be necessary.

Eric Hanson wrote:Yes, some monitors have a USB hub built right in.  I have this in my monitor and I find it extremely handy.  I like to be able to just sit down and plug a USB flash drive right into the monitor—it’s right there on the desktop.  I imagine you could hook up a little card reader for an SD card and accomplish the same effect.

.

Oh, that's pretty cool.

I got a usb hub with on off switches so I don't have to keep unpluging different things like harddrives and stuff, then the regular USB stations on the tower where it's easy to get to for portable things.  

I'm not sure if this is my graphics card - personally I just want the thing to do my bidding without me having to know how the parts go.  it makes my brain hurt.

It says

AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT
Intel(R)UHD Graphics 770

If I understood the computer guy the one that has the old style monitor connector (the one with the two screws) is the lesser one.  And the one I want to use is the HDMI connection at the top of the tower where the real graphic card is.  

So I think it's the AMD which if google is telling the truth, is 1080.  

Does that sound right?

So if I get a monitor that is 1080 it will be happy with the information from the graphics card.?? maybe?

Lower than 4K resolution means that you will not see the entire video in its full resolution.  The picture is still basically accurate, it just isn’t viewable in its entirety at full resolution on your screen.

Honestly, given inflation, and considering that you think that you will eventually need a 4K monitor, maybe it is reasonable to buy it now instead of waiting for that price to go up?  But who knows?

For my money, I would want the best color representation.  Again, speaking from my own experience, the Dell Ultrasharps are very, very good.  There are other monitors that are also well-regarded, so don’t just rely on my advice.  As far as money goes, and considering that you are looking for a professional or prosumer grade monitor, I would look at spending hundreds but certainly not thousands of dollars.  If you spent $500, I would think that was too much, but again, this isn’t my purchase (and I hope we can get the price well under $500).

Ok, that old type of video connector is definitely dated.  I would strongly suggest either HDMI or DP (Display Port).  DP is technically the better but it probably does not matter much to you.  

I typo’d above the earlier about monitor resolution.  My resolution is 2556 x 1440 (sometimes called 2k).  I bet yours is 1080 (1k), a very common resolution, and it may be perfectly reasonable for you to stay with that resolution.  I will have to look up the exact specs of your graphics card to confirm anything but I suspect that it is perfectly fine (maybe not 4K though.  I will check).

4k monitors  https://www.pcmag.com/picks/the-best-4k-monitors

Lenovo--HUGE, but might be reasonably priced and suit your needs
https://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-P27U-10-27INCH-Monitor-CD-HDMI/dp/B07DPTJ2ZG?tag=p00935-20&ascsubtag=05l011vBoJ5RO8AVDmDEP5q

Dell--Stunningly excellent, but more that I was hoping for you to pay.
https://www.amazon.com/Dell-UltraSharp-U2723QE-27-16/dp/B09TQZP9CL?tag=p00935-20&ascsubtag=05yVX244xqnQL0WyA8S7BAB

2K monitors  https://www.amazon.com/2k-monitor/s?k=2k+monitor

This is a very nice 25" monitor with bells and whistles
https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-ultrasharp-25-usb-c-monitor-u2520d/apd/210-avkg/monitors-monitor-accessories

Food for thought

And I checked your graphics card.  Unless I am terribly mistaken your graphics card is absolutely amazing.  I see no reason why it should not work.

And yes, that old connection is a dated one.  You will want either a HDMI or a DP (even better) port.

I'm happy with the graphics card.  Most of my money went to that and then into a tower with awesome cooling and a power supply that could handle my future upgrades to the system.  We basically got the best I could afford at the time, then future-proofed it.  I've still found some of the limits of the system but I won't be getting to close to those for a few years.  

Then again, I did save up over 5 years for this computer.  

Question: My biggest concern is that i'm on a deadline with these next two videos so if the monitor dies this month, I'm doomed.  I've only got an 8" backup that has like almost no colour ability (it's an external for the video camera).  

However, there is a TV in the house with a HDMI plug and since we never watch TV, I could use it for a few weeks.  Would my computer be likely to talk to the TV?  Would it kill my eyes to work with that?

I really want to see if I can limp this setup along until the Black Friday sales.  But the risk is great if I cannot.  

and a heads up for anyone else out there waiting for deals on amazon, camelcamelcamel.com is the best!

I had a look at the graphics card... wow.

This level is starting to get outside my wheelhouse, my job is to help people experience other people's content. I've just about got all the tv's up to 4k and I'm pushing to get the projectors up to full hd.

That being said.
Our video and photographers are using these which are 4k, 27" screens. They have 2 hooked up to a graphics card which has about a 1/4 of the power of yours.

Right now, with that card, the sky is your limit. You could happily run 2 or more 8k monitors for photography if you want. You might want to stick to 4k for video just to give the local power grid a rest.
I don't know much about the colour accuracy, Eric definitely seems more informed on that bit.

That connector with the 15 pins and screws is called VGA. For what I do, VGA is a bit annoying because it isn't the most reliable. For the level you're talking about, it is actively holding you back.

In terms of ergonomics, have you considered having a "working" screen and a "viewing" screen? I'm thinking something like a 24-27" 4k screen for the bulk of the work and a larger 8k "viewing" screen, but now I'm spending lots of your money.

James Alun wrote:

That connector with the 15 pins and screws is called VGA. For what I do, VGA is a bit annoying because it isn't the most reliable. For the level you're talking about, it is actively holding you back.

I don't use that one anymore but the current monitor is having difficulty with this HDMI information.  I don't think it was really a normal thing when the monitor was made - they just tossed it in there because they could charge more for it.  Heck, this is from before the four holes in the back for a mount was standard.    The computer sends too much info and the monitor freaks out and says "I ain't cut out for this range, make it stop! MAKE IT STOP!  I'm having a nap.  Wake me up when you start being more reasonable." (only in computer error speak)


One of the biggest problems I have is I don't know - or care enough to learn - the vocab for computers, so it's hard to buy things if I don't know the words.

R,

A TV could definitely be an option for you.  Especially if you want a larger 4K “monitor” then a smaller 4K TV would work nicely.  In essence, even a small TV would look like a huge monitor.  You would probably give up the USB ports, but that’s really only a small extra goodie.

I have a brother-in-law who just bought a new computer with a 42” TV (crazy, huge monitor) as his monitor.  As I remember, the TV was actually very reasonably priced as monitors go.

James does make a good point about having a multiple monitor setup.  Now I don’t want you to go spend all your money on fun toys just because I like them, but having a 2 monitor setup is really useful.

I'm a little hesitant about recommending a TV for critical viewing, in my experience, inconsistent backlighting and poor colour rendering is the trade off for large screens for the price point.

I love multiple screens. A lot of my work is documentation and planning and being able to compare stuff between screens makes it much easier. That being said, once you've had multiple screens, it's really hard to go back.

Without talking budget, it's kinda hard for me to say much more about this.

James, I couldn’t agree more about the multiple monitor setup.  Several years ago I upgraded from a very old 19” (I know, embarrassing) monitor to a 24 inch monitor, but I never actually got rid of the old monitor—I just went to a 2-monitor setup.  Eventually that 19” monitor bit the dust and I replaced it with an excellent Dell, 25” Ultrasharp monitor.  That was a really nice monitor, but I really wanted it to have a twin and after looking for a deal for about 2 years I found the exact same model at a significant savings on clearance.  I still have that old 24” monitor so I actually run a 3-monitor setup, which I like very much.  I know it seems like a lot, but a typical operation looks like this:

Monitor #1–Plays the actual video or shows the actual photo using full-screen.

Monitor #2–Typically has a video or photo editing software suite fully open so I can see and use all the controls.  This is my most productive monitor.

Monitor #3–This is always my older, 24” monitor.  It displays miscellaneous information like system information, a web browser, a word processor, or some other program that nigh come in handy.

Obviously, this setup is not necessary and I only acquired it over time while looking for bargains.  I wouldn’t mind upgrading my 24” monitor, but I am in no hurry and I really will only go for a good bargain at this point.

As far as R goes, she might limp along with her TV for a while till the sales roll in.  I have seen TV’s that do fit the monitor roll nicely and are quite cost competitive, but it is definitely worth shopping around and comparing specs and prices.  Also that second, potential monitor need not be so spectacular, merely functional will be perfectly fine.

Just my thoughts.

Eric

Here is a 4K TV that will make a HUGE monitor, but is only a mediumish TV.  I have not seen it personally, but I have seen similar and I bet it is pretty good.  And it doesn’t really break the bank at about $300.  

I am on my phone so it’s hard for me to clean this mess of a link up right now.  Sorry about being so untidy.

Eric


https://www.bestbuy.com/site/samsung-43-class-7-series-led-4k-uhd-smart-tizen-tv/6401740.p?skuId=6401740&ref=212&loc=1&extStoreId=817&ref=212&loc=1&gbraid=0AAAAAD-ORIgs6HtH60fZscvMj8xkCHCx-&gbraid=0AAAAAD-ORIgs6HtH60fZscvMj8xkCHCx-&gclid=Cj0KCQjwjvaYBhDlARIsAO8PkE3Ui6-g3GEnN5HpvLCPXF5Am3i0_6vh61CxN0H4T6W_jdBVvAZrQbUaAvVvEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

This page has some great things to consider for colour grading.

https://jonnyelwyn.co.uk/film-and-video-editing/affordable-colour-grading-monitors-2/

I get excited about this nerd-level detail.  James makes a good point about wanting good color representation, reinforcing a point I brought up earlier.  This can be a bit difficult to judge, as just how does one judge what it a true red (for example), or green, or blue, etc., etc.  I have looked at some of the specs, and the monitor that James listed is an amazing monitor, and were it not for the price I would say go for that one in a heartbeat, but it’s price probably costs heartbeats in the long run.  The TV I linked is probably very good, but it is best to view in person, but this might not be practical.  

Even if you don’t buy from Amazon, reading Amazon reviews is not a bad way to judge its quality.  Also, consider PC Mag and B&H Photo as good reviews of monitors.  There certainly are other good reviews out here too.  

I hope all this helps you with your decision R.  Of course, if you have any other questions, you can probably tell that I get excited to answer them!  

Good Luck!

Eric

I often use TVs as external monitors when I travel and need to work. If the TV is new enough to have an HDMI entrance it should be worth trying, at least. Find a cable and see how it goes! (I have a few old monitors, VGA ones, and I keep a converter around, they usually work just fine too) I always have 2 and sometimes 3 monitors going, and it is indeed wonderful.

possibly important points
-i work with text and documents (small text, seals, stamps), not videos
-i am kinda colorblind so color is not a big thing for me
-i use a PC with windows operating systems, the last 3 or so iterations of windows have been quite easy to set up additional monitors and adjust video settings compared to previous versions

r ranson wrote:This page has some great things to consider for colour grading.

https://jonnyelwyn.co.uk/film-and-video-editing/affordable-colour-grading-monitors-2/

I want to bring some really good quotes from this page as it's a lot of what I need and where I think I'm going.

The film industry is getting a lot of upgrades locally with 3 new sound stages coming to town over the next 5 years and a lot more opportunities for education.  If I can get funding, I want to take some classes on editing and colour grading and maybe do a bit of freelance work in that area.  This is influencing my monitor choice.

TLDR: When you put ‘affordable’ in front of colour grading monitor, this is like saying ‘affordable luxury car’, the real deal is expensive for a reason.

...

But that is not what you are looking for when you Google “Affordable colour grading monitors”  

What we want is

monitors with solid colour accuracy at an ‘affordable’ price.

And that's what I find is really important to me.  Solid colour accuracy.

And to belabour the point

I would wager that *most* people who are looking to buy an ‘affordable grading monitor’, are probably not going to be trying to persuade their clients to pay them vast amounts of money per hour for their colour grading skills, founded on the promise that the display in front of them is 100% perfectly accurate. Although some may have the audacity, I think a lot of people just want to have a decent display that they can work with, reasonably confident it looks ‘pretty good’.

Notice what just happened.

In one sentence we slid from ‘total professional perfection’ to ‘pretty good’. These days, as with so many advancing technologies, ‘pretty good’ is actually very, very good.

That's exactly what I want.  I want "pretty good."  I don't have the skills yet to do justice to professional-grade equipment, but I need something better than a generic user or even a gamer might use.  Going full pro at this stage in my life, would be a waste of money.  Although it is something to consider later on this path.

There is also a great section on "What to look for when choosing an affordable grading monitor – Understanding Terms and Concepts"

Display Resolution – You want to be able to monitor the kind of footage you regularly work with at it’s full resolution. If you’re often working with 4K footage then you’ll want a 4K monitor. If you’re only ever delivering HD then a 1920 x 1080 monitor will do just fine. (See my 2018 update below for more on this!)

Inputs – Depending on the monitor you choose it will come with different inputs. The most common are SDI, HDMI and DisplayPort.

Outputs – You’ll also want to look at whether it has downstream Thunderbolt 3, USB 3.1 and audio capabilities as these make the monitor even more useful day to day.

(Upstream connects monitor to computer, downstream connects monitor to peripherals.)

Size of display – If you’re the only one who will be looking at the display, having a 30-50″ monster will be overkill. If clients need to be viewing it from the comfort of a sofa, having a bigger display might be helpful. Personally I like something around the 27″ mark – plenty of space to work with, but not unwieldy.

Gamut & Gamma – This is the range of colours (gamut) and luma range (gamma) that a given specification requires. For example, can the monitor accurately display common specifications such as Rec 709, Rec 2020, DCI-P3, Adobe RGB etc?

Viewing Angle – What you don’t want is your image looking different when you move your head or seat around. The image should look exactly the same no matter which angle you’re viewing it from. Most displays these days declare that they have a ‘wide viewing angle’ of around 178 degrees. Although technical specifications and real world testing can be quite different things.

Contrast Ratio – This will probably make the biggest difference to your perception of the images on display. Glossy displays tend to have a higher contrast ratio than matte displays. According to chapter 2 of Alexis Van Hurkman’s Color Correction Handbook 2nd Ed. (paraphrasing here) for an LCD display 1400:1 (glossy) or 1100:1 (matte) or better, is a good ball park. For OLED 5000:1 is a good ball park.

Black Levels – Having deep blacks is what colorists are always looking for, not muddy grey ones. Deep gorgeous blacks with plenty of detail still in them. Partly this impacts on your perceived contrast and partly it’s a sign of a good display panel. OLED panels beat LCD in this and the contrast department.

Brightness – SDR (Standard Definition) is mastered to a 100 nit brightness range. HDR is usually mastered to 1000 or 4000 nits. True HDR reference monitors are incredibly expensive. My focus in this post is on SDR use-cases.

Calibration – That you will be able to calibrate your monitor with either in-built tools, and/or an external probe and software should be an essential element in your choice. Otherwise you won’t be able to maintain the accuracy of your images over the lifetime of your monitor. (Which, by the way, will also be a moving target, as display’s performance changes as they age.)

1D vs 3D LUT – Even if your display can be calibrated the precision with which that can be achieved will be dictated in part by the complexity of the calibration LUT, which bridges the gap between the colours the display is receiving and what it should be sending. A 3D LUT is preferable for colour accurate calibration. But only a few monitors make this user accessible.

Those are a lot of words.

But I love this list because it gives me lots to think about.  

Right away, I'm not yet editing in LUT.  Probably won't be for a while yet as the files are HUGE!  And my equipment doesn't shoot in LUT.

Viewer angle, calibrations and blacks all are high on my list.

outputs from the monitor seem a bit extra for me.  I can't understand how having more information travelling from the computer through the monitor to the perfieries would improve performance.  I still have 6 unused USB ports on my PC that are easy to get to and another three on the back.  So not something I would use.  

Sound - I edit with a headset and have extra speakers, so I don't need it to do that.

Calibrating the colours is a pain on my current monitor.  I wonder if it's easier on the new ones?

So now I know a bit more about what is important and what I don't need so much.


This is turning out to be way more complicated than I expected.  

Maybe it's because I have my monitor too close or my desk is too small, but I find 23" quite big and I have trouble with my neck after a long session because I have to make repetitive micromovements to get the different parts of the screen in focus.  

For that reason, I usually just alt-tab or other keyboard shortcuts to get from one programme to the next quickly.

Not really sure what I would use an extra monitor for.  Just thinking of having two hurts my neck.  But it might be awesome.  If this old one is still working when I get the new one, I can hook up both and see what it's like.  But then I would need a bigger desk and another cable and... I don't know.  I think I'm missing something that makes them awesome.  

This one keeps coming up again and again.

https://www.amazon.ca/Samsung-LU28R550UQNXZA-inch-Monitor-Picture/dp/B084V9CJB1


I've put a price watch on it on https://camelcamelcamel.com/ as it seems to fluctuate quite a bit.  

I'm not a big fan of 60hz as the flicker rate can bother me quite a bit when I'm tired.   But it seems to be good enough in a lot of other areas.  The main complaint is the mount on the back isn't easy, but I don't intend to use that for a while if ever.  

What do you think?

From what I can see, that monitor looks very nice.  Samsung has nice monitors with bright, color rich screens.  Hopefully you can get the price a bit better.

James Alun wrote:I'm a little hesitant about recommending a TV for critical viewing, in my experience, inconsistent backlighting and poor colour rendering is the trade off for large screens for the price point.

I agree. I'm not up on all the latest stuff anymore. I'm using an old Thinkpad laptop since my computer crashed. I don't use it's monitor because it's not that great. I hooked it up to several different tv's and didn't like the colors even on those, so I ended up hooking the laptop up to my 21" Dell monitor, as well as a wireless mouse and keyboard. The monitor works just fine for my needs (although the laptop struggles sometimes).

I managed to get this monitor from limping along to no longer on life support by updating some drivers.  

It's not as good at colourwork as I want, but it means I can keep on saving money to get something better, later.

Driver problems!  That such a simple problem can cause such a headache is amazing.  I probably should have recommended this to you earlier, but old drivers are frequently a problem when a computer decides to update.

Eric

Eric Hanson wrote:Driver problems!  That such a simple problem can cause such a headache is amazing.  I probably should have recommended this to you earlier, but old drivers are frequently a problem when a computer decides to update.

Eric

Mine can't be updated. If I replace the laptop, I'm keeping the monitor.

Partly a driver problem.

Mostly power fluctuations making the monitor stressed.  We used to get a lot of.. what's the opposite of a surge?  a low?  when we had more people living in the house the power used to drain suddenly when there was too much load on the system.  That and windstorms make it not uncommon to have power issues here.

One of the things high on my list is that battery bank thingy we plug the computer in.  I've got a very fancy power bar by APC but it only does surges, not the lows.  Nice company though.  The power bar blows every 5 years and they just send me the latest upgrade for free.  

I'm hopeful the battery one would protect against the power lows.  

That and the monitor isn't built for this much data I'm pouring at it.  It seems to be the current choke point in my system.  

Those low voltage brownouts are really hard on all equipment.  I hate to say it but the monitor could be the canary in the coal mine.  Even the smallest battery bank will do wonders for your equipment.

Eric

Eric Hanson wrote:Those low voltage brownouts are really hard on all equipment.  I hate to say it but the monitor could be the canary in the coal mine.  Even the smallest battery bank will do wonders for your equipment.

Eric

I  had wondered.

I need to start a new thread for a simple battery bank.  It's not like I would want to run the computer on it for a long time.

R, I know that you are on a real budget, but I am thinking about all your equipment that you purchased for video editing, especially that amazing video card.  I would want to protect that investment.  I personally have a battery system that will backup for something like 30 minutes.  Mine cost about $100.  But there are cheaper 5 minute backup batteries that basically have enough power to shut your computer down in a power emergency.  These might get you through short periods of low voltage, but you know your power problems much better than me.  Are your brownouts just brief 1-2 second events or do they last?

Eric

Eric Hanson wrote:R, I know that you are on a real budget, but I am thinking about all your equipment that you purchased for video editing, especially that amazing video card.  I would want to protect that investment.  I personally have a battery system that will backup for something like 30 minutes.  Mine cost about $100.  But there are cheaper 5 minute backup batteries that basically have enough power to shut your computer down in a power emergency.  These might get you through short periods of low voltage, but you know your power problems much better than me.  Are your brownouts just brief 1-2 second events or do they last?

Eric

I think you are right.

All the upgrades I've been looking into lately, I think this one should be at the top of my list.  I've been complacent because the grow-op/chopshop that is on the same transformer as our house has been inactive this summer.  But it looks like people are moving in there again soon.  It's another draw on the system that causes these power fluxations.  

I started a new thread asking what I should look for https://permies.com/t/192189/buying-thingy-power-bar-batteries

I haven't upgraded yet.

I did some fiddling with some drivers and gave it a more predictable power supply.  I managed to milk most of a year out of this old thing.  Although I'm wondering if the lag issues I've been having these last two months isn't the mouse, but the monitor.  

With the summer heat, this monitor is starting to get fussy again.  

Re-reading the thread and bumping it up to see if anything has changed in the technology since last summer.  

You may want to check out touch screen monitors....try newegg.com