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LCD Displays - Pixel Response Rate -Advice needed!

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Apologies in advance for the long post! :p

I'm a media production student and considering the options available to me for upgrading from my current flat panel imac g4 800mhz to a more powerful machine for video editing. I'm currently looking at various monitor options.

Having recently installed FCP 4 on my imac I found that footage I captured whilst moving the Mini-DV (Sony PD150) camera quite fast displayed oddly on my computer. It appeared to strobe and flicker. Footage recorded whilst holding the camera still was fine. Is this likely to be because the pixel response rate of my existing display is too slow? Or is it a memory issue, as my imac doesn't have too much.

I'm stuck for space, and in my new set up would prefer to stay with flat screen displays. Most websites I read suggest sticking with CRT monitors for editing, but has this advice yet become outdated? Anyone else out there editing video on LCD displays, what response rate do your monitors have? I see the Apple Cinema displays are on a 16ms response time, is this adequate?
 
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lil

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16ms isn't too bad, but it goes on the physical display size.

I know Viewsonic makes a 4ms reponse time SXGA (1280x1024) screen and many make 8ms screens. You have to be dead sure that it is 4ms/8ms though as some manufacturers say it's 8ms. In fact the response time is measured in two parts:

- time rising
- time falling

If the total of these is 4ms, then that is its true response rate, but some manufacturers quote the refresh rate as 8ms but really that only counts the time rising measurement, so in total it is 16ms like the Apple Cinema Displays.

Apple could say 8ms but it wouldn't be correct.

The smaller the time rising/falling value as you know the quicker it will refresh.

For the record, I found the Cinema displays to be excellent personally, but there are other monitors with quicker refresh, if you can stomach the 5:4 ratio of the SXGA monitors opposed toi 4:3 or 16:9/10 displays.

Hope this helps

Vicky :flower:
 
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Thanks for a speedy and very knowledgeable post Vicky!

So after reading my long winded 1st post, would you conclude that it is likely to be the flat panels response rate that has been casusing the strobing?...or is it more likely down to the low spec computer?
 
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lil

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On your iMac, we are talking of an earlier LCD, many innovations have occured in the past 3 years in LCD technology, better viewing angles, better contrast ratios, brighter and of course faster refresh rates.

You will need a decent Mac with a decent video card (anything from the GeForce 5200FX or above), and a decent monitor to get optimal results.

Therefore you could probably get a PowerMac G4 with a decent graphics card and good LCD with faster response rate and you could be guaranteed your problems would be solved, plus you get a much more expandable piece of kit.

However, it sounds most likely that the LCD is more of an issue here than the GPU in the iMac or indeed its 800MHz G4.

Glad to be able to help, I do very little video based work but I do a heck of a lot of design, photography retouching, editing, and natural media production most of the time in Painter IX, so I need to have an accute understanding of how technology works to get the best results in my work :flower: That's what comes from working in an Apple Centre (or at least used to until they downsized...)

Vicky :flower:
 

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