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Using My Computer Monitor for shoots


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Most monitors have VESA mounts, which are just a pattern of holes on the back in a square or rectangular formation. If the monitor has a desk stand it's quite possible that removing four bolts that hold the desk stand on will reveal a standard mounting arrangement. You can get a huge variety of clamps and adaptors to allow VESA standard monitors to be mounted onto all sorts of things, so I'd be astonished if you couldn't find something to let you put it on a C-stand.

 

You will of course need to evaluate what inputs and outputs are available on the camera and the monitor, and how far apart the two can be. HDMI and DVI only go a few yards.

 

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Would I be abe to use my LG computer monitor as a field monitor? and are there stands out there for monitors of this size? (about 26inches)

As an alternative, there are quite a few full-HD LED/LCD TVs coming on the market right now (often with with built-in DVD players), which are designed with "field use" in mind, that is they can run from an unregulated 12V car battery supply, as well as the supplied mains-powered 12V "dongle"

I'm actually using such a 24" TV as a PC monitor as we speak. 1920 x 1080 graphics opens up a whole new world of productivity; you can do cool things like open two full-page Word documents side-by-side. (You of course need to have a graphics card that can do 1920 x 1080, or download a driver if one is available).

I haven't been able to hook up a full HD camera via HDMI yet, but a 720p one works a treat, and it works fine with Blu-Ray 1080p, so I don't see why it shouldn't be OK for that.

The other thing is, it's feather-light; you can easily carry it in one hand. It would be perfect for casual field monitoring. The one I have also works from 24 Volts, but you can't always guarantee that this is possible.

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Model number?

The one I have is actually a sample from the Chinese Manufacturer Shenzhen MTC. I got it cheap as a "sample sale" at work, but they took the label off so I don't know the actual model. I'm on holidays until Jan 16 so I can't look it up until then. It starts with something like "MHDV24..."

 

MTC make a large percentage of the lower-end "badge-engineered" LCD TVs sold throughout the world (as well as Digital Set Top Boxes). The samples come in all sorts of cartons; I've had them in ATSC cartons for the US market, and even one under the Russian "Mystery Home" brand! (That's just the boxes they use to send them in, the TVs are all set up for Australia).

 

You can download a manual for a similar "Bush" badged version here

 

(Do they still sell Bush TVs in the UK? They used to make actual Bush TVs here, based on the UK design, until the great credit squeeze of 1963, when most of the overseas manufacturers (Admiral, GE, Motorola, Ekco, Bush etc pulled out.) I'm surprised that nearly 50 years later people still remember those brands, but apparently they do!)

 

I would be very surprised if nobody in the UK is selling some version of this set. I can ask the HK agent when I get back to work, but I don't have the email addresses available at home.

 

It's basically a very skinny 24" Full HD LED LCD TV with a separate 12V power supply, which with any luck will still carry the AMTC label. They make both DVD and non-DVD versions. There is also a 22" version, which draws exactly the same power as the 24" and has exactly the same specs; you'd wonder why they bothered!

 

It has 2 x HDMI inputs, a USB socket with limited video playback capability (and a somewhat flakey PVR function on some models), a single composite/component video input (that is, you can have either composite or component, but not both because there's only one set of audio input sockets) and a VGA socket.

 

In Australia, the 24" DVD version sells for about $AU250, the non-DVD version, about $AU200.

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