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Posted By: Guitarhacker New Monitor - 04/25/17 09:38 PM
I have been looking around for a new monitor for my DAW. I've been running a fairly nice 21" monitor and it has worked well. But I wanted to step up a bit in size.

So..... on Saturday night, after a good day of dog training, our group had a dinner followed by an auction. One of the items up for bid was a flat screen TV. I bid on it but the bid was turned down due to being too low. Heck I had bid $50. It was worth a try and it would get the bidding started. I bid again with a $100 bid and it was also turned down.... too low. So I asked what the reserve was. The reserve was $135 so I said ...Yep, I match the reserve. Auctioneer...our team's chief, asked for more bids.... no one bid.... Going once.... going twice.....SOLD for $135 !!

I scored a brand new 32" flatscreen TV with HDMI inputs for my DAW....and the DAW video card supports 2 monitors.... one on HDMI.... so I might be doing a dual monitor setup in the new studio..... Run Sonar on one...BB/RB on the other...

I can also put up my HD antenna and grab the free digital HD stuff off the air.....
Posted By: AudioTrack Re: New Monitor - 04/25/17 09:56 PM
Looks like you had a real win there, Herb.
Nice.
Posted By: Don Gaynor Re: New Monitor - 04/25/17 11:41 PM
Great buy, Herb!

I had ordered a 32" from Amazon and they were temporarily out of stock so they subbed a 40" Toshiba at the same price. That's why I love Amazon.

Donny
Posted By: Tobias Re: New Monitor - 04/26/17 01:50 AM
I think your gonna like it a lot.
I've been using a 32 inch for the past 4 - 5 years. I took the stand/base off the bottom so it stays low and I don't have to tilt my head up much to see the top. I set it on a long foam strip on my desk so it does not slide with heavy kick drums and bass notes.
I would find it difficult to go back to a smaller screen for my main workstation.
Posted By: jazzmammal Re: New Monitor - 04/26/17 12:36 PM
I started with an HDTV as a monitor about 5 years ago with a 32" Sony Bravia. Worked great. Now I use a 60" Sharp Aquos 4K set. I was a bit concerned about the upconversion from the standard HDTV resolution of 1920 X 1080P to 4K as far as text and seeing all the icons in Biab but it's really been great.

That's one of the reasons I got the Aquos, reviews said it has one of the best upconversions in that price range. Win10 also has some good display options, once I got it dialed in, no issues at all.

Bob
Posted By: Tobias Re: New Monitor - 04/26/17 06:19 PM
Bob, with the 60" do you find you need to bob your head around the screen too much? Especially to view things near the top of the screen?
I'm okay with a lot of left/right movement but was concerned with looking up high too often while playing an instrument.
I do find the 32" screen very useful especially with students or collaborating with others.
Posted By: Mike Halloran Re: New Monitor - 04/28/17 02:26 PM
How well any large monitor works depends on what your AV card supports. With decent backlit LCD monitors available today, running larger and more displays isn't the headache it used to be. It it looks good, it is good.

I would not buy anything older than two years old, however. Ignore the "sale price"—even if they give them away, they're no bargain. The power consumption is generally too high which = heat. An older one will cost a lot more over time but you'll see that cost in your electricity bill.

The modern ones are cool to the touch even after running a few hours. If you can put your hand over it and it's not warm, that's what you want. All the new ones are like that.
Posted By: Lloyd S Re: New Monitor - 04/28/17 07:03 PM
Guitarhacker:

You said: "I can also put up my HD antenna and grab the free digital HD stuff off the air....."

Which HD antenna do you use?
(Sorry if this is slightly off topic.)

Thanks!
LLOYD S
Posted By: jazzmammal Re: New Monitor - 04/28/17 08:09 PM
Originally Posted By: Tobias
Bob, with the 60" do you find you need to bob your head around the screen too much? Especially to view things near the top of the screen?
I'm okay with a lot of left/right movement but was concerned with looking up high too often while playing an instrument.


I understand what you're saying. I'm sitting on my couch right now writing this answer out on the 60". I'm about 7-8 feet away. If I was sitting 5 feet away and sitting straight up like at a desk I would definitely have that problem you're talking about.

The funny thing is I did that while watching a movie a few weeks ago. The 4K upconversion is so good that even that close there are no scan lines and I could watch the movie fine. That's way too close to try to do any actual work like typing this reply or using a DAW. However, at my usual 8 foot distance no problem working with any program including Biab. I have my wireless keyboard and mouse right here and I can do anything I want with the system. Then all I do is switch inputs and I'm back to watching cable TV.

Bob
Posted By: eddie1261 Re: New Monitor - 04/29/17 01:26 PM
I went from a 22 monitor, to a 24 flat screen, but tired of that soon. So I was out and about one day and stopped into an Office Depot. There was a gorgeous 27" HP there for $129. I asked them to get me one. The kid checked his stock and said they had none. I asked when they would come in. He looked at another system and said that the model I wanted was an item that Office Depot was no longer going to carry. So I said "Then you have no reason to have one on display, right? So you can sell me the floor model." He said he needed a manager. Manager came over and said "Well, since we will not be getting any more, I see no reason to not sell it to you." And I quickly popped in with "And I should get what, 20% off for buying a floor model? And since that is essentially an open box, and extra 10%." So we settled at 25% off, so I got a 27" flat panel with beautiful resolution for $99 out the door. When I do go up there, I now have the 24" flat panel as a second monitor off to the side so I can have a separate monitor in case I need to pop onto the internet to research a question I might have or anything like that.

But the thought of Bob's 60 inch display!!! Yeah baby!
Posted By: Guitarhacker Re: New Monitor - 04/30/17 11:01 AM
Originally Posted By: Lloyd S
Guitarhacker:

You said: "I can also put up my HD antenna and grab the free digital HD stuff off the air....."

Which HD antenna do you use?
(Sorry if this is slightly off topic.)

Thanks!
LLOYD S



I don't know.... I bought it years ago and used it on a rotor for a few months to get the over the air stuff.... then we ended up going to cable. It was used in the time between Dish and cable. My wife wanted her channels which weren't over the air.

I used it last winter in the ice storm.... no power for 3 or 4 days..... running my generator and gas pack for heat.... I used the antenna to watch the local news channel.
Posted By: Lloyd S Re: New Monitor - 04/30/17 03:10 PM
OK, thanks anyway. I'm just curious as we don't have a satellite in the RV and rely on the rooftop antenna and OTA channels. May have to bite the bullet and get SAT-TV.

LLOYD S
Posted By: Charlie Fogle Re: New Monitor - 04/30/17 03:35 PM
The roof top antenna should work because the OTA TV broadcast stations are allocated in the UHF band between frequencies 470-890 with all of the high powered licensed stations between 470-692 Mhz. These frequencies are in the old UHF TV band of analog tv's.

Most RV OTA antenna systems also have a built in line amplifier that must be activated to get good OTA reception and the antenna can be rotated to improve reception. If you are getting poor reception be sure the line amp is on if your RV has that feature.
Posted By: Lloyd S Re: New Monitor - 04/30/17 04:00 PM
Will do.
Thanks Charlie.
Posted By: Guitarhacker Re: New Monitor - 05/01/17 08:26 AM
Originally Posted By: Lloyd S
OK, thanks anyway. I'm just curious as we don't have a satellite in the RV and rely on the rooftop antenna and OTA channels. May have to bite the bullet and get SAT-TV.

LLOYD S


You can buy a converter that lets you get the over the air signals from the RV antenna. WE have one and when camping, I turn on the amp, point the antenna toward the station and use the converter box to tune the channels in.

In fact, they were giving those converters away for free to anyone who needed one to keep getting the over the air stations when they first went digital. I got one for the RV.
Posted By: DennisD Re: New Monitor - 05/11/17 02:00 PM
Here is another happy monitor story. My main system uses two 27" lcd monitors that lets me use both at the same time. Anyway I have a laptop that for years I did a lot of my stuff on and still has information on it that I use. The laptop screen crashed (either the invertor or backlite) so I was running the vga or hdmi outputs to my second DAW monitor. It was very inconvenient changing the cords around so I went looking for a cheap used monitor. I tried the stores too expensive for my needsat $120cdn, tried pawn shops too much money $80cdn for used pawned monitors, so I dropped into a couple of thrift shops. On my third try I found a monitor in a Salvation Army thrift shop: 22" lcd monitor has hdmi and vga inputs as well as inputs for tv, video, etc. and works fine. Cost $19cdn. This will do the job and if I have further need of it fine, if not I will donate it back to the Salvation Army. Dennisd
Posted By: Guitarhacker Re: New Monitor - 05/12/17 09:08 AM
Yep... I was looking at HD TV's with HDMI and or VGA inputs. I checked out quite a few on some of the online "sell your junk" sites, and most looked like junk or were too high in price for used gear or were too far away to make it a cost effective option.
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