I currently use two 19inch computer screens side-by-side but would like to move to a large single to eliminate the dividing line between the two current screens.
I’ve tried connecting a 37inch HD TV via a DVI-HDMI converter but while it does work the resolution is not very good.
What’s the best solution (reasonably priced)? - Do I need a 4K TV and a Blackmagic Decklink SDI 4K card to provide the sort of resolution I currently get from the two computer screens?
Or maybe something else?
This is not a direct answer in terms of suggestion. But I offer my experience.
I changed from 2 x 21" monitors to 1 Dell 30" and love the change. I found for myself that I had too much monitor in terms of viewing width. I found the 30" perfect for my setup where I am just a few feet away from it.
My two cents.
I think it depends what you’re after. I found that 1 big screen helps with the overview working on a sound project. But there are so many windows to open and close all the time, I like having those things I access semi-often on a second screen.
I tried having 2 side by side, but as driskel said, too much viewing width. I constantly had to move my head and move around to see what’s on the far left and right edges. Maybe that works for Nuage, that has specific things on each screen, but for kind of an “all purpose” screen I found it counter productive.
Right now I have 2x 27" screens. One is on top of the other, mounted on an arm. This way also my monitor speakers don’t have to be that far on the left and right side and the screens don’t attenuate the sound (my room is quite small).
A really long curved monitor might also be worth considering. This way you’d have a lot of content and timeline on your monitor and still space left for a TV above that.
But, I’d like to have some kind of 3rd screen just for communication. When I open mail or Skype, have those programs sitting only on that screen so it doesn’t get mixed up with my project work. I tried some stuff but the best solution I came up with is using a laptop for that. In game projects I have to work and communicate with so many different people from the team, that I had to have so many communication apps open, it covered everything. When alt tabbing, I had to press alt-tab so many times to find the right tool. So it’s really good having those apps on a separate computer. This way, the software also doesn’t distract you from work and all comms can be just stopped by closing the laptop’s lid while all my project stuff continues to work.
In order not to use a second mouse and keyboard, I use Symless Synergy. A tool that acts like a KVM switch, but in software. You move the mouse pointer out one edge of the monitor, it appears on the laptop. Works great for me.
If you’re looking for good screens, depending on size and resolution, I just read this article on good Mac screens. Of course those can also be connected to a PC. Apple’s Thunderbolt Display is dead: These are the best 4K & 5K displays for Mac - 9to5Mac
Maybe it helps.
How’s it usually done actually. To have the movie on a normal TV screen. Do you guys buy a normal TV for that and then have some kind of video card like the mentioned blackmagic? Or how does that work? For now I always had the video on the second (upper) monitor. Worked OK for reference.
I wanted a bigger single screen on my studio table, and first I bought Philips 4K 40 inch, BDM4065UC, and my thought was to make room for several Cubase windows open simultaneously and even my Creamware/Scope software.
It had a very nice picture and incredible resolution of 4K, and a good price at 7000 euro.
But! It is too big.
If you sit close enough to read the small text in the 4k, you have to turn your head an awful lot to see different menus.
And in the new Cubase the menu bar is fixed to the top of the screen, so when you would choose File/Open there in the top left corner, it felt as I had to look through half the room to see where to put mouse cursor.
And if you sat farther from the screen so you had a better overview the text was too small to be readable.
Of course, you can scale the image so the text gets a little bigger, but then you loose the whole idea of 4k.
Then it is unfortunately not flicker-free, so it flickers when the brightness is lower than 100, and I got a headache the day after, but it can also be caused by tension in the neck after all neck twists.
So unfortunately it went back to the store.
But I was really satisfied with the image of the Philips VA panel, it got an unbeatable blacks so the contrast is wonderful.
So then I bought a 32 inch Philips monitor instead. Not 4K then, but 2560x1440. BDM3270QP.
And it still remains in my studio.
The screen size is really big but still works to overview, and you get relatively good place for arrangement window, mixer window and VST´s simultaneously without having to switch between windows.
And it is flicker-free!
Did you have to upgrade your video card for the 32 Inch Phillips?
I’m not thinking of super-large, perhaps 34 or37 inch.
No, I already had a GTX 770 so its good enough up to 4k. I use the Display port.
Gruezi Chris,
I have been using two side-by-side screens for some time, mainly with the Project window on one and the Mixer on the other, but N7 has become so bloated and busy that the screens are getting a bit cramped. Consequently, I’ve started to crave a single, wider screen so that I can see more of both windows at the same time without a divider down the middle. I also use a lot of the Arturia Vintage synth plugins that have great graphical GUIs and they work well when enlarged on a big screen.
You are right about using a laptop for the internet. That way the internet can be disabled on the DAW machine which stops any outside interference when recording etc.
I’m not too sure whether a curved screen would work in a studio environment (or anywhere for that matter 
).
How about one of the “ultrawide” 3440x1440 21:9’s that are out there? I’ve been eyeing them myself for a while. Seems Like a pretty decent balance between more screen real estate (mainly width) without being too low like some of the others (I’m used to 1080 height)…
Wow, that looks great. I’m going to check them out today. I’d much rather have an actual monitor like this than a TV.
Size really does matter.
looks very nice.
I actually find this topic quite interesting because it really shows how differently we’ve adapted to our equipment. I work in one studio where they have two 21 inch monitors side by side (Pro Tools)! To me, it’s driving me crazy because I feel I get too little mixer on the right and too little project/edit window on the left. At home I use one 24 inch for the DAW and a big plasma for video. In that case I end up toggling between edit/mix all the time, and also have to toggle to view metering.
The reason I thought the ultra-wide seemed like a reasonable candidate for me is that I’d be able to have the inspector open at all times, and in the case of the mix window the Control Room metering. Plus in the mix I could lock more channels to zones in some mixer-views. And lastly, if I end up getting one I still have my 24-incher as a third monitor that I can put in a less critical place and have various things open all the time, like metering, automation window etc… The previous ultra-wides that came out were actually less high than my current 24-inch 1920x1080, so that wouldn’t have worked, but with 1440 it seems like a nice increase height wise as well. I’d go 30-inch but I fear that a too high a monitor would annoy me a bit…
Anyway, it’s interesting to see people’s preferences…
I’ve found an LG 34UM88 34’’ 3440 x 1440 Ultrawide screen that seems pretty good at a decent price.
My current display adapter is a PCIe ATI Radeon HD 4300/4500 which is pretty old now (I think it was installed when we were still running windows XP), so I guess it is not going to be up to the job any more.
Any suggestions on what PCIe card to use with this new screen?
Do I need a proper 4K card? (Black Magic) ?
What are the alternatives.
I will not be playing any games on it.
I am very naive about this aspect of things as it is not something that gets changed very frequently.
Any comments will be much appreciated.
I work on a LG 21:9 ultra-wide 34" screen, too, for some time now.
I have noticed that the angle from eyes to the farther sides of the screen are making it
somewhat uncomfortable to work with, although it is not unreasonably close positioned.
Not sure, if a curved screen would solve that, but I’ll give it a try… well, …in a few weeks, anyhow.
It runs on a GTX 650. It does the job rather reliably and handles wide screen and videos well.
On the other DAW benches we run 2 x 24" screens and find that ok enough.
Cheers, Big K
OT: Just received a brandnew GTX 1080. Tortured it thoroughly
on my gaming rigg. Amazing! Fast, Cool, power saving. Naiz!
Can you expand on that a bit? Is it that you don’t like looking that far off to the side or is it that the screen itself has a different response on an angle?
I suppose another way of asking the question is if you would feel the same if you had two 24 inch monitors side by side and not angled - would you experience the same thing?
Hello Mattias
I have my 24" screens always a bit angled exactly for that reason…
As to the 32" LG, … I just too often have to move my head, when I want to see/read something
better on the far left or right.*
Anyhow, the LG screen shows a reasonably even performance over the whole screen estate and is
well good enough for what we do on it.
The cure for my little problem would, in deed, be to move the screen even further away from me,
but then I might as well just take a smaller screen, which I do not want.
Servus, Big K
* OT: Nuendo provides much too many too small bits and buttons that you need to zero in with da mouse for example.
Why is the legending on many buttons still light-gray on dark-gray? What an unnecessary strain on eyes and brain…
Just give it a colored letter and one doesn’t have to read/search the legending as hard, anymore.
It looks as if the GTX cards have fans. Are the fans audible?
I barely hear the fan on mine. Granted, it’s not in a completely silent studio, but on the other hand there are other fans in/on the case that are louder I think. But either way, it doesn’t bother me at all.
It’s a GTX 960. I’m 90% sure I looked at reviews online and picked the manufacturer/brand of GRX 960 with the best spec, meaning lowest ambient noise.
The 1080 would be overkill for a DAW. On my Monitor it scores 2990 on Heaven Benchmark,~100 fps ( max 244 ),
<70°C, ~60% fan, on extreme settings. There you can slightly hear the 3 card fans through the usual (low) noise
of the cpu and case fans. It replaces a GTX 590 dual core, ~90°C, 200+ Watts higher power consumption, much
louder and substancially less performance.
The GTX 650 of the nuendo rig is also much stronger than necessary and hardly audible in this use.
Having said that, I would not place my PC in the control room, because it still gives off just a liiiitle noise.
It is being kept in the machine room next door, just 2 meters through the wall and there it could
dance rumba all day, …if it likes …lol…
The new GTX bread would just shut off their fans completely… not enough strain to bother…
Servus Big K
I moved from years on dual 17" monitors to dual 24" monitors. An old 42" LCD sits above the studio window I face. I personally like the extra real estate and size of the 24’s, although I do find myself having to turn my head and sometimes moving my talkback mic out of the way. I put the mixer and channel popup box on left, and worksheet on right. I don’t need much resolution for video because they’re usually rough cuts without color correction when I get them.
Are you saying that the fans do not run all the time?
I have been told that the fans will only kick in for 3D gaming.
Servus.