Field monitors 2021

[Björn Benckert]

Interensting times with the new ipads comming out. As I see it it will be the first wide spread HDR screen standard. Basically if having it as a Sidecar to your grading setup you likely got a better reference monitor than most in terms of color accuracy. And also while shooting... Having it as a directors montor with built in editing / grading / everything capability kind of make it so that all other small / C stand typ of client / field monitors is now just really realy old and no good.
As the new Ipad pro can have a dongle with 12G UHD video in and yes the director can caputure in any app like quicktime player or well specific arri or red app or what ever will come. Nuts to think of it really.

I will make some nice Vlock power, video transmitter, SDI thunderbolt dongle kind of enclosure as soon as I get one.

I just made this but it allready feel really old. Nice though to have a small dual screen when rolling on monstro and komodo at the same time.

Untitled by Björn Benckert, on Flickr

Untitled by Björn Benckert, on Flickr

PastedGraphic-3 by Björn Benckert, on Flickr

 

[Blair S. Paulsen]

Love where you're headed with this. Just wish Apple had been supporting direct video inputs sooner. The iPad form factor, color accuracy and cost relative to other options is insane.

Cheers - #19

 

[Björn Benckert]

Love where you're headed with this. Just wish Apple had been supporting direct video inputs sooner. The iPad form factor, color accuracy and cost relative to other options is insane.

Cheers - #19

Agree.

Does anyone know what small little SDI to TB dongle will work with the new iPads, will any? I got a SDI tp USB3 dongle, Im guessing it will show up as an external video source on the new iPads just as it does not my Mac books, no?

/b

 

[Blair S. Paulsen]

Our application is screaming for a bracket, that, among other duties, could provide a secure place to connect the SDI cable. I don't have the lovely 3D renders Björn does, but I'm imagining a clip or other solid mount that would hold the adapter to the iPad on one side and strain relieve the SDI cable on the other. Perhaps even add a protrusion in just the right place to protect the plug going into the iPad from being easily knocked out or damaged. The bracket could also support hood attachment, wireless feeds, protect the iPad from physical damage and allow for quick mounting/unmounting from a 5/8" baby pin.

Cheers - #19

 

[Blair S. Paulsen]

Was unable to find anything confirming that the new iPad Pro 12.9" M1 can be fed a signal directly by cable and used as a display. Everything I read was about video output support, not input. Obviously, the iPad can use Wi-Fi (or theoretically 5G) to display a wireless feed, but that's a different animal for this use case. Latency, EMF interference, compression, etc all restrict its utility vs a hardwired solution.

If I'm missing something, please school me up. The potential is enticing.

Cheers - #19

 

[Björn Benckert]

As the new Ipads have thunderbolt and the same CPU etc as the laptops and a 2tb M2 drive... It's technically capable to digest video trough that TB port no problem via a dongle. The only limitiation would be if Apple does nto allow any such apps. but I doubt that, on the contrary this is, as I see I it, very much where they are heading. Pads and phone stepping into the laptop arena.

A nice printed case with Video reciver good nato rail mounting points, protection power plate etc would then make the iPad Pro a killer in the field screen domain.

 

[Blair S. Paulsen]

I did find this:

https://screenport.io

Their current product appears to be encoding the SDI source into a compressed version that can be treated as an input over USB. I would guess that means a 3g signal would be crunched down to a .5g signal or less. Since TB4 can do 40g one way, and 20g IN/ 20g OUT full spec - even with overhead, 12g shouldn't be an issue. Even the about to ship 12.9" M1 iPadPro w/ XDR display is not UHD/4K (2732-by-2048 @264ppi), but presumably it could record the full 12g signal to its fast internal storage. Will be curious to see what scaling options and quality might be like, theoretically the M1 chip could scale 2160x3840 to a fit width image roughly 1536x2732 on the fly. The precision of that scaling and any potential added latency will need testing.

Cheers - #19

 

[Christopher A. Bell]

Someone posted this link on NewShooter last week. But it's $1200USD.

https://screenport.io

Looks like Blair posted while I was typing.

 

[Blair S. Paulsen]

Great potential...

Great potential...

Even at $1,200 the ScreenPort unit has a max bitrate of 40mb/s for the compressed signal. Since 3g is 3,000mb/s, this is some serious (75:1) compression.

IMO, if you really want to use the new M1 iPadPro 12.9" as a hard wired field monitor, you're going to want substantially milder compression. Otherwise, it might be hard to determine which issues with the image you're looking at are due to compression artifacts or are actually in your footage. Might as well just use WiFi if 40mb/s is all the dongle can do.

Björn is certainly on point that the display quality, form factor, M1 processing and TB4 I/O support of the new iPadPro 12.9" is a compelling platform for a field monitor. That said, if you intend to use it for critical image analysis, dailies color grading, etc - it will need a hardwire solution that can handle much higher bitrates. In theory, TB4 can handle a full 12g signal so no compression is required to fit the bus standard.

IAC, until somebody makes a proper dongle, those needing a reference image will need to stick with a more traditional monitor that can handle an uncompressed signal.

Cheers - #19