Display Recommendation for Video Pro?

[Frank_Cotton]

I'm a pro video editor and sometime colorist, switching from in-office to remote work and I'm upgrading my desktop setup.

I had a 2014 Mac Pro (garbage can) with three Dell U2414H (1920x1080, 24"). I'll be getting a Mac Studio (M1 Ultra) in a few weeks and I'm struggling with resolution, dpi, overall size and the number of displays.

There are obvious issues with the U2414H x 3. Still, I like the total real estate and the dimensions of the displays. I'm also partial to the unobtrusive bezels.
I wouldn't mind increasing the diagonal to go along with a bump in resolution, but I'm seated less than 1m from the screens. Three 27" displays seems too much, two too little. Horizontal space is valuable to me, but I haven't been a fan of ultra-wides in the past. Add to that the issue of non-integer scaling and I'm up to my neck in uncertainty.

I don't care about cameras, speakers, "smart" features, or small delays in waking from sleep. I'd greatly appreciate recommendations or advice for someone in my situation. Thanks.

 

[BlueTide]

Have you considered splitting your displays to a UI monitor(s) and a TV? While this is not directly answering your question about what monitor to pic, that gives more options - the UI monitor can be almost whatever for as long as you have a decent TV behind something like BlackMagic Ultrastudio video interface. Or better yet, a reference display like Flanders.

 

[Frank_Cotton]

Thanks for responding. Yes, I actually have my eye on a couple of hand-me-down reference monitor options. It's not yet a part of my personal budget for my setup (I don't typically use a dedicated program display unless I have a client on-site, which I won't for some time), but I have an UltraStudio Mini and will certainly expand as time goes on.

To your point, I imagine that any TV/reference monitor would be exempt from scaling - either run at native resolution or through a hardware intermediary. For the time being I'm treating that as a separate issue.
Since I'm still a horizontal real estate fanatic, I just want to make sure that I can get all that work space without taking a performance hit. I was considering something like the Benq PD3420Q (ultrawide 1440p), but my current triple display setup offers almost twice as much horizontal space. Two ultrawides would put the bezel directly in front of me, which I'm not a fan of. And of course, I'm not convinced that I won't regret going all-in on 1440p.

Curious what you think and again, thanks for the help.

 

[BlueTide]

Thanks for responding. Yes, I actually have my eye on a couple of hand-me-down reference monitor options. It's not yet a part of my personal budget for my setup (I don't typically use a dedicated program display unless I have a client on-site, which I won't for some time), but I have an UltraStudio Mini and will certainly expand as time goes on.

To your point, I imagine that any TV/reference monitor would be exempt from scaling - either run at native resolution or through a hardware intermediary. For the time being I'm treating that as a separate issue.
Since I'm still a horizontal real estate fanatic, I just want to make sure that I can get all that work space without taking a performance hit. I was considering something like the Benq PD3420Q (ultrawide 1440p), but my current triple display setup offers almost twice as much horizontal space. Two ultrawides would put the bezel directly in front of me, which I'm not a fan of. And of course, I'm not convinced that I won't regret going all-in on 1440p.

Curious what you think and again, thanks for the help.

This gets really quickly to the territory where it's about preferences, so I feel uncomfortable to comment too much about your particular situation. What comes to myself:

• I rather have 1 monitor. I'm a Wacom user, and that works better on one screen that is roughly the shape of the drawing tablet.
• I rather have a large screen.
• I run UltraStudio 4K and yes, that has outputs that go into reference monitors / TVs at the resolution of your choosing and the capabilities of the hardware. In my case, UHD 4K. This also strips OS color management out of the picture (pun intended).
• Good luck trying to color manage with computer monitor only. I did manage to get things to match, but I fear the day I need to set things up again with a new computer or software.
• If the display tries to show the UI as well as the image... ok, good luck.

This is also why I give hard time to displays like XDR Pro Whateveritscalled. It's nice, but it does not work as a main UI display for reference purposes and if you're going to drive it as a reference monitor only... uh... well, go ahead and enjoy. I've been tempted by it due to large size, resolution and design, though. You might also consider Dell UltraSharp U4021QW for one, even if you said you don't like ultra-wides. But all this is a matter of preferences.

 

[EzisAA]

I like LG 4K Thunderbolt 3 monitor 23,7 (24 inch) - 24MD4KL-B. The price is 1/3 from Studio Display 😁
You will get 2x Thunderbolt 3 cables
* 2m 40Gb/s
* 1,5m 20Gb/s (10Gb/s USB-C)

Also if you need multi Display setup, you can daisy-chain.