What Computer Monitor(s) Do You Use? TV? Curved? Multi?

[DCMG]

My 2012 LG 37" TV ( used as a computer monitor) is getting up in years. Tried a few various sized dedicated monitors/and or current TVs and have been surprised to find most of them look great on traditional sites, mail, apps, etc. Open CW and they look....fuzzy ( especially all the text). I sit approx  3 feet from the screen/sit/stand desk so it's bolted down and moves w/the desk at all heights.

While I like having a large TV so clients have some visual, I'm wondering if "smaller but better quality" might be the road.

But it's not like trying on socks. It's a major production to keep buying TVs or computer monitors to "test" until you find just the right one.

So tell me what you use?

Single BIG TV 

Multi Smaller Screens?

Curved?

LCD/LED/UHD/4K/Touch?

( it's entirely possible that my eyes are just bad, but that's a whole nuther thread  "

TIA

[bitflipper]

TVs are meant to be viewed from a distance. There are charts for determining the ideal viewing distance for a given TV. Advice that's often ignored, as evidenced by the many times I've visited people's homes and seen a set far too large for the room it's in. It's OK because you simply don't need ideal definition while watching Netflix, where you're not trying to navigate a mouse to a small spot on the screen or nudge an automation node by 10 pixels. Relegating that TV to its intended application, e.g. showing people standing behind you what you're doing, is a good idea.

I do like wide monitors, though. Unfortunately, many actually have too high a resolution, making text difficult to read. At present I have a good compromise, two 34" screens at a modest 2560 x 1080 native resolution (4K is a waste for DAWS, IMO). Lots of room for lots of windows to be open at once, e.g. track view on one and PRV on the other, while presenting legible text. Here's the exact model I'm using. I would not go any larger, lest the displays intrude on my line-of-sight to the more important monitors, my speakers.

 

[Lord Tim]

I'm using one of these guys: Samsung CRG9 49" Super Ultrawide

It's basically 2x 27" 2560 x 1440 monitors joined together with a 1800R curve. Fantastic colours, super crisp resolution, and does HDR1000 in 10 bit if you want to game on it or watch HDR content. Needs a fairly beefy video card to drive it if you crank up the settings, but I can tell you now, having CbB up on this screen is just insanely good. You have so much screen real estate to see tracks or a full console view or you can leave the inspector or browser open and really not miss the space, saving you time changing views all the time.

Not cheap, and you need a pretty big desk to sit it on, but I fully rate this one.

[rsinger]

I have a Viewsonic VX3211 2k, so 32 inches. I wouldn't mind dual monitors, but don't have room on the desk...

[lapasoa]

I think that this topic has nothing to do with Cakewalk and music.

[Michael Richards]

I think it does.

I’m using 2x 1920x1200 monitors that are old but color corrected for my photography work. I am far from happy with this configuration.

I am working on building a new system and would like only one monitor. I am totally lost with this decision since the monitor must be: 1) color calibrated for photography; 2) 4k resolution for photography and my need to see more Cakewalk real estate; 3) about 32” (on this point I may be wrong) because my eyes need something bigger; 4) decent in the text size category.

So, this is important.

[DCMG]

1 hour ago, lapasoa said:

I think that this topic has nothing to do with Cakewalk and music.

Read the post; specifically how CW readability/clarity rates across different monitor types ( I do this everyday for a living, so it absolutely feels pretty relevant). If you're using a setup that works great with CW, I'd love to hear about it. If not....feel free to sit this one out

Thanks for the helpful replies already. Good to get some input on how the ultrawides are working for CW users, as well as the curved. 

I've also noticed a trend of people using smaller monitors very close and angled up, usually with larger ones placed elsewhere. So many options... Thanks again for the replies!!

 

[Rico Belled]

I'm using a 50" LG 4K TV and have for a few years now. It's AWESOME, and allows me to work from further away when I want to, or be up close and get a LOT of info at the same time.

 

R

[msmcleod]

I use a 27" 1920 x 1080 monitor in the studio, and a 23" 1920 x 1080 monitor in the office ( ok, I do have another two 23" monitors to the side of it, but they're for development rather than running CbB itself).

I used to have a dual monitor setup in the studio, but I moved to a single monitor because:

(a) I wanted to be able to seamlessly move between my laptop (also 1920 x 1080) and my studio without having to change my workflow; and
(b) I was struggling to see the detail in two smaller monitors vs one big one. With a single 27" HD monitor I can comfortably see everything from a meter away.

Also my Mackie MCU+XT make the console view largely unnecessary, and my Mackie C4 means I don't need to see plugin UI's for most effects.

[Soundwise]

I use Dell2416D 24" 2560 x 1440 monitor. Big enough for me and the resolution (resulting in PPI) is perfect for my eyes.

[Glenn Stanton]

currently a 43" Vizio V435-G0 @ 1920x1080 using the windows custom resolution set to 100 (which forces the screen to behave like a monitor...) . technically it says it supports 4K content but obviously not via external inputs (HDMI, composite etc) ? . and sometimes a 24" HP display which is a better display but much smaller so engineering work (detailed studio construction docs etc) is less fun than on the larger monitor...

[reginaldStjohn]

I use a TCL 43' HD Tv. Works great for what I do. At work I have a 54' Curved TV. It is a bit too big.

[MediaGary]

This has come up before on this forum.  I'm providing two links (below) to my posts on the topic.  

I used a curved 55-inch LG OLED display for about two years, and have since gone back to a flat LED display of the same size, even after testing the new LG CX OLED.  I found that the auto-dimming, ABL (Automatic Brightness Limiter) and self-protection algorithms were bugging me. 

https://discuss.cakewalk.com/index.php?/topic/8458-new-34-monitor-age-old-questionproblem/&do=findComment&comment=77226

https://discuss.cakewalk.com/index.php?/topic/24049-how-is-cakewalk-on-a-4k-monitor/&do=findComment&comment=198593

 

[twelvetone]

I use the monitor in my laptop.  It's always there, even when I'm on the train, so I've learned to put up with it.

The only thing that bugs me is the small number of pro channel modules I can see at a time.

I wish they'd been designed to be more space efficient.

Yes, I know, you can collapse them. Click, click, click, click, click...

[sjoens]

6 hours ago, lapasoa said:

I think that this topic has nothing to do with Cakewalk and music.

? How can you use Cakewalk without a monitor?

It could go in the "Hardware" forum if there was one.

[sjoens]

9 hours ago, Lord Tim said:

I'm using one of these guys: Samsung CRG9 49" Super Ultrawide

Not cheap, and you need a pretty big desk to sit it on, but I fully rate this one.

Love it, but for $1100?? ?

I use a 29" flat widescreen ($200) beside a 17" laptop.

The lack of height control on most widescreens is the only con I've seen.

Edited March 8, 2021 by sjoens

[Lord Tim]

Yeah, that's a crazy price - no doubt! Actually in my case it was worse: I was originally using a 3840x1080 49" super ultrawide but a freak accident with a flicked cable smashed it a couple of weeks ago ?

I was right in the middle of several deadline jobs so I had to scramble and get a new one fast, and I kind of bit the bullet and thought about all of the things I didn't like about the old one (aside from it being smashed and me being out of pocket for a stupid amount of money ?). 1080 is definitely not enough vertical height for such a big monitor and the colour accuracy was horrible. Definitely night and day with both things on the new Samsung!

For me, I have extra screens wall mounted for the video link that goes through to the studio live room and soffit monitor speakers so the "half height" thing is ideal for me, but it's certainly not for everyone, especially at that price. But if you need that colour accuracy and you're doing the whole dual monitor thing already, or sharing it amongst several computers (as I do) it's actually not a terrible investment.

Edited March 8, 2021 by Lord Tim

[bitflipper]

12 hours ago, rsinger said:

I have a Viewsonic VX3211 2k, so 32 inches. I wouldn't mind dual monitors, but don't have room on the desk...

Mine are mounted one over the other, doubling the screen space without changing the desk space. You just have to get an extra-tall monitor stand.  They exist for just that reason.

[Hatstand]

1 hour ago, bitflipper said:

Mine are mounted one over the other, doubling the screen space without changing the desk space. You just have to get an extra-tall monitor stand.  They exist for just that reason.

Same here, 2 x 27" monitors. I normally have track /prv view at the bottom and console/VI view at the top if recording and vice versa for mixing

[Starship Krupa]

A pair of 23" 1920x1280 flat LCD's. Not a matched pair, just two of them.

Track View/Browser/Inspector go on the left hand one and Console/Piano Roll/Misc. on the right hand one. Sometimes when I want to get an especially wide view of the Track Pane I'll drag it across the width of both monitors.

If I'm switching back and forth between tasks with the computer, like right now when I'm taking time to check the forum and write, I'll park the paused task on the right monitor.