Ideal Video Editing monitor(s) set up FCP X

[MrXiro]

Previously I had a 27 inch iMac but back then I only edited on FCP 7.

In the last year I got FCP X and am loving it. But last year I hit some hard times and I sold my iMac (1 yr old base 27 inch and I made a tiny profit from selling it)

Anyway I'm now in the i7 Mac Mini and with a 23 inch 1080p IPS Dell monitor. Things work fairly well besides the occasional pinwheel but it renders faster than my iMac did.

I just bought a 2nd monitor last night also a 23 inch 1080p IPS monitor but this time HP. It looks great but I'm still feeling a little cramped when editing in FCP X.

I am kind of wondering if a 27 inch monitor (2560X1440) and one 23 inch (1080p) would be ideal or is it better to have 2 monitors of the same resolution?

Wondering what kind of set up some of you have or what is ideal.
Thanks!

 

[musique]

This seems like the kind of question that will get a variety of responses. In a perfect world everyone would have two of the same monitors and possibly a third for displaying the final product.

My budget didn’t permit that. I first purchased a Dell 23” and eventually added a Samsung 23” along with a new graphics card.

With FCPX you have the option of Viewers or Events on your second display. Most people might be inclined to put the viewer on the second. While using the Viewer on the second you can also choose to see scopes on it. Another reasonable use for it is to use it for Events. This can help you scroll through hundreds (thousands?) of clips if you have a large project and see a lot more of each clips data.

So, depending on what your project needs you’d probably find a combination of a 23-inch and a 27-inch display pretty functional, especially with the options (including swapping them in System Preferences) as your needs change.

 

[MrXiro]

This seems like the kind of question that will get a variety of responses. In a perfect world everyone would have two of the same monitors and possibly a third for displaying the final product.

My budget didn’t permit that. I first purchased a Dell 23” and eventually added a Samsung 23” along with a new graphics card.

With FCPX you have the option of Viewers or Events on your second display. Most people might be inclined to put the viewer on the second. While using the Viewer on the second you can also choose to see scopes on it. Another reasonable use for it is to use it for Events. This can help you scroll through hundreds (thousands?) of clips if you have a large project and see a lot more of each clips data.

So, depending on what your project needs you’d probably find a combination of a 23-inch and a 27-inch display pretty functional, especially with the options (including swapping them in System Preferences) as your needs change.

Cool thanks for the response! I'm thinking with the higher res 27 inch I'd have the ability to see more of my timeline. I layer all my audio FX in FCPX as well as music so the timeline gets quite bloated, especially when I start cutting in L for with audio under a different video.

 

[adamneer]

although i am definitely in the 2 monitor camp, this sounds more to me like you are not optimizing your windows as well as you could be. Either that, or you are experiencing a placebo effect due to your previous monitor. FCPX was optimized for use on a single monitor and just based on the marketing material, I'd say it was even designed with the 15" macbook screen in mind. I don't use FCPX but in Premiere, I find that I really have plenty of space, with my timeline taking up roughly the entire bottom 1/3 of my main screen, then the effects window directly above, with the preview window on the right and a small project browser window on the left. then i use my entire second monitor for the main viewer window. I will tell you though, i mostly work in After Effects these days, so going from the insane amount of windows and necessary tool panels from that to Premiere Pro for editing makes it look like a barren wasteland. So my suggestion is to first try and reorganize your panels to make things as efficient as possible. I think the 16:9 aspect ratio of a 23" does make it a little difficult to really get optimal use of the screen real estate, but trust me, its there. Don't forget just a few years ago, screens this size were very rare, yet still millions of hours of video made it out of post production.