Display Review: HP LP3065

The HP LP3065 30in. LCD monitor displays at 100-percent resolution for SD in both source and program videos, and at 50 percent for HDV.

With our never-ending fascination with new and faster processors, it's sometimes easy to forget that the monitor is the most important component of a computer in many respects — particularly for digital content producers. While our reviews of multiple-processor systems have shown that sometimes faster isn't necessarily better, when it comes to monitors, bigger almost always is better.

If you're going big — and I mean really, really big — HP's LP3065 30in. LCD monitor needs to be on your short list. Although it will cost you somewhere around $1,700, it has heretofore unseen color accuracy. You'll quickly become accustomed to — and then reliant upon — the workflow efficiencies the sheer number of pixels enable.

The monitor ships in two parts: the panel and the base. The black flatpanel weighs about 22lbs. Although that's relatively light, it's still ungainly and hard to insert into the base with one pair of hands. The base itself adds loads of convenience, allowing you to adjust monitor height within a 5in. span, with a -5 to +30 vertical tilt range and a 90-degree swivel range. In some applications, such as kiosks, tradeshows, training, and other presentations, this flexibility adds a lot of value over monitors without height or swivel adjustments.

The unit accepts three DVI-D inputs, so you can toggle the display among three workstations, but there are no analog inputs. Connect one upstream USB 2.0 port to your computer, and you get four USB 2.0 ports on the side of the monitor for mouse, keyboard, and other peripherals. As with most 30in. monitors, onboard controls are sparse — limited to input selection and brightness adjustment — with all other color and similar adjustments made by the graphics card.

Speaking of the graphics card, the unit should work with any dual-link DVI-D graphics card. HP recommends a minimum of 128MB graphics memory. I tested the monitor with two cards — the Nvidia Quadro FX 1500 and FX 3500 — each with 256MB of onboard memory, and both cards worked well. Just for the record, I performed most tests on an HP xw8400 dual-processor, quad-core workstation. (See my review of this and other workstations at digitalcontentproducer.com/desktoppost/depth/test_drive_series.)

In terms of speeds and feeds, the monitor has a maximum display resolution of 2560×1600 pixels, which is an aspect ratio of 16:10. Response rate is a fast 6ms, with a viewing angle of 178 degrees both horizontally and vertically. Other relevant specs include brightness of 300nits cd/m², a contrast ratio of 1000:1, and a color gamut of 92 percent.

One focus of our testing, which included a range of tests all run at maximum display resolution, was the workflow advantages the 30in. monitor presents. For comparison, I connected a second older 23in. LCD panel from a vendor who will remain unnamed. In Windows XP clone display mode, this gave me identical images on both monitors. The smaller display was limited to a 1920×1200 display, with horizontal and vertical panning to view the extra pixels.

I first ran Adobe Photoshop, using multiple 6-megapixel (3072×2048) images shot with a Canon Digital Rebel SLR camera as my test material. While I couldn't view the entire image on either monitor, the LP3065 displays about 77 percent more pixels than the older 23in. monitor. By reducing the image to 72 percent of its orginal size, I could display the entire image on the LP3065 without feeling cramped. By comparison, I had to drop to 50 percent to display the entire image on the smaller monitor.

Next up was Adobe Premiere Pro, where I continued work on a multi-camera concert shot in HDV. In general, video producers fall into two camps when it comes to monitor preferences: Some like a single large monitor for the entire program, while others prefer two monitors — one for editing and the other for preview (in addition to an NTSC preview monitor, of course). My personal preference has always been one large monitor, especially on widescreen monitors that seem custom-made for video editing.

The LP3065 made editing a pure slice of heaven. Even with HDV video, I could display both source and program monitors at 50 percent of the original size, which was more than sufficient for trimming, brightness, and color adjustments, and for applying and customizing other effects. If you're editing SD source material, you can display at 100-percent resolution in both your source and program videos, with plenty of room for your effects/projects panel on the left and multiple visible audio/video tracks in the timeline below. Even the usually cramped keyframe timeline in the effects control panel felt spacious and accessible.

Not surprisingly, I also found the 30in. resolution helped leverage the multi-program integration aspects of the Adobe Production Studio. For example, you can easily open both Adobe After Effects and Photoshop in separate side-by-side 1280×1024 windows and instantly preview edits made in one program in the other. Ditto for Adobe Encore and Photoshop or After Effects — which, of course, is useful when designing or customizing motion menus.

Then I ran Autodesk 3ds Max, and I found that each of the four windows in the standard interface was a whopping 1055×786 — much larger than full resolution for most SD projects. Although these tests were necessarily application-specific, our results clearly weren't. It's hard to imagine any content-creation application in any genre that wouldn't benefit from working with a monitor such as the LP3065.

Next, I wanted to visually assess the benefits of the LP3065's impressive specs, particularly the contrast ratio and color gamut. Briefly, contrast ratio refers to the range between the brightest and darkest color the system can reproduce, with higher ratios — such as the LP3065's 1000:1 contrast ratio — enabling more subtle display of colors and shades of gray. Although many other currently available LCD panels have the same contrast ratio, most older panels fall in the 300:1-to-700:1 range.

Color gamut refers to a device's ability to display a subset of the theoretical 16.7 million colors available for 24-bit color images. According to HP, the LP3065 has a 92-percent color gamut, which it claims is much higher than virtually all current LCD panels. HP admitted that it had a three-month exclusive on this component from panel manufacturer LG-Philips, so it's likely many 30in. panels will share the same basic display specs by NAB. Still, I was eager to see how this unique combination of high-performance specs compared to the average older LCD panel.

To test this, I ran through several applications using my dual-monitor setup, focusing on color and brightness rather than workflow. The difference was striking.

First, reading black text on a white web page was much easier because the text was blacker and the background whiter, most likely courtesy of the higher contrast ratio. In Photoshop, the test images looked noticeably more saturated and less grainy on the LP3065, particularly in the greens, which looked slightly yellowish on the older monitor, and the cyan and pink ranges.

Finally, I looked at video playback, which could be important for video previews or in a training room or kiosk. Again, the difference was significant, with blacker blacks, whiter whites, and much more saturated reds and browns. For example, one of the DVDs I played was a bluegrass concert. The color difference in the polished wood guitar and bass fiddle was particularly striking. The display was also completely ghost free as far as I could see.

Sadly, the older display that had looked so brilliant before I installed the LP3065 suddenly looked dingy and gray. Of course, LCD panels lose brightness over time, which probably accounted for some of the difference. Still, HP made me enough of a believer to insist upon the highest-possible contrast ratio and color gamut in all future monitor acquisitions.

Company: HP
Palo Alto, Calif.; (650) 857-1501
www.hp.com

Product: LP3065

Assets: Lightweight unit, high contrast ratio and color gamut.

Caveats: No analog inputs, sparse onboard controls.

Demographic: Anyone needing a large monitor in the editing suite.

PRICE: $1,700

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