Hey! Asking out of interest... 

Do you feel it's important to have a reference grade monitor in an offline suite? Would a standard computer monitor connected to an I/O's HDMI suffice? After all... Why should an offline suite need an accurate reference mon... Although some craft editors tell me they quite like having accurate picture reference througout craft editorial... it is enough for you to warrant min 1.5K in a low end reference monitor?

My suite has a reference mon from a little-known company called SWIT. They produce some of JVC's monitors too... but I do some online work and minor colour work in addition to offline.

What do you all think?

Here are my opinions.

This comes down to intended end use of the projects being edited on the system.

If it is for broadcast, then having the ability to see the true state of interlaced material is important.  While the offline editor may not be fixing problems with interlace, they can at least pass on the info that there is a problem.

Second is the size of the monitor in relation to intended end use.  I have seen editors make decisions that they later regreted because they were cutting on a small monitor but when viewed on a larger (theater) screen they hated the pacing.  Plus decisions about the size of graphics can be tough based on screen size.  What looks good on a small screen can feel overwhelming on a larger screen.

But a regular "TV" can work as long as it respects interlace and is being feed by proper IO card (AJA or Blackmagic).  But beware of the issue of UHD monitors being used on a HD sequence.  All UHD monitors have to upconvert a HD signal for display.  So you are always looking at a "processed" signal.  Some consumer monitors do this better than others.

Jef

Well said! many thanks.