I love it when a product just keeps getting better and better. SmallHD has added many new features to their compct, sexy, sharp as hell 500-series displays. Check out the overview of all the new features and perfomance of the 501 HDMI and 502 SDI & HDMI 5" field Monitors.
Redshark by Phil Rhodes
SmallHD just released a significant firmware update to its popular 500-series of field displays, including expanded LUT capabilities, RGB waveform parade, anamorphic desqueeze and more. But does this mean the 500-series monitors are now 'feature-complete'?
We've been impressed with SmallHD's displays ever since seeing their DP7 at NAB 2014. SmallHD has been among the first wave of manufacturers to exploit of recent improvements development speed of embedded electronics. The coincidental availability of high-performance displays intended for portable devices has made some very interesting things possible. Since the DP7, though, other companies have also made great gains using much the same techniques (particularly, monitor-recorders from manufacturers such as Atomos and Convergent Design) and the race is far from decided.
Performance constraints and the pressure to innovate
There are two limiting factors to the performance of this variety of modern electronics. The first is the capability of the reprogrammable logic arrays used to do the heavy lifting of signal handling and picture processing, a capability which is controlled by cost and by power consumption. Many companies deliberately over-specify capacity in these areas in order to future-proof the product against unforeseen requirements and unanticipated competition. This is especially true for film and TV industrial products, where the value of the components is often a comparatively small part of the overall cost of production. read more...
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