Last TV to have s-video? Preview/capture monitor?
 

What are you guys previewing/monitoring with? Only thing I can really find is a pc monitor like Dell UltraSharp 2007WFP.

For analogue tapes, a CRT is a must really. You can't carry out machine adjustments or really gauge performance without a CRT either. Even the sound of the ramp generator can be useful in determining faults etc.

You don't have to buy one, but we have a stack of little 9" JVC broadcast monitors we 'acquired' a few years ago, they're perfect for the task. They're razor-sharp and built well too. Our repair bench has a tatty old cheap portable 14" thing and that's also perfectly cromulent for basic monitoring or repair duty.

Monitoring on a small screen is fine by composite, in fact, most pro-gear (from the analogue age) will only superimpose on composite anyway. I don't think I've got anything with a non-composite 'super' output, not even the MII or Betacam SP machines. Even broadcast-grade stuff has several composite outputs for attaching to monitors for editing.

Your "best" signals shouldn't be terminated without careful thought and adjustment - so you don't want to start making daisy-chains or splitting signals off for monitoring if you only have one S-Video output, if you have a composite source on the same machine, just use that for seeing what's coming off the tape.

Either way, a small, high-quality CRT is a really useful tool in the box. It's very tricky to make machine adjustments (if that's something you end up doing) with a modern display, you'll tear your hair out and get mediocre results.

There's always a market for little 4:3 CRT broadcast monitors, so if you find one cheap locally I'd grab one if funds allow. That said, if all you have a PC monitor, then, that's the best tool you have.

I quit bothering with a preview monitor several years ago. Multiple reasons.

- Too small.
- CRTs hide issues.
- Colors "accuracy" to a CRT isn't as accurate as modern HDTVs or monitors, the analog likes to bleed

It's really only good to verify that you didn't screw up the interlace. I just forge ahead, assuming I made no mistakes, and just test the final DVD in a player to a small CRT. Not that I make many DVDs at all anymore. And it's easy to correct if needed. But I rarely screw up here (and now, of course, next time I make DVDs I'm sure to screw it up).

Just an overall waste of time in the 2020s, or even the 2010s.

Some video gear is legacy, still useful, and is commonly used by many.
Some is old, outdated, minimal use if any. < CRTs go here
Some is damned old, worthless. < MJPEG compression, for example

Apart from checking if there is an image for hardware troublshooting purposes, monitoring while capturing is hardly needed nowadays, Histograms, capturing preview in software is all what's needed, I guess some people just like the cool look of the capturing gear.

In my capture workflow I have two places I can hookup a monitoring screen, one is SDI and one is HDMI and they are exactly for monitoring purposes but never seen the need to do so.

My original thought was to have a monitor I could connect at the end of the chain, easily calibrate with a Spider, dial in adjustments with BVP-4/other, then when satisfied connect ATIUSB to chain and switch monitor to a passthru if available or just switch back to PC duties. However reading some other threads yesterday it appears the BVP-4 may be relegated to the same history bin as CRTs. Is there any special sauce that box can produce that isn't easily replicated via modern software?

Before everyone freaks out, I have no intention of using the BVP-4 full time :) Most of my tapes I will capture unmolested and archive, others I will archive and try to enhance/restore to the best of my ability for distribution to family on disc/download/ugh-tube etc.