The National Television Standards Committee set up the NTSC analog television system. The United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea and the Philippines use the NTSC standard. The Federal Communications Commission created the NTSC to bring about a standard for television broadcasts. NTSC is an analog system, so an NTSC monitor will have a problem rendering digital images correctly.

Interlacing is also important to discuss whenever the topic of NTSC comes up. Interlacing is the way to broadcast a still image and reproduce it on your television. From top to bottom, it creates every other line. Once it reaches the bottom, the skipped lines are filled in. Computer monitors, on the other hand, use progressive scanning, which creates the whole image from top to bottom and line by line. This is why it is very important to have an NTSC monitor available to preview your work.

The most important feature you should look for is manual adjustment for color settings, contrast and brightness. Usually these monitors will allow you to control all their functions through a remote control, or the controls will be on the front panel of the monitor. The other features you want to consider are underscan, switchable aspect ratios and a couple of different composite inputs. You can also choose from monitors that will work in the field. Speakers are optional at this level. Some monitors will have built-in speakers, but most will not.

The Advanced Television Standards Committee developed the ATSC standard in 1982 to replace the NTSC television system. The ATSC is a high-definition television standard, which uses the MPEG-2 codec. There are 3 display sizes for ATSC. The bottom level contains enhanced NTSC and PAL images, using 480 or 576 lines to display an image. The middle level of medium-sized images has 720 lines of resolution, and the top level has 1080 lines of resolution. ATSC monitors are still rare, so they will be pricier than their NTSC and VGA counterparts right now. By their very nature, ATSC monitors are perfect for digital editing. If you are considering an ATSC monitor, you need to look for a high contrast ratio; 500 to 1 should be the starting point. Viewing angle is also a concern here. A larger screen will have a larger viewing angle, but a larger screen will increase the price. If only one person will be using the ATSC monitor, you can take the viewing angle out of the equation.

Whatever choice you decide to make, it is best to keep in mind exactly what you will need the monitor for. LCDs may be the latest and greatest, but, if you have the space and need the superior color reproduction, a CRT is not out of the question. If you intend to do HD production, you need to keep in mind the inherent problems an NTSC or VGA monitor will have in rendering HD properly. In that case, you may want to move up to an all-digital monitor now. Check the manufacturer�s listing to narrow down your search.

John Devcic is a freelance writer and videographer.

Field monitors can be very beneficial to anyone who is shooting on location. You can use them to review how your production is going. You can make adjustments on the fly and without the need to lug around large and bulky equipment. Often these field monitors are TFT LCDs that connect directly to the camera and make the filming that much easier. Field monitors can also be run off battery power to make their use that much more valuable. If you choose to use a field monitor, make sure to keep in mind whether you are going to need to see the preview in HD or not. Some field monitors can handle HD, while some cannot. Do you have a high-end HD camera? Most of these cameras have an HD SDI output. You may want to consider purchasing a field monitor that will support HD SDI.