DM-3400

With all the talk about Red achieving a new price point in 4K image capture, it begs the question: Are there any monitors that will let you edit and present your 4K content while displaying all the pixels?

At NAB, Astrodesign drew a steady crowd with its DM-3400, a 56-inch LCD monitor that can handle both 4K and 2K formats. It will set you back a hefty $60,000, though it supports an impressive 3,840 by 2,160 pixels at a 60Hz scan rate. That resolution (sometimes referred to as Quad HDTV mode) works out to a 16:9 aspect ratio. Alternatively, you could display four simultaneous streams of HD content (1,920 by 1,080). The monitor has four DVI-D inputs and four Dual Link HD-SDI inputs.

At the Astrodesign booth, the demo was marred by excessive noise on the screen. Surprisingly, the company had upconverted a 2K video for the 4K presentation. A better demonstration was available at the NHK booth, where NHK had downconverted an Ultra High-Definition signal (7,680 by 4,320) into a 4K signal, which was then routed to a DM-3400