From the course: Pro Video Tips

Using your hotel TV as an ad-hoc monitor

From the course: Pro Video Tips

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Using your hotel TV as an ad-hoc monitor

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- So this week's pro video tip I recently had to figure out when I was part of a video team that was shooting, editing, and uploading multiple videos several times a day while traveling to different cities on the road. Of course as long as you have a powerful laptop with the proper editing software you can edit pretty much anywhere almost the same as you could on a more traditional desktop system. However, the problem with power editing on a little 15 inch laptop screen becomes most apparent when you're trying to navigate between edit bins, your preview monitor, your timeline, your source monitor, and the web, and other programs. It can be incredibly difficult and frustrating. Especially when you're working on a tight deadline. So using my down and dirty approach to film making problem solving, the core problem as I perceived it here wasn't necessarily that I didn't have a portable second computer monitor, the practical problem was just that I needed more screen real estate to layout and easily work with all the different editing assets and programs required for the job. And I didn't want to invest more money or carry another piece of gear on the plane. So the next question to always ask yourself whenever you don't have or can't afford some useful film making tool is what else can do the same thing? What else can give you the same or similar results? So with this little shift in mindset you can often figure out a simple but effective solution. So in this scenario we don't need another monitor per se. What we really need is a second display screen. Because in every city we set up editing base camp at a hotel suite nearby the main venue it didn't take too much imagination to see a giant 50 inch flat screen TV next to the desk in our hotel suite and decide to commandeer it as a second monitor. What's even cooler about that is that it's even bigger than the monitors most of us use at home. So next time you find yourself needing to edit on the road in a hotel room try this simple little trick to convert a flat screen TV into a second editing display monitor. All you need really are three things. First, any flat screen TV that has a HDMI or VGA input. Now most hotel flat screens will have one or the other. Or probably both. Next you'll also need an HDMI or VGA adapter for your particular display port. In this case my laptop has a mini display port. So I'm using the little Rocketfish brand mini display to HDMI adapter. Which costs about 15 to 20 dollars. And it costs about the same for a mini display to VGA adapter. And the third thing you need is a decent length, six to 10 feet of HDMI or VGA cable to reach the TV. Now my HDMI cable here was only three feet. So it was a little bit short. But it still got the job done. And the other thing you'll need is to set the TV input to whatever you have hooked up. Be it HDMI or VGA. Since many hotels often have funky universal remotes I think you'll find it easier to just change the video input directly on the TV instead. And the final step is to go to the display mirroring options on your laptop and turn display mirroring off. So the TV functions as an extension of your laptop screen and not just as a duplicate screen with the exact same display. You may also need to go into your laptop display option to set the second monitor on the right or left side as desired, but that's pretty much it. For best results judging picture of course you'll want to throw out some color bars and adjust the color settings in the TV menu for more accurate color reproduction. No the set up isn't comparable to a pro display monitor but it will more than get the job done. So with a small investment in a HDMI or VGA display adapter and a cable for your editing laptop you can readily commandeer many if not most modern HD flat screen TVs as large second display monitors for whenever you're cutting on the road. Now this same setup can also be used for more impressive video premieres for clients that have flat screen TVs in their home or office. It definitely beats showing your final masterpiece for the very first time on a dinky little laptop screen. And of course the same trick will generally work at home if you have an extra flat screen TV with an HDMI or VGA input. So that's it for this week. I'm Anthony Q. Artis. Check me back here next week for another pro video tip.

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