By J.R. Bookwalter, May 13, 2008
LaCie has a long and proud history with computer users, and rightfully so. Their products — in particular their hard drives, of which I own three — are rugged, attractive and reliable. The assignment for this review was my first experience with a LaCie display, and I’m happy to report that the same kudos apply here as well.
The monitor in question is the LaCie 324 LCD, a 24”-wide gamut display ideally suited for budget-minded producers, especially in small rigs where dual monitors might be cost or space prohibitive. That’s because the 324 goes beyond simply being a computer display — it also features two HDMI ports for viewing your HD footage (all the way up to 1080p) on a wide 16:10 format in up to 1920x1200 resolution with beautiful color reproduction. The 324’s 10-bit gamma correction assures smooth color gradients and an on-screen menu provides quick access to a variety of other options as well, including picture-in-picture from any input.
The display itself is gorgeous, although not an eye-popping difference from the Apple display I replaced with the 324. However, the LaCie is a much more cost-effective alternative to Apple, and others, especially when factoring in the dual HDMI input and a neat little picture-in-picture function that works on all inputs. PIP can be moved to four different places on the screen and resized three different ways, which makes a nice way to have your edit software running at the same time you’re looking at the output from your camera, for instance. You can even adjust the transparency of the PIP source, keeping it on screen while giving you full use of the main source. My main complaint with the PIP feature is that it doesn’t have any kind of memory - once you switch the input to another source, you have to go back into the menu to turn PIP back on as well as reselect your source. Unfortunately, the 324 also has no way to swap PIP screens, which might have been handy in some setups.
Otherwise, LaCie has left no stone unturned as far as display options, including four zoom and aspect ratio modes: Real, Smart Zoom, Zoom and Dx2D, which extends the sides to magnify the source to 1920x1200 size. The various inputs have their own settings for brightness, contrast, color temperature, gamma, noise reduction and more (these vary depending on the input)
. The position of the menu itself can be adjusted, which came in handy as I adjusted settings to make a ColorSync profile on my G5. It’s worth loading the color profiles that come with the display; they make it almost unnecessary to make such tweaks in many setups.
The only real bone I have to pick is with the 324’s touch-sensitive panel buttons. OK, maybe I have somewhat chubby digits, but try as I might it took me several taps before I could get the buttons to do what I wanted. I felt foolish when I showed the monitor to my wife after describing the problem to her — she had no problems at all with her dainty fingers! The solution for me was turning on the sound function, which makes a beeping noise when proper contact is being made with the button. That little bit of feedback made a world of difference, because the front of the panel is smooth and there’s no tactile feedback as to where exactly the button really is. I had few problems once I was able to hear that satisfying “beep” with each press.
Image quality on the 324 more than makes up for this one small deficiency - everything onscreen is crisp and clear, whether it was the DVI-D output of my G5 or the HDMI output from my Sony HV20 HDV camcorder. We had a near-blizzard of snow here in Ohio while I was using the 324, and some footage I shot outside with the HV20 shows an amazing amount of detail in the snow around my home office, not to mention excellent color reproduction.
LaCie’s reputation for excellence continues with their 324 LCD monitor, highly recommended as a multiple-use display for edit suites small and large.
LaCie 324 Display
$1,119.99
DV Score:
Pros:
Stunning color reproduction, dual HDMI inputs, picture-in-picture, 3-port USB 2.0 hub built in.
Cons:
Touch-sensitive front panel isn’t quite sensitive enough, USB hub on side might interfere with tight spaces or dual-display setups.
Bottom Line:
Excellent choice for budget and space-minded users, comes with the typical LaCie quality and classy touches.
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