Matrox MXO 2.0

This little box, the Matrox MXO, gives you broadcast-quality HD out of a DVI port, either from a tower or a laptop. It is also meant to help you monitor high-def video on a computer display, like the Apple Cinema Displays. Shane Ross writes very favorably about the accuracy of the video display from the MXO on LCD's here and more recently here after trying the new 2.0 drivers. The 2.0 drivers allow you to do some calibrating of a DVI display opening up the possibility of using less expensive LCD's than Apple's.

So this looks like an interesting option for doing color-correction with high-def. At around $1K it's more expensive than the inexpensive Intensity products from Blackmagic Design, but it promises better results in accuracy of video. Works with DVI, so takes up a port that could be used for a 2nd monitor, but that does allow for easy use with laptops. It also does simultaneous downconvert on its analog outputs for viewing on a standard-def monitor. Blackmagic and AJA do offer products that let you use an Apple Cinema Display to display HD video but they only take an HD-SDI input. So they require more hardware to monitor HD video.