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usb video cards
Hi…I am wondering if anyone has attempted to use a usb video card/adapter to extend their monitor space using a macbook pro? They advertise to extend your desktop and also can mirror your existing desktop.. The only thing that was not supported was openGL…now I am assuming that running after effects and final cut pro on that display say like rendering…..will not support it and the video will play back very choppy or not at all. I think all the high end adobe and apple products need and run on openGL? Any help on this would be greatly appreciated and if anyone knows of a good brand that will support openGL I would love to have that info…so far I see that Diamond…ATI has a model that would work but I am still unsure about the compatability and how well it would function.
thanks much
chris -
4 Replies
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I’m extremely suspicious of USB video cards in general, but one thing I can assure you of; you shouldn’t have to worry about Open GL with AE. Most people turn off the Open GL preview feature of AE and never use it for rendering. It seems to have waaaaay too many issues with normal video cards anyway.
– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.
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I agree with Michael on both counts — avoid USB video, and don’t worry about OpenGL for AE.
If you need more screen real estate, check out the line of Matrox GXMs like the DualHead2Go and the TripleHead2Go; they connect to the VGA/DVI/DP out on your MBP and allow you to connect multiple monitors.
Final Cut will perform no differently than it does now, because the Matrox units rely on your existing graphics card.
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events -
hi walter thanks for your help…yeah the more i continued to read up on the usb the more problems it seemed to have…i will look into those products you listed .
thanks again -
Hi Michael…thanks for your help…now I should not have a problem in after effects but what about final cut express or final cut pro? do you think I would be able to view hd content thru the usb video hub? what i am looking to do is connect a monitor and a lcd tv as my reference monitor to see what my projects will look like on tv..as well as using it to extend my desktop.I will be viewing via firewire as a preview thru s video so it probably does not even matter. ..maybe you can help me a little wit open GL…isn’t it supposed to provide better rendering in terms of time and taking use of the capability of the graphics card?
thanks again for your help…creative cow have the most helpful people.
chris
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