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What Device Needed to add monitor to my editing system
I was wondering what device it takes to have my monitor function off of final cut pro. I have been doing the poorman process of running firewire to camera then S-Video to sony 8in. What is the appropriate item to do this so I don’t have to have my camera on. Thanks.
Brent Buntyn
Ashland Mine Productions
http://www.ashlandmine.com
br***@*********ne.com -
3 Replies
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If you have the budget, purchase one of the interface cards or units from Blackmagic Design, AJA Video or Aurora. This will cost between $300 and $2,000. You could also purchase a FW->video converter, like those from Canopus (approx. $200). You can also display on one of your computer monitors from FCP, through this isn’t as good as a real video monitor.
Sincerely,
OliverOliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
If you’re worried about your camera, you should be worried about using it as a deck! Get a DVCam deck and use that.
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You say you’re using your camera to monitor output, and that’s probably the most common entry-level way to do it (thousands of FCP users do).
But, as Bret posted, to use your “good” camera as a “deck” for feeding in from and outputting to tape is lots of unnecessary wear to the camera’s mechanical components (I would not worry a bit about using your camera for monitoring purposes… no physical wear in that.)A deck is the next-most-common device to use for these purposes, and is very practical in a small system.
The Sony DSR11 seems to be the deck-of-choice due to its low price (around $1600 USD), rugged reliability, the ability to play/record DV and DVCAM on mini and full-size tapes without an adapter, and in PAL or NTSC.But, if that’s too much of an investment for now, here’s a very-low-cost compromise:
I have had GREAT luck buying used miniDV “home video” camcorders and using them as spare “decks” and A-to-D-to-A video/audio converter “boxes”. I have bought MANY of these little gems at local PawnShops for UNDER $175 each (some for $99). The transfer quality in and out matches a deck, and the video/audio output (they all have S-Video outs) monitors great!
AND… If you choose a SONY or PANASONIC camcorder (except for the earliest-built versions of the Sony VX1000), those two brands will ALSO will playback perfectly any DVCAM-recorded mini DV tapes as well as DV SP and DV LP (yikes!).OTOH, there are many DV converter “black-boxes” available Just Google “DV input bridge” (many posters on the COW caution to “stay away” from the “Dazzle Hollywood Bridge” models).
That said, even the cheapest of these transcoders usually cost more than my “cheerful-cheapy” home video camcorder solution (and then you’d still need to connect a “deck” of some sort for in/out of DV footage.)
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