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Stretched image when using digital cinema desktop preview
When I try to play my sequence using “digital cinema desktop preview” the video plays in full screen, but is stretched. It’s a 4:3 sequence (1024x768px) but when I play it on my 17″ MBP, not only does it stretch to the full width of the screen (thus distorting the video) it also adds black bars on top and bottom of the video.
I tried hooking up a 4:3 VGA monitor (using a DVI-> VGA connector) and it does the exact same thing on the external monitor.
I want to be able to use FCP for a multimedia-show where I’ll connect 2 projectors (using a video-splitter) to the MBP and then use my timeline to navigate to the different parts of the show.I’m using FCP6, and my sequence settings are 1024x768px, square pixels, no fields, 25fps.
I’ve tried different resolutions on the VGA-monitor (1024×768 and 1280×1024) – no luck with that either.
Any suggestions to how I solve this problem is more than welcome. Suggestions for other programs which would be suitable for running my video are most welcome too.
Thanks a lot
Henrik Kolind -
10 Replies
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[Henrik Kolind] “I’m using FCP6, and my sequence settings are 1024x768px, square pixels, no fields, 25fps.”
That resolution isn’t a standard video resolution. That’s probably why it’s not playing back right. Do you have the option to output the video as Digital Cinema Desktop Preview – Raw?
-Russ
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[Russell Lasson] “That resolution isn’t a standard video resolution. That’s probably why it’s not playing back right. Do you have the option to output the video as Digital Cinema Desktop Preview – Raw?
-Russ “
Yes I do, but then I face another problem. If the external monitor has a resolution of 1024×768 I loose 20-30% of my image while the video is playing (no problems when the sequence isn’t playing). If I take the resolution to 1280×1024 I only loose around 10%. It seems as if the video is stretched beyond the resolution of the screen. Will try to play around with the resolution of both the external monitor and my MBP to see if it helps…
Thanks for your input!– Henrik
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Ok, so I tried a few more things, and this I what I’ve got so far:
Changing resolutions on the MBP doesn’t change anything in terms of how the video is shown on the external VGA monitor.
Results with different resolutions on the external monitor:
– 1024×768: video is displayed correctly (full screen) when it’s not playing. When I start playing it’s enlarged, and thus I loose 20-30% of the image. Aspect ratio is also wrong (a bit stretched)
– 1280×1024: video is displayed with a black border when it’s not playing. When it starts playing it fills the screen, but I only loose around 10% of the image. Aspect ratio wrong (stretched)
– 1600×1200: video is displayed with a black border when it’s not playing. When it starts playing it fills the screen horizontally, but adds black bars to the top and bottom of the video, I see all of the image. Aspect ratio wrong (stretched)I’ll try changing the format of one of the clips I’m using to see if it solves the problem. Wouldn’t want to redo all my clips though 🙁
-Henrik Kolind
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Would playing it out of QuickTime instead of FCP be acceptable?
I’m really not sure if there is a way to get the non-standard frame size to play right. I know my capture cards wouldn’t know what to do with it and it looks like the same is true with the desktop preview.
-Russ
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I guess I’ll have to find another way of doing it if I can’t make it work in FCP. The nice thing about using FCP is that I’d be able to jump to different parts of the timeline depending on different actions of the actors in the show… hmmm… Will make some tests with QT to see what’s possible.
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Keynote or Powerpoint?
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That’s of course an option… will it be easy for me to restart a slide? Some of the video will need to loop, but I don’t know for how long as it depends on the actors and the audience. Will look into it though, thanks.
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The other option is to work in a standard video frame size/frame rate and let the monitor/projector scale accordingly.
Also, have a look at this:
https://dtvideolabs.com/PlaybackPro.html
Jeremy
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I could try rendering the projects out in a standard format from Motion of course, just to see if it works. But I still feel that FCP should be able to do it with any format, especially using a setting like “Digital Cinema Desktop Preview – Raw”. And I am using a standard preset in Motion 3… of course FCP is built for video-codecs, but still 🙂
That Playback Pro looks very interesting. I’ve been looking for something like that for quite some time. Don’t have the time (or money) on this project, but it might come in handy later on. Thanks a lot for the link!
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[Henrik Kolind] “of course FCP is built for video-codecs, but still :-)”
Yep, FCP works best with standard video codecs/sizes/frame rates.
Jeremy
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