Canvas gets verrrrry blurry during playback

[Shane Ross]

#2 Blurry Playback

Shane’s Stock Answer #2: Blurry playback

ONLY JUDGE THE QUALITY OF YOUR MATERIAL ON AN EXTERNAL BROADCAST MONITOR, OR AT LEAST A TV.

The Canvas shows you what happens after the codec you are working with has been applied. The Viewer shows you the material in its native format. Once you drop the footage from the Viewer into the timeline, it inherits the attributes of the sequence. If it is a DV sequence, the footage will render out as DV.

1. Disable overlays on the Canvas.

2. Make sure you’ve rendered everything (no green bars at the top of the timeline).

Video playback requires large amounts of data and many computations. In order to maintain frame rate and be viewable at a normal size, only about one-fourth of the DV data is used in displaying the movie to the screen. However, the DV footage is still at full quality, and is best viewed thru a TV or broadcast monitor routed thru your camera or deck.

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Paul Campbell]

Shane, I hear what you’re saying. I guess I initially just wanted to know if this was some kind of hardware limitation on my system causing this. I can view the native footage in the Viewer just fine. No blur at all. Is it not safe to say that if my system/monitor can handle playing back 1080 footage in the viewer that it should be able to playback the same footage downsized to NTSC while viewing the Canvas? The 1080 playback seems like it would require more math, no? (Or does the conversion from 1080 to NTSC in the timeline actually require more math?)

Thanks.

[Kevin Monahan]

Paul,
Don’t try to use logic, that’s just the way FCP works. The Canvas was not meant to monitor video since FCP 1! You must get a video monitor to see what your true quality looks like during playback.

That being said, if you stretch out your Canvas to be precisely 100%, it will look close to what you’d see on the monitor.

Kevin Monahan
http://www.fcpworld.com
Author – Motion Graphics and Effects in Final Cut Pro

[Paul Campbell]

Roger, dodger. Nuff said, methinks. Can you suggest a decent video card (other than the dual-monitor card that came with the Mac, obviously) that will allow me to use a video monitor that won’t break my wallet? (Or could I use the 2nd video port and somehow convert that?) Thanks,

[David Roth weiss]

[Paul Campbell] “Can you suggest a decent video card (other than the dual-monitor card that came with the Mac, obviously)”

Paul, evidently this is not 100% clear to you. It is not an issue with the quality of the card that feeds your computer monitors. To accurately display video a true video monitor is required, such as a TV or broadcast monitor, and that needs to be fed by a video I/O card or device, not a computer display card.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.

[Andrew Kimery]

[Paul Campbell] “I can view the native footage in the Viewer just fine. No blur at all. Is it not safe to say that if my system/monitor can handle playing back 1080 footage in the viewer that it should be able to playback the same footage downsized to NTSC while viewing the Canvas? The 1080 playback seems like it would require more math, no? (Or does the conversion from 1080 to NTSC in the timeline actually require more math?) “
The conversion from 1080 to NTSC requires more math (much, much more math) which is why the image quality in the Canvas takes a hit. Basically you are asking FCP to decompress the progressive, 24fps XDCAM footage, compress it into interlaced 29.97 DV footage (I assume you are working w/DV), then decompress the DV so you can see the image in the Canvas window. A format and a frame rate change between two very compressed codecs is a lot to ask of your CPUs.

-A

[Paul Campbell]

Hi, David. I guess I just asked my question badly, that’s all. The I/O card you mentioned is what I was asking about suggestions for. (Like the AJA Kona card, right? This is probably quite pricey. Any others out there you’d recommend? I hate to skimp, but I just can’t afford anything super expensive now)

[David Roth weiss]

The HD I/O solutions are not inexpensive. The AJA Kona LHe is the card I typically recommend, and it’s $1700. Blackmagic makes one called Decklink Extreme HD that’s $945 that’s the least expenive card for the job. Both are good, but I do prefer the Kona cards, mot of all because of their superior tech. support.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.

[Paul Campbell]

Ah, I was also going to ask about that Blackmagic card. I see a lot of posts here about that one. Thanks!

[Andy Mees]

Paul,
The Blackmagic Intensity card is your cheapest option (US$249) but at that price you’re getting severely limited I/O options …. HDMI in and HDMI out.
If you work tapeless or with a camera supporting HDMI output, and if you want to monitor from the timeline to an HDMI capable display, well then its a pretty darn good deal.
If you want or need additional analog I/O you can step up to the Intensity Pro (for US$349), but if you want/need higher grade professional digital audio and video I/O support then you’ll need to look beyond these lower cost solutions.
Good luck
Andy