cheapest way to preview FCP on a monitor

[Shane Ross]

SD or HD? What format of SD? What format of HD?

Shane’s Stock Answer #8: External Monitor Viewing

If you are working with DV, this is simple. First connect your computer to a camera or deck via firewire, Then connect the camera/deck to your TV/Monitor via RCA or S-Video.

Then start up your camera and tv, then open fcp.

Go to the View Menu, choose > External video > all frames
VIEW>Video playback should be Apple firewire NTSC (If you are using an NTSC set)
VIEW>Audio playback should be Audio follows Video

But mind you, the DV signal will either be synced with the TV or the FCP computer monitor…it can’t do both. Limitation of firewire.

If for some reason you can’t view your timeline on your external monitor, there are a few things to try:

1) Make sure that the camera/deck is connected and powered on BEFORE you open FCP.

2) In the Final Cut Pro menu select AUDIO/VIDEO Preferences and make sure your signal is being sent out thru Firewire DV.

3) Go to the menu and select VIEW>EXTERNAL>ALL FRAMES.

4) Click in the % box above the image and select FIT TO WINDOW.

5) Go to VIEW->refresh A/V devices

6) Make sure the Log & Capture window is closed

If you want it to play in both the canvas and the external monitor you need to go to the FINAL CUT PRO menu and select AUDIO/VIDIO settings and make sure MIRROR ON DESKTOP is selected under the PLAYBACK OUTPUT section.

If you are working with HDV footage, FCP 6 allows you to view this via firewire, but ONLY as downconverted DV. It won’t look the best, but you can see it. To do this,

If you need to view any format other than DV at full resolution, then you need to look into capture cards. Several standard definition and high definition models are available from http://www.aja.com and http://www.decklink.com. With these options you’ll need a proper monitor to view full broadcast colors, but all models allow for realtime standard definition downconvert, allowing you to view HD on an SD monitor.

The Matrox MXO is another option that is output only, but allows you to view your footage on an Apple Cinema Display at full broadcast quality.

Shane

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[Jeff Carpenter]

What computer? I use a Blackmagic Intensity Pro ($350) in my Mac Pro. It gives me component HD out through RCA connectors. It has HDMI too, which can be adapted to DVI. It’s a lot cheaper than most of the $1,000 options out there.

(There’s also a $250 version, but it only does HDMI, not analog.)