Displaying my 1080i image on a 1080i LCD screen

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Andrew Johnston] ” I know when i edit the 1080i footage on my computer it isn’t quite 1080i so I’m wondering… “

What do you mean by this exactly?

Do you have any capture or playback devices for your computer?

[Dan Leniczek]

Drew,
Go to the BLACKMAGIC DESIGNS website and look at the intensity pro card. I believe it will do exactly what you require it to do. Good luck in your project.

dan

[Andrew Johnston]

Hi guys, thanks for helping.

A few things…

Dan, I looked into the card. it looks good, but I’m using a macbook pro. Can’t really install a card. What options do I have using a macbook pro?

let me rephrase what I’m trying to do I simply as I can put it:

1. I am shooting 1080i
2. When I edit, I want to SEE my footage, whether it be on my laptop screen or a 2nd monitor, as 1080i
3. Then, the finished product I need to display as 1080i through a computer and onto a 65” sharp 1080p HD television.

Now… problems I anticipate and am asking how to work around:

1. When bringing my footage into FCP the clips get converted to something my computer can edit, these clips may not be 1080i…. how do I get them back to 1080i?

2. The connection between the computer running the video and the monitor displaying the video has to have the right kind of connection. The card suggested by Dan seems right but I am using a macbook pro.

http://www.drewjohnston.com
http://www.lazytrumpet.com

[Andrew Johnston]

Hey, SO I found something that looks like it would work but i need an expert opinion…

two things..

1. https://www.pccables.com/cgi-bin/orders6.cgi?action=Showitem&id=ID7059866&partno=01761&search=01761&rsite=pccables.com&rcode=

2. https://www.pccables.com/cgi-bin/orders6.cgi?action=Showitem&id=ID7059866&partno=01712&search=HDMI&rsite=pccables.com&rcode=

So i plug it into the DVI plug on my macbook pro and then the hdmi end into the lcd and it should transmit the 1080i signal? and i should get a 1080i image on the lcd?

Has anyone ever done it this way? seems too good to be true for $15 but I hope it’s not.

Let me know what you think please your opinions are priceless to me

http://www.drewjohnston.com
http://www.lazytrumpet.com

[Matthew Romanis]

The thing to bear in mind here is that cables such as these only display the computer display, either a copy of what is on the laptop screen (icons, dock, finder bar and all), or as a second display monitor.
If you set it up in dual screen mode, as opposed to copy mode, then set the FCP Video playback (in the “View” pull down menu) to “Digital cinema desktop preview”, you should be able to achieve what you want. Make sure your audio follows the same path too.

[Andrew Johnston]

Mathew,

Thank you fr your help… Now I have a question:

What you said work when I am editing in FCP… But what if want to display my final product onto a HD display using a computer that doesn’t have FCP?

Can I use this wire to display the video fullscreen on the HD display? Whether i use a cheap or free program to achieve this OR i simply play it in QUicktime at fullscreen?

http://www.drewjohnston.com
http://www.lazytrumpet.com

[Matthew Romanis]

If you play back using QT and maintain the same frame size, then yes it should work. You will need to make sure that the computer you are playing back from is enabled with the same ability and codecs as the machine you originate on. No use using a codec that doesn’t exist on the replay machine.
Conduct a simple test to validate this, and try various codecs to see what works best. Maintain the 1080 frame size and all should work well.
Are you playing back from a Mac?
Matthew.

[Andrew Johnston]

Hi Mathew,

Thank you so much for your help. What I’m ding is this: I’m shooting 1080i and editing on a macbook pro. THEN, once all my editing is finished I am handing the university the material and they are going to be playing it back on HD LCD displays capable of 1080p.

So basically, I want to be able to hand them something that will look the best it possibly can look on their 1080p LCD.

Now, they SAID that they will be hooking a computer up to the display, what KIND of computer i have no idea, but i figured as long as I output my file as 1080i they can run it on any computer and as long as the display has the ability to run the 1080i file AND the computer has the codec i used (which i also assume i can down onto any computer) then it will show up 1080i…Am I wrong?

I’m confused about it all. i don’t know the best thing to do. Is it even better to just burn an HD DVD and tell them they need a blue-ray player? That opens a whole other can of worms because now i don’t even know if my macbook can burn a blue-ray HDDVD…. can macbooks do that? I have the latest version of FCP and compressor.

I’ve been searching for an answer to this question for days, i think the problem is that i don’t know how to ask it right.

What do you think the best thing for me to do is… In the situation where I have to hand them something that will play 1080i nicely on a 1080p screen but what they used to play it back is not up to me.

Also…. Is the only thing that makes soemthing HD the fact that its 1080? Isn’t there other things I need to make sure get translated correctly from Raw footage to LCD display?

http://www.drewjohnston.com
http://www.lazytrumpet.com

[Matthew Romanis]

Hi Andrew,
It’s the pixel/line count that makes the main difference between HD and SD (1920×1080 vs 720×540 NTSC, 576 for PAL).
What you are trying to do is more of an A/V display thing than an editing issue.
Before you go any further you must find out what the university is going to use to “play” the files, is it PC or MAC. That makes a big difference in how you proceed from now.
You have to make a choice over uncompressed files vs compressed files, uncompressed is high quality but requires the play back computer to fast enough to handle the data flow, uncompressed is easier processor wise but problems arise when the playback computer has a different codec set.
There are enough incompatibility issues between MAC and PC still to make this a major issue for you if you don’t know what you are doing.
So solve that one first then we work out the best way to go forward.
Matthew.

[Andrew Johnston]

Matt, thanks so much.

Wednesday I will be back at the university and will find out… then i’m going to come back here and update you.

Will you still be checking up on this thread? haha

-drew

http://www.drewjohnston.com
http://www.lazytrumpet.com