FCP 7 with 3 Monitors Set Up

[Shane Ross]

If you have a Decklink card, why are you using three COMPUTER displays…using one of them to display the full image? With a capture card, this enables you to use TWO computer displays, and ONE broadcast monitor, or HDTV…the latter connected to the Decklink card. No, you cannot connect the Apple display to the Decklink card…the card doesn’t have DVI out, and the display doesn’t have Component, HDMI inputs.

If you have TWO Graphics cards, you might run into issues. FCP doesn’t run well with two graphics cards all the time. Some of the time, yes. But not always…issues can arise.

Besides, any image you do via Digital Cinema Preview is NOT color accurate…

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
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[Rafael Amador]

[Jessica Kehrhahn] “Also – the project setting is XDCAM EX 1080p 24 35Mb/s, I am wondering if I should change that Easy Setup now that I have the Blackmagic card?”
Set your sequence according with the format you edit. If is XDCAM, then change your sequence codec to Prores and render to this codec.
rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Andy Mees]

Hi Jessica

As Shane notes, using the 30″ Apple Cinema Display with FCP’s Digital Cinema Desktop Preview mode would not be your ideal monitoring setup, given that you now have that Blackmagic Decklink HD Extreme card which can provide you with a full broadcast quality monitoring output.

That said, if you don’t currently have a broadcast monitor or suitable reference monitoring display then of course you can use your 30″ ACD as your full screen desktop preview display, but to do so you will need to ensure that it is plugged in as the second display ie plugged into the second DVI output of your primary display card.

Hope it helps
Andy

[Gary Askham]

I think getting the 30″ Cinema Display was a mistake. They’re great monitors but most people use them instead of a 2 monitor setup.

I would suggest you return it and get an HD-SDI broadcast monitor instead.

————————
FCP and Avid Technical Support
Air Post Production
Shoreditch – London

[Shreyas Kulkarni]

Hey,
I have similar kinda problem.. I have 2 monitors & 1 broadcast quality TV. I am not getting output to TV via blackmagic decklink card since I upgraded RAM( to 4 GB ) & blackmagic driver( now it is 7.6 ). Pls help

thanx in advance

Shreyas

thanx
shreyas.

[Laura Creecy]

I have 3 monitors set up with FCP to monitor an unscaled 2K image. I know that it is not color accurate, but all I am doing with this setup is a conform to match the offline image with the online image before the DI.

The new Mac Pros ship with the ATI Radeon HD 5770 which has a DVI port and 2 mini-display ports. After some trail and error and some research on the Apple website, this is my config:

30″ Apple Cinema Display – DVI
20″ Apple Cinema Display – Mini to Dual Link DVI (This is the $100 cable)
25″ Samsung P2570HD HDTV/Monitor – Mini to Dual Link DVI (This is the $100 cable)

According to the Apple website, the only way to get 3 monitors through DVI on the 5770 is to have the dual link connector (aside from the fact that you need the dual link to support resolutions over 1920×1080 anyway).

I use the 20″ for my Browser, the 25″ for my canvas, timeline, viewer, and the 30″ is set to Digital Cinema Desktop Preview – Raw.

It is a really nice set up for what I need right now. I have a Red Rocket card in slot 2, and I dont really do any capturing or laying to tape because I farm it out. I had considered a Kona 3 or a BM card – but the cost of the card and the monitor were just to far out of my budget for what I needed to do and I had already spent the moola on the Red Rocket card. I am sure this is a great low budget solution for offline editing.

The 30″ Apple Cinema Display is rented, but I might consider finding a used one on craigslist, or something else like it if people have other suggestions. Its going to be sad to give it back 🙂