Final Cut Pro and 3 monitors

[Alan Okey]

Your post is confusing. How many outputs are on the graphics card in your Mac Pro, and what type are they?

[Paul Jay]

Check view-video->playback settings.
You shouldn’t set it on MAIN.

[Chris Gordon]

I’m assuming you have one of the video cards that has 2 x display port connections and 1 x DVI. The card only supports 2 displays at a time. Even if the machine knows something is plugged into all three ports, only two will be used.

I’ll also assume you’re doing this only because you want to use the presumably larger TV as a computer display and not for the purpose of an external video display for color grading or seeing the quality that would ultimately be shown on a TV. In the case of your video/graphics card, your TV acts just like another computer monitor and not as a TV. You’ll need a special card to output an actual TV signal (or if it’s all SD, you could go through a camcorder).

[Paul Kreuter]

Yes you are correct, I am just trying to play back the output on a larger screen for client review. And yes I have a graphics card with 2 display port connections and 1 DVI. I see, so final cut won’t support 3 monitors in that way and I would then have to get an AJA Kona or black magic card if i want to view it on the HD Samsung via actual TV signal. Makes sense… Thank you Chris for your help!

[Chris Gordon]

It’s actually the video card itself that won’t support three displays, not final cut. Otherwise you’re correct — another card (and more $$$) to get the real TV out signal.

[Guy Ross]

Hey Paul,

I had the exact same problem and posted the question in this forum.

Andy Mees suggested that I change the order in which the monitors were connected and it worked.

[Guy Ross]

Some more detail, in case it helps anyone.

This is how I connected 3 monitors to FCP

My system is a Mac Pro with ATI HD 5870.

The monitors are now connected as follows:

mini DisplayPort 1: 42″ TV 1080p via VGA to mini DisplayPort adapter

mini DisplayPort 2: 24″ Monitor via DisplayPort to mini DisplayPort cable

DVI: 24″ Monitor via DVI to DVI cable

I think Final Cut offers full-screen preview (Digital Cinema Desktop Preview) on the main monitor and one other monitor.

I think the main monitor is the one that has Mac OS’s menu bar in it.
You can move the menu bar to different monitors using System Preferences – > Displays -> Arrangement.

It is not clear to me how FCP chooses which other monitor is available for full-screen.

But, when I switched the order my displays were connected, FCP made the full-screen preview available on the monitor I needed.

Hope this helps.

p.s.
The reason I use the analog VGA connector on my third monitor is that the Mac Pros with the 5770/5870 require expensive ‘Dual Link DVI to mini DisplayPort’ convertors if more than one DVI monitor is connected.

It was not possible to connect 3 monitors simultaneously when I tried using either the ‘HDMI to mini DisplayPort’ connector, nor the regular ‘DVI to mini DisplayPort’ connector.