Monitoring out with new Mac Pro?

[Bret Williams]

If memory serves me, the 5770 does support 3 monitors, but only on a PC. On the mac, I was only able to get it to support 2. Currently, I have it hooked up to a dell with the DVI, and a flanders scientific with the HDMI.

So definitely a downside. I wonder if that’s an issue with the nMP? You’d think it’d support 3 monitors!

[Dave Jenkins]

Can I connect more than 2 DVI or HDMI displays?

Mac Pro supports a total of two DVI or HDMI displays when connected via the built-in HDMI port or using the Apple Mini DisplayPort to DVI adapter. To connect additional DVI displays, use an active DVI adapter such as the Apple Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI adapter. You can connect up to six active adapter DVI displays. This requires a powered USB hub since Mac Pro offers four USB ports and you will need six to connect them all.

https://support.apple.com/kb/HT5918?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

[Glenn Grant] “s it limited to 2 monitors total?
“

Dajen Productions, Santa Barbara, CA
Mac Pro 3.5MHz 6-Core Late 2013
FCP X

[Bruce Payan]

“This requires a powered USB hub since Mac Pro offers four USB ports and you will need six to connect them all.”

This has nothing to do with USB ports; there are six thunderbolt ports on a MacPro 2013. For six DVI monitors, 2 of these monitors have have passive TB->DVI adapters, the other 4 adapters must be active. The MP’s HDMI connector counts as though it were a passive device.

[Nate Mccallister]

We have two Samsung 4k monitors (U28E590) for editing and a Vizio 4k 50″ TV (E50u-D2) for client review. This is running off a 2013 Mac Pro running OS X 10.11.6 and FCPX 10.2.3. The two monitors are Thunderbolt to DisplayPort and the TV is HDMI. This enables us to run 3x 4k displays off the Mac Pro.

When setting up A/V Output in FCPX I found that the item was grayed out in the menu unless the TV was set to 3840×2160 or 1920×1080 in OS X Display Preferences. Once I set the TV to 1080 or 4k, A/V Output was available in the FCPX Window drop down.

The issue we found is that the playback on the TV lags behind the audio of the computer. Not much but definitely enough to bother the client. If you send the audio to the TV as well it is still out of sync. Apple states, “Video and audio are synced at the video frame (not audio sample) level” so I assume sync is pretty much dependent on how fast your TV is as there is not offset setting in OS X.

Hope this helps those that cannot get their TV to show up under A/V Output.

P.S. if any of you have a fix for the audio sync it would be fantastic!

Video Editor & Producer
FCPX / Adobe Premiere Pro
http://www.natemccallister.com