[Chris Gorman]

In your case, you have HDV so you’ll need to just save a Quicktime file from the ProRes timeline in order to maintain the ProRes quality.

You mean QT in hdv format? I want to back up to tape, so I’d have to import that QT hdv file and print to video to go to tape. Is this the same as if I just dropped the ProRes into an hdv timeline and did “print to video” from there.

I’m not sure why I should make a QT file. I suppose if I just made a QT with settings same as my ProRes TL, I wouldn’t lose quality, but I couldn’t back that up tape . . .i only have the hardware to back up to dv or hdv tape via fw.

[Chris Gorman]

Thanks for your input.

When you say “you’d have to save a file”, or you implying that by saving it as a file i could go out to tape without losing the benefit of the ProRes 422 quality?

I assume, but enlighten me if it’s otherwise, that I’d have to convert the ProRes proj. to hdv, and then, as usual conform on the way out to hdv tape via fw.

By doing that, would I lose what I had gained by working in ProRes eg. the higher quality rendering during editing?

Also, what are you using for your tape backup from ProRes?

[Chris Gorman]

“It does work if you get the correct converter. Don’t know if they’re available anymore but there used to be a “Dr Bott” unit and Apple also sold a unit that was around $100 which included a large power supply as well. This took ADC to DVI and then all you have to do is attach any DVI to VGA converter and you have a VGA signal.”

Dr. Bott, and Apple have not had those for some time….they said the ones they used to sell are not manufactured anymore.

But the one you describe….the adc to dvi is readily available, i have it, tried it and for the reason explained in my other post it did not work (adc to dvi, dvi to vga). My vga monitor is 21″. ( i agree, certainly not for color evaluation, vga’s never have been).

It’s not longer an issue for me because my current method is a good alternative for now. My 21″ vga has now replaced a smaller vga i had been using on my old G4 for email and other mundane computer work.

[Chris Gorman]

I never intended to use the vga monitor for “monitoring”. I was going to hook that up only for the “desktop view” and simultaneously “monitor” on my Apple Cinema Display.

No problem hooking up the cinema display because that just goes from dvi to dvi. Even if I had needed to go from dvi to vga that would have been no problem.

The thing that put the vga out of the mix as far as a choice for the desktop editing view, was that the adc to vga are no longer available. adc to dvi is available, but that is not what was needed in that case.

For myself, I found the workaround. But I was just giving a heads up to person who started this thread that there was more to consider than just the cinema display and the mxo when he’s calculating and affordable solution. But maybe he already has that part figured out and is just wondering how good the mxo w. the cinema display is. I’d say, close enough depending on your clients and what they’ll view the project on.

For me, a critical part of the setup is keeping my old std def ntsc monitor in the loop, which is better for evaluating things (other than resolution) in combination with the cinema display.

[Chris Gorman]

This might be one that I tried. If I recall correctly, I think the problem was that there was not enough power, or for whatever reason, the signal could not get through in realtime.

With what you show, there are two conversions necessary in the lineup.

First, going from the ADC to DVI as you show here, and then another connection is needed to convert the DVI to VGA.

Didn’t work. My screen just flipped in and out of black. I would need ADC to VGA direct, and that is no longer manufactured. If you find one at a reasonable price, let me know.

[Chris Gorman]

I use an Apple 23″ hd monitor (bought new after the prices had come way down), and use it with the MXO v. 1

I’ve seen refurbished 23″ HD displays on eBay, but just read the specs carefully because I think there were 2 generations of the 23″ HD display, and you would want the more recent.

The caveats….your video card is a factor, specifically the number of dvi connections on the card. My ATI 800XT is a good card but with one big limitation . . .only one dvi port, the other is Apple’s proprietary port (ADC) and you cannot buy the right type of converter cable to go from that port to a VGA monitor that you might want to dedicate as your desktop view…..asssuming you want to devote the Cinema Display to HD live preview monitoring.

Along the way I had several sources tell me they had exactly the right converter cable for me, and in each case it turned out not to be the case. It got very complicated and I think I had a thread somewhere on this forum about it at one time.

There are work arounds. For me, I didn’t want to invest in a different card that would be obsolete when I upgrade my PowerMac G5 computer.

So, for now, I use my cinema display for desktop viewing while watching the live preview out to an old NTSC standard def monitor…still good for evaluating color, blacks, and how it will look if my client views it on a std def tv. With a keystroke I can switch my Cinema display to HD preview, and I sometime do that to evaluate other factors.

Typically, I’m editing hdv footage as ProRes 422 and this works for me until I can afford to upgrade a lot of things simultaneously. My vga computer monitor is no longer part of that editing setup…now dedicated to another computer.

[Chris Gorman]

Thanks, that’s reassuring. Just a thought though….I’m now recalling that my old 4:3 dv project that I saw looking good on an HD display was one that I had applied a letterbox filter to during editing in order to create a psuedo widescreen look. At that time it was destined for a 4:3 screen, but I just preferred the “widescreen look”, so applied the filter.

I wonder if the fact that these black pixels were included in the frame that was scaled up, contributed to a better scaling result.

If that was a factor, maybe I’ll do the same thing when editing this project. Anybody know if that would be a factor?

[Chris Gorman]

I had a ProRes video I uploaded to Vimeo. It was 1440 x 1080. I tried both, can’t remember why I abandoned the compressor method. I think i finally went back to using QuickTime export with the settings specifically recommended in the Vimeo tutorials. If you haven’t checked out their tutorials yet, give it a look. I think you get to them through the discussion forum. They have one for just about everything you might want to do on Vimeo.

[Chris Gorman]

Not sure what you mean by “downscaling in fcp”I’m not sure about all the detailed settings in fcp when going to whatever would be the best downscale to sd 16.9. I was going to try using a Stibs de-interlace filter in fcp until i saw the progress bar….”7 hours”…and bailed out and just went QT to compressor.

I misspoke about cpu usage in activity monitor. That was the setting that said “user” The % for system is 11 – 31 and “idle” % ranges 7 – 15. Is “user” the same as cpu?

Thanks for your help. The DVD looks good enough, but I don’t have a monitor that would be comparable to a client’s hdtv to assess what they’ll see. I use apple hd cinema display mostly for the resolution, and simulataneously monitor on my old ntsc 4:3 production monitor (via mxo box), just for color/contrast.

[Chris Gorman]

Re: Frame Controls: The setting I chose in compressor defaults to frame controls automatically selected…(fast)nearest frame,Resize:linear filter,De-Interlace Filter: Fast (line averaging)….Aspect ration: Automatic 16:9

Is there anything you’d suggest changing for best quality without creating a ton more compression time?

It took 2.5 hours, but now I see one transition I have to fix in editing so have to do it again.