[Dave Mac]

Well, I should have been a little more specific in my answer/comments. At the time I experienced a difference in video image quality when playing back DV-25 footage from a QT movie file (NTSC DV interlaced) in QT Player in FCP 5.0.3, I believe my QT version was 7.0.3 (Mac OS X 10.4.3).

Aside from reports of LCD monitors providing less than stellar quality with interlaced footage playback, I recall reading a tech note from DeckLink about no longer supporting “valid” QT playback in QT Player via their “desktop preview” mode (their desktop preview feature was to allow “QuickTime compliant” apps to have content seen on an external broadcast monitor via the DeckLink card). They mentioned something about a change in the QT framework in QT 7 (compared with QT 6). I am not sure if this is a bug in QT 7 (there are several known bugs in QT7) or a feature/capability that was removed (and may be later reborn). After I found the tech note info (part of one of the DeckLink driver ReadME files), I realized why my broadcast monitor was showing such a bad image during playback in QT Player (while the same QT file looked just fine, or as expected, when played back in an FCP Viewer window or in the original timeline/sequence).

I could also see a bit of difference in the display of the movie file on my Apple 23″ LCD display between FCP and QT Player.

For my setup at the time, I discovered that only good “preview” of my exported QT file (using different export methods didn’t affect things) was to watch it in an FCP Viewer window (and displayed to my broadcast monitor, of course) and not use QT Player.

I hope I didn’t confuse matters.

-Dave

[Dave Mac]

Eli,

I understand your “pain” with this stuff. However, it appears that the bottle-neck ends up in Photoshop (you end up there with your still images, either from QT Player or FCP). This is lucky, in a sense, because Photoshop has easy-to-use “Actions.” You can just automate the process of resizing your images.

FYI, other than the “sizing” issue in FCP, QuickTime Player, and the general QT framework, is pretty lousy at playing back accurate video imagery (outside of FCP). From some sources, it appears to be an issue with QT 7 (supposedly QT 6 wasn’t as problematic).

A month ago, I would play back a DV sequence (exported as a self-contained QT movie from within FCP, or created using Compressor, or QT conversion menu items). All of them played back with visual degradation in QT Player. Playing back the same QT movies in FCP, however, yielded no degradation. Go figure. Same QT file, one played in a FCP Viewer window, the other in a QT Player window… but different-looking.

-Dave

[Dave Mac]

Sorry about my previous post… I somehow responded to the wrong post. Oops.

[Dave Mac]

Ah, a Final Cut Pro solution (w/help from QuickTime)…

Create a new bin in FCP. Drag and drop your 44.1 kHZ files into it (or import them via File menu).

Select only the new bin with the audio files inside and choose File->Batch Export.

In the Export Queue window, make sure only the files you’d like to convert are listed. Click the “Settings…” button and go through the options (change sample rate to 48 kHz).

When done with the settings, click “Export.” That’s it.

Method courtesy of the Apple Pro Training Series book on Final Cut Pro 5, by Diana Weynand.

[Dave Mac]

Ah, a Final Cut Pro solution (w/help from QuickTime)…

Create a new bin in FCP. Drag and drop your 44.1 kHZ files into it (or import them via File menu).

Select only the new bin with the audio files inside and choose File->Batch Export.

In the Export Queue window, make sure only the files you’d like to convert are listed. Click the “Settings…” button and go through the options (change sample rate to 48 kHz).

When done with the settings, click “Export.” That’s it.

Method courtesy of the Apple Pro Training Series book on Final Cut Pro 5, by Diana Weynand.

[Dave Mac]

Otis,

Just saw your message. If you’re still having problems, there are a set of cool “stock answers” for FCP (FAQs and answers) at the Apple Discussions site. Here’s the direct link:

<https://discussions.info.apple.com/webx?14@513.JIVEaHCtZ0M.2@.68a3b883>

There’s a laundry list of things to try:

– resetting viewer and canvas window sizes
– resfreshing your A/V devices (option-F12)
– toggle video preview on and off (all frames on and off) (command-F12)
– restart and relaunch FCP
– check settings (image, wireframe, square pixels, etc.) in the pull-down menus of the viewer
and canvas windows

I occasionally see this exact behavior, where my broadcast monitor only updates still “fields” when the playhead is stopped. This happens mostly while the viewer is active, and very rarely while the canvas (timeline) is active.

I have a Decklink Pro card feeding my broadcast monitor, so it may be a wierd driver/SW quirk with the card output, or a FCP quirk, or some combination of the two.

From what I can remember, resizing the viewer window and then scaling the contents to fit the window seems to work… hope this helps.

-Dave

[Dave Mac]

For a clearer explanation of the “digital black” issue in conversion to/from analog video signals, please check out the current issue of Larry’s FCP Newsletter:

<https://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=xuazlebab.0.cmyulebab.ectz69n6.2228&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.larryjordan.biz%2Fnxltrs%2Fnxltr_g15.html>

-Dave

[Dave Mac]

benjamin,

A few other things to consider before you buy anything…

– a PCI card based output will give you benefits beyond improved picture quality (compared with a
FW based solution). You’ll likely get to use your broadcast monitor in other applications, and as part
of your Mac desktop. With FW based solutions, you don’t get this without using third-party
SW, which is pretty flaky. Specifically, most PCI video I/O card makers include SW to allow you to use
your broadcast monitor as part of your Mac desktop, and from within programs other than FCP.

– Certain DV decks, such as the Sony DSR-11 only provide a composite output to a broadcast
monitor, yielding less than ideal picture quality. Devices like the Canopus ADVC-100 (and others)
provide better quality output choices, including component video on higher-end models. Higher-
end decks also provide better quality outputs (as do most PCI video I/O cards).

– For truly professional and consistent picture quality, you would need to consider getting a broadcast
monitor with SMPTE CRT phosphors, which increases the starting price to around $1,500. SMPTE
phosphors yield the best (and most consistent over time) picture quality.

– Setup, IRE 7.5 (US NTSC only), Etc.
If you output your preview via a camcorder’s analog out port(s), you _should_ know that most
camcorders do not add a “setup” to the signal sent out of the analog port(s). As Graeme Nattress
states in the April 2005 issue of Larry Jordan’s FCP Newsletter (see http://www.larryjordan.biz for
subscription info), black level or setup need not matter if you have properly calibrated your
broadcast monitor for a particular workflow. Most DV decks don’t add the North America “setup”
for NTSC video, either. This issue involves the conversion of “digital black” from DV to analog video.
Having an uncalibrated broadcast monitor or improper “setup” can make your blacks appear too dark or
too light.

Hope this isn’t too confusing….

-Dave

[Dave Mac]

Adam,

Thanks for the xbench results. I have a dual 2.5GHz G5 with 4.5 Gb RAM and a nVidia GeForce 6800 Ultra (under 10.3.9). I ran xbench and compared the results to yours.

For 8% faster CPUs and a slower (?) graphics card, your overal xbench score is 19% higher. The largest increases were for the OpenGL and User Interface Tests, at 52% and 31%, respectively. The Quartz Graphics Test showed an increase of only 5%.

Threading, memory, and CPU tests showed increases of 16% -22%.

So, we should hopefully see some significant increases in performance in Final Cut Pro (unless 5.0 itself is more of a resource hog… even so, there should be some nice performance bumps).

-Dave

[Dave Mac]

Hi,

Actually, here’s a really good thread from January, to which my brother responded. It should provide you with additional info about CatDV Pro and the other choices….

<https://www.creativecow.net/forum/view_thread.php?forumid=8&threadid=747455&p
ostid=110651320194381>

-Dave