[David Michael]

It ended up being the cable (of course). I guess the guy who tried setting it up before me never tried using the hdmi cable that came with the card. The one they bought separately either didn’t work, or has the wrong specifications. Found the box switched the cables and now I’m getting output.

Thanks for your input.

-David

[David Michael]

Alright, well at least now I know how to send bars to the monitor outside of FCP. And from what you are recommending, it’s good to know that this really shouldn’t be a difficult task to set up. It’s an ASUS VH222H-P. My first thought was the cable as well. I’ll try removing and reinstalling the drivers first, then maybe I’ll pick up a new cable tomorrow.

I appreciate the feedback and if you have any other advice, I’ll take it!

-David

[David Michael]

Thanks for the reply.

I went to the AJA control panel, went to the control tab, selected test pattern, bars. Monitor still says it isn’t detecting hdmi input. So I guess it’s not just that my FCP settings are incorrect.

Any suggestions from here?

-David

[David Michael]

Yes, I believe the AJA drivers are installed (I’ve got the control panel etc. – but they were installed by someone other than myself). And yes, all frames are on. You’re probably right that it is something basic that I’m missing, but I’m pretty sure I’ve dotted all my i’s here.

-David

[David Michael]

Thanks Shane,

The information surrounding this is basically completely all over the place if you are searching the forum. When I trouble-shot the workflow for the project I’m on now based on the mistakes that were made in setting up the project by the assistant, I read in one place that LT does the best job of preserving image quality because it is similar in bitrate to the original and that anything higher is actually bad for the footage. Then I read that Prores 422 was best, but that if you are going to send the project to a colorist or a VFX house to put it into 4444.

Anyhow, that’s where I made up my mind to just cut in proxy for speed, reconnect to h264, then transcode to 4444 for the finishing team. I wish the production actually had a finishing team right now for me to get specs from, but unfortunately, there isn’t. So anyways, I’m sure you are right about not needing to go higher than regular 422. Hell, it would have been a lot easier from the get go.

-David

[David Michael]

Go into the browser and assign all your clips a reel number, I’ll bet that column is blank. After they have a reel number they’ll slim down no problem. Only issue is that when you change the reel number it says “This will affect the file on the disk” and I don’t know what effect that will have on your offline project. I copied everything to another drive, changed the reel number then exported to whatever when I ran into this problem – but that may have been overly cautious. Good luck.

-David

[David Michael]

I did the initial conversion with MPEG Streamclip.

Thanks for the tip about using Color and 4444 footage. I am already reconnected to the h264s, so I can go anywhere from here.

[David Michael]

Well, this is what I’ve done:

1. h264->prores proxy
2. edit->picture lock
3. reconnect h264->media manage trim
4. trimmed h264->prores 4444 via MPEGStreamclip
5. “online”

It’s step 3 that gives me the extra extension, it’s just a curiosity that I was wondering if anyone has a solution for.

Thanks,
David

[David Michael]

Ah, yes, I am using Final Cut Pro 7.

[David Michael]

A custom compressor setting would be nice, but I use a workaround that is almost as useful, though a bit more tedious.

Convert the stuff to prores, drop all the prores files (if there are a TON do them in batches) into your sequence. Unlink everything select all the audio track, move them back 2 frames, relink, and drag everything back into the browser. Good as new.