IMac Intel FCP and digital cinema preview

i've just recently upgraded from a g4 powerbook to an intel iMac 20" and curently running 10.4.7 and FCP 5.01. On the powerbook i was running FCP 4.5 and using a TV monitor as a 2nd monitor via the digital cinema preview. Yesterday i bought the mini-dvi to video adapter and plugged in the TV and am unable to get a preview through the TV. I get the extended desktop and even Shake recognises it as a monitor. Im thinking maybe its a Universal thing, my crossgrade arrives next week, or more disturbing perhaps the video card which is the NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT which i cant see on the FCP recomended page??
anyone have any ideas??
thanks in advace
mao
imac intel 24" Mac OS X (10.4.7)

hey everyone who is interested, finally discovered after some research that FCP digital cinema PREVIEW is ONLY supported in AGP cards (such as that exist in powerbooks etc) and does not support the PCI range. So i guess it is means running it through the camera or a canopus type bridge (sound of cash disappearing) thanks mac! You had a great, simple and elegant solution then just threw it away.

Similar Messages

Sequence settings changed and digital cinema freezes. what now?

hello there.
i'm a new fcp user and i could really use some help on some issues that came up while working on a film project.
the material was captured with the camera function of a digital still camera, which resulted in rushes of .avi format, 30 fps, 640X480 frame size.
we then converted these into .mov clips using quicktime and compressor so that we can work without the need to render. we encoded them using the Apple ProRes 422 codec.
i opened a NTSC project to work on this and have created a sequence preset having exactly the same settings as my clips (Apple ProRes 422, 30 fps, etc).
i'm cutting the whole project on a macbook pro (see details below) running fcp 6.0.3 and i'm using a second monitor toggling between browser and digital cinema desktop preview.
everything was working fine till yesterday, when suddently some sequences needed rendering (while they were working fine till then) and dcdp freezed (that is i get the first frame and i can hear the sound when i playback a clip or a sequence and then i get the current frame when i stop it).
i've checked the sequence settings and i've found out that all of my sequences are now pal, 720X576, 25 fps. that's the first part of the problem. i tried changing the sequence settings, but of course i cannot change the frame rate; i've tried creating a new sequence with the correct settings and then copy&paste the clips from the prev sequence but then video and audio go out of synch by 2 frames. how did my settings changed all of a sudden? is there a way to keep my edited sequences without the need to manually re-cut the whole thing?
as far as the second part of the problem is concerned (the dcdp not working anymore), i've tried changing my settings (going from full screen to raw, trying single frame against all frames, etc) but still it doesn't work. the rest of the settings are ok (eg. i've found in the forum that the checkbox about playback mirrored on the desktop should be ticked and it was already).
this computer is never conected to the internet and it has never been manually updated (so there is not a way that an OS update is not working well with fcp).
any ideas?
thanx,
nikos.

I've experienced the exact same problems you are having and it's driving me nuts.
It's not like my system has changed. I bought the Mac Pro and Final Cut Studio together and all was well when I first installed it. That initial project was an HDV project and DCDP worked great.
Since then I'm working mostly on SD PAL projects and when I go to preview it on the desktop it does the first frame freeze when you hit play and parks on the current frame when you hit stop.
I can resize the main edit window to full size and the sequence plays back fine but when I go to DCDP it just won't play at all. It feels like a bug but this is the first time I have found someone else with the same problem. By the way, I'm only using one monitor so the mirror desktop thing made no difference.
I know the DCDP isn't great quality but it's fine for getting a general overview and I sure do miss it.
Help us.......please......

CS5.5 on Lion has no Digital Cinema Preview. PLEASE HELP!

I am running CS5.5 on Lion and there is no Digital Cinema Preview. Is this a know issue on Lion, as it appears fine on Snow Leopard and older OS? I desperatley need to view my composition full screen on an external projector (I'm doing projection mapping) and I'm completly stuck.
Please help.

More likely an issue directly attribiutable to Lion. Dunno. Sorry. Quick search turned up only one other inquiry but there may be others:
http://forums.adobe.com/message/4086382#4086382
Suggest you drop by the Lion and Quicktime discussions at apple.com and search carefully for the term dgitial desktop preview or desktop cinema. Traffic over there is heavy and the signla to noise ration is heavy on the noise.

HT3964 I did the SMC reset for my iMac intel-based and now it won't turn on. What can I do to fix this?

I did the SMC reset for my iMac intel-based and now it won't turn on. What can I do to fix this?

Well, first things first... is the power cord fully plugged into the back of the iMac (and the wall, for that matter)?
Make sure the wall outlet has power, too... I've scratched my head over stupid issues where I forgot to flip a wall switch.
If the outlet does have power, then try doing a pram zap. Command + option + P + R (hold those at startup).
If the machine is receiving power, you should be able to see some LEDs if you look through the bottom grate of the machine to the left of the RAM door.

HDV and Digital Cinema View.

Hi I am using Digital Cinema View for playback of my timeline (View>All Frames) and the images seems to have traces (horizontal lines is best way I can describe) and text (like rendered Motion titles for example) looks poor too. My playback is set to Dynamic. My project is in HDV 108050i. I was assuming that the image quality would be the same as in the canvas (which looks great), but perhaps I'm missing something. Is it because the files have not been conformed?? When I watched a Print to Video, the image quality was perfect as you'd expect. I'm watching on a Mac 23" Cinematic Display on a Xeon Quadcore Mac Pro, 1Gb ram, external Lacie HD fw800 connected. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance, Alex.

Alex,
I have to admit that I don't have an external monitor, so... I've given you the best guess I have. It is odd that the fully rendered video doesn't play "clean".
You can certainly try "single frames" and post if that helps, kinda doubting that it will, but I really don't know.
Sorry, but I just don't have enough experience with all this to be able to offer more help. I was really hoping that someone who really knows this stuff would jump in and set everything straight.
As for "conforming", as far as I know, it is the process the computer goes through to make your computer a clean export (a render type action). Because of the way HDV is as a format (e.g. Highly Compressed) the computer has to work really hard to give you an image. The Conforming process "magically" makes that go away by putting the computer time in on the front end. So, while "Confroming" is an output action, it explains why without that your "output" to your screen isn't as nice looking.
Hope that makes sense and helps.
~Luke

FCP and 24' Cinema Display

I'm using FCP with ProRes Proxy. When I view the playback full screen on the 24', I get a stutter on the picture playback. Is there anything I can do to eliminate this aggravating problem?
Thanks

Play it back on a system that a) has fast enough hard drives and b) includes the ability to send a video signal out to a proper monitor.
Lacking that, no other ideas.
x

Will the latest iMac handle FCP and Canon 5d Footage

I have an older iMac 2ghz (white model). Obviously it is struggling with the Canon 5d footage.
Anyone using the new iMac's with success or I am going to need to go the pro route?
I was hoping to go with the cheapest 24" and load it with 8mg of ram.
Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

Spring 2008, I edited on campus with a 20" iMac with a 1gb ram and a processor speed of 2.4 Ghz if I'm correct. I'll be honest I was so impressed with that machine. Today, I own a 2.6Ghz Macbook Pro and edit Full HD footage everyday at work. You'll be amazed at just how nice that new iMac will work. Actually, your thoughts are the same as mine, with the exception of the ram. I don't think that you need it. In fact, you might not even notice it. Stick to your guts on the pure power of the basic iMac, it may be much stronger than you think. I know that my next purchase will also be the basic 24" model. Why? Well, because my Macbook Pro 17" 2.6 Ghz with 4gb ram and 512 graphics card seems really similar to the 20" iMac I was using back in Spring of 2008 -- at a third of the cost.
Pretty cool, huh?

Digital Cinema Desktop Preview is missing

I'm trying to solve this problem for about 7 days. I can't find anything about this topic. Lots of problems about capturing in FCP 4. I had this problem as well but fixed it, thanks too this forum.
What's the problem now?
I upgraded my Mac to Tiger 10.4.3 and I worked for about 2 weeks with FCP HD. Then I upgraded FCP HD to FCP 5. Now FCP only sees the Fire Wire external video when I go to the menu "View" and click "Video Playback". I used to see the Digital Cinema Desktop Preview-Main and Digital Cinema Desktop Preview-RAW options.
I thought it was the same problem with Quicktime 7 automatic install again. So I manually installed Quicktime 7 without any success.
I removed the preferences out of the ~/library/preferences/.
My 2 screens are on the AGP-bus, because that is necessary I read on this forum.
Can anybody give me a tip how solve this problem. If you need more info just tell me.
Thanx in advance
Maarten

Jeff,
First thank you for responding. It is nice to know you're not alone in this world when FCP let you down.
I looked at the other post. I don't have the space which you are talking about. It's just the same as your screen shot. No line spaces.
Maybe this additional info will be of any help:
When I installed FCP 5 I got an error message the first time I started FCP 5. Missing Digital Cinema Desktop Preview. It was the same message you get when you forget to switch on your camera. It tells you that the Fire Wire device is missing. You can either click "check again" or choose "continue".
After I choose continue I never got the message again.
I checked if the /Library/QuickTime/DesktopVideoOut.component was missing. I found out that there is absolutely nothing in the folder /Library/QuickTime/ not the folder which is in the library directly under the root directory of the hard disk nor in the library which is situated under "user/library/QuickTime/
Could that be the problem not only missing 1 file, but missing maybe lots of files.
Maarten

Problem with Digital Cinema Desktop Preview on Macbook Pro

I hava a Macbook Pro 2.2 GHz with 2 GB RAM. I would like to use a connected 24"-Display for preview of my HD-Material (ProRes and HDV). Unfortunately I am not getting my Macbook Pro to playback all frames. Whend Digital Cinema Desktop Preview is activated, there are only still frames displayed. No smooth playing back neither in the canvas window nor the 24" display. I have External Video -> All Frames checked.
Does the Macbook Pro 2.2 not meet the specs for this feature?
Or is it a problem with Leopard? Is anyone with Tiger able using Digital Cinema Desktop Preview with succes?
Regards,
Joerg

So are you saying that the DVI output on my MacBook Pro IS true HD resolution and not a proxy like the canvas?
What I am saying is that the video feed coming out of the DVI port is YUV. Computer monitors take that YUV information and convert it to RGB for displaying purposes. So if you connect an Apple monitor to the DVI port, and then use that for Digital Cinema Preview, you are seeing a converted proxie image. The MXO takes the actual YUV footage and outputs that to the Apple display as YUV, and therefore presents full quality broadcast colors. And it does it pixel for pixel...the 23" display is 1920x1200, so there are thin black lines on the top and bottom.
AND the MXO software has a proc amp for adjusting color bars, and a BLUE ONLY option for proper monitor calibration. THis really is an amazing little box.
I'm using a Dell ultrasharp 20" that looks very good that way; I just didn't think it was HD.
It is, but it is a converted RGB image...and since it is 20", it isn't pixel for pixel (well, it would be for 720p, not 1080), and if it isn't pixel for pixel, then it is a converted image. Not suitable for color correction.
then using a DVI to HDMI cable I should be seeing HD from my Sony bravia also?
Yup...sure can. It will look pretty good too. But it being a consumer set, and again having a YUV>RGB converted image, it won't look as good as it could. The MXO would feed it a proper YUV signal, as would an Decklink HDP (but you need a decklink card with SDI out for that).
Shane

Cinema Preview not working on Samsung synchmaster

Hey there all,
I recently bought a used 2x 2.26 Quad-core MacPro--got a great price and love the faster speed over my previous Power Mac. I'm using my 20" Al Cinema Display and I bought a Samsung 2333HD Synchmaster for a 2nd Display and for OTA HDTV when I'm not working on a project. The Samsung is connected via DVI>HDMI and is a very good TV and a decent display for extended desktop when I'm running multiple apps but, I can't get it to display Cinema Preview when I'm running FCP6--it will flash and goes to black. I'm guessing that the Samsung's HDMI input won't recognize the Canvas playback as "copy protected" and so won't display it. I even went into Display Prefs and switched the toolbar and still no love for Digital Cinema Preview on the Apple display. Is there a work around or should I consider a 2nd 20" Al Cinema Display or use(settle for) the VGA input on the Samsung. I'm not doing anything for broadcast, just my own projects and a few jobs that go direct to DVD for local sale at my church. I previously had a DP Power Mac w/ 2.0GHZ, 2.5 GB RAM and 64MB GPU, a 23" Philips 720p HD-ready TV & used its DVI input that displayed 1080i but, cut off video(no overscan/underscan controls on TV) all way around and never experienced this issue of 2nd attahrd screen going black.
Mac Pro info--Mac OS 10.6/Snow Leopard, 2x 2.66GHz Dual-core CPU = Quad-core, Nvidia GeForce 7300GT(256MB RAM), 4x 512MB sticks of RAM = 2 GB, 2x Pioneer DVR111D Superdrives, 500GB HDD. I have an Apple DVI>VGA adapter but, it's too large to sit next to the connector for the Cinema Display's DVI connector--not enough space between the 2 outputs--not opposed to "shaving" some off either or both to make the adapter fit.
Thanks in advance for any, all thoughts, suggestions.

Hey there all,
I figured it out. It had been so long since I used FCP, I'd forgotten I needed to refresh AV Devices and the select how I wanted to use Digital Cinema Preview. All is well and things are behaving just fine.
Thanks to all who were trying to figure it out for me.

Question about FCP and Varicam

Hi everyone-
I'm about to start editing a film. I'd like to use my FCP system. The producers are thinking they want to bring in all the footage in the native varicam format rather than downconverting to DV so they can save money by not having to make DVcam dubs, and not having to pay for an online... I've never edited in the native Varicam format before, but I assume once its in the system, its no different than any other footage...
So, I have a few questions that maybe someone here with some experience can help me answer:
1> Do I need some kind of card (like a blackmagic or AJA card or something to put into my G5 that will allow me to pull footage from a varicam deck? And if so, how much (roughly) should I expect to pay for such a card? Which ones are the best?
2> I have 1.5 TB of storage on my system. How many hours of Varicam footage can I expect to get with that amount of space?
3> Are there any areas I should watch out for that could come back to bite me in the rear by using the native varicam footage?
4> If buying a card and renting a varicam deck proove to be very expensive, how much would I normally expect to pay if I wanted to rent a suite that was already set up with a FCP system which could digitize varicam footage?
5> Are there any places that offer good tech support for FCP if you didnt buy the system from them? (In other words, has anyone had any luck with good 'after market' tech support packages?) and how much should I expect to pay for this kind of service?
Thanks much!
David
G5Quad 2.5 GB 8GB Ram Mac OS X (10.4.8)

I know a few people at the DR Group, but not Adam. You should talk to TJ, their Post Production Specialist.
I had no problems with frame accuracy at 720p24. I captured all my footage via firewire and the timecodes matched perfectly. The interesting thing is that because the 24 frames are extracted from a 60 frame tape, the code jumps around a bit...skips numbers and goes up to 59 frames. But those frames you are working with are extracted frames and are fine.
Onto mastering. Why would you go back to DVCPRO HD for your master? I mean, you CAN if your client requires it, and you can via firewire, but there are a few tricky steps you need to do. You can via HD SDI with very little (unnoticable) quality loss. But what gets me is the outputting to D5 and then recapturing. WHY? As you most likely read, we output the 720p DVCPRO HD sequence to 1080p HDCAM. Now their will be SLIGHT softening of the image of course, you are taking a lower 720p resolution and outputting it to a larger format, 1080p. But that is not only unnoticable unless you display it on a HUGE screen, but really unavoidable. No matter what you do with that 720p image, you will be blowing it up and their will be SLIGHT softening. Will the viewer notice it and be distracted? I highly doubt it. Will you notice it? Only if you look REALLY HARD.
My maps and titles and graphics all upconverted fine. Yes, if you want them to look their absolute best, you'll want them to be the same format as your final delivery. So if you are delivering 1080, you can choose to do them at 1080. His idea of outputting to HDCAM at 1080, then capturing it again and adding the graphics is one way of doing it. But then you are adding compression to your footage not once, but a couple of times. Output...compression...input...compression...output again...compression. If you want your graphics to be the best they can be at 1080, simply take your 720p timeline and drop it into a 1080p timeline, rescale it and then render. This will take a while, but then it is full size...no further loss of quality. Will it be fuzzy? Again, yes, but so slight I doubt you'd see it. This is the workflow I was going to use when the Kona 2 was the only option. But the output, recapture, adding titles and graphics then output again was another option we looked into, but then discarded due to the complexity of it and time needed. I like simplicity.
The G-Raids are fine for editing DVCPRO HD footage, but for uncompressed you will need a SATA Raid or Fibrechannel RAID. This is the reason I built my Popsicle Stick RAID, because I was going to upconvert to 8-bit uncompressed HD and render it. I needed to store the rendered cut on the RAID so that I could playback the footage.
It isn't necessary to get an HD monitor if you aren't color correcting. If you have two monitors you can choose to use one to display your image via Digital Cinema Preview. Or you can get an HD LCD and view on that, but you will need a capture card capable of feeding it an image.
Again, the workflow Adam laid out is a valid one, just one I wouldn't choose. My graphics and maps all upconverted fine, and the online editor who did some minor fixes for us (using the HUGE Sony CRT HD Monitor) commented that they looked really cool. If he didn't catch it, would Joe Public at home on his big widescreen tv being fed a COMPRESSED HD signal via the airwaves? Not likely.
Talk to TJ...see what he thinks. He and I are good friends and we did the workflow I laid out in my blog.
Shane

Want to use a TV as a third monitor for Digital Cinema Display....HELP!

Hey Guys,
Here's my set up, please tell me where I am going wrong:
I have 2 22" LCD Monitors that I use for my main work. I added a second card to my MacPro so that I could add an additional monitor. Now I have a DVI to HDMI cable going to my Plasma that I want to use as playback for clients and such. Here's where it gets weird... In After Effects, I can use the Plasma in Digital Cinema Preview for Playback and Previews...works great. Then, when I open up Final Cut I have problems. First, when I go to "Digital Cinema Desktop - Full Screen" it display one frame and stay on that one frame even during playback. So then I changed my Sequence settings thinking my TV couldn't handle that Sequence. No I get a White Screen with no playback at all, not even the one frame. Now the weird part is that if I change the TV to my "Main Screen" in Monitor Prefs, and set Digital Cinema to "Main" it plays back fine. So, if I can playback with it as my main, why can't I playback otherwise? And...if it works in After Effects, why is Final Cut Having Problems with it? It's set to "All Frames" and "Desktop Mirroring". Thoughts? I have seen this set up work before...what am I doing wrong?

I'm trying to find out much the same thing. I would assume that anyone knows the answers can help both of us.
I'm purchasing a new Mac Pro desktop. I also use final cut but not after effects.
I actually have 4 monitors to choose from. 2 Dell 19" - One 27" Apple cinema display and a spector High Def 1080i monitor that has a DVI input.
I would like to use one of the Dell's as my primary home desk top monitors with folders and all the usual dock and stuff. I would like to use the cinema display as my primary final cut work surface.
I would like to use the HD monitor to show HD footage and use it as a client monitor. Remember it has a DVI input.
I've talked with the folks at the Local Apple store and they are not sure if I will get a real HD signal on the HD monitor if I add a second radeon 2700 card to the computer and take on of those DVI outputs and attach it to the HD monitor.
If thats not possible can I use the apple cinema display as my playback monitor?
Or do I have to go with a conversion box like a mxo, AJA board, or decklink box.
The goal is to have two monitors for the program and One monitor in HD for the client monitor,
Thanks everyone in advance.
Rich

No Audio to FCP from digital 8 camera?

I've set up my new Imac with FCP and want to log and capture from my Digital 8
camcorder by way of firewire. The video is runnning in the capture window I have full camera control from my mouse but no audio. I think my audio settings are correct. Any help?
Thanks,
Kosmc4
1st post.

Bingo! Audio Video and camera control. Thanks a ton(This hasn't been any fun yet). Is going through the camera better than going through the canopus?? It's my personal camera that I use to dump Hi8 home movies onto my emac at home. If it's better I'll sell work the camera and take the canopus back. Just bought this iMac for work & this is step 1 in transitioning from the analog to digital world. I have an Immix NLE system, professional Betacam, Hi-8 & VHS decks and will need to continue to get this footage into this new iMac. I'm going to buy a DVX100b to handle the new dv footage.
Also(sorry) when I'm done loading this Hi8 narration I have to switch to a rented the AG30 to dump mini DV footage for the narration. FCP6 doesnt recognize the AG30 can you believe that? FCP5 did. Do you have an answerfor that? I create educational training programs that are sold around the world. Does quality suffer going through the canopus?
No more I promise.
Kosmc4

Problems installing flash player in my IMac (intel)

I recently bought the latest IMac (Intel) desktop, and went to YouTube, but it tells me that I need to download the latest adobe flash player in order to view YouTube clips. When I went to the adobe site to download the latest flash player, I am having problems downloading it - error message saying "Mounting failed". What is the solution to this problem? Appreciate any help.
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Wilbs23

Did you go to the Adobe site via a link supplied with the error message, or directly from your own bookmark?
I ask because error messages like that are often used by malware perpetrators to take you to a fake webpage and download their malware.
Flash Player 10.3.181.22 is the current version, and there are two instances of it - one for Firefox, Safari and Opera, and a seperate one for the Chrome browser.
I updated mine only last week without problems, but it has to be said I'm not on a new machine and I'm running 10.6.4 rather than 10.6.7 so there may be something I'm not aware of there.

IMovie HD won't boot up on new iMAC Intel machine

I just bought a new IMac Intel DP and completed the SW updates. Opened iMovie HD and created a new project. The program started to open but gets hung up when loading the "new movie" (which doesn't exist yet) and state loading "saved thumbnails" - this is the first time that I've opened the program. iMovie doesn't get past the loading "new movie" and never fully opens. I've tried reloading the software and rebooting the computer to n avail. Any ideas?

Well, folks, I trolled further, and found the answer further down on this Forum. The solution below worked for me:
MikeT
Posts: 1
From: US
Registered: Feb 24, 2006
Re: iMovie HD not loading
Posted: Feb 24, 2006 6:22 PM in response to: Daniela Sciaky
Reply Email
OK after reading the other post I have the Workaround/Fix
In my case it was caused by migrating my old account data from my old Mac to my new Intel iMac and using the preinstalled version of iLife 06...specifically iMovie hanging while loading thumbnails with a minute remaining....forever.
The problem files are in the /User/~yourusername/Library/FontCollections folder. I moved that folder out to the trash and iMovie starts up without a problem. iMovie recreated the FontCollections folder with the files it requires. Hope this helps everyone.
iMac Intel 2Ghz Mac OS X (10.4.5)

IMac Intel FCP and digital cinema preview

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