Proper screen resolution for optimum work with SD

Question

A couple of questions.
I've just set up a 27" IMAC with FC. What's surprised me is the poor quality of the SD image I'm getting in the Viewer and Canvas. Two years ago I edited another SD project on a system using two 24" Apple monitors, and at that time we were all amazed by the quality of the image. Hardly looked like SD at all. We were even impressed when we looked at the work on the full screen. Yet that's not what I'm getting now.
I'm just wondering if there as been a change in the most recent version of FC. (Mine is FCP 7;I don't know what version I was using two years ago on that other project.) I looked in the manual and under "Viewer/Pop-Up Menu" I read: "+If the Viewer is scaled to anything other than 100 percent and you're displaying a DV clip, only one field is shown during playback or while scrubbing through the clip+." Has this always been the case with DV, which my SD footage is? Could my problem only be a problem with this latest version of FC?
As it is, set optimally on the 27" with a second monitor for the Browser, my Viewer and Canvas are producing a 199% size image. So given that, plus the fact that I'm only seeing one field, maybe I shouldn't be surprised at the weak image I'm getting.
Second question.
After reading about this loss of one field when the DV image is other than 100% I thought I'd set the Viewer pop-up menu to 100% rather than "Fit Window". Problem here, of course is that my image is now very small - a diagonal of only 7 inches. To try and deal with this I've played around with the IMAC screen resolution and when I change it from 2560x1440 to 1920X1080 I can get a 100% two field image with a 9 1/2 inch diagonal. Not great but better.
Does anyone think this is a recommended way to go? I'm always confused about how a monitor is reproducing a format that is 525 TV lines so the issue of the optimal resolution on my screen is confusing me. (I tried setting the screen to 1600X900. Now my 100% image is 11 1/2 inches but there is a very noticeable drop in image quality.)
Thanks for any help or advice I can receive.
John

Answer 1

Has this always been the case with DV, which my SD footage is?
Yes. Perhaps you old system had the Viewer and Canvas windows set to 100% and your new one doesn't.
Could my problem only be a problem with this latest version of FC?
Not likely.
As it is, set optimally on the 27" with a second monitor for the Browser, my Viewer and Canvas are producing a 199% size image. So given that, plus the fact that I'm only seeing one field, maybe I shouldn't be surprised at the weak image I'm getting.
BINGO!
For best results, always use a properly calibrated, external TV monitor for critical viewing when editing.
-DH
Message was edited by: David Harbsmeier