External Monitor Options???
by Buck Wyckoff
on
Oct 5, 2009 at 1:42:07 pm
I just started with the entire CS4 family, but have lots of experience with other systems. I have a 64bit Vista Ultimate quad-core i7 Extreme Sager notebook with 6GB Ram and 3 180GB SSD's in a Raid0. It also has an NVidia GTX card (heard a mobile FX version might be an option later).
Great machine, but I have issues.
I want to see the program monitor externally. For me, for clients, giving a presentation, etc...
The solution is apparently going to playback settings in the program window pulldown and setting the external option to DV 480 29.xxx (something like that). This is suppose to send the program output out the firewire port. Nothing comes out the firewire port and the onscreen program monitor freezes after about 2 seconds and snaps to the current CTI when I stop play.
Am I doing this correctly? A CS4 issue or a hardware issue?
But on a related note, if this taxes the computer (and keeping this system as peak performance is my goal), would I be better off with another solution all together? A Matrox or Blackmagic (or?) breakout box that would give me portable analog and digital I/Os and spit the Preimier Pro program monitor out one (or all) of it's ports.
The Sager has an HDMI output that realtime converts it's 1920x1200 display to 1080. Nice, but I don't want to mirror the entire screen in this case, just the program (HD or SD) like my Velocity breakout box does.
Re: External Monitor Options??? by Vince Becquiot on Oct 5, 2009 at 3:23:12 pm
I didn't know they made i7 notebooks yet, that must be one hot poppy :-)
As for your question, you do have those 2 options:
Firewire through a D/A converter or compatible camcorder/ camera will get you to an NTSC monitor. How are you routing the firewire, and through what unit?
The second option is, as you said, through HDMI.
Set the external monitor as extended first in your display properties, then you will see it in the external playback properties in Premiere, it will only display the program monitor output.
The resolution should also be set properly in Vista / XP or things will stretch. If this is a 16:10 computer monitor, set it to either 1280x768 (for 720p), or 1920x1200 (for 1080p), if the monitor supports it.
Re: External Monitor Options??? by Buck Wyckoff on Oct 5, 2009 at 8:06:23 pm
I had Premier set up for a DV project and had digitized footage from the same deck and firewire connection that I was then trying to monitor on.
Okay, I lied....I digitized the footage in Windows Movie Maker. Now before ya'll hoist be by the nards, I did that because a client wants to send me 26 hours of DV footage on an exteranl USB drive and when I asked them how they did it, that was their response.
So I wanted to simulate that as a test in my studio. It works pretty well actually. You can tell it to automatically digitize an entire tape and it controls the deck and creates an AVI wrapper around the DV format.
The only other option is WMV and with that option you can choose one file or multiple files based on scene changes. I wish the AVI version did scene change clips.
Anyway that's the scoop Jeff. You can find out more in my responses to other posts to this thread.
Re: External Monitor Options??? by Buck Wyckoff on Oct 5, 2009 at 7:57:23 pm
Thanks for the response Vince.
Yes that Sager is one snappy puppy. It's quad-core i7-975 3.33GHz, 366MHz system bus to boot. I ordered it fro John Peterson at Renderstream. Great folks!
Anyway, I have a firewire port built into the Sager hooked up to a Sony M25U deck. The deck has an LCD screen built in so if Premier was sending a signal out that port, I'd see it on the LCD screen.
The Sager responds when I connect a device to that port and I've digitized footage fine through it. The device (I assume it is that device) shows put in the Adobe Playback Settings Exteranl list as DV 29.97 720x480i.
The other thing you mentioned worked GREAT!!! I have the Sager DVI output extended and set to 1600x1200 for SD work and it shows up in the Premier External list and works fine.
Adobe help only mentions external monitoring through firewire and I didn't realize I could enable more options by configuring other devices within the system.
Thanks again.
I've contacted Sager support as I fear their firewire device has a glitch. No bi-directionality, or something.
Re: External Monitor Options??? by Mark Hollis on Oct 5, 2009 at 4:42:39 pm
Buck, on my copy of Premiere Pro, there is a little circle with a triangle on the Monitor display on the "record" side. Click or that and you will get a menu that includes Playback Settings. This is also how you can get Premiere Pro to display a waveform or vector, which, if you open a reference monitor you can gang with your timeline. I don't like color correction or level correction without scopes.
Anyway, you can select Firewire as the device to play on and if your notebook has a firewire port, you can hook that up to a VCR and take the video and audio out of that VCR for an external monitor. Some cameras will let you do that (hook up to an external monitor), as well.
Additionally, for those who do not have VCRs lying around or whose cameras don't do monitor playback, I currently use a TVOne DV-1394 Pro SDI Signal converter that works very well. It will convert into SDI, balanced and unbalanced audio, regular video and Y/C video from firewire.
Re: External Monitor Options??? by Buck Wyckoff on Oct 5, 2009 at 8:10:48 pm
Thanks Mark,
I need to learn my scopes as LCD's are not to be trusted.
As I had mentioned, my firewire output does not work. I've contacted Sager about that. Monitoring through the laptop DVI port works great though. Something I picked up elsewhere on this thread.
Re: External Monitor Options??? by Mark Hollis on Oct 6, 2009 at 12:58:50 pm
Can you do an Export to Tape? If you can, you should be able to set your system up, through a VCR, to a monitor as I described. You should know I'm using Premiere Pro 1.5 and not CS3 or CS4 (which is what most people here are using) but I cannot imagine that Adobe would have changed monitoring options much.
If you cannot output to tape, you have a fairly serious problem with your computer (but then, one wonders if you would be able to import from tape if you could not output to tape).
I don't particularly like the idea of using another computer monitor output to monitor video. Computer monitors are notorious for not giving you a good idea of what your video will look like on a real television once you're all done with it, as their gamuts are not the same and there is a tendency for you to see your work as if it were always progressive (even though your final output may be interlaced).
Re: External Monitor Options??? by Buck Wyckoff on Oct 6, 2009 at 1:23:59 pm
That's a good question and a scary thought. If I can't monitor through firewire, you'd think I couldn't print to tape. Then how an I going to archive my projects?
But something doesn't add up here. I digitized from tape and Windows Movie Maker controlled the Sony M25U through firewire. To do that it must have had bi-directional communication to pull that off.
With my Leitch Velocity system I currently have a 55" LCD and a Sony broadcast monitor CRT hooked up. I do not feel comfortable without the CRT. I've been editing this way (without the LCD) for 11 years. Clients are only looking at things on LCDs anymore and commenly saying the color is off.
At any rate, I have to try other hardware, programs etc... and nail down where the problem is. Just the fact that other people say it works let's me know it should work.
Re: External Monitor Options??? by Mark Hollis on Oct 7, 2009 at 3:49:05 pm
Firewire is supposed to give you control and I/O, not just "I" and control.
I like your preference for a CRT and there are LCD monitors now that one may use as a reference. But they are hideously expensive for all but a pretty busy post facility (or television station or network) to afford.
My absolute guides are a CRT, a waveform monitor and a vectorscope, but I'm only working with NTSC. When we transition to HD, I'll be looking at an LCD and really double-checking everything carefully on waveform and vector. May make my eyes fall out but, for the price of the reference monitors, we just cannot handle that.
I learned how to read waveform monitors and vectorscopes back in the early 1980s and learned how to do fine color correction in the 1990s, all with analog equipment. The transition to digital has introduced people who don't know what waveform or vector displays are showing into the mix of people considered "editors."
I don't mean to sound like an old, fossilized curmudgeon but the tools for fine color correction (and scene painting for looks) have been given to editors with the switch to digital media. That gives us more power for anyone who edits a final product. With power comes responsibility.
Re: External Monitor Options??? by Buck Wyckoff on Oct 7, 2009 at 11:07:44 pm
I/O know. That's why I don't get why it isn't working. But that's the fun, pain and agony of bringing new hardware & software together. I do not think this combonation of hardware/software has ever been done before. I just hope I am not saddled with something that will just not function.
I'm pretty diligent about logical trouble shooting and when I find the definative culprit, they'll be hearing from me often.
Hopefully, I'm the culprit, because there is a solution to that problem.
Re: External Monitor Options??? by Brian Louis on Oct 5, 2009 at 6:21:23 pm
I decided to use the Matrox's MX02 mini box with my laptop, I wanted the verisatility of monitor options, I can use the MX's HDMI or component, composite out for a external video monitor and use the extra video card outputs for second monitors, plus the HDMI in and assorted analog inputs for live cam capture, I haven't fully explored the capabilities yet as I am finishing up some HDV projects, but I like the 3 monitor setup, using a extra computer monitor I can use the dynamic link and have both apps displayed, like Ppro on one and AFX or Encore on the other plus use the WSTV for playback.
Re: External Monitor Options??? by Buck Wyckoff on Oct 5, 2009 at 8:26:32 pm
Brian,
Thanks for the response. I have looked at the MX02 mini and it seems like a great option for laptop work. The PCMIA interface card seems like a good interface option for me....especially if my laptop's firewire port is questionable for output. I also like their Mpeg I-Frame codec. And another plus is the Matrox MAX feature for accelerated encoding of some formats. They say PC support will come in late Septembor 2009, but there it nothing listed as of yet.
The Blackmagic Design MultiBridge seems like a great product, but it is desktop only.
The MOTU V4HD looks AWESOME!!!! It works with Premier Pro CS4. Not sure if it can aid encoding. My worry about it is I am still not sure my firewire connection is bi-directionally functional and it is a firewire interface. A firewire 800 PCMIA card for my laptop and that device might be really tasty.
But I think I may get the MX02. I'm just getting up to speed with CS4 etc..., and I can get crazy later. I like the workflow you mentioned; two CS4 apps opened full screen on two monitors and a third program output via MX02. Sounds sweet.
Re: External Monitor Options??? by Brian Louis on Oct 7, 2009 at 9:00:33 pm
[Buck Wyckoff]"They say PC support will come in late Septembor 2009" I assume your're talking about the MX02 not the mini, another unit you might want to look at is AJA's I/O Express, its more expensive than the mini but has RS422 support and SDI
Re: External Monitor Options??? by Buck Wyckoff on Oct 7, 2009 at 11:01:45 pm
I bought the MX02 mini from a locat dealer yesterday. Had to go to Austin today, but I'm back and will play with it tonight.
The Matrox website says MAX for PC (off a link for the mini)will come out in late Sept 2009 and "further details to come", but theer are no further details. And delay in this business is common. But the dealer says the CS4 drivers are out there.
AJA website says PC support is coming "soon."
Anyway, this is good for now. The future holds a killer desktop system with a super-turbo charged GPU card, maybe the V4HD, Axio LE...who knows. For now, I'm good...I/O think.
