Sorry if this shows me up to be a technophile, but while I know my camera & shooting I really struggle with computer issues.

I'm cutting on FCP on an iMac. Shooting on a Z1.

My old setup was Pinnacle Liquid on a PC & a PD 150. When I had the 150 connected via firewire to the PC, it provided a 2-way feed. IE: When connected I could play in tape from the camera to the edit system, and when I was playing footage in the timeline the picture appeared on the LCD of the cam. I used to then connect the camera to an external monitor, thereby getting a nice full screen version of the timeline footage instead of being limited to the on-screen viewing window.

Now I'm trying the same thing with my Z1 and FCP. Firewire from Z1 to the mac, then S-Video from the Z1 to a sony monitor - but no image coming back to the cam from the computer.

Is there anything obvious I'm missing? Perhaps in FCP / mac settings?

Any ideas greatly appreciated.

Marco

Marco - just a quick gut-reaction check: you're NOT trying to do this with HDV footage are you? That will not work - HDV footage will NOT come out of the Mac's Firewire port in realtime from your timeline.

This is all standard definition DV, right?

You'll need another monitor solution for HD in general.

The cheapest and worst:
Buy an Apple 23" and connect through DVI
Use FCP "digital Cinema Desktop for preview

As you're on an iMac, I'm not familiar with a way you can get a HD-SDI signal out of the box, but if there is, the cheapest way from there would probably be a HD-Link to an Apple Cinema Display 23"

Better still:
Get an HD-SDI capable calibrated broadcast monitor like the Panasonic 17"

Gunleik

In another thread where I had a similar question, Matrox MXO was mentioned. THis is a really handy device that will take the HD output either to DVI, composite, or component video to SD output. A cheap option for previewing HD if you're not actually delivering HD just yet. Worth a look...

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=Search&A=details&Q=&sku=434990&is=REG&addedTroughType=search

Hi Marco! Instead of covering old ground again, please see the following:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=83917
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=84129
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=82391

Thanks for all the replies.

No WAY am I trying this with HDV - just good ol' SD material.

Boyd - sorry if I'm repeating. I think the links you directed me to all deal with HDV or more complex DV issues. I'm having what I think is a very simple problem where the solution may be staring me in the face. Perhaps it's a Z1 setting? Either way, my SD firewire doesn't seem to be 2 way enabled.

If, however, the answer does lie in those other links, then apologies. The fact that I can't see it shows I should probably enroll in a computer evening class or something.

OK, I thought you were using HDV. With the Z1 in VCR mode, check to be sure it's set for DV and not HDV. It should work, have done it myself a number of times.

What about the Black Magic Intensity HDMI card to an external monitor with a HDMI connection?

Seems that for $250 that would be the cheapest and best i/o. Has anyone tried it?

(edit: I see that he isn't using HDV footage.)