Anybody get "Preview on External Monitor" to work?

[John Gaspain]

What kind of graphics card or what does it take to get a preview on an external monitor?

Anybody know how to get this to work?

[Glenn Chan]

You need a firewire/iLink/IEEE1394-equipped camera. Hook it up via firewire, set the camera to convert DV --> A/V out, and hook up the camcorder cable to your TV. You can use the S-video connection too, although composite may be desireable because its lower quality (and many people will see chroma crawl and the low resolution).

[John Gaspain]

does it play in full resolutuon at full FPS?

Im editing HDV and its really taxing on my system. I cant get more than about 15 fps when editing 60i 1440x1080, so im trying to find alternatives. Will the output look just like it does in the vegas preview screen...just on an interlaced TV. What should i expect?

Do you think if I get a cheap DV camera like a Panasonic DV-53 to use as a "video router" instead of putting hours on my HDR-FX1, do you think it will show the footage correctly?

thanks again, I'll pay it forward

[Glenn Chan]

I know almost nothing about editing HDV. My reply assumed you were working in DV.

Do you think if I get a cheap DV camera like a Panasonic DV-53 to use as a "video router" instead of putting hours on my HDR-FX1, do you think it will show the footage correctly?

You shouldn't have a problem with using your HDR-FX1. Hours usually refers to mechanical hours... the ones involving the tape mechanism in particular.

[Edward Troxel]

John, external preview works very well - it just doesn't use a video card. You get external previews via firewire. That's why many of us have a convertor (like the Canopus ADVC-100) or a deck so our camera does not have to be left turned on most of the time. Whatever you use, the process is very simple:

Computer --> firewire --> camera/convertor/deck --> RCA/S-Vid --> Monitor/TV

Then just click on the External preview button above the preview screen and you should see an image on your Monitor/TV.

As for the quality of the preview, that depends on many factors. If you notice, there are many preview modes. This is one factor in determining the quality once effects/transitions/composites are done. Generally speaking:

"Full" will be better quality than "Auto" but takes more CPU
"Good" will be better than "Preview" but takes more CPU

I usually leave mine at "Preview (Auto)" unless I have a specific need to look at something of a higher quality.

The other respect is FPS. The lower the quality setting you use, the higher your FPS is likely to be. If you've added many effect and the CPU cannot keep up with making all of those adjustments, then frames will be skipped in order to give you a real-time preview.

The best suggestion is to test the various preview modes and see which one gives you the best compromise.

[David Ennis]

Personally, I wouldn't worry about leaving a camcorder on for digital to analog conversion. Our general experience with wearout and burnout might be causing undo fear. With no moving parts, the electronics don't wear out. And unlike light bulbs and vacuum tubes, low voltage electronics don't burn themselves out in normal usage. Just close the LCD and enjoy.

[Filip Kovcin]

did you tryed matrox 450 card? it's probably the cheapest way nowadays, it rather old card, but it has possibility to use external monitor (tv) works both witj pal or ntsc signals.

just a thought

filip

[Edward Troxel]

External preview is done via firewire. It is NOT recommended that you try to use a video card for multiple reasons including the fact that it will not give you a correct reading of the colors.

The possible problem with leaving the camera on, even when no parts are moving, is heat. All of the components will still be heated giving a *possible* reduction in life. I don't know of any tests on this, though.

[Jim Lafferty]

Here's an external firewire preview question --

I'm getting a LOT of flickering on my external souce -- what could be attributed to this? The fw cable, the deck, or the monitor?

Any or all? :)

Thanks...

- jim

[Glenn Chan]

Jim, is the flickering on still images / freeze frames or on moving images/video? Do you get the flicker when video is playing?

Still images / freeze frames - This may be an interlacing issue. Try de-interlacing in Vegas... right click the clip and select reduce interlace flicker. You may need to go into file --> property and choose a de-interlace method.

[Randy Stewart]

Jim,
I have the same problem with my external hard drive and have figured it to be a throughput problem. Either the drive is not quick enough to transfer the data (it's 7200 rpm but not sure about cache) or the processor is too slow (mine is 866 mhz PIII) so it's skipping frames. This is on a straight DV file from my PD-170 camera with no FX applied. I can put the same clip on my internal video hard drive and preview it on the external monitor with no flicker. Same applies to rendered files. Now, I could be missing something but right now, I'm pretty sure it's the drive transfer rate (Western Digital). I have a Lacie External also that this problem does not happen with. Hope there is a resolution for this.
Randy

[Filip Kovcin]

sorry guys, i didn't read properly thru all posts. so the problem is not with internal/external card but hdv signal itself. how to see it on external monitor without using a camera as a player? yes?

so if John wants to see full HDV resolution signal - the solution is not canopus or any other firewire->component or s-video device which is standard resolution.

he needs something capable of hdv resolution.
which is for example D-VHS with firewire i/o,
or
hdv player/recorder announced by sony (HVR-M10)
or something similar (do not know about jvc player/recodrer).

he can use new matrox (do not know is it on the market yet) card which is hdtv ready,
http://www.matrox.com/mga/workstatio...elia_apv_e.cfm

but the simplest (unfortunatelly) way is to use camera and COMPONENT hdv out with some nice lcd or plasma equiped with proper component inputs and proper resolution. which you - john - probably already know.

filip

[John Gaspain]

awesome replies as always. Thanks again~!

[Jim Lafferty]

Erg, forgot I'd posted this.

The problem happens randomly -- when the timeline is paused on one frame, when it's playing, pretty much whenever. I haven't had the need of external preview for a while, and this didn't happen in the past, but then I'm now running the dv deck over firewire attached to a firewire hub with four external drives attached.

I was just hoping someone here would have a quick-n-easy fix :)

Riiiight...

Also, I'm on a single, 1.6ghz processor setup while my MP board is out on RMA. I have a gig of RAM, too.

Also...

I've been getting random hangups in the Trimmer and occasionally on the timeline lately -- almost as if Vegas freezes, but then it comes back after a minute or so.

- jim

[Edward Troxel]

Are the drives and deck on the same firewire chain? Also does it happen with ALL drives, or only when a specific drive is accessed. I know some drives/enclosures had some stalling type issues but not exactly sure what caused them.

If possible, you might make sure the drives are on one chain and the deck is connected separately.