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Setting up an external monitor

The diagram below shows the preferred setup for sending video from the timeline to an external television monitor.

Computer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Video to

 

Analog to

 

 

 

 

 

 

1394 card

camcorder

Camcorder or

television

Television monitor

 

 

 

Media converter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Audio to

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

speakers

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sound card

 

 

 

 

Speakers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The video is converted to DV format and is sent through the IEEE-1394 card to the DV device (camcorder or DV-to-analog media converter). The DV device sends analog output to the television monitor.

Use the Preview Device tab in the Preferences dialog to configure your IEEE-1394 card.

Note: The DV device must support pass-through in order to use an external monitor. Some PAL camcorders do not support this feature.

Previewing audio

External monitor previewing differs in one respect from printing to tape from the timeline: no audio is sent through the preview device. As shown in the illustration above, the audio is routed to the sound card and then on to the mixer (if present) and speakers. This allows you to mix your audio on better speakers than are typically found in television monitors.

Before printing to tape, you may wish to preview the audio through the television monitor speakers to ensure a good TV mix. You can use the print-to-tape feature to send the full video and audio to the external monitor. Follow the steps for printing to tape from the timeline (pg. 323) but do not set the camcorder to record. Both the video and audio are sent through the 1394 card to the external monitor.

Optimizing preview quality

Keep in mind that complex effects and/or transitions may not play back in real time from the timeline. What effects can and cannot be played back depends on the speed of your computer. You may want to prerender more complex portions of a project. For more information, see Prerendering video on page 289.

Note: The compression settings used to create the prerendered video must be identical to your captured files for timeline playback to work.

PREVIEWING AND ANALYZING VIDEO

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