Canvas/Ext Mon Problem

FCP 4.5HD, AJA I/O, DV Quality.

We had a show with two video tracks and we were creating fade and dissolve effects. The final shot was a freeze and fade to black.

The End.

We picked an unfortunate place to freeze and got a "Vibrating Frame" when we checked the final DVD.

So not a problem. It was easiest to just send the timeline out through the I/O to a television monitor and pick a freeze point with no motion. Did a million times before.

This time, the external monitor didn't match the Canvas.

I mean really didn't match. We didn't have time to rip it apart and figure out what happened, but there were video signals and effects on the monitor that weren't on the canvas.

The editor and I looked at each other and formed he same words, "How did it do that?"

Koz

Did the image not have an opportunity to update? Sometimes you see an old version of what you were doing until you specifically move the playhead to a new point, at which time the external monitor updates the freeze. Or was it something more bezerk, like a shot from a different project?

No. We played the video several times. I wish we had not been in a screaming rush.

As I recall, the timeline showed us a dissolve between two videos and the external monitor only showed us one of the two videos. After a fade to black, one was black and the other still had video on it.

It was such unusual behavoir that we both stopped dead for a second to stare at it.

Koz

Huh. I've got nuthin on that. I've noticed that one of my stations here has a tendency to lose track of the timeline more than others, and needs to do the Refresh A/V devices jig to get back to normal, but it doesn't play through and show a different version to the timeline.

I'm betting on a desperate gangster poltergeist trying to make contact with Uncle Sal to tell him where the diamonds are hid..

No more "Medium" for you.

Koz