Full-Screen Playback

Many thanks D-Mac for your response.

Yes I had read through those pages, and also the previous messages on this forum, but you're absolutely right that the requisites were the problem.

I now realize what the problem is - my Macbook Pro uses a PCI graphics card, which renders digital cinema desktop preview impossible according to the rules:

[page 226 of FCP6 manual]
The Digital Cinema Desktop Preview feature allows you to preview your video using
any available computer display connected to an AGP graphics card. (Displays
connected to a PCI graphics card cannot be used by Digital Cinema Desktop Preview.)
If you have two computer displays, one can be used to view the Final Cut Pro interface

so now I have to see if there is any external software I can download, or if it's a case of buying a new graphics card or getting a monitor!

Still, it seems strange that a macbook pro and FCP6 could be incompatible in some way - I thought they were intuitively connected.

If anyone has any solutions for bypassing this problem would be greatly appreciated! Though I am not too optimistic. Thanks very much for your help.

David

You could drag out the Canvas so it fills the frame, then save it as a Window Arrangement preset so that you can access it by shortcut. It's not as good as Digital Cinema Desktop Preview (the Canvas is notoriously iffy for judging picture quality), but if you're just trying to watch your cut bigger, it could be a quick workaround.


www.derekmok.com

Nope, that's not it. That manual is actually a bit out of date; AGP graphics haven't been a thing for a while now. Your MacBook Pro most definitively does not have its graphics on a PCI bus.

I can't tell you what your problem is, but I can tell you that's not it.

You've trashed your preferences, right?

Good call Derek! Duh, I should have mentioned that as an alternative... resize the Canvas window...

And, Jeff is correct about MBPs all having PCI Express (PCIe) graphics cards. "Plain old" PCI graphics preceded AGP... Now, some MacBooks had integrated graphics that don't work as well with FCP, but that's another thing...

Along with trashing your preferences, David, you may try to log in using the Guest account (or a new, temporary user account) and see what happens (I hope Joey isn't listening)... ;-)


-Dave

Thanks Derek for the working suggestion - if you mean basically just drag it out so it gets as big as possible and then saving the window arrangement layout in the windows menu, then I've just done that. How do you make a shortcut for that?

I've just trashed my preferences and it made no difference, there is still no registering of a digital cinema desktop option of any kind.

Jeff - good to know that's not the problem, but regarding the PCI issue, I should perhaps have mentioned that this MBP is a couple of years old and I just got it- I'm traditionally a PC person so I'm trying to learn fast - in any case could that mean that the PCI thing still could be an issue? The information I have found on the graphics card is as follows:

GeForce 8600M GT:

Chipset Model: GeForce 8600M GT
Type: Display
Bus: PCIe
PCIe Lane Width: x16
VRAM (Total): 256 MB
Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)
Device ID: 0x0407
Revision ID: 0x00a1
ROM Revision: 3175
Displays:
Color LCD:
Resolution: 1440 x 900
Depth: 32-Bit Color
Core Image: Hardware Accelerated
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Quartz Extreme: Supported
Built-In: Yes
Display Connector:
Status: No Display Connected


And finally Dave - do you mean logging into the mac OSX on a different user account? I just have one currently and no guest account, do you think it's worth setting up a new one - if that's what you mean?

Thanks very much guys for all your help thus far!!!

David

Look in the Windows -Arrange menu. The shortcuts are right there: CONTROL-SHIFT-6, 7, 8.


www.derekmok.com

Got it! Thanks very much.

That's to say - got the shortcut for the window arrange. Jury's still out on whether I can activate cinema preview desktop on my system! any other suggestions welcome...

David

Quote
David wrote:
And finally Dave - do you mean logging into the mac OSX on a different user account? I just have one currently and no guest account, do you think it's worth setting up a new one - if that's what you mean?

Yes, under Mac OS X 10.5.x (Leopard) you can "turn on" a Guest user account. The nice thing about using the Guest account in Leopard is that whenever someone logs out of the account, all settings, documents, bookmarks, etc., are erased. The account gets reset to a "newly created" state. It's great for testing.

So, the Guest account (see Accounts in the System Preferences) should serve well as a testbed when troubleshooting things like third-party extensions, bad cache and preference files, etc.

Prior to OS X 10.5, you could create a new user account for testing.

And, yes, your MBP, though a couple of years old, has a PCI Express graphics card. Make sure your OS is up-to-date... same for the firmware... There shouldn't be a reason that the full screen preview wouldn't work... let us know how things turn out...


-Dave

Dave - thanks very much.

Unfortunately still no luck. I set up a guest account and still no option for video playback.

I also did another software update of all software just in case it was something to do with a component of another program, and still no luck.

I agree with you that there's no reason why it shouldn't work, yet it still is not recognising my display as a viable video output.

I have mirror on desktop checked to answer someone else's comment.

Thanks for all your continued help guys -

David wrote...

Quote

Dave - thanks very much.

Unfortunately still no luck. I set up a guest account and still no option for video playback.

I also did another software update of all software just in case it was something to do with a component of another program, and still no luck.

This would suggest a hardware issue, OS X issue, or a Final Cut Pro issue (or something else)...
;-)

Quote

I agree with you that there's no reason why it shouldn't work, yet it still is not recognising my display as a viable video output.

I have mirror on desktop checked to answer someone else's comment.

I have a couple of ideas for proceeding...

(1) Choose "About This Mac" from the Apple menu and click the "More Info..." button to launch System Profiler. Find out the exact model of your MBP, firmware revision, etc. It may be easier to just read the label underneath your MBP. I would use your serial number to check that there aren't known issues with the graphics card in your MBP. Apple has one or two (?) models under a current hardware "warranty extension" program.

Also, I am not sure about your particular MBP model, but some MBPs have a dual graphics chip setup. The integrated chip reduces battery usage and the dedicated/standalone chip provides better performance. When using any of the FCS apps, you probably want to use the higher performance "mode," if that applies to your MBP. The setting for which chipset is in use may be under Energy Saver preferences in the System Preferences (but I don't know for sure, as I don't have one of those MBPs).

1(a)
You may want to restart and zap your parameter RAM (command-option-P-R keys after the startup chime... letting the process repeat until you've heard the chime 3 times and then let the restart finish). Also, you may want to reset the open firmware. Doing these two things often clears up issues with various OS and hardware settings. Check FCP after doing this...

(2) Reinstall OS X after erasing the internal hard drive, install all OS updates, preferably using the Combo Updater you can download from Apple Support (instead of Software Update). Restart a few times, repair permissions (Disk Utility), check one last time for new updates in Software Update, then reinstall Final Cut Studio (or just FCP or whatever you use).

Now, check to see if things work.

Let us know what happens...


-Dave

Dave - thanks very much for your detailed suggestions and for taking the time. I'm in the middle of various projects so don't fancy reinstalling, but when I have a suitable hiatus I might consider it. Alternatively I'll make some cash and get a monitor!

Thanks everyone for your dedication and time. It's wonderful that these forums exist.

David