FCP Titles on external monitor

I'm using a Formac Studio device to try to look at my video on a TV before burning to DVD.

When I play an HD sequence, the TV only shows a still frame. The still frame looks fine (except for text). I'm guessing this is because the Formac device is several years old and cannot display HD.

When I play an SD sequence, everything plays fine... except titles. The text looks like a bad CGA monitor from the '80s. Chunky letters.

I've tried the Title 3D and Lower 3rd. I've tried white on black as well as things like white on transparent red. It looks great in FCP but going out through Firewire 400 into the Formac device then into my TV (using RCA or S-Video cables), the text looks terrible.

Any ideas?

Gracias!

haven't tried that device, but what is your settings in audio/visual settings, what is your sequence codec?

For the still frame, under view>external monitor you should be set to "all frames". Also, hit "refresh AV devices".



www.strypesinpost.com

the best way to check is not in post but after post. Go ahead and burn the dvd (w/preset) and check that on an actual HDTV.

The device will not show in hd so that means if your project is hd the device is obsolete. non hd pass thrus will make your HD footage look bad anyway (not enough res). Dont Trust it.

""" What you do with what you have, is more important than what you could do, with what you don't have."

> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"

But I have the same trouble viewing text from an SD project. I load a mini-dv project with all video settings set to DV NTSC 48 kHZ and the Video playback set to Apple Firewire NTSC (720x480). The titles look wretched.

To put it into perspective: viewing video and titles on my monitor = 100% quality; viewing video thru my TV = 85% quality; viewing titles thru my TV = 50% quality.

ok
so is your monitor a broadcast monitor or a tube tv?

How does it look on the computer's screen?

Where are you gen'ing the text?

""" What you do with what you have, is more important than what you could do, with what you don't have."

> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"

J.Corbett Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ok
> so is your monitor a broadcast monitor or a tube tv?
Neither, it's a Samsung flatscreen S1952W.

> How does it look on the computer's screen?
See previous answers above.

> Where are you gen'ing the text?
See previous answers above.

FISHING

do you have a camera with fw that you can use to replace the formac device?

Is this the only project that looks that way? meaning do you have some older project with the same fcp settings that you could compare to.

Quote
relggid
The text looks like a bad CGA monitor from the '80s. Chunky letters.

Is the font at least 3 pixel wide? (see if impact or ariel black looks the same)

Quote
relggid
When I play an HD sequence, the TV only shows a still frame.

thats because the device isn't hd capable. so it shows a single frame the best that IT CAN and not best based on the footage. Its still putting out sd because there are too many lines for it to play.

hear is my theory. if it looks the same thru another hd capable fw pass thru then its in the gen or fcp part of the chain. If it looks better in a new fw device then its the device.

the second thing is that, it seems that monitoring without a broadcast monitor you will be lead to a lot less accurate judgements. And in my experience plasma and lcds as a monitoring device never gives a good result under 1200 dollars and still iffy above that price point. Doesn't mean get something new just need a good tubed monitor with a blue gun 16/9 switch and hd capabilities to use to see what you have. ( Maybe a fellow editor has this set-up. )
I think a graphics expert here once mentioned a dell lcd thats good for post monitoring.

when the project is burned to bluray or dvd does it look the same on a tv?

Have you tried gen'ing test in motion, PS or live type rather than fcp? ( also the strait up plain jane text gen.)

""" What you do with what you have, is more important than what you could do, with what you don't have."

> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"

The monitor is HD Capable. Our OP's problem is that he is trying to monitor HD without a video capture card.

Kevin pretty much sums up everything. You need a proper monitoring system. Alternatively, switch the display in the canvas to 100% to see if the text is still jaggy.



www.strypesinpost.com

Actually I'm not. I'm trying to monitor SD and the text looks bad as well.

The text looks fine in the Canvas and fine when burned to DVD but I was hoping for a reasonable facsimile of the final output without having to waste time exporting and burning to DVD.

Why don't you try switching your sequence to Uncompressed 10 bit and see what happens.

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If it looks good when rendered in the canvas sized at 100%, and looks good when playing off a DVD player, then you need to get a proper monitoring device, and i mean a capture card or an IO device.

You can check out the Blackmagic or AJA website. HD or SD cards, depending on what you need.



www.strypesinpost.com