Apple Final Cut Pro 7 - Manual (Page 234)

Connecting a Third-Party Video Interface to an External Monitor
You can use third-party video interfaces to connect a Final Cut Pro system to an external
monitor. A third-party interface may be able to transcode your sequence to one or more
of the following output formats: SDI, HD-SDI, analog component (YUV), S-Video (Y/C),
composite, HDMI, and even DV. For more information about these signal formats, see
“Connecting Professional Video and Audio Equipment.”
Some interfaces and decks can also downconvert an HD sequence to SD video output.
For example, while editing an HD sequence, you can use an appropriate third-party
interface to downconvert your HD video to a letterboxed standard definition SDI signal.
The SDI signal can be connected to an SD broadcast monitor.
Note: Make sure that the output format of your video interface and the input format of
your video monitor match. If you have a consumer monitor, it probably has only composite
analog video input, even though your video interface may support a higher-quality output
format (such as SDI or component analog).
Choosing Playback and Edit to Tape Output Settings
The settings in the A/V Devices tab of the Audio/Video Settings window determine which
video interface you use to externally monitor your video. You can choose to view external
video via FireWire (DV), a computer display (using Digital Cinema Desktop Preview), or a
third-party video interface. You can also specify a different output interface for editing
to tape versus playback while editing.
Although these settings reside in the A/V Devices tab of the Audio/Video Settings window,
you can choose a video interface from several other locations in Final Cut Pro.
• Summary tab in the Audio/Video Settings window: In this tab, you can choose video and
audio output interfaces from the corresponding pop-up menus.
• View menu: Instead of going to the Audio/Video Settings window, you can select video
and audio interfaces for external monitoring by choosing:
• View > Video Playback, and then choosing the name of the video interface
• View > Audio Playback, and then choosing the name of the audio interface
Note: When you choose an Easy Setup, the external video and audio playback settings
are automatically set for you because audio/video device settings are stored in an Easy
Setup. For more information about Easy Setups, see
“Audio/Video Settings and Easy
Setups.”
To choose a video interface for external monitoring
1 Choose Final Cut Pro > Audio/Video Settings, then click the A/V Devices tab.
2 Choose the settings you want, then click OK.
For more information about the A/V Devices tab, see “About the A/V Devices Tab.”
234 Chapter 14 External Video Monitoring