Final Cut Playback Quality
 

Hi,

When you set:
System Settings/Playback Control/Playback/Video Quality to "Medium" the manual states that the video is output at quarter frame resolution.

What exactly is quarter frame resolution and what is the difference of the medium setting with high setting?

I am using DV-PAL material and the FCP output is recorded back at DV for TV broadcast.

Thanks.

This setting only affects how the video looks in the canvas and viewer on your computer screen, it will not affect that actual DV sent through firewire. So if you are using an external monitor via firewire (connected to your camera, for example) there won't be any difference. I guess the setting exists so that slower computers can "keep up"... it may affect which realtime effects you see. Try setting it both ways and see if there is any difference.

I am getting movement stutter in the viewer when playing back my clips out of the browser. Just like i have when an external monitor is connected through firewire(camera) Canvas plays everything at full speed and no stuttering. I guess I was thinking it was the above mentioned system settings. But setting to high quality has no effect on my playback capablities. Any suggestions??
(fcp4 on a single 1.25 processor g4)

I just figured out that playback in the viewer is bad but when connected to external monitor I see no movement at all.it is just a still frame, it catches up the moment i stop playback in viewer. But when played in timeline there is no stutter and playback in external monitor is excellent... I cant figure it out!!!
help needed...

figured it out!!
 

before anybody could answer I can give it myself...I had the size of the viewer on 100% instead of fit to window!! Now everything plays back just as it supposed to do..

That's interesting since you're on FCP4. I'm still using FCP3, but it also has a bug, er, I mean "feature", where bad things happen if you don't set "fit to window". It can stop your video from playing on the external monitor completely. The other thing that occasionally gets me is that if I leave the Log and Capture window open external video won't play. Sometimes this isn't so obvious if another window is covering up Log and Capture...

your right I remember now, well that is on "feature" that has not changed in fcp4.. It did stop playing completely on the external monitor.

Common problems -- the main idea here is to have the computer work on only what's needed. Make sure no windows are overlapping, no capture window open, turn-off video playback in the canvas, mixdown all audio, turn off all overlays & waveforms, etc. I also do a shift-Z so the entire timeline is on one screen.

Also, insure that your MAC energy settings are correct, and auto updates are off.

Lots of things can interfer -- keep it simple.