powerbook g4 to broadcast monitor
 

I'm new to mac, I use to have a leitch dps velocity that i could edit on while i watched the footage on an ntsc broadcast monitor in real time . How do i accomplish that with my powerbook g4. I'm thinking about purchasing a g5 and aja IO just to be able to do that, but if somebody can help me do it with the powerbook, I may be able to do without the g5 and aja IO for a little while longer, a least until my wife calms down about the purchase of the powerbook g4. You see i sold all my equipment to get out , but i can't i love it and miss it to much.


Torrey C. Harris

If your capture device has firewire (e.g., camera or deck) and video out then you can connect the NTSC monitor to the camera and preview the footage that way. There are some limitations but it works pretty well, even in iMovie.

The powerbooks have s-video out. In final cut pro you can select the built-in s-video as your external device and plug the monitor in there. You will probably have to plug the monitor in while the computer is off, then boot with it connected for it to be recognized.

Is this what you had in mind? The quality of the video viewed this way may not be as good what you send via firewire to a camera or other external device, but it has the advantage of not requiring any additional equipment.

If you just want to be able to use 2 monitors for editing you could also plug a VGA (or ADC on the new powerbooks) monitor into the external monitor port. I think this is an either or situation however, I don't think you can drive both a VGA and s-video monitor simultaneously.

with the velocity it had a breakout box that would let me preview footage while i captured footage, adjusted on proc amp and vectorscope, edited and previewed effects and titles in realtime


Torrey C. Harris

If I'm right, the 12" powerbooks don't have S-video outputs, but a "mini-DVI" output. Anyone know what that is?

We have one at work but I don't recall if it has s-video. However the mini-DVI is a port that can be used with an adaptor to drive a DVI or VGA external monitor. It is a completely separate screen that can have it's own resolution settings. In other words, it doesn't have to just mirror the built-in display (although it can if desired).