User manual

Chapter 8 Working With Video in Soundtrack Pro 187
Using Video Output Devices
You can connect an external video output device to your computer and play your
project through the video output device. This can be especially useful in cases where
you are using Soundtrack Pro as the final step in producing the overall project, or when
you want to show the current version of the project to a client or other party while
working on the project in Soundtrack Pro.
When you use an external video output device, the quality of the output is as high as
the device can support. If you connect an output device capable of broadcast quality
output, the video is displayed with more accurate colors than possible on a computer
display, with true interlacing, correct pixel sizes, the correct aspect ratio, and broadcast
quality refresh rates.
Broadcast quality video output devices receive both the video and audio from a
project, so you can connect high-quality monitors or speakers to hear the audio.
However, using a video output device can introduce a greater amount of latency into
the audio signal. The amount of latency may be higher than is acceptable for audio
editing.
You can also play a project’s video externally using Digital Cinema Desktop. Using
Digital Cinema Desktop, you can connect an Apple Cinema Display to your computer
and play the video full-screen through the Cinema Display while using another monitor
for editing.
To play the video through a video output device, you must configure Soundtrack Pro to
use the device in Soundtrack Pro Video Out Preferences.
To configure Soundtrack Pro for a video out device:
1 Choose Soundtrack Pro > Preferences, then click the Video Out button.
2 In the Video Out pane, choose the device you want to use from the Video Output
Device pop-up menu.
The menu lists only devices that are connected to your computer.
3 Optionally, select the Use Quarter-size Frames checkbox to reduce the frames sent to
the video output device. Sending quarter-size frames can result in better performance,
especially for devices using FireWire DV output.
4 Click the Close button at the upper-left corner of the Preferences window to close the
window.
You can switch the output to the video output device on or off when the project is not
playing. The video appears in the Video tab whether output to the video output device
is switched on or off.