Output to TV from AE

[PsiPhi]

Ah... Still no replies to my Rotoscoping question then...
Maybe I'll have better luck with this one
Anyway, I just bought a Canon XL1s a few weeks ago and I've been having a blast with it. It's been especially cool to see the last couple of years' AE experiments on my TV too. What would be really cool, though, is if I could output directly from AE over FireWire to me telly. Is there some way of doing this during a RAM preview or is it only posible with dedicated hardware? I think I saw a Tip o' the Day a while ago that said something about displaying single frames, but it may have been a hallucination...
Thanks in advance.

 

[EdwardMartinIII]

You have a television that is firewire-driven?

I've never tried doing a print-to-video from After Effects, only Premiere. I suppose it's possible in AE, but I've never tried.

Cheers,


Edward

"Cut a hole in the door. Hang a flap. Criminy, why didn't I think of this earlier?!" -- inventor of the cat door

 

[PsiPhi]

Mmmm... could have phrasing that better. When I said 'directly' I meant through the XL1... Firewire driven TV - now there's a thought! Anyway, I should probably scour the manual.

 

[johnnytheboy]

Don't think that is possible with the current build of AE.

Just a thought though, why would you want to preview you footage on a tv when the monitor you are looking at it on is far higher quality? Simply view it at 100% or whatever and then build and just drop it into Prem when you have finished for your tv out preview...

John

 

[EdwardMartinIII]

John,

You really want to have an NTSC monitor as part of your gear.

I don't bother using any kind of preview for After Effects because when I'm done with my AE project, I export it as a buttload of frames to a folder and import the folder into the big Premiere timeline. Then I can watch it on the NTSC monitor if I wish.

That's when I notice the color ringing...

Cheers,


Edward

"Cut a hole in the door. Hang a flap. Criminy, why didn't I think of this earlier?!" -- inventor of the cat door

 

[johnnytheboy]

I have a PAL monitor! just do all my stuff in AE and never really wanted to see it on a TV screen until it is finished and embedded within a project.

Personal choice I guess!

John

 

[PsiPhi]

I spend most of my computer time in AE messing with ideas so I don't always want to spend time rendering stuff out before I can see what it really looks like on my television. I'm total tweak addict and even though the computer displays at a much higher resolution, you don't really get a true idea of what it will look like until you've viewed it on the old cathode nipple.

I really should just try to spend some time trying to find that elusive 'Tip o' the Day' that mentioned it. I'll let ya'll know if I stumble across it. Thanks for the help anyway.

 

[Magic153]

In After Effects 5.0 and higher...If you goto Edit -> Video Preview...or it might be Edit->Option->Video Output, and it will let you select a firewire device or it should if it is plugged in than from the XL you would run cables to your TV....I hope this helps you out I am using this function on a project rightnow...Sorry if this doesn't work but it should....

 

[PsiPhi]

Yay!!!!
I don't remember ever coming across this option and I won't be home until Tuesday to check it out (I'll be busy hurtling a dune buggy over the biggest sand dunes in Europe) but it's great to know it is possible. Thanks a million.
Now... if I can just get that second 21inch monitor werking...

 

[fox6design]

What youre asking I might know about... I think. I have a TV right above my computer. My graphics vard supports "Mirroring"... which is OK... but my card has to render to both. What Im assuming you want is to be doing your work and look up and see it right on the telly. Youll have to get some hardware from some computer store that sends a signal to the TV... about $100 bucks. Its a little tower that has all different plugs and hookups, the beauty is that you can hook up the VCR and record too...

I dont have details though about the product...sorry. I see them all the time at Fry's or Circut City.

 

[PsiPhi]

Okay, I know that this is from a while ago but I hit a bit of a brick wall. The problem is that on the 'video output' option there is nothing else in the list except for the desktop. I have a really good Firewire card and Premiere werks fine with it but it's not showing up in AE. I'm running Windows 2000 so maybe it's not implemented within there somewhere. When I plug the XL-1 into my friends Windows XP laptop it shows up as a device straight away. Any other ideas?

 

[fox6designer]

What Im doing at home right now is Monitor Mirroring... Ive got a GeForce4 256 card with an S-Video output, and I can switch the TV to one of the Video channels and "watch" the computer. I do lots of work that goes right to TV the next day, and I was tired of working at home and then going in to work to check it only to find that some colors are blown out and having to fix the darn thing an hour before air.

The problem is I cant afford a NTSC monitor right now (anyone know where to find cheapies that come with some kind of warranty? Not Ebay etc...). So to switch from Monitor Sharing (where I have photoshop off to the side and AE or Combustion on the main monitor) to the telly I have to pull some plugs and reroute stuff. Im trying to fandangle some sort of switch box right now.

I did some limited research, and the graphics card ($200) and the RAM and the Dazzle converter ($200) do what I want. The Dazzle DV150 is fun... I can record from live TV, DVD and VCR, as well as output to those.

 

[EdwardMartinIII]

I just went to a store and bought a little color TV for about sixty bucks. Yeah, it's not perfect and it's not perfect NTSC color, but it's how most people will watch my movies.

You can get 'em cheaper at thrift stores.

Cheers,


Edward

"Cut a hole in the door. Hang a flap. Criminy, why didn't I think of this earlier?!" -- inventor of the cat door

 

[jswashere]

PsiPhi - I read an old post of your that I cant locate regarding your trouble with outputting to firewire in AE while Premeire worked fine. Can yo utell me what your solution was???
Thank!
JS

 

[PsiPhi]

Erm... well, that computer has given me a lot of headaches with regards to weird little things going wrong and ceasing to function (like my USB ports, for instance - no Wacom tablet anymore - boo!hoo!). My Firewire card is a bit sporadic too (to say the least!) even though it is a really good one. I really should just re-format the whole thing and update the BIOS etc. etc. but I'm so busy that I just can't spare the time it would take to back it up, download the latest drivers and re-install everything.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that I don't think the problem is a generic one, but just another one of those little annoying gremlins in my system. The option for video out over Firewire is there and my camera does werk (occasionally) with Premiere. Do you think it's trying to deliberately annoy me? Nobody on this thread seems to have really sorted it out either. Fox6 is using a tv output card - only Magic 153 seems to use the Firewire output succesfully, but he didn't say much about it.

My solution... well, seing how it's Adobe, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that it should just werk and that the problem is mine. I'm moving to Australia in Febuary, so I'll be buying a new laptop anyway, so I'll just wait intil then (Toshiba P-20, 17-inch wide-screen, P4 3.02ghz, 80gb hd etc. Yum!!). So, I guess that means the solution is to throw a load of money at the problem! Hmmm, not really a satisfactory outcome for yourself, I'm afraid. You didn't specify what the problem is and what equipment you're using, which might help. So, I'll just throw this one back to the guys on the board. Sorry I wasn't of more help to you.

PsiPhi