Using a macbook pro as a monitor?

[91ststudios]

Hey everyone,

I'm using a Canon Xha1 with Redrockmicro 35mm adapter and was wondering if I could use a new macbook pro as my monitor instead of having to buy a monitor to mount on my rig. I know I'll need to get a monitor eventually but right now the laptop is what I need more.

I currently have Final Cut Studio Suite 2 but I don't think there is anyway I can flip it in the program while viewing it live.

If there are any inexpensive software solutions or I can do it in FCPS2, please let me know.

Thanks,
-Josh

[rhedlund]

try the FlipFlop program: http://web.mac.com/mark.burton/FlipFlop/FlipFlop.html

[cckid]

good info....have the same case myself...i owe a mcbook pro...but don't have the dough to get my self a proper monitor....guess this is a good combo...has anyone tried it yet on field...how does it hold...btw getting a spare macbook pro battery might be useful in this case...

[Dennis Wood]

If you do plan on doing this, I hope you opted for the Mac Book's 17" 1920 x 1200 display! We've been using the ASUS G2S laptop that sells for about 2K and has a similar 17" 1920 x 1200 display. The 720P monitor in Adobe's OnLocation was largely useless (IMHO) on our old laptops 15" XGA screen. On the new WUXGA screen...different story. It's ultra sharp, and setting critical focus is 100% doable with this tool now. Add in the 200GB 7200 rpm drive, 3GB RAM, and 2.4 Ghz C2Duo, and you've got an amazing tool for direct capture and instant playback. This laptop also has HDMI output, gigabit ethernet, and the real bonus...an ESATA port! Now that we've dealt with Vista's numerous issue, the port transfers files to an external ESATA drive at a sustained 70MB/s. The entire team here was gawking at HD footage displayed on the laptop (all 9lbs of it) the moment we fired it up :-)

[cckid]

Dennis thanks for the tip....and btw I owe the new macbook pro 17''....

[Room39]

If you do plan on doing this, I hope you opted for the Mac Book's 17" 1920 x 1200 display! We've been using the ASUS G2S laptop that sells for about 2K and has a similar 17" 1920 x 1200 display. The 720P monitor in Adobe's OnLocation was largely useless (IMHO) on our old laptops 15" XGA screen. On the new WUXGA screen...different story. It's ultra sharp, and setting critical focus is 100% doable with this tool now. Add in the 200GB 7200 rpm drive, 3GB RAM, and 2.4 Ghz C2Duo, and you've got an amazing tool for direct capture and instant playback. This laptop also has HDMI output, gigabit ethernet, and the real bonus...an ESATA port! Now that we've dealt with Vista's numerous issue, the port transfers files to an external ESATA drive at a sustained 70MB/s. The entire team here was gawking at HD footage displayed on the laptop (all 9lbs of it) the moment we fired it up :-)

Dennis, I'm not familiar with some of the spec terminology in your post, are saying you are running Vista and On Location on a MBP for monitor and capture of HDV material? What kind of lag time do you get with HDV picture via firewire. I have been playing with all of the OS X HDV monitoring options and find the lag so severe it is unusable.
BTW, I have a spanking new 2.6GHz MBP, 4Gb Ram, 17" HiRes display.

To rhedlund, for the record, Flip/Flop doesn't work with HDV. Should work great for HVX users though.

[DavidChia]

Just for your info Flip Flop does not suport HDV

only

DV25, DV50
DVCPRO HD 1080i 60/50
DVCPRO HD

[Dennis Wood]

Yes, we're using the G2S laptop, with OnLocation, Windows Vista (yuck), and capturing HDV from the XH-A1, and HV20. With just the 720p monitor, waveform and vectorscope, lag time is minimal, even at full MPEG resolution. With the 1920x1200 screen, the 720p monitor is completely usable to set focus. Outputing to our external 42" 1080P panel via the laptop's HDMI interface works very well. We used that setup in our light efficiency clip.

The caveat is that we've reloaded Vista using one full partition, applied all the driver updates, and loaded the release candidate of Vista SP1. At this point the 3GB of RAM and 1 GB "turbo memory" used by Vista's ready boost is working correctly and drive transfer rates on the esata port are what they should be (about 70MB/s sustained transfer rate). Out of the box, don't bother trying anything until you've done the above. Those Mac vs Vista commercials are bang on...and I'm a PC guy!

Cheers :-)

[Room39]

Thanks for clarifiying Dennis. My confusion was the Asus reference. I had never heard of it. Having spent the last twelve years with Apples has made it difficult to see the oranges, haha.

[Dennis Wood]

Asus is well known for their very high quality PC motherboard solutions. It appears they've been expanding into other product lines...and the G2S at $2000 may be the most affordable unit around with the 17" 1920x1200 LCD. From what I can tell so far, aside from the Vista issues, the hardware is solid.

I'll have an update shortly on how well it deals with DVCPRO100.