FlipFlop - a small tool to preview live DV video with flip

I havent tested the 720p modes in it, i will give it a good testing this weekend. The kind words are deserved mark.burton. The app is amazing, and well on its way to being a great alternative to those of us lacking a preview monitor at the moment. Your hardwork is appreciated
 
Exactly...this app may save my need to get a preview monitor right away when my M2 arrives at the end of this month...a big thanks to you!

FYI, I have a mini-FW 400 to FW 800 cable that I tried to see if I could get any more throughput (being able to plug it into the FW 800 port on my Powerbook). It didn't make a difference at 1080 60i. I'm guessing the stuttering must be a processor thing, because if I play DV out it's much faster on the Powerbook screen.

Mike
 
Hi Mordroc,

Thanks for the feedback, I haven't been able to test the NTSC side very well, so this is very useful info. I will make some changes and add some fixes for the rotation issue in DVCPRO50 and if you have a chance to test would be great to hear if they work.

With regard to 720pn, you won't get a preview as the HVX does not output a signal over FW in this native (pn) mode, thats why you see green; nothing I can do about that. However it should not be garbled in other 720p (NTSC HVX model) modes as this is supported in the Apple codec. Can you tell me what version of FCP you have installed and exactly what the camera was set to? This should work fine so I will investigate.

With regard to performance I wish I could do more to improve this, but I am relying very heavily on the Apple QT codecs for this and they in turn rely quite heavily on the processor. As you say its quite stuttery which is not ideal for monitoring yet. On a faster system you will get a few more fps, but I have tested with Dual 2.0 G5 and MacBook Pro 2.16 and its is still not full frame rate, so at the moment this is a limitation. Maybe as Apple optimize the DVCPRO HD codecs and improve the machine speeds this could get better. It is also linked to the graphics card you have.

I'll post an update tomorrow.
Thanks
Mark
 
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thanks Mark! Ill try and give some actual feedback tomorrow or maybe late tonight after doing some testing with the M2.
 
FlipFlop v1.0.6 posted.

Fixed flip correction bug in NTSC DVCPRO 50 preset.

It sounds like there may be some issues with the HD formats from the 60i HVX, but II'm fairly sure I know how to solve them. The main issue is I don't have an NTSC HVX, otherwise I could go this right away. Will hopefully solve this in the next day of so though. Let me know what other issues you find and of course feature requests.
 
Hi Mark,

Congratulation for your software and thanks for sharing. To bad I 'm a WIN user, I surely could use an app like this.

best
Andreas
 
Thanks Andreas. FlipFlop relies very heavily on Core Image / Video in Mac OS 10.4 which made it quite easy to make, but probably impossible to port without a complete re-write.
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Mark
 
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How about a quick reset button next to each slider? Maybe if you click the sliders name, e.g. Saturation, it will reset. Just a thought.

And you should post you app on versiontracker/macupdate.
 
Good idea Jiggi. I have a new update coming soon which addresses the scaling / cropping issue so the image is never cropped. I'll try and get this reset feature working. I also want to re-design the zoom feature as it does not work well and it could be sooo much better.

I really want to move all the controls off onto a single pop-up panel, like the semi-transparent floating panels in the latest iPhoto and in Motion and then have the video display fullscreen.

If anyone wants to help out on the app, please PM me, I'm looking for someone to help take it to this level - but the app will always be free, so there's no compensation I'm afraid. Also hopefully there will be some performance improvements in the soon to be released FCP 5.1.2 DVCPRO HD codecs.

Keep the ideas coming.
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Mark
 
These features would be cool. Fullscreen is almost a must. So anoying
having to turn the screensaver on/off every time I use the program.

I don´t know how to code, but I am willing to betatest it ;)

mactrix, the program you are linking to does not do the same. This is a Realtime preview app. Not a flipflop plugin for fcp.
 
jiggigibbie said:
This is a Realtime preview app. Not a flipflop plugin for fcp.
Click to expand...

ok ... but for the whole workflow both could be useful. Yours for preview, the other one to rotate the clips for editing ...
 
wow...what a godsend of a little app. This weekend I am shooting a mini movie and I was trying to figure out how to connect an external monitor to view my 35mm adapter footage live without having to get batteries or trying to find a plug in the wall to connect the monitor. Bravo...works like a champ!

My only question is...when I hook up my camera to my MacBookPro and fire up the FlipFlop app, the colors look overexposed and blown some bit on the preview monitor... but when I preview the camera live while using iMovie or FCP, the colors look in tune with what the camera LCD looks (off course it does not give me a flipped image). Am I misssing something here?
 
Hi super,
Glad you like it! Sorry about the colour issue's. I'm working on a way to provide a cleaner image in the default state. I think the issue currently is that the app is applying some level of change in the default state, even though its not meant to be!
What format are you monitoring?
Thanks
Mark
 
I have a new version which should address these exposure and peaking issues, plus a few other bits and pieces. It takes a bit of time to correct the various presets, so can you let me know what formats you need and I'll do those first. So far PAL DV and DVCPRO HD 1080 are done.
 
mark.burton said:
Hi super,
Glad you like it! Sorry about the colour issue's. I'm working on a way to provide a cleaner image in the default state. I think the issue currently is that the app is applying some level of change in the default state, even though its not meant to be!
What format are you monitoring?
Thanks
Mark
Click to expand...

I am using my DVX100 using firewire. Using shooting 24P.

I saw that you have already corrected the issue? Did I understand this correctly? Is it available for download?
 
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