User`s guide

Chapter 4: Installing AVoption 19
Set Color Depth to Millions
Since the VGA output on ABVB cannot be dis-
abled, you will always see two monitors repre-
sented in the Monitors & Sound Control Panel
(even if you have only one monitor connected
to the Macintosh). As a result, when launching
Pro Tools, you may receive the error message,
“Video engine requires ABVB monitor to be set
to millions of colors in order to load.”
To avoid this error message, set the Color Depth
to “Millions” in the Monitor Control Panel.
ABVB’s VGA Output
The ABVB card includes a VGA monitor output,
which can be used to drive a second VGA mon-
itor. This second monitor is used to display the
Pro Tools Movie window (see “Window Play-
back” on page 44), without taxing the resources
of the Macintosh PCI bus.
Configuring Two Monitors
When using two VGA monitors with AVoption,
you must specify Macintosh monitor as the sys-
tem startup monitor.
To the default monitor:
1 Choose Monitors & Sound Control Panel >
Identify Monitors.
2 Drag the Menu Bar across the top of the mon-
itor icon to the correct monitor icon.
3 Drag the Macintosh icon in the middle of the
monitor icon to the correct monitor icon.
4 Next time you restart your computer, the new
monitor assignments will take effect.
Using NTSC and PAL
When switching between NTSC and PAL for-
mats, settings must be changed in three places:
• In the Pro Tools Session Setup window, select
the correct frame rate (25, 29.97 DF or NDF).
• The USD must be set (and locked) to the re-
spective format (PAL or NTSC).
• If you are going to capture video with AVop-
tion, set the Movie Track to the respective for-
mat (PAL or NTSC). This setting can be
modified when the Movie Track is armed for
record. The Pal/NTSC format pop-up panel is
available in the I/O panel on the Movie Track.
To see the Pal/NTSC format pop-up panel:
■ Select Display > Edit Window Shows > I/O
View.
To reduce PCI bus traffic, and avoid system
performance errors, you should display only
the Movie window on the ABVB monitor.
Particularly problematic is placing win-
dows partially on both monitors.