I'm just guessing and throwing out a theory here, but it might be a limitation of gfx cards in general to "soften" when stopped.  I've got no background to base that on, but if that's the worst thing that happens in an edit session, then you're pretty lucky. 

Yup, and I notice that if I load 100% progressive material and enable Fullscreen playback, the only way I can see it the same as the quality of source material is if I set the Fullscreen playback settings to "Display Both Fields".

If I leave that option unchecked, it remains soft and crappy looking. But switch it on and during playback it "pops" into some seriously crisp imagery.

I LOVE fullscreen playback when it's exactly that... PLAYBACK, but I'd really love it more if it retained a full progressive image when stopped.

(Also nice to see that folk using Quadro cards appear to be seeing this as well... before anyone has a wee pop at my "unsupported" 6600GT as being the culprit. )

Kenton.VanNatten:

 I'm just guessing and throwing out a theory here, but it might be a limitation of gfx cards in general to "soften" when stopped.  I've got no background to base that on, but if that's the worst thing that happens in an edit session, then you're pretty lucky. 

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that a 4096x4096 framebuffer is pretty much the maximum size permitted (though I can't recall if that applied to DirectX or OpenGL... and in what capacity). Even so, with that much room to play, a full 1920x1080 progressive frame should be easily manageable.

But I echo what I said before about the console, it shows a maximum buffer of 1920x540 (half-height resolution).

I think Avid's underlying core tends to use half-height frame storage for performance reasons and alternate the frame information quickly over time when dealing with progressive material.

It's like Avid's default method for handling ALL video is to treat it always as fields? (just speculating).

Whatever the reason, this goes from a mild annoyance to being pretty absurd because Avid stops playback when you do so much as press a key (other than I or O) or click button.

Has this request been granted in 4.0.x?

If not yet, please Avid, can you give this to us, we really need this feature.  Make it a user option if you will, but we seriously are awaiting this for a very long time for reasons that have been explained briefly here and there in the discussions.

Full frame in both FSP as well as on a client monitor.

thanks.

I checked out a trial of MC 3.x.x (can't recall the exact version) and I noticed two things.

1.) A much crisper image when parked.

2.) The console information I highlighted from early Xpress Pro and Media Composer versions changed from a maximum frame buffer size of 1920x540 to a proper 1920x1080 frame.

I honestly believe that Avid engineers finally started to populate the OpenGL buffer with a FULL HD frame in the new 3.x code, thus negating the old problem (of poor PROGRESSIVE material) on the older software.

I'm sure others noticed a marked improvement in stopped-frame video quality.

Just my 2p on the subject.