Video Preview Preference in After Effects CS6

You can display a full-screen preview on a second monitor in After Effects without extra Firewire hardware. Just hook a standard 2nd monitor (in my case a 3D HDTV) to your Mac and choose Preferences:Video Preview: Output Device: Digital Cinema Desktop. Then choose: Preferences:Video Preview: Output Mode: Digital Cinema Desktop Preview - Full screen (the third item down). After that check the box for Output During Previews (or other desired option).

IMPORTANT: If you can't see more than two choices in the Output Device menu, you need some Quicktime codecs that come with Final Cut Studio. But no need to buy the software. Apple is overcharging for FCP Studio 7 and version X sucks - and you can't even install FC Pro 6 on new Macs. Just find a friend who has Final Cut Pro and have them send you the codecs located in this folder on their Mac: Macintosh HD: Library: Quicktime and put them in your same folder. Restart and you should then see the added options in your Video Preview Preferences settings.


This capability is great because you can have a realtime preview full screen on a second monitor as you work.