G5's in the future, but not a chance they'll be ready in time for the holidays. The new PowerBooks at MacWorld might be G5 but I still doubt it. I think the new iBooks will use the new G3 (Sirocco?).

Hi, I'm running Final Cut Express on a G4. I have digitized some footage that I recorded. I don't understand why, but the actual digitized file has excellent audio, but only when played in Quicktime. As soon as I play, or try to edit that exact same file in FCX, the audio becomes very quiet (even though I can see the meter is fine) and noisy, and anything that was recorded at too high of volume (at first that's what I thought it might be) is just buzz, no voice. I'm hoping that there are some settings in FCX that I need to configure in order to work with the proper audio.
If anyone has any ideas, please let me know.

thanks
nicholi

Any idea on what I can get for a G3 minus the monitor?

I'm thinkin' around $300?

Thanks,
Jason

Look on ebay and that will give you a range of prices.

Can I bring a timeline back on line without having to re-digitize the entire raw edit list?

I'm taking about re-creating the timeline only from the source tape.

The way Im doing it now is to rebatch capture all of my shot selection and then the timeline re-digitizes itself. but I would like to find a more effecient way to do this.

Thanks

According to some on the Mac groups the 12" and 17" PBs are in short supply right now. This would seem to indicate at least a revision may be around the corner.

Gary,
If your source footage files are no longer on disk you will, indeed, have to re-capture them from tape. Once they are re-captured (under the same names you originally used in your bin and sequences) your sequences will automatically be restored.

OK, thank you.

Okay, its nicholi again. I've found something that seems to be a nice temporary, if not permenant, fix to this problem. I see that no one has posted a reply, but I'm sure someone else will bump into the problem eventually. Hopefully this will help.

1) After digitizing a clip that was recorded from the external mic, open the clip in FCE viewer window.

2) Click on Effects - Audio Filters - Expander/Noise Gate

3) This will give you some louder, much more usable audio. But it still sounds funny... sort of like when you have water in your ears.

4) With the clip still in the viewer window, click on the Filters tab. Under audio channel 1 is the expander filter. Set all of the filter levels (threshhold, ratio, attack, release) all the way to the left.

5) Play the clip in the viewer.

6) Jump for joy like I did.

This filter only shows up on channel 1, but for some reason it works on both channels. I tried repeating the process for channel 2, but that just screws it all up, so I'm not going to worry about it. I even used Print To Video to record onto tape through firewire back into my camcorder and it turned out excellent. I'm super pumped, and I hope this helps you out so you will be too.

nicholi

Bitheadz' Phrazer is a loop-based editor similar to Soundtrack that supposedly runs on G3s. I don't think it directly interfaces with your NLE though.

http://www.bitheadz.com/prod/Phrazer/main.htm

Hi everyone,

I upgraded to OS X recently (Jaguar) and continued working with FCP 3 for OS X. The editing bit's fine, and in fact great because I can open up other apps but not worry about depleting too much memory. But I did notice when the editing's done, and I export to tape, the audio is often scratchy, and the video is sometimes stepping enough to notice, but not to get the "Dropped Frames" notice to kick in. I've tried exporting as a DV stream and then running it as a single clip (instead of reading all the cuts and transitions) but it's failed. Finally I just booted on 9 and it runs smoother, as intended.

Any suggestion on how to remedy this? I've locked the timeline, exported to DV, unchecked the playback on the computer, quit all the other apps, and won't run OS9 in the background. I think it's mostly the speed of my iMac. 400 MHZ G3. Thanks.

Nicky Loi

How much ram do you have? I would max it out (1 gig) if you haven't yet.

I'm using fcp 3 on a g4 400 with 320 megs of ram. Render time is horrendous. My question is will upgrading to just a 800 processor and another 512 ram make much difference. I know you need at least a 500 for real-time effects. I can't afford more than an 800 upgrade at the moment so I'm wondering if it's worth it?

i was wondering if anyone could shed some light on whether or not powerbooks are good for editing. i was looking at the g4 powerbook to start editing on. also, what should the minimun requirements for a machine to do editing on be and would the g4 powerbook or even ibook be ok for that? thanks

What are you trying to render? Some rendering is more processor intensive, some memory intensive. But if you boost both, you will see an overall increase in performance. Your upgrade should just about double your system performance. The biggest gains would come from upgrading to dual processors. But if it's not in the budget, cutting your render times almost is half isn't bad.

What software are you going to use to edit with? That will really determine the appropriateness of the PowerBook for editing.

i also dont know what software i should use, but id probably use final cut pro

I'm sure this is a common topic, but I couldn't find an exact answer through searching. So if anyone can point me in a general direction, I'd appreciate it.

I have recently made a couple small video productions that are intended to be mailed out on cd and eventually downloadable from the web. Right now, I am running Final Cut Express on a 1.25dp G4 (I don't know if that makes a difference). I plan to upgrade to Final Cut Pro 4 soon, and would like to use a full-blown compression program such as Sorenson or Cleaner as well. Everytime I read more about FCP4 I see more and more that it is capable of, thus eliminating the need for extra programs. So I guess my question is this... Is FCP4 alone good enough to handle what I plan to do?

Also, it seems so far that one big hang up, at least with FCE, is exporting a video file to a format that both Quicktime and Windows Media Player can play. Right now I'm asking everyone to download Quicktime so they can view the file, but I'm afraid this might be viewed as an inconvenience to some people. Is there anyway to avoid this "inconvenience" by saving to a format viewable to both players?

I've done some basic research and experimenting on this topic, I'm still just getting started with all of this, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

thanks
nicholi

Nicholi,
No, not really. Neither FCP nor FCE are compression applications, per se. They can work though Quicktime Pro to export compressed sequences but that facility is fairly limited.

You'll need to invest in a top-notch compression app like Cleaner 6 in order to effectively accomplish your complex goals of producing multi-format streams and video cd's. You'll probably also need an app like Toast to burn decent video cd's.

In a PC environment I've been doing what you describe, using the 185 MB miniCD-rs so that I can mail in a letter envelope at letter rates (using vinyl sleeves, not jewel cases). I use MPEG1 because both Mac and PC recognize it. My experience has been that on a Mac the format calls up the Quick Time player and on a PC Windows Media Player.
Depending on the length of the production downloading these files from the web can be a chore - and you might want to export a web-friendly version for the purpose. My site stats tell me that 90% of my visitors use Internet Explorer so I'm comfortable with the .wmv file format. If you have the disk space on your server you can of course include QT versions too.

David Hurdon

I too am interested the power book, indeed, the laptop in general, as editing suite, what softwares seem to work well with which, etc.

I think if you're using a Mac FCP is the way to go. Avid has some interesting features, but FCP 4 has more features for the money vs. Avid. You wouldn't go wrong with either one. FCP allows off line editing at a lower resolution. This allows you to capture more footage and do the edit at low res. When the edit is done, using the media manager, you can recapture just the high res footage needed for the edit. This helps with limited disk space on a laptop.

I use FCP 3 on my 800mhz iBook using the RT Offline mode and it has worked okay. I later transfer the edited version to my G4 and recapture at full DV rez.

If you haven't gotten your laptop yet, be sure to get the extended warranty. I didn't but I still have 4 months left on my one year Apple warranty, it seems with the iBooks the logic boards goes out on them, I haven't checked out the powerbooks logic board failure rate. But with laptops, there seems to be more that can go wrong with them so save yourself a lot of grief and get the extra protection. I'm going to get an extended warranty from the Apple repair shop I dropped off my iBook at so when my Apple warranty goes out, it will be under the shop's warranty($120 a year). They told me the logic board repair would normally be a $500 repair.

If you plan on using FCP 4, the minimum requirements is a G4, 667 MHz and above for the powerbook, so that leaves out using an iBook, although FCP 3 will work okay on an iBook.

And if you get the laptop, don't forget an airport card. One of my favorite things to do when I'm out and about is looking for wi-fi spots.

Sorry I went off the thread a bit, but hope this info helps.

I'm looking to purchase an LCD monitor for NLE on my Mac but see a myriad of brand name and dot pitch options. 19" LCD monitors at .29 dot pitch are about half the price of 20" .26 dot pitch ones. For video editing, is the dot pitch difference important? I mean, should one look at purchasing the finer dot pitch of the 20" for NLE, or look instead at two 19" LCD monitors to increase the workspace available? Any suggestions for brand names that are good for NLE?

Najeeb

Dual monitors are definitely useful. It should give you more screen area (even if you factor in some inefficiency of having 2 monitors). Bin and viewer on one monitor is one way to do dual monitors.

You don't need really high end monitors for editing. The better resolution helps with eye strain during long edit secessions. Get the less expensive LCD monitor for the computer and a better quality CRT to check your finished video on.

I recently got a Sony SDM-V72W 17" widescreen HD LCD (1280x768). Don't know if you shoot any 16:9, but if so then this is a pretty nice screen. It has VGA, s-video and component inputs. There's a $200 Sony rebate through the end of August.

Has anyone taken this (http://www.matrox.com/video/support/rtmac/software/home.cfm) (incredibly) long-overdue driver for a spin yet?

I saw a post on a list I subscribe to asking the same question. No replies on the list yet, but it's early. I'll post back any responses here.

Hello,

I worked on the Final Cut Pro audio effects many years ago.
However, I don't own or run a Mac. Would anyone kindly point me to the FCP manual? I can offer help on the audio effects,
but since the documentation on the Apple site is minimal, I don't
even know what the effects are named.

The manual is provided as a help file, that comes with the software. A modest manual comes with some versions. I'm not sure what comes with FCP 4. FCP 3 had a fairly decent manual, but most people rely on books for an in depth view of FCP3 features

When I am working in FCE in Trim Mode I can't hear the audio. I am locking the audio in the timeline so I can expand the length of the video file. When i go to check the expanded video in "Trim Edit Mode" I can't hear the audio in playback.

Stumped
Bill

Just wondering if you can do a cross dissolve between to different lines of text? Tried looking in the help but I didn't find anything.

Hi there,

Having a problem burning dvd with idvd. I drag my movie files ( and I've tried everyformat imaginable) and everything looks good, but it always unexpectedly quits when it tells me its rendering menus etc.

Any ideas?

What else will burn other than idvd and dvd studio pro?

How much free space is on your drive? It shouldn't crash for no reason. Toast will burn DVD's but you need to encode them in something.

Hi people,

Ive managed to export to tape when using imovie. i now have a completed timeline on Premiere. ive hooked up the dv canon camera and chosen 'export to tape'. i used to have a problem with this as it wasnt highlighted. isorted that out via 'device control'. but now, when i export, i get the audio but no visual. just black. can anyone help or hazard a guess why?

about 60 gigs free.

no problems with crashing on anything else wither. Could I use cleaner to encode to mpg2 and just burn it with toast 6? If so I'll pickup a copy of toast 6 today. :)

I have a couple of suggestions that might help. First, download the 3.01 patch from Apple. A lot of people have reported greater stability since applying the patch. Second, before you open iDVD, disconnect any firewire devices - cameras, drives, etc.

<rant>I have to say that iDVD 3 is the buggiest piece of trash I've ever seen Apple put out. I've never had so much trouble with a video application in my life.</rant>

Rick

Hi! I'm starting in a visual arts college program in the fall but I would like a Mac-video editing system to use:

With the Student Discount at the Apple Store, I could get:

1.6 ghz Single Processor PowerMac G5
80 Gig HD
256 mb of Ram
4x Superdrive
Airport Extreme Card*
17" Flat Screen Display*
Apple Protection Program*

*extra add on

(i figure I can buy ram cheaper elsewhere than the Apple Store and install it myself!)

total: $2686

or an 1.0 Ghz iMac G4 BTO (17" screen)
80 Gig HD
1 Gig of Ram
4x Superdrive
Airport Extreme Card
Pro Speakers
Bluetooth
Apple Protection Program*

*Extra Add-on

Total: $2517

Your thoughs would be greatly appreciated =D

TIA

Anyone have a tutorial for this effect?

Get the G5, it will last longer - you can always buy more memory later.

i noticed that apple took teh g4 off the website completly. would it be possible to get one from an apple retail store and if they had any left would they sell them at a discounted price?

I saw them at Fry's Electronics in Fountain Valley, CA but I don't know if this is much help to you. They still seem to be avilable, however.
Sandy

Many of the online retailers (B & H, Mac Mall, MacZone) and CompUSA has stock of g4's. If you live near an Apple Store you might check with them. The online store shows 3 models in stock on the web page and one refurbished ($999) model in the Special Deals section.

It's no contest, G5. An iMac would be pretty slow.

Did you check the manual (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=50034)?

color pass is an effect used in premier. in FCP it is called limiting effect on greyscale. it is in one of the manuals (the special effect one i think).

absolutely no contest. G5 all the way. and get a CRT monitor from compUSA or some place like that, and you can probably save another couple of hundred, or get a bigger monitor for the same price. And don't bother with the airport card. if you're living in a dorm, they probably have wired ethernet. of course, if you're living in a house with a few people, a wireless network card may be the best bet. So I guess just MAKE SURE you need the airport card. that money could be put towards more ram, or another hard drive.

But maaaaan I'm jealous! That's about what I paid for my G4, with a few bells and whistles, back in January.

With the huge power outtage up north and in Canada, what effects can it have on our NLEs, computers; etc.?

BAD! Without a UPS (Univeral Power Supply), you can lose EVERYTHING. Plus, they offer insurance if things DO get screwed up.

My two cents,

heath

Hi Everyone.

Not sure if this post should go here or under the Web Thread, or both.



I am attempting to output a movie I made for the Muscular Dystrophy Assosciation to the web using FCP 4 and Compressor.

The settings I use render a large file size and pixelated footage.

I know video takes up a large chunk anyway, but there has got to be a way to compress the size and not degrade the video quality to much.

The output video size is 320 x 240. I would like to keep it that size if possible.

So, if anyone is using FCP4 & COMPRESSOR, can you share your trials and settings, esp. the custom ones, that work for you.

THANKS!