Hrmm, thanks for the input guys. I think I will go with the G5 w/ 17" Cinema Display. A CRT would be a good solution except that I may take this machine to college and a 60lb monitor may be a bit much for a tiny dorm desk :)

I agree with Jaime, consider a CRT if budget is tight. I'm still using my 4 year old 21" Apple Studio Display (really a flat screen trinitron). It looks good at 1600x1200 and holds the timeline, viewer, canvas and palettes fine. I also have a 15" Samsung LCD hooked up to a Radeon PCI graphics card, which also supports a 3rd screen if needed (either s-video, VGA or DVI). My LCD panel is 1024x768 and I use it mainly for the browser, sometimes the canvas.

I also do lots of CAD, image editing and 3d modeling. The big screen spoils you, no way I would ever settle for something less than 1600x1200 in the future :-)

I also agree with the others about the G5 - get it, especially if it has to last for a few years. But this all really depends on individual needs. Actually I just got a second G4 (single 1.25G). I'm in the middle of some projects and not interested in switching to OSX yet and upgrading all my applications. This G4 still boots OS9 and just sits here and renders 3d 24/7 now. But probably next spring I'll think about moving to the G5.

Only one other thing to consider... the G5 is an unknown, not enough out there yet to start hearing about the problems, and the real 64 bit operating system isn't released. I think you need to be prepared to be patient and deal with some odd bugs as an early adopter. And also realize that in a year or so they will be replaced with new models that are cheaper, faster and less buggy. Or at least that has been the case with every other product that Apple has made. I got one of the first generation top of the line power macs, the 8100. It was impressive for its day, but became a dog really quickly (anybody else remember what a nightmare it was to open that case and install RAM? ;-)

Not trying to scare you away, but just go into it with eyes wide open... there's a price to pay for leading the pack...

I am begining to archive my FCP3 projects to a Beta Master tape.
My beta deck is an Sony 1800.

Being an 1800, I am unable to set an in and out point for insert editing. This is how we kept archive tapes at every newsroom i ever worked at. this method kept one timecode for the entire tape.

So far, i must crash edit (hit play and record) which assemble edits, when i want to archive a project. The end result of this method will be an archive tape with tons of different time codes, creating a nightmare if/when i need to dub from this master tape.

Do you guys know a way to solve this?
thanks

sorry for the subject line, should read simply, output.

What are you wanting to do? Insert edit with an 1800? Stripe the tape and it can be done from the front panel. Or buy a serial card and cable for the G4 and FCP will control the deck and do the edits, inserts etc. for you. GeeThree (http://geethree.com/p_stealth.html) makes the Stealth serial card and you'll need a good serial cable. Total cost, under $100.

hey Jeff,

not sure what you by stripe the tape, you mean lay black on the tape?

the front controls of the UVW 1800 panel only allow for me to re-set timecode. cant enter specific points.

went to the link you provided but its chinese to me. how does this device allow me to set in-out points on the beta deck?

I have a shuttle Pro control device, but i cant set edit points with it.

lastly, i would like to archive these projects from quick time.
using super good compression (BLACKMAGIC 10 bit) for ultimate quality, it still takes up the same amount of tape space right?
however, i cant figure how to play my quick time movies outside of FPC3 so that the beta deck sees them.

again, thanks for your patience.

It gives your Mac RS-422 serial control. Install the card, plug serial cable in Sony 1800 and the other end into Mac, open FCP 3 or 4 and set for serial control of Sony 1800. FCP will now be able to set in and out edit points and control the deck.

Stripe a tape is the same as black. Shuttle Pro is not an edit controller and RS-422 is USB compatible. You'll need the Stealth Serial card. Then, the Shuttle Pro can shuttle the deck, set ins and outs etc.

If all your doing is DV then why convert to BlackMagic 10 bit video? If you are doing uncompressed, then it will be worth it. Beta deck only understands NTSC video, not computer Codecs or compression algorithms. You must pick an NTSC video format, not QuickTime. You'll need some kind of transcoder, because 1800 will not accept FireWire, only composite (including S-Video) and component. Component will yield higher quality Beta SP footage, but the transcoder will be more costly.

Hello All,

I just changed churches, and now I am in a church that uses Final Cut Pro 3 for all their editing. I am trying to quickly learn FCP so I can start editing a lot more efficiently. No one at the church knows how to use FCP, so I am going to have to learn it on my own. Unfortunately, I have one setback. I don't have a Mac at home, and I live about 40mins. from my church. I was wondering if anyone knew of any good FREE sites that I could pick up some FCP training. I have already reserved some books from the library, but who knows when they will ever come in...

Thanks in Advance,
John C. Massie
Crossroads Church
Video Director

Hi John,
I don't know of any Web site that offers complete soup-to-nuts basic training for FCP.

The LA Final Cut Pro users group site offers some tutorials. http://www.lafcpug.org/

DVCreators (http://dvcreators.net/) offers various classes and training materials, but they're not free.

Beyond that your best bet will be books. Our "Read About It" forum features several good books.

Hi. I have a Dual 867 Mac. Ive edited in Premiere. I have a little sales film ive put together which id like to take round with me in my PC laptop.
Does anyone know what I need to do to get my film on to a disk which will then load on my laptop? I cant get it off my Mac at the moment.
thanx for any help.

Which OS are you running? Do you have Toast?

no i dont have toast. my OS is Mac OS X.
ive actually just sort of done it.
I made it into a movie. put the quicktime movie onto the disk. burnt it - which was the problem i think, i'd put it on to the disk but not burnt it. then in the laptop it says it cant load so i open quicktime. job done. it was very jerky and freezing so ive downloaded onto my hd. its very slightly jerky still but pretty much fine.

Trent, why aren't you using Final Cut Express/Pro?! Apple has a deal now where you can get FCExpress for free and Pro for a discounted price if you send them the CD for any version of Premiere.

because I bought the Mac second hand and didnt get the software, it was already installed so I have no disc to send back. damn.
Also, coming from a PC background, Ive only ever used Premiere or DPS.

That was it. Duuuhhhhhh. Sometimes the easiest answers are the most elusive. Thanks.

I switched from PC a few years ago and I was a Premiere fan. I still think it is one of the best. I made the transition to Final Cut pro and have not looked back. They are very simular actually and it is really hard to say which is better. I think it is more of a what works better for you. As for me I really like FCP better now comparing the two. FCP has some extra bells and whistels that Premeire dosen't. FCP 4 with all the extras takes the cake and one of the very slack ends it now picks up is the titler.

I still need to get toast myself. Everyone is talking about it. You can make your VCD really user friendly so that when a client puts it in the computer it starts by itself. Simular to a DVD.

I am buying a G5 Dual with 1.5 GHz. Is that enough or should I spend an extra 150 for 2.0 GHz?

This is the exact specs for the computer:

PM-G5 2.0 GHz DP 512MB 160GB Superdrive PCI Rad9600 with 2- 512MB DDR400 (PC3200) 2x256 Dimm kit
Hitachi Deskstar 250GB Serial ATA 7200rpm 8mb cache drive

Any thoughts or comments would be helpful.

Thanks,

Matt

I think you mean 1.5 GB, not 1.5 Ghz. GB = GigaBytes (memory), Ghz = GigaHertz (processor speed)...

I have no experience with the G5's (who does? ;-), but I never knew anyone who later complained that they had TOO MUCH memory ;-)

Apple charges ridiculous prices for RAM. Get Kingston or Crucial RAM from a 3rd party. Search for Mac RAM specifically for the G5 and you will find the brand that Apple uses. RAM is very easy to install as long as you take proper precautions. There aren't any settings or jumpers to mess with. Remember to get RAM in pairs and they should all match.

My bad, I ment 1.5GB. Typo, sorry.

I went up to the local CompUSA to buy some ink jet paper and to my surprise they had a 1.6 GHz G5 in stock. Photoshop was installed, so I ran some informal tests on certain filters and such that I run frequently. WOW. I have no clue how it will stack up in the real world vs. P4's etc. But it smokes my G4 dual 450. I can only imagine how fast the dual 2 GHz will be.

Well as many of you may already know from some of my other posts I've been painstakingly trying to decide between an XL1S and a DVX100. Well so I finally decided to go with the DVX100 for it's 24/fps capabilities. But then, of course, I discovered something that makes the decision not so easy again. See, I was planning on getting a new Powerbook G4 with a SuperDrive and extra RAM to do my editing on. And Apple has a special going on where if you purchase any new computer before September 19, you can get Final Cut Express for only $99 (it retails for $249, I think). So I had been planning on getting FCX, with my new computer. Well, I recently found out that FCX is not compatible with the DVX100's 24/fps mode (this is correct, isn't it?) Which means that now I would have to purchase the Final Cut Pro edition, which I wouldnt mind having, but by the time you add up the price of the DVX100, the Powerbook, and the FCP it will end up costing me over $7,000. Which, needless to say, is A LOT of money. But anyways to my question, I am new to the digital video world, so I am a little worried that FC Pro could be overwhelming. I am skilled with computers and I am a fairly quick learner. As long as all the information I will need to use the program is presented in the manual, I think I could figure it out. But I just wanted to ask y'all how hard you think it would be for someone to pick up on Final Cut Pro with no former experience in anything other than iMovie? Also, was my information correct about FCX not being compatible with 24/fps? Thanks for any help.

Matt -

Find the 3rd party RAM. Then call me, I have a new company that I'm sure I will be needing your help with.

- AR

I don't think FCE works in 24PA, but it may work in other modes, certainly 60i, and 30P. Are you a student? Have you looked at student discounts on the Apple gear?

Sounds like the datarate is too high if you're getting jerky playback off of the cd. You'll need to save it at a lower datarate to play it off of the disc well.

If you need to autorun your QT file and dont have director or something then maybe download the LiveStage Pro demo(I'm sure there is still one) as it's a full version. Make a few autorun files that start generic names of QT movies. Like start.mov, movie.mov etc but anything really. So you can use the autorun over and over just name your QT file whatever you called it in LiveStage Pro and the puppy will autorun fullscreen or whatever you want.

Jake

FCP is a fairly easy program to learn and use. I learned it in about an hour, however I have used AVID, Adobe, Matrix, Toaster Flyer(Old), and media 100. I am a student and some of my classmates have no experiance with anything and they seem to pick it up very quickly and by their second project, seem to be near experts and are showing me shortcuts and new things. Give it a try, I think you will find it fairly easy to catch on.

YOu will be fine. If you have been an computer guy for a while, and esp. an Apple guy, you will have NO problem picking up on FCP.

The great thing is that after you get comfortable with it, you will still learn to do new and better things.

Enjoy your new toys!

Final Cut Pro v 4.0.2 Update is in your Mac OS X Software Update Control Panel.

This update is "strongly recommended for all users working with DV and DVCPRO50 devices. This update resolves an issue in which certain Final Cut Pro configurations would generate repeated frames during Edit to Tape operations."

Anyone have any information on this exam? The FCP4 certification exam. I see it on certifications.apple.com but when i call prometric they tell me they don't have an FCP4 certification exam. Im lost now....

ken stone's final cut pro site has useful information for final cut pro and final cut express. be sure to know how to capture properly in FCP, as it is not as easy as in iMovie.

The interface is pretty easy to pick up. Knowing how to use all the tools will make your life a lot easier (slip edits, roll edits, select all tracks forward, nesting, etc.).

http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/fcp_homepage_index.html

Contact Apple. It could be FCP 4 is so new or the person you spoke to didn't know about the exams. This has come up before here and I think it took several calls to the School to get the exam situation clarified.

thank you for your input. sorry i didn't get back sooner. i never got an update email unfortunately.

i actually just re-posted this type of question. i did this stupid little project last week. and the footage looked fine on camera and TV/monitor but when captured i lost a lot of quality and contrast and all that. used firewire on a dual 500 G4. it was almost unacceptable.

i dont understand how i could look fine on screen and totally different when captured.

so im looking for the highest possible quality capture device that i can afford. for some things i will be going to VHS. but for one of my big projects it will be on DVD. im just afraid that what i shoot and the way it looks on my monitor when the camera is just running into that isn't what im going to be capturing by using just firewire and FCP.

should i look for a software solution or hardware and what of each in particular.

then for hooking up my b-cast monitor i can just run that through a s-vid card or DV deck and itll work like i want it to? i have a dual monitor tower and want the b-cast monitor to just show me what would show up on the TV. so i dont need any other kind of card or equipment to use it in that way?

sorry for all the questions at once.

thank you again. J.

You can just hook up your monitor to your deck.

2- Are you capturing DV? If you are using the presets/defaults and not offline RT then it should be the highest quality possible (it's sort of like a digital transfer so there is no generation loss).

FCP doesn't always show what your footage actually looks like. Check on your broadcast monitor to see what your stuff looks like.

Has anyone played with the program Studio Artist? I have been playing around with animating some street fair footage I shot. I can get good results on a single frame in Photoshop but the thought of doing 30 frames/second....

It looks like this software may apply the same filter to all frames in a QT movie so would be much faster.

All comments appreciated.

I have been using Studio Artist for a couple of years now, although I am far from what I would consider proficient. The possibilities with this thing are endless. Yes, I have taken a video clip and "painted" on it. The result can be as easily disappointing as it can be remarkable. There is quite a good tutorial that comes with it, in fact probably one of the best I've ever seen. If used sparingly and tastefully, Studio Artist can be a great tool.

thanks for the input. i need to definitely get a new b-cast monitor then.

just wondering what the solutions are for DV and capturing at the highest quality possible. i was under the impression that Dv is compressed then when you capture it essectially compresses it again in the machine automatically.

is this not the way it is?

any monitor suggestions?

or DV deck suggestions. do i need this to do anything other than have a VHS and or DV tape thing. i wont be doing any offline editing.

thanks for the input.

J.

The first dual 2 GHz G5s are trickling down to the masses. Here are some real world benchmarks -

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/G5/Powermac_Dual_g5.html

I haven't seen any real world FCP benchmarks yet. Even the iMovie benchmarks used here are really 'real' world and are disappointing. Apparently no real performance gain versus a dual 1.25 G4 as iMovie does not seem to processor aware.

FCP 4 updates are now available for downloading without going through the software update process -

http://www.apple.com/finalcutpro/download/

Apple has a long history of exaggerating capabilities. The truth in their machines performance is usually smack dab between what they say it does and what naysayers say it does.

The main thing to note though, is with these new chips, along with the new chips slated for arrival soon for PCs are of a different type than what software companies have fully developed for. Give it a year or two and software companies will be releasing new versions, packs and patches that optimize their apps for these new platforms. THEN, we'll be seeing some wowy performance.

Way to soon to tell. Wait for the real testers. Also note that the machine was a stock setup, on 512mb ram. Barely enough to do video in my opinion.

What is the latest version of QT I can run with 10.2.5 and FCP 3.0.4?

Should I go to 10.2.6 and QT 6.3?

My DVDSP2 should be coming today and I want to make sure I get the latest and greatest w/o goofin up the FCP.

You don't have a choice. DVDSP2 requires OS 10.2.6 and QT 6.3 I have no problem with FCP 3 and those versions of QT and OS. When you upgrade to 10.2.6 go to Apples site and download the combo version update. Mac Fixit is full of stories about problems that are resolved by using the combo update. But it's a big one, about 85mb.

Good Morning,

I've been trying to find the system requirements for Adobe After Effects
5.0 but I can't seem to get them on the web. My question is as follows:
ss AF 5.0 compatible with Mac 9.2 or do I have to be running Mac OS 10.
Also, if there is anyone interested in selling a copy of After Effects that is
compatible with Mac OS 9.2 let me know. As always, thanks for eveyone's
help. Glen

So, the two 128 mb chips are in slots 2 and 3 (four slots total, 1 and 2 are in one spot on the logic board, 3 and 4 are about 3 inches down from 1 and 2), so I put a 512 mb chip in slot one, no detection. I put it in slot four, no detection. My roommate goes to apple's support page--have to be paired up.

So I put one 128 mb chip in slot one, so there is a 128 mb chip in slots one and two. Mac didn't boot up at all (power went on, no chime...). Moved it back to the original configuration, booted up. So, since I have one 512 mb chip of ram, will it not detect anything until I buy another one and put it in?! Do you really have to load up ram in pairs?!?! DAMN!

And my burner's tray got stuck. One apple store girl said, not another G5! (I don't think she meant that problem, just another G5 with a friggin' problem..)

A little FYI and a question.

heath

I am having trouble stretching letterboxed footage from a Panasonic DVX100 to anamorphic, i.e 33.33% vertical stretch. I tried After Effects, but the results were disappointing.
I then tried using Photoshop on a still frame from the footage, and the result is spectacular. Obviously, either AfterEffects' stretching algorithm is useless, or I have done something wrong.
Could anyone help me please. What is the best way to stretch footage. I have AfterEffects 5.5 and Final Cut Pro 3

The burner is a standard Pioneer burner (there is a rumor that some are getting
Sony burners) and trays get stuck. Possibly defective in manufacture or misaligned during shipment.

The ram question is best directed towards Apple or the ram vendor. This is the first I've heard of the ram only in pairs for G5's. Perhaps direct this question to Apple. I suspect it may be incompatible or defective ram chip.

I talked to a genius and he said ram can't be put in one at a time in the G5, but it has to be put inside in pairs.

In the 1.8 ghz and dual 2 ghz, it has two 256 mb chips instead of one 512 mb. My 1.6 ghz machine has two 128 mb chips (I remember when 128 mb was huge, as was 256 mb).

heath

Some programs don't actually show you what your footage looks like (i.e. Final Cut Pro). You should check on a NTSC monitor or export a frame and look at it in Photoshop or something.

Some stretching algorithms are better than others. Also, it can depend on how you apply it. In Photoshop it is better to resize in small steps.

You can do this in Final Cut Pro. Click on a video clip in the timeline to bring up its attributes in the left preview window (depending on how you have your FCP GUI set up). Click the "Motion" tab. Click "Distort" or "Distortion" (I don't have FCP right in front of me). See all those numbers? Take any number that says "240" and change it to "310". Likewise if it says "-240" then change it to "-310". You will have to render it from there.

To the best of my knowledge AE 5.0 works on 9.2.2 Adobe has a forum you can ask, have you tried them? Sorry I can't be more specific, I moved to OS X over 2 years ago.