I agree with Glenn, the more the better, but 768 should be fine, but hard to do in pairs.

Anyone here who knows if the new G5 can be used with the Matrox RTMac card? Or how can I then connect a videomonitor or VCR to the computer ?

The RTMac's OS 10 drivers are just now in beta testing. Given Matrox's history with this product I wouldn't count on certified G5 compatibility any time soon.

The way I connect external monitors to my system is through my Panasonic deck.

Mac -- (Firewire) --> Deck --(RCA)--> monitor

For the relatively short time I was able to use my RTMac, its breakout box was quite handy.

Just remember, when putting in new Ram, it has to be done in pairs. It kind of sucks, but what can you do?

Good luck with editing,

heath

Hello all, first message here.

I use Final Cut Pro and the JVC sr-vs30e deck that I recently bought. Deck works fine except cant get a picture on TV monitor from FCP.
Log and capture(FCP) works fine -so firewire connection works.

. When I run a tape on the JVCdeck from the computer -I get a picture on the TV monitor.
. Running a picture from the harddrive through the deck to TV monitor -cant make it work.
. Running a picture from the harddrive through a DVcamera -no problem.

Anybody with a solution, I´ll be most grateful!
thanks,
emil, sweden

I don't have an sr-vs30 so I can't check this, but the one time I played with one, it took some time to figure out how to put the thing in the correct mode to make the video go in the right direction. The firewire port did not appear to be bi-directional. I remember that we had to set the direction (I have to do the same thing with my Sony DVMC-DA2).

In your case the firewire must be set to bring video IN from the tape. You'll have to reverse the direction to write to tape and thus display on a monitor.

I don't think LG is in the same league as NEC. I know of no one editing using LG monitors. However, with that said, if the image looks good and has similar specs, I'm sure the price is competitive. It might be worth a shot.

I don't have an explanation for this. Have you tried contacting Roxio? I use Toast 6 and all previous versins and have never had an issue burning DVD's.

I have not tried contacting Roxio yet. I want to mention also, Toast does not
double the size of files under the 2G mark. Odd.
thank you for your input.
Pedar gilley

Are all your hard drives formatted the same, HFS+?

Hello everyone:
I am needing some input from those of you who teach video editing, particularly to beginner/intermediate learners.
I am pursuing a part-time teaching position in which I would be teaching the basics of editing video using the Apple I-movie software. (the target audience is ages 13 - adult) I would be very interested in learning how some of you plan your syllabus / lessons.

Thanks a lot
Jean King

I have a long reply that is probably better sent via an email. your email address did not resolve properly. if you'd like to send me your email I'll send the information along to you. kuenzli@gci.net

Please post your comments publicly also. The whole idea of the community is that all can share in the knowledge of the group. If answers are provided privately, the other members can not benefit.

It looks like Charles' alma mater is moving into the Mac world for their post work. (See the article. (http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/2003/10/02/scrubs/index.php?redirect=1065131487000))

I think Charles noted something to this effect a few months back.

Yup. I visited the editors a few weeks back, they are loving life. They were editing on Avids before at fairly high levels of compression, so having DV quality images (the Super 16mm footage is telecined to HD on a Spirit/DaVinci, then downcoverted to DVCam for the offline and Digibeta for the final assembly) is a big plus for them and the executive producer. And being able to take the work home on their 17" Powerbooks is putting big smiles on their faces. It's going to be interesting to see as things develop, whether they will be able to do the onlines inhouse as well as color correction and effects work on Shake.

It was a little strange watching tonight's season opener episode, the first "Scrubs" I had nothing to do with...! My successor, Rich Davis, is doing a great job in my stead.

I wansn't sure if what I need comes with the G5, or if I will need
to buy the $100 adaptor in order to attach a non-apple DVI-D LCD display?

Thanks "Guys",

Dan

Hello Charles. I am familiar with conversions and telecine but how are all of these extra steps of video conversion efficient other than portability in a laptop. Why aren't you working on Scrubs anymore?

i dont believe so
the adc adaptor is for powerbooks and older macs using vga

i think..

The video cards have two monitor connections, one ADC and one DVI. You may purchase adapter to convert DVI to ADC and vice versa. There is also support for mirroring and dual monitors.

I have DVD Studio Pro 1, fpc 3 and a g-4 with kona card.

i can build and watch the story, but everytime i burn it says not permitted after i burn it.

i am dragging video ts and audio ts to the blank DVD on desktop and then clicking burn disc in finder.

the users manuel is not real clear on this crucial last step, or most likely, its just me.

this is getting expensive!!!!

You will have to choose build & format from dvdsp 1 to write a dvd-video which dragging those folders and clicking burn is not.

If your drive isn't supported you'll need to use Toast Titanium or something. In Toast Ti 5 you'll need to select other > dvd to write a dvd-video and not a dvd data disc.

Becareful though as dvdsp 1 is pretty buggy. Also get a dvd-rw & toast if you want to save a lot of money on those coasters....

Jake

thanks guys

Hi James:

They haven't added any steps--they used to have the Digi-Beta master, a Beta dub made for input into the Avid, and a 3/4" made for dailies dubbing, which was done in house and distributed on VHS (I think about 20 copies went out to the various personnel that needed to see dailies). Now they've kep the Digi-beta, switched to DVCam for FCP and the post house makes DVD's of the dailies, so they've saved themselves that step in house.

Again, their goal is to eventually combine the offline and online process by doing most or all of it in house.

I left the show because I've been getting more feature work, and I am moving on from operating to directing. In the meantime I've been dayplaying on other shows as they come up. I loved working on "Scrubs" but episodic television is a grind; 7 months of 13 hour days takes it's toll and I needed to move on.

Apple has a page here (http://www.info.apple.com/usen/cinematools/)

I'm desperate
tomorrow I have to bring everyhting to the negative cutter, and I cannot create a quicktime-file because it seems to be too big for the Mac: after 4.95 Gbyte it stopps to convert. The play is 30' so I do need maybe additiona 20% of memory space.

I tried to reduce the quality, the audio (till the horror of 24k, 8bit mono), the resolution 400*300, but the size changes only +/- 5%.

Somebody has an idea?

I'm still using the FCP3 as I didn't want to change during a ongoing project.
Thanks
Istvan

You don't need or want to change resolution and audio if
possible at all. Leave that to the last option, unless you are
doing web broadcast. The trick is using a different codec. What
codec are you using now? Most people who want to retain
some quality but also have a high compression level choose
the Sorenson codec (the higher the version you have the
better).

MPEG4 video will encode a lot faster than sorenson3, and a bit worse quality.

If you are still getting stuck on quicktime export then try looking for offline media. You will need to reconnect it. If you have offline media then the export will get stuck. Of course, this may not be your problem.

2- Doesn't your negative cutter want an Edit Decision List?

Anyone?

Thanks for suggestments.
The reason I need it is that the negative cutter wants also a QT-file to create a tape to be able to control the EDL-list (which was created by CinemaTools). The same disire has also the Optical-lab, but one wants it in Betacam the other in VHS-format....:-)

The main problem is that for a very stupid reason I telecined originally on PAL, so I need to reconvert first everything in NTSC, and then create the tape.

I'll try now the other Codecs, maybe they will work better. I have still the whole night to go...

Thanks anyway for help
Istvan

I just trashed everything once and for all from my Classic environment and am wondering if there's a SAFE way to get rid of that partition as well. Any ideas? FCP is hungry...I need more space!

Hi - I've got iDVD 2 which came with my Mac when I bought it. I see on Apple.com that there is now a version 3. Is there a way for me to update from 2 to 3? On the Apple website I can see downlads to update from 2 to 2.1 and from 3 to 3.1 but nothing from 2 to 3. Is there a way of doing this?

You have to purchase iDVD 3 separately (comes with the iLife suite) and then you can upgrade to 3.0.1.

Have you checked the apple/support/discussion/osx forum - I think it's discussed there, including suggestions for how best to fully back up your material in OSX first.

Repartitioning a drive also re-formats the entire drive. So back up everything on all partitions before doing that as you'll lose everything in the process.

Personally, I prefer to set aside a seperate partition for the operating system and applications. Files, which are constantly re-written and modified, will then only fragment one partition and leave the startup partition untouched.

With OS 10, the startup partition has to be fairly large. It seems the OS uses a great deal of space on the drive and I'm not exactly sure why. But I now set it up with at least two gigabytes of free space.

Dean Sensui
Base Two Productions

If your version of iDVD works, I would not upgrade. A lot of folks have problems with the newer version.

Thanks, guys. I originally had Classic on a partition with 5Gb, then OSX on the big part of the partition.

Since I can't simply swallow up the 5Gb partition without reformatting the entire drive, I'll just leave it there and designate that 5Gb for photos only.

I love Soundtrack! I think it offers a lot of valuable music solutions that were never quite available before for the average NLE editor. I found creating music with Soundtrack rather easy and a lot of fun to boot!

Here's a brief sample clip of one groove I created during my first encounter with Soundtrack - without even having to read the manual or consult any help files. It was still a lot of fun to create hehehe
http://noisybrain.com/apple/soundtrack/sample_100503.mov

This makes me want to figure out how to create my own Soundtrack samples with my guitar.

http://www.apple.com/soundtrack

- don

Check out the discussion forum at apple to get an idea of the problems to which Glenn refers. The other side of the story is someone like myself, who have only owned a camcorder since the beginning of July. I have had very few problems with either iMovie or iDVD and all have been solved - most of them by ensuring as much hard drive space free as possible and by storing projects not in use on an external firewire drive. And I'm working on a Powerbook with only 60GB of hard drive space total.

It can be kind of cool to play with. I immediately recognized your work as samples from Soundtrack, so it does kind of stick out.

Not too long ago a friend of mine and I were riding our bikes around when we decided to tool around on the ol' Hutch BMX. I decided to video tape it with no planning whatsoever with the XL1 and 3X wide angle lens (no tripod or anything). I used Soundtrack to do the music. Check it out:

Click here to download. Quicktime. 16.8 MB (http://12.151.50.47/video/dirtbike.mov)

Okay, thanks - I'll stick with 2.1 - it seems adequate.

Pretty cool, guys. I can't wait to get my hands on it. I've already bought the FCP 4 upgrade, but it's sitting impatiently in the box waiting for OSX.3 to come out (I don't want to upgrade my system now, then have to again in a month or two).

Don, when you figure out how to load samples in, let us in on it. Ted, that last shot takes you by surprise at first...good job.

I really want to use Final Cut Pro 4, mostly I want to use Soundtrack, but I have an ibook 500.

I used Final Cut Pro 3 on it before, but it was never mine. My friend let me try it out for a little bit and I had to give the software back to him.

anyway, FCP 3 is great.

However, I was looking on eBay and you can get FCE for a great price. I figured many people bought it for 99 dollars with the purchase of a new computer in order to sell it.

I was thinking, maybe I should get FCE for 150 bucks while I save up to get a desktop to run FCP 4.

I would love to get Soundtrack, but there must be alternatives out there.

Question is, besides BATCH CAPTURE, which I used when I edited a feature in FCP 3, what is FCE missing that I would actually miss.

Doesn't seem like much.

Thank you.

Are there any other programs like SOUNDTRACK that let you create royality free music for your films?

I use an ibook 500 G3, and Soundtrack doesn't work on it.

I read that there are hacks, but I'm a little scared do to that.

Is there a program I could use on my G3, that would do the job?

FCE is FCP for DV users. If you are working exclusively in DV (PAL or NTSC) there's practically no difference between FCE and FCP3. Keyframe editing is a little less flexible than in FCP (can't edit keyframes in the viewer). You'll find detailed comparisons on the Apple website.

My main problem is that Final Cut Pro glitches during playback.

I have a Que! M3 120GB 7200rpm harddrive and use an Imac with 768MB total of RAM

I thought it might be because I use an Imac with fairly low RAM, but then I edited via a Lacie harddrive and FCP worked fine.

Then I tried adjusting the "device tuner" for the Que!HD to safe mode, but it said that the HD was "unsupported," whatever that means. I called the tech support at least a dozen times and they can't find a solution either.

Any suggestions for this problem?

Thanks,

Michael B

I did something similar to what you're thinking of. When I bought my G4, I went ahead and got the $99 FCE with the full intention of quickly upgrading to FCP. However, after doing a couple projects in FCE, I decided that was exactly what I needed. Most of FCP's extra features deal with higher end broadcasting and film work. I work with DV so I don't really need that stuff right now. Yes, I will admit, not being able to batch capture is a pain. But I don't need that feature so bad that I'm going to spend the extra $600 (B&H Photo sells it cheaper than Apple) to upgrade to Pro.
Getting back to your question... yes, I think its a great idea to get FCE for the time being while you're saving up for the desktop. After some fiddling around, you may even decide to stay with Express after getting the desktop.
When it comes to whether or not you'll miss certain features, that all depends on you and your projects. You even might be suprised at how many are included, only in a simplified form - like the color corrector. Personally, batch capture is the only missing feature that I could really use. I bought a very good book called Final Cut Express Editing Workshop by Tom Wolsky. You may feel more confident in your purchase if you find a copy at a local book seller (I found mine at Barnes & Noble) and just browse the lessons. That will give you a good idea of what the program is capable of and what you may find lacking.
Also, you can look at it financially. If you buy FCE for $150 on ebay, try it out, and can't stand how simple it is, then all you have to do is buy the FCP upgrade for $600 at B&H and you've saved $250 on the purchase of the full FCP. Which you turn around and apply towards that desktop.
Either way, I'd say its a pretty good idea.

Back in college, for our video productions we used the built-in VU meters
on the decks to monitor audio levels while we edited...

Now that everything's non-linear, what's my option?

I'm using a G5, F.C.E. & a Canon GL-2...

Thanks Guys!

:)
Dan

I've never had a problem with the built-in meters. Have you?

You can't un-partition without reformatting your entire drive. Think of it as an opportunity to install a clean system, having backed up all your documents/DV projects/email inboxes, etc. (of course).

Are there built in meters with Final Cut Express?