Yes, FCE has built in audio level meters. If you don't see them, turn them on in >Window>audio meters or by hitting option-4

FCP's meters are more like a Peak Program Meter (the type using LEDs) than the analog VU meter (with the little stick). There are some subtle differences between the two which you should probably know.

http://www.roadogz.com/stories/downunder/vumeters.htm might shed some light on it. I'm sorry if that may not be the best explanation.

thanks guys. obviously i havn't used Final Cut Express yet,
since I'm asking such questions.

i appreciate the help!

take care,
Dan

i guess not?

anyone, anyone, jobs, jobs....

http://www.smartsound.com/sonicfire/order.html

- don

There could be any number of reasons for this, depending on what kind of glitches for a start. Do you mean dropped frames? Or intermittent drop-out-like "specks" in the frame (the latter problem I fixed a while ago by taking out some third-party RAM).

Tell us more.

I am referring to the new FCP add inside the latest issues of Macworld and Mac Addict magazines. There is an intergrated analog Mackie mixer in the system. How and why would one use an analog mixer with Final Cut pro?

Just for giggles, I decided to try and run the Apple Hardware Test CD that came with my Mac. It started booting and said something about a memory error, went into Open Firmware and I had to type "shut-down". This happened both times I tried. I know the RAM is good (at least I think so). The only thing I can think of is that the RAM sticks aren't in slots 1 and 2, they are in slots 2 and 3 (I removed the one from slot 1 during troubleshooting one time and it is insanely difficult to insert anything in that particular slot, so it went to slot 2). Would this confuse the Hardware Test Disc?

Any other ideas? I'm not too worried since the machine is running fine.

PS - My Mac is a dual G4 with 2 sticks of the same brand of 512MB DDR RAM. Machine is the "Mirrored Drive Door". OS is 10.2.8, which I hear screws up fsck -you

The Apple Hardware Test CD is only for the specific computer it came with. Did the CD come with the machine you're testing it on? If so, it is probably a Ram issue. It probably looks at slot one and not finding any Ram, aborts the test.

A mixer is nice because you don't have to mess around with wiring once you set it up. It's a convenience if you have multiple inputs (i.e. voice-over mic, DAT machine, MD recorder) or multiple outputs (good speakers for editing, a pair of crappy speakers to double check your sound, headphones, etc.). It will compensate for different kinds of inputs and outputs so you don't need amps or pads/attenuators and adapters. It's useful when doing voice-over work since you can hook headphones up and immediately hear any mistakes (i.e. your mouth is too dry).

In most cases you can get the same things done by moving wires around.

My equipment is G4-TiPB-1GHz / OS 10.2.2 / 1024 MB RAM / FCP 3.0.4

I want to upgrade my OS so I can install and run DVD Studio Pro 2 (min. 10.2.6). My goals are simplicity and stability. I'd appreciate suggestions on an OS upgrade choice.

Thanks.

I use DP800, OS 10.2.6 770MB ram and FCP 4 DVDSP2 and all works fine so I'm not gonna upgrade again for a while at least. perhaps after Panther has proven itself.

I am working on a project which involves handing the client a finished version of a 15 minute clip on CD. MPEG1 looks so horrible and MPEG2 hogs bandwidth, so I would like to give the guy a better looking clip compressed with a more modern codec. I like the quality/bandwidth ratio of Divx and the tools are freely available and have been tested on my Mac. but I would like to adhere to the MPEG4 standard, so what he get's will be playable for years to come on standards-based platforms. I can use FFmpegX to make a very good looking Divx AVI file that will play on many Wintel. Linux and OS X machines with the right software, but it is not really MPEG4. Or I can use Apple's MPEG4 encoder included in QuickTime which is not as good, to make a file that is more standards-based but does not have the great quality/bandwidth ratio of Divx. So my question is... is there a way to take the great looking Divx data encoded with FFmpegX and put it, without recompressing the video, into an MPEG4 standards-based file?

This is similar to the problem some poeple seem to have with WM9, right? Microsoft uses the MPEG4 standard in it's own way, takes all the great ISO work and puts it into a file format that will only play with a program that says 'Microsoft', just so it is not QuickTime compatible. Duh.

Why not use mini-DV tape? It's about the highest quality master you can get (depending on what you started with).

> Why not use mini-DV tape? It's about the highest quality master
> can get (depending on what you started with).

Oh I will. He will get the master too. But video on a CD is so convenient, he can post it on a web site, copy it to another CD... it's becoming the new VHS.

I have actually been getting paid to copy VHS stuff to Divx :-)

Does anyone know if Sony plans to make Vegas for the mac?

Can anybody tell me the differences between the two programs? Is DVD Studio pro worth the extra money if you have iDVD?

DVD SP is a far more powerful and sophisticated authoring application. The current version (2.0) offers many of the "canned" features that make iDVD so enjoyable to use. But it also enables you to access all of the features of the DVD authoring specification (ex: 5.1 sound, multiple subtitling, multiple audio tracks, etc.).

If you only plan to build basic DVD's with fairly simple menus and single audio tracks iDVD will fill the bill nicely. If you plan to become a professional DVD author you'll need DVD SP.

See the Apple site (http://www.apple.com/dvdstudiopro/) for more information.

If iDVD is not buggy for you then it could be a great choice. However, many people run into bugs with it.

It depends on what you want to do though. DVD SP will give you better results if your videos are over an hour. You can also get fancier menus with it.

I use DVD SP for my clients. My wife uses iDVD, but most of her programs are only 10 to 20 minutes. Glen is correct that the quality is lower on programs over an hour. iDVD doesn't give you much choice as far as compression of the original material for MPEG 2. DVD SP is much more flexible in almost all user settings. What type of work do you hope to do?

Hello there-

I taped a wedding this weekend with a new camera (DVX100). When I recorded, I had my headphones on the whole time and the audio sounded perfect- as well as the levels showed up properly on the LCD.

However, when I imported the tape into FCP4, the audio is extremely low- I had to increase the decible level 12db to make it sound "soft" even. Three questions:

1. Can I re-import the tape with different settings to make the audio louder?
2. Is there a filter I can use to make the audio louder?
3. Why would this have happened when I can hear perfectly from the camera through my headphones?

Thanks!

PS- This may not be the correct forum so I will also add to the DVX100 forum....

And then there's avid, which goes both ways. A version of each comes with your purchase.

Well, if you HAVE to, you can always export the entire audio track to AIFF (using export to quicktime... choose Audio to AIFF and select 16 bit stereo 48000Hz). Import the audio file back into FCP. Now lock the video track on the timeline and select the audio track and press the Delete button. You can unlock the video track now and drag the new audio file to the timeline. It should match up perfectly with the video. You can raise that another 12db if you need. You'll probably get more noise doing it this way, since the signal to noise ratio is low when recording at a low volume.

How difficult is it to install and set-up an internal hard drive in either the 1.6 or 1.8 G5?

What brands seem to be the most reliable for video work?

I have never found installing hard drives or memory very difficult. However, if the thought of opening up your new G5's case is frightening to you, you may want to leave it to a service center. Now that, that is said, installing HD takes 15 to 20 minutes and requires a small Phillips head screwdriver. A flat blade screwdriver may come in handy to pry open some of the cable connectors.

Apple used to have several QuickTime movies on installing HD's in various Mac models. Check their site and Knowledge Data Base for help for your specific model.

I have several IBM and Western Digital hard drives. No problems with any of my drives. Seagate has always made a very reliable drive, but I haven't used any of their drives in several years. Buy the biggest you budget allows. My last drive was a Western Digital 160gb drive for $85, after rebate, at Office Depot. Keep any eye out for specials and rebates.

<<<-- Originally posted by Jeff Donald : I have several IBM and Western Digital hard drives. No problems with any of my drives. -->>>

I used to be pretty cocky about hard drive reliability as well. However 2 months ago I got a new G4/1.25, and 3 weeks out of the box the original internal Hitachi Deskstar drive failed, making a grinding clickity-click sound.

But I generally agree with you that it isn't hard to install your own drives. Haven't seen the G5, but you will find pretty good instructions in the back of the manual for installing extra drives in the G4 series. Isn't this also the case on the G5?

Does FCP have the ability to move a frame down? Imagine you have a clip that your DP didn't frame the way he/she should have. When you crop it, the actors eyes are cut out. I need to be able to move the image down, cropping more of the bottom and NONE of the top. Can FCP do this? I've seen it down on the big Avid systems but not in a DV system.

Sure - it has full crop and move tools in the Motion Tab.

Thanks! I'm a PC person so I know very little of FCP. Will that "crop and move" cause any zooming or loss of res?

In the Motion Tab you can crop, position, and zoom video, with full keyframe control. So you only have to zoom if you need to. If you're shooting 4:3 and matting to 16:9, then you can apply a widescreen matte filter, and move the video independantly under that matte to position it for the framing you want.

If you've shot 16:9, obviously, you're pretty stuck with what you're giving unless you zoom and crop, but that would be the case on any editing system, and yes, zooming would loose a little resolution, but that's unavoidable.

Graeme

www.storagereview.com has a reliability survey of various drives. It has no good data on SATA drives right now but most of them are based on PATA technology so you might be able to extrapolate from previous drives' performance.

It seems like the latest IBM SATA drive might be the fastest right now. For video editing look at the sustained transfer rates of the drive. The review has this info with a comparison of other fast drives that are available at time of writing.

IBM historically has not made the most reliable drives. Earlier on they made 5-platter drives (other drives have 1, 2, or 3) which were really good performers but very unreliable.

I use Protools for my audio in Avid. Just picked up a G5.. What a nightmare!!! It's the most beautiful machine in the world! But, my protools doesn't work. Any advice??

I have a 120 gig external. Can anyone tell me why I only end up with 115 gig when I do a disc erase at the end of a project?
Mac G4
regards

Can you be a bit more specific as to what is not working? One
would assume you checked out before hand what would and
would not work.

The marketing people calculate one gig as 1000kb, computers (your OS) calculates it as 1024kb. Thus the marketing people (label on the box) can say the drive is really bigger than it is.

Also some space is reserved for if you happen to get weak or
bad sectors. Then there is also overhead for your filesystem and
some other stuff for the Operating System.

Never assume Rob... Unfortunately I got so "hyped up" about the machine that I neglected to see if my software was compatable.

I can't tell if the problem is my pro tools or the G5. It won't let me save audio to the hard drive. I've reformatted and it still doesn't work. I called pro tools and they said that Pro tools won't work on the G5 until mid November! I was just wondering if anybody was having better luck than I?

If ProTools told you it won't work, I really doubt you'll find a solution until either Apple or Protools updates their software. It may require the update to 10.3 due out next week. Did ProTools offer any specifics? Have you checked their site or forums? They used to have a very active community, but I haven't been to their site lately. I switched to Peak several years ago. Peak isn't as advanced but it does what I need.

With SATA there is hardly no problems in setting up the drives. As there are no jumpers to worry about, also large partitions are now easier, as is faster data transfer.

Western Digital is a far better drive to choose from, then IBM and Maxtor being last as this comes from techs that replace the drives.

Protools is currently working on a solution to fix that problem. Where I work, that is a very common question.

But Protools is working on a quick solution to make it compatible with the G5. They even have a link on their website, digidesign.com

I know how you feel about it not being able to work, but if you're able to hold on a little longer, I think you'll be quite pleased with the results once the update is released.

My PDX 10 has been working great in the editing process so far, but just recently I lost my external video/audio function when using FCP 4 and connected via FireWire. I went all through the menu looking for settings that might be amiss, but could not find anything. There is a possibility that the FireWire cable is the culprit, but I'm disinclined to go with this explanation because I still get communication and video functionality in Log and Cap.

I don't know about FCP4, but there is some bugginess in this area under FCP3. Sometimes, after really doing a lot of editing/rendering, I find that I can't send external video over firewire. This doesn't seem to have anything to do with the PDX-10, it also happens with my VX-2000. Quitting and restarting FCP usually fixes it, or else doing a re-boot.

But FCP3 has a specific, annoying bug that also causes this. For some reason, if you set the canvas to view at 100% external video will frequently stop working for no apparent reason. It is generally cured by selecting "fit to window" from the drop-down view button above the canvas.

I'm sure FCP4 has its own set of odd quirks... er, I mean "features", however...

Documentaries, Shorts, etc.

What is the simplest way to upgrade from 10.2.3 to at least OS 10.2.5? My Mac is not hooked up to the internet, nor do I want it to be, but the PC that lives next to it is. I was under the impression that the Jaguar upgrade would have got me to at least 10.2.5. Will this cost any money, or is it one of the system updates that occasionally pops up? I just want to install FCP4.

On a side note, Do I have to get matched RAM for the 800MHZ G4 Imac? Someone told me I need to buy laptop RAM. What are the specs on the RAM I need and does anybody have a cheap, reliable resource?

ROCK ON!!!!!!!

P.S. What a great resource this is. Thanks to all of those who have helped in the past.

Dan, do a search for "mac RAM" on google. Click on any site and find the a compatible brand and type of RAM for you Mac. Then go to newegg.com and buy the right kind of RAM (they usually have the cheapest or closest to cheapest prices, and have great service).

If your iMac uses DDR (dual data rate) RAM then you need to install it in pairs. It should say somewhere on the Apple website (like under hardware specs). DDR400 would indicate that you need a pair of PC3200 RAM. It's cheaper to buy RAM in pairs.

Dan,
Hmmm. Well the stand-alone software update downloads are located here (http://www.info.apple.com/support/downloads.html). I have never tried to download one from a PC, store it on a CD and then sneaker it over to a Mac, but that's what I'd be inclined to try. (Are you sure you don't want to connect that Mac to the Net temporarily?)

BTW, be sure to use the "combo" version of the update to 10.2.8, rather than the smaller version. It can spare you some trouble by performing a more thorough update.

Good luck and let us know what solution ultimately works for you.

What Ken says will work fine. You must use the combo upgrade to jump several versions (10.2.3 to 10.2.5 plus). Jaguar is 10.2 everything past that is an upgrade. When did you buy your computer?

Anyone out there have any experience importing EDL's from Final Cut Pro into Incite 3.1 video editing software on a PC? I'm asking for a friend who's having a hell of a time using this software at his job and is looking for a workaround.

thanks,
Jennifer Marine

I have a Quicktime video that has a poster image...the "Click to Play" type. The viewer has a choice to also listen to the same video as an audio file. My question is, does anyone know how to attach an image to a QT audio file (using QT rather than FCP)?

I've already made the poster image with Click to Play...and it's working fine at calling up the QT mp3 file I made. Problem is, after clicking the poster image, there's a huge blank spot where normally the video image goes and the audio controller is centered vertically in that space. I'd like to put a still image in there to show while the audio file is playing.

Ok, shot in 24pa, DVFilmed to to 24fps, now I'm brining into FCP. I made the setting for 23.98 but what of the other settings namely Field Dominance? Any other little tidbits of settings info would help too, with FCP OR DVFilm.