I checked Thursbys' site and it said I needed to download Dave 4.0.2 and select "uninstall" from the installer. Problem is that their DMG file cannot even mount. I am using the latest incarnation of the Mac OS X.2.

Yes, I am quite upset.

Does anyone know if it's possible, and if so how, to make a clip into a duotone (black and white footage that has a bluish tint to it) and then to add noise with as much control over the hue and noise as in Photoshop?

I'm going for a security camera effect...but the thing is I'm trying to match video footage with still images that will appear side-by-side with the video footage and have them appear with the same noise and hue. The still images were made to look like security camera footage using the noise and duotone functions of Photoshop mentioned above.

FCP version 3.0
Quicktime version 6.1

I turned off stop on drop frames and timecode error in preferences and was able to capture properly, but then the audio is so far out of sync it doesn't matter.

Looks like capturing with Imovie works though.

What version of FCP are you using? I've been able to create this type of effect with the Color Correction filters in FCP 3. I'm happy to get more detailed if appropriate.

you can work faster and more easily. once you use a big screen or a dual screen setup (for those of us that can't afford a big flat screen) you'll never look back. The small project I'm doing now is an example. On my left 17" monitor I have the viewer and canvas at 50% as well as the browser with the effects and project tabs. The latter are in a long column. There is space below the viewer and canvas windows to drag the filter or motion tab when working with them so as to be able to view the filters or motion screens and see the effects on the video. On the right monitor I have my timeline which is currently comprised of 4 audio tracks and three video tracks and will certainly grow beyond that. I don't know how in the heck people work on fcp on a single monitor. I know it's doable and I've had to do it here and there but it's very cumbersome once you have used a large screen. I'd prefer a 23" flat screen but dual 17" crts are a decent compromise since my video work is just family stuff at this point.

John,

Don't forget the very apparent scan line appearence of security footage, i have some nice plug ins for after effects to achieve this effect, as well as noise and overly contrasty video.

If this is a controlled shoot, try and shoot it at 60i not in frame mode, and also load your stills onto your dv tape either by shooting them or via firewire then capture them back as video, it may be easier to match the looks then.

Zac

OK I was able to finally get the DMG file to mount and uninstalled Dave, and now I am free to transfer the files back and forth to get the video work done. I am relieved, but still upset that Dave buries itself so deep into the system. That reminds me of Windows programs that needed uninstallers instead of dragging them to the trash like you can do with most Mac apps.
Oh well. Live and learn.

Hi Curtis,

Thank you for keeping us posted with how it went for you. Much appreciated. I will look into it and see what I can find out, not sure how long that will take though hehe my schedule is totally swamped as it is! Perhaps Jeff or another user here can chime in with an answer to your question?

In case you run into any snafus booting up with Jaguar, it's a good idea to read this article and perhaps have it printed out and handy.
http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/care_feeding_jag.html

Don't forget to keep all of your original Jaguar install disks and system restore disks handy, in fact you should burn a copy of them for added safety.

- don

There are known problems with QT 6.x.x and FCP 3.0.4 regarding audio sync problems with tapes recorded on Canon cameras. The sync adjust feature in preferences is not working.

I'm creating a project in iDVD that includes a slide show consisting of text pages. When I display the text "slides" on a TV monitor, the text seems to show "ghosting" around the individual letters . . . and basically is less sharp than I want. Can somone suggest methods for dealing with text in this format that will provide better legibility and resolution?

Thanks, Dick

I'm not sure what ghosting looks like. Is it color bleed from too strong a color (over saturated reds etc.) or an encoding problem with iDVD? Can you post or email me some examples?

Jeff:


Hmmmmm . . . ghosting. Well it's similar to a halo around certain parts of certain letters. So instead of getting a clean foreground (letters) against a background parts of the text/background seem unevenly lit (perhaps glowing or pulsing describes it better). Is this a function of the scanning technology inherent in NTSC monitors?

I hope this helps. And thanks!!

I don't use iDVD, but my best guess, without seeing the artifacts is, the MPEG 2 encoding is causing the text troubles. Are you using the current versions of iDVD and QuickTime?

The other possibility is you choice of colors. Try using neutral colors like shades of grey etc. and do a test clip to see if it disappears.

If you think it is your NTSC monitor, try taking you DVD to a friends or neighbors and view it there. If it looks substantially different then your monitor may be partly to blame.

John,
how about shooting your footage off of the tv and play with different white balance settings. I once shot some video of a friend and made it b/w and then played it back on the tv, then shot that with my video camera and I think I got it to look blue-ish and have the scan lines in it, the more you zoom in on the tv image the bigger the scan lines.

If you mess with your tv/camera controls, you can do some noise effects in real time and get a more analog feel to it. Do a dub of a dub and play that tape back and you can get more noise in it. Before NLE was affordable, me and my friends did all our stuff the analog way, shooting off the tv, feedback video, everytime my friend plays his experimental videos people wonder what software he used and they are surprised to find out he does it using tv feedback and shooting straight off the tv.

I'll send you a photo right now.

I'm looking for help for a project I'm preparing.
I'm going to shoot some footage from a moving car, having a rev. counter ading a signal (a beep or whatever) on the soundtrack every 10 meters. Is there a way I can edit this film, by tacking a frame every time the beep apears on the sound track? I would like the end result to be the car looks like it's driving at a constant speeds of 240 meters per second (24 frames per second, each 10 meters from eachother), no matter what the actual speed of the car is. The sampling rate of the frames out of the basic footage will be varaible, correlated with the speed of the car.

I believe you will have to do all the edits manually. I don't know of a way to selectively edit only those frames with an audio tone. Perhaps an Apple Script could be written to perform that task.

Hi,
Hoping somebody can direct me to an external dvd burner so that i can burn a movie i am making. I'w working on an Imac g3 500mhz. Also, can anybody direct me to good dvd authoring package as well that will work on my g3? thanx so muchin advance.
-kris

Well, you might need to upgrade your iMac first. iDVD (http://www.apple.com/idvd/), the simple to use, Apple DVD authoring program requires a built-in SuperDrive. It will not work with an external burner. Apple's full blown authoring program, DVD Studio Pro (http://www.apple.com/dvdstudiopro/), only works with G4 processors. However, it does support external burners. Multiplexing, a part of the MPEG encoding process, is very processor intensive and would be very, very slow on a G3. You would also want to max out your ram. No company currently manufactures a G4 upgrade for your iMac. Newer Technology went out of business in 2001. I hate to say this, but a newer iMac might be in order.

Hi there,

Anyone have any experiences with any realtime capture cards? I was looking at the Matrox RTmac, but then it sounds like FCP 4 will be better off anyways

Any thoughts?

The Matrox RTMac is still awaiting Drivers for OS X and Beta drivers are to be used at NAB. The Matrox RT.X100 Xtreme (http://www.matrox.com/video/products/rtx100xtreme/home.cfm) is a new product designed for OS X and is said to be shipping in May. It also is to be shown this week at NAB. Matrox burned a great many people with RTMac and I doubt you'll hear many favorable things about their products. I would give FCP 4 a try first. If the performance isn't what you need then look into a RT card.

The first uncompressed firewire capture device for FCP 4 is detailed in this press release. (http://www.aja.com/News/page10.html)

Bias has announced and is showing Peak 4 at NAB this week. Take a look at it here. (http://www.bias-inc.com/)

Unfortunately I'll be on the roat for a bit and my notebook is windows based. What windows based NLE do users of FCP recommend? Hopefully when i get back I'll trade this thing in for a powerbook :)

Vegas Video seems to be the the best value for money PC NLE app at the moment.

I would use Avid Xpress 3.5 as it supports both windows and OS X. I think a free version will be available soon. Vegas has a free downloadable demo, I think. Premiere is also a possibility.

well, im getting the hang of this FPC3. I have learned how to create folders and projects. I just keep forgetting to set scratch disks, so all my b-roll is under the same project name. but, how do i get rid of my audio and video when i am thru. i would like to keep the project instructions, you know the edit points and thumbnail names, just lose the actual media so i dont clutter up my raid drive. does this make scense? anyway, maybe some one can help. thanks.

Hello Gary,
Look under the Media Management topics in your manual and/or the online Help.

Basically, you only need to store the actual project file, which is very small. Copy that to a safe place. Then you can delete the capture and render files associated with that project. (Note where they're located from your project's Preferences settings.)

Hello there. I'm sorry my last name is not included in my username. I've been a member since last year and e-mailed Chris Hurd to change it today, but I still can't log on without my old handle -which is my real name , albeit middle.
I hope this won't prevent me from some much needed assistance.

I'm currently working on a project using Final Cut Pro 3 and Mac OS10.1.5. I captured about 55 gigs worth of video to separate video and audio folders. A few days ago I defragged my capture drive and everything was working fine. Yesterday, when I tried to open the project I kept getting an I/O error. If I open each individual video file, it launches into quicktime with no problem; but, if I attempt to open the audio files, quicktime doesn't recognize them. Obviously, FCP won't let me import any of the files because they're linked. But what went wrong?

I thank anybody in advance if they could give me a suggestion.

You may need to run a program like Disk Warrior. Version 3 is not out yet (no OS X support) and version 2.1 only runs in OS 9.x.x, not classic. You will need start up in 9 (change start up disk in preferences) and run Disk Warrior 2.1. It is the best directory repair software. If it doesn't fix the problem, you probably have to wipe the drive and re import.

The fact that QuickTime won't open the file is not good. What program did you use to defrag your hard drive? How full was the drive when you decided to defrag? It is never a good idea to fill a drive over 80% of it's capacity. The few times I've similar issues, it's because I filled the drive (99+%).

Thanks Jeff for responding. I used Tech Tool Pro 3 for defragging and yes I went up to 90% capacity on my hard drive. I guess the latter was a no-no.
Should I be capturing to separate audio/video folders? Maybe this also had something to do with my dilemma.

I've read through the previous thread on audio synch issues with Canon cameras but am still confused about a few things.

1) Does the problem still occur with the GL2?

2) Is it a problem with the code on the tape or would capturing via a Sony camcorder take care of the problem?

Thanks.

Jeff Price

thanks Ken,

i just was informed that myself, the still guy and the 2 graphic artist are getting our own server. does this mean i never have to worry about leaving to much media on the system?

I've heard of problems either way. I don't have a definite answer for you. I capture to separate folders without a problem. It sounds like the problem was filling it to 90%. Disk Warrior has a good shot at fixing your drive. It is the best repair utility in my opinion.

The sync problem still occurs. I believe, and I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong that capturing with a different brand of deck will fix your problem. Some people have had success using capture now, but the only think that worked for me was captureing in imovie....

I've captured many hours of video from a GL2 to a Mac G4 and have never experienced an audio sync problem. I always capture my tapes straight through, 60 or 80 minutes worth of material and the audio lines up perfectly at the end.
FCP 3.02, OSX10.2.x, using internal and external devices as the capture disk.

Anyone had a hands-on look at Adobe Encore yet? How does it compare to DVD SP?

Has anyone used the CGM plugin pack?

from www.cgm-online.com?

No comparison to DVD SP 2. By Apple dropping the price to $499 ($199 upgrade) and making the integration of FCP 4 and DVD SP 2 tighter, Mac users should look no further. It will not be initially available for Mac either. By the sounds of it you can kiss Cleaner goodbye also. Sorrenson may still prove useful for web work.

Strange that there are no samples of what they can do...just the one little animated logo.

As usual, Jeff...the man in the know.

Thanks!

Right now I'm using a 17" Samsung 171s with my powermac. I was thinking of selling this monitor and getting a 20" apple cinema display. Anyone use this monitor? Any issues or any reason why I shouldn't make this move?

also has anyone checked out the new 20" formac lcd screen?

I'm trying to find out if it is possible to stretch the timeline in FCP over 2 monitors? I know I could do this in premiere but am unsure about FCP. Another 17" would be cheaper than a 20" cinema :)

I was having a minor, but incovenient, problem with Wiebetech's MicroGB+ drive until I installed OS 10.2.5 . The problem, in brief, was that video passing from the computer (ie. during Final Cut Pro sessions) to external monitors through the Firewire bus was being scrambled if my MicroGB+ drive was connected and powered-on, even if no footage was being read from that drive. This was quite a mystery to the Wiebetech folks who worked diligently with me over several months to track this down, with no success. Particularly mysterious was that my two other Wiebetech drives did not cause such a problem.

In the end, it seems that something in the 10.2.5 update provided the magic elixir to cure the problem.

Just thought I'd post this note in the event that there are silent sufferers out there.

This seems to be the most stable (read extremely stable) version of Jaguar to date. Some minor issues with Mail.app and printer sharing have been solved for me. I would recommend it to everyone. I have read of a few people with troubles (MacFix It, Apple Support Forums) but for the vast majority it cleans up many different minor issues.

Many OS X users are unaware that you can download the updates, that appear via Software Update, to their desktop. When you run software Update from System Preferences you can check the box next to the new software, then go to Update in the menu bar, click on download check items to desktop and your downloads will appear on the desktop.

i downloaded a song to desktop, draged it my project folder, then made a new bin in my canvas window, then draged it to the new bin, then dragged it to my timeline audio tracks 3&4. Simple right?

It worked well except for the fact that now on every timeline edit, the audio (song only) has to be re-rendered. how can i ever edit to music or snyc beats if i have to wait and render every time i edit in the timeline? what did i miss?
fpc3, dual 1.25 g4, kona sd card
thanks

It sounds like you have an audio miss match or your project preferences do not agree. The audio from a CD etc. is 44.1kHz and DV is 48kHz. Use QuickTime Pro to import the audio and export at 48kHz. Then check all your settings to make sure that the project, sequence etc. are all at 48kHz. That should solve all your problems.

The preferences should be set at 48kHz at the very start. It may benefit you to start over with the correct settings. Audio miss matches like these are one of the sources of sync errors.

thank you, i would not have even know to check this, yes, my audio is set at 48 and the song was downloaded fron a cd. very useful info.

Yes, you can stretch it over two 23" Cinema displays or more. You have to be careful at the seams, it can leave gaps etc. Depending on the type of project (long form, short form, spot etc.) I will put the timeline on either the 17" Studio display or my 21" Mits. Diamond Scan. Rarely have I had the need to stretch it over both.