I am a college student and because of this I can get a college student discount on the FCP3 software. It is however listed as an educational edition. I was told by a roommate of mine that his educational software(which isn't film related) has a little statement that prints out with his stuff saying that it is for educational use only. While I do not plan to break the deal (that I cannot use it to make money) I do want to know if my projects will be litered with something similar. Does anyone have an educational edition that can answer this question for me?
thank you
Ryan

It is the exact same software, but it has a different EULA (End User License Agreement). Nothing is done to degrade the image quality in any way.

Jeff

Glad to hear it, thank you.
Just out of curiousity what exactly does the user agreement ask of me since it is educational software?

Basically that you are in an educational setting and will not use it in a professional setting where you get paid. If you use it in a paid setting or work for hire arrangement your asked to purchase another license.

Jeff

How does one purchase another license without having to buy a whole new boxed set. Could they just pay the extra $700? Because college students may graduate and decide to do that work professionally.

I see, well that seems like a great deal.
THanks for all your help.
I plan to pick up my power g4 twin 19inch monitors and FCP3 in Nov. Can't wait!

The license can be upgraded for the difference ($700) by contacting Apple Customer Care. They do not need to purchase another copy.

Jeff

I'm wondering if anyone has any advice on purchasing a VTR (mini DV/SVHS/VHS in one deck) that is compatible with both Final Cut Pro 3 and the XL1S. I was just about to purchase the JVC SVS30 when the tech support person at JVC told me that it is not possible to batch capture with this hardware and it may drop frames if you are using the XL1 to shoot on. Cannon was of no help either - they recommend purchasing a second camera to use as a VTR. I have also consulted the apple device list but there isn't to many VTR's on the page. I don't want to spent more than 1500 USD... slightly less preferably. Currently using the camera as a VTR and it is putting a lot of wear on the heads - doing commercial work - corporate videos, etc.

Any advice or experience would be of assistance. Thanks

eliquidmedia

I don't know of any combo DVD/VCR decks that are certified by Apple for use with FCP3. I would suggest buying two seperate devices to maintain maximum compatability.

Jeff

I use a JVC HR-DVS2 deck. (See my review of the deck posted here: http://new.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&postid=28126.)

I have no problems with batch capturing or with using tapes originated in my XL1s. I use a DVStorm PC-based system, but I can't imagine the protocol is any different from the Mac system used in FCP3.

Can these two apps peacefully coexist on the same system? I want to have the ability to use Premiere on my Mac while I learn FCP. I know that XDV3 has problems with Premiere being on the same system.

While taping with the PD 150,I have a Mac G3(blue and white monitor) that I am looking to put Final Cut Pro 3 on,and to edit my programs.The G3 is maxed out on RAM,and has 40gigs
internal hard drive.Now,I will be getting external hard drives from Lacie to daisy chain from the Mac in order to store footage-
yes,I'm planning to have several hard drives altogether.Folks,I'm
too poor to afford a G4(great system,but too costly),and I have concerns whether the G3 can handle the load.Any comforting and
calm reassurances would be welcome.Thanks.

Here are the specs from Apple:

Link: http://www.apple.com/finalcutpro/specs.html

Requirements

Macintosh computer with a 300-MHz or faster PowerPC G3 or G4 processor and built-in FireWire
— 500-MHz or faster single or 450-MHz dual processor Power Mac G4 or PowerBook G4 required for G4 realtime effects

— 667-MHz PowerBook G4 required for mobile G4 realtime effects in DV format


Mac OS 9.2.2 or Mac OS X v10.1.1

QuickTime (included)

256MB of RAM (384MB recommended for G4 realtime effects)

40MB of available disk space required for installation

I have Premiere 6.5 and FCP 3.0.2 on OS 10.2.2 with no problems what so ever. All I can really say is try it and if Premiere doesn't work rethink your strategy.

Jeff

I used a 300Meg B&W with FCP3 with good success. I had around 384M ram, and used OS-9.2. If possible, an internal IDE hard drive would be a better and less-expensive addition. It was easier to do this on some models than others, though. I believe that the IDE required the 1-piece drive sled. I had a real early G3, so I went the internal SCSI card/drive route from Macgurus, but that a few years ago, and more expensive.

Some have used external FW drives, but daisy-chaining them is asking for drop-outs.

Bottom line, though, is that the G3 will perform quite well.

Thanks, Jeff. I just wanted to see if anyone was doing it successfullybefore I gave it a try!

Hi

Please help!

I am using a G4 with FCP3 and whilst filming this year took some images of still photographs to use in a doc i'm making. Unfortunately I recorded the images upside down, but didn't think that was a problem as i could use the 'flop' filter in FCP to rectify the problem.

Flopped image looks great in FCP but on my Television monitor any images that have had this filter applied wobble up and down and render the sequence unwatchable.

I've tried another monitor, same thing. I even tried flopping, recording the correctly oriented image back to DV and then re-importing into FCP. The problem didn't resolve.

Has any of you guys ever had this or got any suggestions?

BTW I can't easily refilm the images, they were taken in the U.S. and I live in the UK!

Cheers!

Simon

I can't post the whole procedure,(sorry I have my Cub Scout meeting to go to) but the fields are reversed. I'll post details later this evening.

Jeff

Thanks Jeff

I can't get back on the 'net until 6:30 gmt tomorrow, but very much look forward to your reply

Cheers

Simon

er..um...Jeff. Just HOW OLD are you?

Jeff is 14 1/2 so he is allowed to go to cub scout meetings..... but by now he should be a weablo (sic) or an eagle.


Just kidding,

I couldn't resist

I'll be 14 my next birthday.


Actually, it's my son's Cub Scout meeting (he got his Bobcat pin). He's 9, I'm 45. I think by rotating the scene you got the field dominance out of order. Normally mini DV is lower dominate. But by rotating the image 180¼ the dominance is out of order, causing the image to hop. The quickest way is to use the de-interlace filer on the clip. But it may soften the image too much after being rendered.

The correct way to do it is to nest the sequence, rotate the clip and under sequence settings, change the field dominance. Render the nested sequence and edit it into your sequence. FCP help will explain nesting and how to, just search nest.

Jeff

Jeff

Brilliant, thanks it worked!!

Simon

Of course, once you start using FCP, you won't want to use Premiere, and you'll be wondering why you even keep it on your system at all!
:-)

Hey all,

I recorded a scene on a beach, and got a lot of wind pop in the mic I was using (I used a windscreen, but apparently it wasn't enough!), but I'm using FCP3, and it came with a copy of Peak-DV from bias. How do you open the dialogue of the clip in Peak, so that I can try to eliminate the wind pop, because it's distorting the actor's lines?? Do you have to unlink audio/video, and then export the clip to a file, or is it just a plug-in for FCP?

Also, and suggestions as to what filters to try?

Thanks a million!! :)

It's a plug-in, but I don't use it, so I can't help much in that reguard. Peak has a PDF on reducing noise etc. It comes with the full version. You can download it here http://homepage.mac.com/jtdonald/FileSharing5.html


Jeff

Hello Matt and Welcome,
As with most other types of noise, removing wind noise is problemmatic, although a bit less than other noises. Wind noise generally occurs within a relatively narrow band of low frequencies. I would be inclined to try working within FCP by opening the affected clips in the viewer to get a big view of audio waveform. Start by applying the low-pass (rumble) filter and adjusting it to see how it affects the clip at various settings. From there, just experiment. Even if you fail it's a great opportunity to learn about manipulating audio with FCP3 and PeakDV.

BTW, PeakDV, which ships with FCP, can also be opened as a stand-alone application. If you want to enter full-blown audio editing that's the way to go. You won't need to separate audio and video with PeakDV. Just open the Quicktime file containing the caputured footage.

Unfortunately, no matter what you do you are bound to adversely affect your base audio. That's why voice-overs will be part of the audio scene forever. <g>

Good luck and have fun!

Thanks, Ken. I didn't know Peak DV was a stand alone program too. I'll have to play with it when I have some time.

Jeff

Hey Ken and Jeff,

Thanks for taking the time to respond! I really appreciate it! If I have any luck, I'll post again and let you know how it turned out!

Thanks again,
Matt

Is it possible to edit a movie in FCP3 and set it up be played back on regular DVD players in iDVD? I'm not talking about a small project or quicktime movie, I'm talking about an actual feature. I want three menus and will probably need five submenus for on of the primary menus. I guess what I'm asking is can a make a professional looking DVD in iDVD or do I need DVD Studio Pro?

-Vinson

Certainly it's very possible to build a professional-quality dvd with iDVD. In essence, you export your movie from FCP3 into a Quicktime container in DV format, then import it into iDVD for MPEG2 encoding. You do, however, have to work within iDVD's confines; 90min max length, no subtitling or alternate audio tracks, submenuing is handled via a "folders" construct, etc.

Apple has a helluva lot of into regarding the iDVD and DVD-SP products on their site. http://www.apple.com/idvd/ That's your best overview resource for this subject. If you already have a Mac with iDVD why not spend a day or two exploring it to learn its features and limits. DVD-SP is a big leap in capabilities, expense ($999) and complexity of workflow.

if you want to save disk space you can export movie to FCP movie hi res then uncheck make movie self contained box and idvd will except this format also. there is no need to export as quicktime file! just drag the FCP movie into idvd screen and it will automatically begin to convert to mpeg2.

Hello everyone

It’s always quite difficult to explain in words something you want to do visually but here goes:

I want to place two separate clips into a sequence I’m putting together. When I drag the clips into the Canvas I want to crop them into four sided polygons which when placed next to each other will form a complete clip that is rectangular in shape, (visually, like a non-complicated jigsaw puzzle so to speak).

Using the crop tool I’m unable to make a four sided polygon other than a square and although I can make the shape I want with the distort tool the video image becomes distorted (as I’m sure is supposed to happen with the distort tool!)

In FCP 3 can I crop a video clip into a four-sided non-regular shape without distorting it?

Here’s hoping!

Cheers

Simon

Simon,
If I understand your objective accurately, you need to basically build mattes (with rectangular cutouts) to mask-out each clip, positioning within the frame as needed. Stack them on separate tracks in the timeline and voila.

See FCP's Help or the manual for more info on building mattes. It's not as hard as it might appear.

Ken

Thanks for your reply you're absolutely correct on this, I had a fiddle around tonight and indeed Matte's is the way to go with this one.

Just as a footnote, if there are any FCP programmers that stop by on this site, I think it would be quite cool if there was a non-linear crop option to the crop tool, it really would help and benefit what is a fantastic program!

Cheers!

Simon

Hello everyone

I don't know if this is a silly question or not but do you know how to do this?

The manual refers to a button labelled 'convert'. When locating the particular track on the audio CD you want to import apparently you press this button and it pulls the file in to FCP.

This would seem fine for OS-9 (which the manual, or some parts of it seem to be written for) but in OS-X the convert button does not exist.

When I import the song, the audio will run in FCP as long as the CD is in the player, but as soon as I remove it the track goes offline.

Probably a really simple answer ... ...!

Cheers

Simon

Funny you should ask. The topic of converting audio for use in FCP has just come up. Read this thread http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5380 The beeping is what you get if you don't convert the audio to the same frequency as your sequence. QuickTime does a very nice job of converting the CD (44.1kHz) to the sequence setting (should be 48kHz for most audio). Load the CD open QT and load the track (or just drag and drop). Choose export from the menu and change the setting to 48kHz (or what you have your sequence set to). Drop converted file into timeline.

Jeff

Brilliant!

Thanks Jeff

Simon

Can any version of QT do this?

Sorry, only the "Pro" version offers this facility.

Quicktime 5 and 6 do (you need the Pro Key) and QT 4 I think did. Can't remember for sure on QT 4. Many other programs will do simple audio coversions. QT is the least expensive, $29.95 for the Pro Key. Version Tracker http://www.versiontracker.com/ may have some shareware or freeware programs that convert audio also.

Jeff

I'm trying to apply the DeEsser filter to some voice over with too much "sssss".

There are 3 settings: Frequency, Ratio, and Emphasis. I assume the frequency is set at the approximate range of the human voice. Can someone explain the functions of the other two settings, the approximate values to reduce "ssss", and perhaps a reference to learn more about the FCP audio filters in general.

The FCP manual and "FCP 3 and the art of film making" don't seem to provide any details.

Thanks!

i do most of my audio fx work with outboard equipment and have never used FCP3 de-esser but i would assume the frequency would be set to where the sibilance takes place ratio would be set for the amount you want the sibilance lessened and emphasis would be used to dial it in???? you may want to add the compression filter as well to even out your sound as to not allow the "ssssss" to overpower the spoken words.

try a pop filter placed in front of the mic while recording the VO next time this may help in reducing the sibilance.

BIAS http://www.bias-inc.com/downloads/documentation/peak.htmlhas free documentation and tutorials for Peak DV, the version that comes with FCP 3. If nothing else, download the PDF on removing noise, that may give a few insights.

Jeff

The only way I have sucessfully de-essed is using hardware or software designed for just that. DBX makes a 900 series de-esser that is the best hardware de-esser I have ever heard (other than using a side-chain setup on an SSL console). Waves makes a software plugin de-esser that is absolutely awesome. I have used it on the last three records I have mastered just to clean up the zing in the highs. I'm sure that doesn't answer your question but it's the only way I've been able do it that works (almost) 100%.
my 2 cents
Mark

Hi all

I'm about to shoot with a green screen next week. talking head. I will be editing with FCP3. I have been using FCP for 3 years now, but have never shot or edited with the green screen before. Does it do a decent job? Any tips and tricks to making it look right? I have already read alot about how to light, but just wondering if their is an tricks in post.

thanks
Scott

I was thinking about picking one up, but it's not listed in Apples 'official' compatibility list.

If there are issues with it, what other miniDV/SVHS combo deck are you using?

Hello Mark,
Here's a current thread (http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5822&highlight=JVC+SRVS30U) on this general topic that you'll want to review.

<<<-- Originally posted by Ken Tanaka : Hello Mark,
Here's a current thread (http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5822&highlight=JVC+SRVS30U) on this general topic that you'll want to review. -->>>

Ken - I found that thread on a search, but noone has actually said they use the deck with FCP and that compatability is what I'm trying to find out. But that thread is a help with OTHER deck suggestions.

Mark,
Dan Berube, fellow "Wrangler" here and president of the Boston Final Cut Pro Users Group, seems to suggest that the deck is compatible with FCP3 in this (http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2992&highlight=JVC+SRVS30U) thread.

Hopefully he'll chime-in here to comment.