Ask Apple...but I seriously doubt it. Getting the SuperDrive into that chassis was apparently a significant engineering challenge. I'd be very surprised if they offered such an upgrade. Apple has never offered any upgrade to these TiBooks; it doesn't make any financial sense from their end.

For the near future, PowerBook SuperDrives are not available as a replacement part. Give it 6 to 12 months. The actual PowerBooks will start shipping mid Nov. to mid Dec. FireWire DVD drives are available now. Apple supports DVD-R, but not DVD-RW. However, Toast (software) supports DVD-RW burning. It's confusing I know.

Jeff

I know toast is not an authoring program. But I was wondering if i got Cleaner 6 for the mac and output mpeg2 files if toast could simply make a DVD with numberd tracks of the files.

If not, does that mean I would need DVD pro. I know idvd can't use mpeg files.

Thanks Ken i needed the update!

Toast will burn DVDs and I'd hazard a guess that most DVD SP users rely on Toast to burn their DVDs. The Apple burner is less reliable in my opinion. Cleaner is not an authoring program. What will you author with?

Jeff

It can be done, are you on OS 9 or OS X? I've got some links to tutorials and software (freeware, shareware) that should do the job. Commercial DVD's use an encryption system known as CSS and that's a different story.

Jeff

just trying to find a way around buying DVD pro. I have idvd on an i-mac. but would like to be able to use the higher quality mpeg from cleaner 6. as for authoring all I want are track numbers or titles, don't care about the background etc. It looks like there is no way around DVD pro however.
robert

I don't see away around it. I've heard of people tricking iDVD into not doing the burn by removing the blank disc during the encoding. But that still won't solve your problem of better quality encoding. I just got Cleaner 6 yesterday and I've done a few short comparissons and it seems 2 to 3 times faster than Cleaner 5. It's a big improvement and I think it's the best software encoder(quality) available. But for what it does (no authoring) it is pricey.

Jeff

Jeff,
Like I said I have the 800mhz, I edit with FCP3 and although I have DVD Studio Pro, for obvious reasons, haven't used it yet. Along with my WD 120GB Firewire drive, which Firewire DVD drive do you think would suit my set up best?

Keep an eye on MCE Technologies http://store.powerbook1.com/ They stock just about everything for PowerBooks. The external drives are all pretty similar in function. Some may come with better software or a slimer case. Que, EZQuest, LaCie are among the more popular. If you're looking to save some money, buy a FireWire DVD enclosure, then a bare internal DVD drive. No software or customer support, but you'll save $100 or more.

Jeff

Hi,

I know FCP supports only Macs with built-in FW, but I'm just wondering if some people have used that program or iMovie with older Macs and FireWire cards with success. I'm just a hobbyist and don't want to spend a fortune. I could get my hands on an old PM 8500 with an upgraded G3 processor. I know there are combination USB/FW cards for older PCI Macs and they're relatively innexpensive. I'm also interested in people having had success in using a CardBus FW card in a Lombard PB as that is my set up (which I can't get to work right now!!). I've heard many people can't get third party FW cards to works in their PBs.

Any info appreciated as I am a complete newbie.

Thanks.

Marc.

I can only find reference to one article in the Apple knowledge base that address this issue. Article 32082 states that the Bronze keyboard (Lombard) will work with FCP. The date of the article is 1/10/00 and I suspect that means you are limited to FCP 1.2.5 The newer FCP versions clearly state that built in FireWire is required. The article http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=32082&SaveKCWindowURL=http%3A%2F%2Fkbase.info.apple.com%2Fcgi-bin%2FWebObjects%2Fkbase.woa%2Fwa%2FSaveKCToHomePage&searchMode=Expert&kbhost=kbase.info.apple.com&showButton=false&randomValue=100&showSurvey=false&sessionID=anonymous|157456632 lists two, third party PC FireWire Cards that will work.

FCP 1.2.5 was pretty stable and had a few known bugs (couldn't scrub the timeline). It will work in 9.2.2 but not OS X.

Jeff

I've got some really great encoding done with BitVice http://www.innobits.se/

No there is no way around authoring with dvdsp unless you want to spend far more money.

Jake.

I'd say the 'best' hardware encoders are done by Sonic. SD-1000 or SD-2000 and software probably BitVice from http://www.innobits.se/

If you're not having a dvd-r replicatced check out this link:

Compatibility Test done by Ralf LaBarge

http://www.dv.com/features/features_item.jhtml?category=Archive&LookupId=/xml/feature/2002/labarge0702

I'd send a dlt tape to rep house without question if you can. Do a search for DLT4000 on ebay and you can pick them up cheap. You wont need more than that for DVD authoring (Two DLTs for dvd-9, one for each layer). If not then an authoring disc.

I would say not to worry about writing authoring discs at first. I would burn a dvd-RW. Test it on your set top player. If it works great. You've got the test disc you can preview all your projects with. If not then pop to the nearest electric store and test it on set top players that are suppose to play dvd-rw till you find one it works with. Pick it up, you've got all your previewing on tv's sorted out and haven't gotta worry about dvd-r coasters too much. The test above will help you with dvd-r check discs to send to clients if needed. Then submit you dlt to the rep fac' and check the check discs you recieve from them inside out before giving them the ok.

HTH

Jake.

Thanks for your reply Jeff -- we have FCP 2.0 in OS9 and FCP 3.0 in OSX so we should be able to do just about anything. Tell me more!

These all involve freeware etc. The tutorial link includes the software and instructions on it's use. If you want to purchase commercial software Heuris is about it http://www.heuris.com/MPEGProducts/ They make a product called Xtractor that will do the job ($150). A new product 0SEx http://www.macupdate.com/search.php?keywords=osex
is freeware that several friends are using with good results.

Easiest is Heuris, cheapest is 0SEx and software linked below.

http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html

http://perso.club-internet.fr/farzeno/firmware/

http://www.opuscc.com/download/index.shtml

http://www.afterdawn.com/software/alternative_platforms/mac_software/mac_dvd_ripping_tutorial.cfm

http://www.wormintheapple.gr/macdvd/download.html

Jeff

You're absolutly correct about the Sonic boards. But probably a bit pricey for most people. The last I checked the SD-1000 was around $9,000 (USD). If Apple is going to make one (long rumored since they purchased Spruce) I think we'll see it in the next 6 to 8 months or not at all.

Jeff

Fabulous reply Jeff -- a real award winner. Thank you SO MUCH!
Scott

Yep def out of the majorities budget and I do hope apple make a move with the Spruce thing soon.

Jake.

I updated mine earlier this week. Now I can keep on burning!

Thank you to all who contributed to this thread.
I saw an ad for that WD 120GB w/ 8MB cache hard drive mentioned in this weeks CompUSA newspaper ad (Nov 10th). The price is $219.99 less $20 instant rebate less $50 mail rebate. Please let me know if that is a good deal.

Also, in the same ad they are selling a Firewire only kit for that HD for $49.99 (again after all the discounts and rebates).

I did check the Granite and WiebeTech (zero GB) Firewire/USB kits/boxes and they are both more than $49.99 by a long shot. Are the two, Granite and WiebeTech, that much better than the generics? Granite does have this fancy digital display. And I did find out that these have internal power supplies and cooling fans built in. Does anyone else have thoughts about either the Granite, WiebeTech, or generic Firewire kits (zero GB)?

Thanks,

Gilbert Lew

Hello again, sorry I forgot to add the specification to that generic drive kit that I mentioned in my earlier post.

Manufacturer ADS Technologies
Manu # API-800
The box description is Pyro 1394 Drive kit.

So has anyone hear or have used this? How does it stack up to the Granite or WiebeTech kits?

Thanks again,

Gilbert Lew

Thanks for all the great feedback to my original question. I ended up buying an EZquest 120 drive and so far it works great. It is a 7200/2MB buffer drive and seemed to have performed very well in the test reviews I was able to find. As a one-drive purchase, it was also cheaper than the Granite+drive option, though if I anticipated needing more storage soon, I'd definitely go with the Granite option, since the bare drives are cheaper and swappable. For now, this works fine. The other issue was availability: I'm working to deadline, and the local Apple shop had this drive in stock (LaCie drives were also available, with a bit longer commute, in my area).

Linc Kesler

Gilbert,

Make sure the FireWire enclosure uses the Oxford 911 chip set. If not, or you can't confirm with 100% assurances, pass on it. In the days before the 911 chip set, dropped frames were fairly common on FireWire drives. If it does have the Oxford 911 chips, $50 is a good price. The WD drive varies in price from a high of $180 to a low of $130, after all the rebates. So the current offer of $150 after rebates is a fair price.

Jeff

Gilbert,
The PYRO kit looks fine to me. But understand that you must also buy a drive (such as the WD120) to plug into the enclosure. The combination should be a good one and quite economical if you can really get that WD120 for net $150.

Good luck.

p.s. The PYRO does, indeed, feature the Oxford 911 chip.
http://www.adstech.com/products/PYRO1394DriveKit/intro/API800intro.asp?pid=API-800

Yeah its fantastic that they brought out new machines and dropped the price
right after i bought my new Ti800
Was i pissed you could say that.
I do know for sure that upgrades are not possible for the Ti's at least thats what a few experts tell me.
It is a bit annoying to have lost the value of my new machine overnight and one has to wonder why apple's products are so inflated in price.
I cant even upgrade to the new machine as my new powerbooks' reselling price has crashed who wants an 800 when you can get a 1gig for less than what i payed for the 800.

cheers blake

Back to the capacity issue for a minute, on my afternoon trip to Staples I noticed that they are now carrying double-sided 9 GB DVD-RAMs. They are expensive for the moment, but the bigger question is what drives they work in, both on the read and write end. Is this how commercial disks reach the higher capacity? Thanks in advance for any enlightenment.

Linc Kesler

DVD-RAM is fine for achiving data and backing up but not really for dvd-video.

With dvd-r, yep as mentioned before dvd-9's(single side, dual layer) discs have to be replicated. You'd submit two dlt tapes one for each layer. So this has something to do with how they get more on a disc as they have 7.95GB to play with and not 4.37GB as with dvd-5(single side, single layer). Another factor is the encoder. With some encoders you can get excellent footage at 4.5Mbps and lower, so bandwidth is freed up for audio, alternate-angles etc.

HTH

But commercial dvd's are most def not dvd-RAM. You can also have dvd-10 and 18.

DVD-RAM can only be played in other computers. There are no home DVD-RAM players.

Jeff

Okay-
what about DVD- ROM? That is, burning the information to the disc without formatting as a video DVD. Simply back up the information and deliver it to the replicator.

Jeff Patnaude

There are Post Production companies that will do authoring. But I wouldn't expect the replicator to build the master from my data. Even if they do authoring as a service, your still going to be charged for it. I burn data DVD as backups for my FCP projects and store media clips, graphics, audio etc.

Jeff

Hello,

I just installed FCP3 (my own) on a new twin p G4 (my schools) and can't use any effects, audio or video. There is no effects tab in the browser (like the manual says there should be) and in the pull down menu from the top of the screen I can see all the categories but the individual effects are grayed out and un-selectable. One time though the video filters (and the video filters only) were not grayed out, and I used a matte, but while it was rendering FCP shut down. (I think it crashed because the auto save clicked on-- making this an unrelated question-- can anyone support that hypothesis?) When I restarted FCP, all effects were once again grayed out. The only idea I have is that I'm not sure if I successfully registered and unlocked the new QuickTime that came with FCP. The G4 I'm working on has never been connected to the internet so I sent the registration in the mail. Is unlocking dependant on online registration? And would this cause the effects anomaly? Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks

vince

It could be a number of things. What version of FCP, Quicktime, OS etc. are you running. My best guess at this point is you've not upgrade FCP or QT to the required version. It could be a preferences issue (trash FCP preferences) or you may need to reinstall FCP. Give me more info and I'll sort it out.

Jeff

Is there a simple way to transfer DV files from a Windows machine to a Mac? Or the other dierection?

What version of each platform are you using?

Jeff,

First of all thanks for your help. I'm running OSX version 10.2.1, FCP 3.0.2 (EDU) and QuickTime 6.0.1. Actually today things started working- I think. I noticed that the video filters are available when I have a sequence open, but still no tab in the browser, and I still couldn't get transitions. So I command clicked an edit and chose the defalt edit which was a fade and it worked, so then I looked back up on the pull down and they were all available. Strange. As of right now all seems to be well, but if you know of some reason for this, or of some way of preventing it in the future, maybe I'd sleep better at nights. And any advice on preferences would be great.

Thanks

vince

I would try upgrading Quicktime to 6.0.2 and OS X to 10.2.2 This is very stable for me and on most of the other boards this combination is solving a lot of issues for FCP users.

However, I doubt that will cure the unusual flakiness your having. Start by trashing FCP preferences (write down all your preferences and settings because this will wipe all your preset out). You can find them here Users>user short name>Library>Preferences>Final Cut Pro User Data>Final Cut Pro 3 Preferences. Restart after trashing the preferences and fill in your preferences again. Open a project and see if you've got effects etc. If not, a reinstall of FCP and Quicktime will be in order.

FCP has a mode called Cutting Station that does not have effects. Your not in Cutting Mode are you? If that's the case just switch modes.

Jeff

Windows 2000 on the PC and OSX on the Mac.

Jeff,
You should upgrade to Windows 2000...it's much better than 200! (Sorry, couldn't resist <g>.)

Although I have both Win 2000 and OSX systems I've never performed this maneuver. But here's how I'd tackle it, FWIW.

The sheer size of most dv files makes low-cap media impractical for such transfers. Off-hand, a Firewire hard drive is the method that comes to mind. You'll need to first make sure that your PC can accept a Firewire drive connection either through a built-in adapter or a 3rd party adapter.

I'd start with the dv files on the Mac-formatted Firewire drive. You'll need a product such as Mediafour's Mac Drive 5 installed on your PC to be able to read the Mac disk. (http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive/) The rest should be relatively straight-forward.

Good luck!

FTP.

Jake.

Thanks, Ken, I will do the upgrade to 2000 immediately! That software looks like exactly what I need, soI will give it a try. Not a bad price, either.

Are these two machines in two different locations?

As Jake suggested briefly, if they are not geographically seperated, it would seem like ethernet would be a lot simpler way to go about this, especially if you have to do it frequently.

Assuming you have no lan at all now:

You can get 10/100 card for the PC for $20 and an RJ45 crossover cable for 5 bucks or less. Plug 'em in and you are done.

OSX has decent built in SMB compatibilty through samba, which means you can browse shares on your windows box as if from another windows machine.

With 100Mbit ethernet you should expect an absolute minimum throughput of around 8MBytes/sec, up to a theoretical maximum of 12.5MB/sec.

lyd

Can someone know if this portable Sony hd recorder is compatible with FCP?
Thanks.Maurizio.

It is not currently listed as a supported device http://www.apple.com/finalcutpro/qualification.html It may be certified in the future or with a future version of FCP. It may also work fine and Apple hasn't had the opportunity to certify the unit.

Jeff

DSRDU1 http://bssc.sel.sony.com/Professional/webapp/ModelInfo?id=67058

I just finished my first short film and used FCP 3 for editing and creating the titles. On the computer, the titles appeared sharp and fine. But when I printed to tape and then watched it on a TV monitor, the white text was way too bright and the edges were rough. Also, I don't know if this is related to the brightness, but after the text faded in fully to it's brightest (too bright) point, the text suddenly became a bit distorted (looked italicized).

Any ideas what I need to do to prevent the distortion? And why is it that my text isn't nice and smooth on a TV monitor?

I just finished my first short film which I intended mainly for web viewing. But I also printed to tape and played it on a TV monitor...and I noticed there were definitely some audio problems. I obviously made the dynamic range to wide.

I tried to keep things between -18 and -12 but some things, like an explosion sound for instance, needed to be noticeably louder, so I set those at about -2 or -3 (but always below 0). On a TV monitor, the explosion sounds pop and crackle a bit...so they're too high, I guess. Also, some low, bass sounds disappear altogether.

Any suggestions on this? To make playback better on a TV, what would be the preferred output for short, loud segments like gunshots and explosions? And how about dialogue? And background music?

John remember that the average TV is only capable of a frequency responce range of between about 100hz to about 10khz. Pretty limited in all but Rob's home theatre. You might try compressing the explosions and reducing the high end eq. This should stop the high end distortion but still allow you to keep the higher level.

Unfortunately, this is an inherant problem with DV. The rough edges you are seeing is alaizing(can't remember how to spell that one, it's too late at night). Did you do the titling in FCP, or Photoshop?

er...what?

Sorry, Adrian...I'm an absolute beginner when it comes to manipulating audio. Really, I was just wondering what settings others use (especially FCP people who set the volume levels for each clip based on a 0 to -60 range) for peaks and lows (peaks meaning explosions and gunshots). If you take them down too far, they sound like cap guns and bursting balloons.

I did it in FCP. I've done it in Photoshop before and it does look better. But there has to be a way to make FCP text look better.