NLE Mac / Final Cut questions from 2003

[Denis Murphy]

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.

[Paul Figgiani]

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?

[Ted Springer]

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

[Jeff Donald]

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.

[Glenn Chan]

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.

[Dick Walton]

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.

[Andrew Hogan]

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.

[Ignacio Rodriguez]

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.

[Glenn Chan]

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

[Ignacio Rodriguez]

> 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 :-)

[G. Lee Gordon]

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

[G. Lee Gordon]

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

[Ken Tanaka]

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 for more information.

[Glenn Chan]

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.

[Jeff Donald]

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?