NLE Mac / Final Cut questions from 2003

[Ted Banucci]

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....

[Richard Alvarez]

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

[Ted Springer]

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?

[Jeff Donald]

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.

[Boyd Ostroff]

<<<-- 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?

[Alex Dunn]

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.

[Graeme Nattress]

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

[Alex Dunn]

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?

[Graeme Nattress]

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

[Glenn Chan]

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.

[G. Lee Gordon]

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??

[Dave Phillips]

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

[Rob Lohman]

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.

[Jeff Donald]

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.