NLE Mac / Final Cut questions from 2004

[Jeff Donald]

Projects in FCP HD can not be read (in most cases) in FCP 4.1 You'll need to update here

[Chris Wright]

Hey everyone...
I'm working on a video project that is a montage of still pictures. I have created videos like this many times before and am familiar with the whole keyframing process, but there is one problem I can never seem to figure out:

When I add motion to these pictures (slow zooming or panning, or both), the more detailed areas in the picture will become jagged and shaky. this appears in the final cut viewer window as well as the NTSC monitor. Can anyone tell me how to fix this problem, so that the pictures appear smoothly as they move across the screen?

I am using 3.2 megapixel images, and have not modified them in photoshop in any way before hand, and I don't want to unless that's the only way to fix this issue. I have tried deinterlacing the montage video but it does not fix anything.

Any help here would be greatly appreciated!

[Donie Kelly]

Hi all

I'm amazed by FCP 4.5, it's really great but there is a bug in capture (under my setup anyway) that is getting really annoying. When I try to "Capture NOW" it seems to behave very slugginsh but it eventually pops up the window showing the footage from the tape. Usually it has lost a few seconds from the point I hit capture now.

Leave it logging for a few minutes and I press escape. Now I get the spinng beachball and it fills the remaining space on my drive with a file called untitled-av. I need to reboot to get out of this loop.

I have tried to search for this on this site but there are no answers. Soembody mentions that I should limit the capture to 30 mminutes and I have done that to no avail.

This bug or misconfiguration is really annoying and I have started to use GCam to log my footage but I lose the information about the tape doing it this way and cannot relog in the future.

Anybody else having this problem? I've seen mention of it on the apple support forums and the solution was to stop Norton. I had Norton installed but I think I've stopped it. Does it need to be removed from the disk completly?

I have not dumped my configuration files as mentioned at the top of this forum but I will try that if somebody has noticed that doing this will solve the problem.

Any input is appreciated...
Many thanks
Donie

[Donie Kelly]

<<<-- Originally posted by Jerry Ricciotti : hmm thanks for the link ray but thats not the same problem i am having.
FCP is taking the quality out of my audio track - i can still hear the music but it sounds much worse than in iTunes -->>>

Go into Easy setup and check what way you have the audio setup. Is it set to stero 48Khz? Just guessing.

I had the problem with audio as reference by the link above and it solved it by converting it to aiff. Have you tried that? Make sure to convert it to the format you are using in the timline ie: stereo 48Khz I presume you are using. If you set it to something else you are putting a lot of strain on the playback as it has to convert in real time and there may be problems with that if your machine is being stressed by other stuff on the timeline.

Just some thoughts. Hopefully you'll sort it out. Let us know if you solve it.

regards
Donie

[Jeff Donald]

I would guess you are still having issues with Norton. are you sure it's not running in the background? You can always use Batch Capture instead of Capture Now.

[Loretta Shigo]

Hi. .
Shopping for hard drives.
I am getting confused by the wordage.
Looking at Maxtor 250GB SATA for my G5, 1.8 Dual. Want to have video scratch, storage & render disc for FCE2.
Any one know what "Ultra" means as opposed to not. The price is less, as well as the warranty period, however, I don't know what the difference would be compared to other models, without the "Ultra" wording.
I have gone to the Maxtor web site and cannot find good explanatory descriptions in layperson terms.
Thanks.
Any feedback appreciated.
Loretta

ULTRA - $154.
Maxtor 250 GB Complete Ultra Series Hard Drive Kit
Huge 8 MB Cache!
7200 RPM Ultra ATA/133
w/ 1-year warranty
Model: L01P250


NOT "ULTRA"
Maxtor 250GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model 7Y250M0, OEM Drive Only

$199.00
Model# 7Y250M0
Item # N82E16822144327
Specifications:
Capacity: 250GB
Average Seek Time: 9 ms
Buffer: 8MB
Rotational Speed: 7200 RPM
Interface: Serial ATA
Features: S.M.A.R.T. compliance features
Manufacturer Warranty: 3 years
Packaging: OEM Drive Only

[Jeff Donald]

I believe "Ultra" refers to the Ultra/133MHz buss they use. Depending on the age of your computer, you may or may not be able to take advantage of the faster buss speeds.

[Jeff Price]

Has anyone tried BOTH the Bella DV keyboard (with jog shuttle) and the Contour Shuttle Pro? If so, which do you prefer?

Do the colored keys really make a difference to editing?

Thanks.

[Sharon Lawler]

have a Sony Media Converter and a Panasonic AG-DV2500. Now I've gone through enough posts to realize that FCP cannot recognize two capture devices simultaneously. So I turned off the Panasonic, as I need to capture from my media converter. However, I have my device control set to non-controllable device (I'm coming from a VHS deck), and am using the DV 48khz capture preset, and have set my scratch disk. I have checked my cabling, and am going out of the vhs deck to the media converter via RCA cables, and then into the back of my G4 via a firewire cable. The converter is set to Analog In, and is powered up.

The message I get is:
Attempt to capture video without a video device selected. Please select a video device in your capture presets and try again.

Perhaps related, when I go to "Video Playback" under "View", my choices are:
None
(Missing) Apple Firewire NTSC

And under Audio Playback, my choices are grayed out. And also perhaps related, I cannot playback any audio.

What should I do?

[Jeff Donald]

Try start FCP with the convertor on and then off and see if FCP will recognize it one way or the other. Some devices are particular about being on or off when the software starts. Once the capture device recognized, you should have options for playing back audio, internal sound and external, if a device is detected.

[Sharon Lawler]

Hi Jeff- well, I re-did all my cabling, and now, I get my choices back. But I'm back to a problem I had before, and can't recall how I fixed it---I go to capture from the VHS deck, and I get the message that "the operation cannot be completed as there is no video."

I also must still have something wrong, because when I hit the DV "in" on my converter, while I have my analog device hooked up (and the Panasonic DV deck powered off), everything plays okay through my monitor. When I change it to "analog in", (which logically should be pressed if I'm digitizing from VHS, right?), I get a tone sound- constant- and the video starts flickering between a blue screen and snow on my NTSC monitor. This is not something I experienced before, but it seems everytime I fix one problem I end up with another anyway, so I guess it's par for the course.

[Jeff Donald]

It appears that you may have a video and audio feedback loop created. You may need to re-cable again. You can try disconnecting just one set of wires, and the feedback should be gone. But a constant tone, as you describe, is almost a sure indication of cables connected in a loop. A loop is when the A/V Outs of one device are connected to the A/V Ins of another device. Then the outs of the second device are feed back into the in of the first device, creating a loop.

[Donie Kelly]

Hi Jeff

I seem to have fixed it. Removed Norton completly after a struggle, it sure gets around... Uninstalled didn't work, just failed miserably. Had to delete everything manually.

Anyway, didn't solve the problem...

Took your advice and removed the preferences etc as mentioned at the top of the forum. OK, lost the custom settings I had created for the XL1 and capturing audio etc but it seems to be working OK now.

I can capture short clips and press escape and it doesn't freeze. I will be capturing longer stuff over the weekend so I'll give it a good testing then.

One thing I noticed is that in the capture directory it's creating

untitled-av
untitled-av-1
untitled-av-2
...
untitled-av-21

Is this normal to create these 22 files? I deleted them and I can still play the other proper clips it captured. These files are all small at 8K each. Should I ignore them?

For now I'm happy to start using it agian. thanks for the help. really appreciate that.

Donie

[Mark Robbins]

Is it legal/permited/ok to use an educational version of FCP to learn video editing and to also work on a project that may be commercially profitable in the future?
Where is the line drawn?

The FCP that we are about to purchase will be used for educational purposes and to edit a documentary we (2 fellow students) are trying to produce on dvd and then sell to a distributor.

Is it ok to use an educational version to learn editing and to edit the documentary, then upgrade to the FULL version of FCP as soon as we start selling the dvd? (Informed answers would be greatly appreciated)

Cheers,
Mark

[Ned Hamilton]

Your 2nd paragraph expresses your intent to use FCP to develop a project for commercial use. That is not allowed under the terms of an educational license even if you are also using it for education.

We are all getting educated when we use these products, that does not mark them as educational use.