NLE Mac / Final Cut questions from 2004

Matt Elias · July 16th, 2004, 04:16 PM

What's the best approach to working between two computers? I'm going to do some rough edits on a dual G4 and then finish my project on a G5 (the computers are in the same location). Should I save my project to an external HD and then move it to the G5 when I'm ready to use it? I want to make sure there aren't any problems with lost clips or the G5 having trouble finding their paths. If there's a better option, then the workflow will be much faster.

Jeff Donald · July 16th, 2004, 04:39 PM

I use the FireWire Target mode. Turn of the G4. Plug a FireWire cable into the G4 and G5. restart the G4 and hold down the "T" key during restart. The FireWire symbol will appear on the G4's screen and the drives plugged into the G4 will appear on the G5's desktop. Transfer the media to a drive on the G5. Turn of G4. Unplug cable and restart the G4.

Boyd Ostroff · July 16th, 2004, 04:39 PM

I have worked between my Powerbook G4 laptop and two G4 desktops using an external firewire drive, but my experience is with FCP 3 and not the newer versions.

It all works very well, but there was one "gotcha" that you needed to be very careful of in FCP3. This had to do with specifying a scratch disk. If the computer did not find the disk you had chosen in your preferences (for example, if it was a firewire drive that was unplugged) then FCP would without warning default to putting render files and captured clips inside the documents folder of your "home" on the computer's boot drive. This meant that you needed to always check the scratch disk preference when moving between computers or run the risk of having files end up on an internal drive.

Has this been changed in the newer versions of FCP? I found this to be sort of a nuisance on version 3, but nothing that couldn't be dealt with if you kept it in mind.

Alex Ratson · July 16th, 2004, 07:25 PM

What I is the best way to network a 12inch Powerbook to my PC desktop so that I can extract files from the PC’s hard drive and share its printer? I would like the Powerbook to be wireless but the PC will be hard wired. Is there a solution to do this economically? I like some of the products I see from Linksys although it dose not say if they will work with the Mac or with the Mac and PC combo. Also I would like to share the same internet connection.

Any Help would be great.

Thanks,
Alex

Barry Gilbert · July 16th, 2004, 07:40 PM

Alex,
The internet connection will be a breeze. Mac or PC use the standard 802.11b. As for the sharing this guy has a pretty good step by step.

http://joelshoemaker.com/computer/mac/pcfilesharing.html

Mark Sloan · July 17th, 2004, 01:06 PM

Hm. Sharing the printer depends completely on the printer. The easiet thing to do would be to buy an Airport Extreme Base Station and hook that into your DSL or Cable modem. It has a ethernet jack for you to plug your PC into and your PowerBook can connect wirelessly if your PowerBook has an Airport Extreme card (802.11g or b). You can plug the printer (if it is compatible) into the USB jack on the base station and then anyone on your network can print to it... at least in theory. I don't know if the PC will detect it or not. You could go to the apple support pages and do a search or post a question about this setup there. According to the site, if you have windows 2000 or XP it should work: http://www.apple.com/airportextreme/

I would guess there are cheaper solutions out there, but I don't know if they would be as easy to set up.

If you just want to share files then take any ethernet cable, connect the two machines, and turn on file sharing on your PC. The mac will detect it when done correctly. I believe Barry's link is accurate for setting this up. It is easier to connect to the PC on your Mac then the other way around. Getting a PC to recognize your Mac's windows file sharing can be tricky. (You don't need to worry about a cross-over ethernet cable, the powerbook's ethernet jack is smart enough to figure everything out)

Frank Vu · July 17th, 2004, 03:12 PM

Can I in the capture window of FCP4 on my Powerbook during direct to external harddrive capture? I want to frame my shots properly with my DVX and anamorphic adapter without having to buy a 16x9 monitor. Is there a plug-in solution?

Boyd Ostroff · July 17th, 2004, 04:09 PM

I use FCP 3 and know there isn't a feature for this, don't know about FCP 4 but I kinda doubt it.

I suggest that you take a look at BTV Pro which is an inexpensive shareware application that I find really useful. You can display and/or capture video in this program and the screen size is fully configurable. I shoot anamorphic 16:9 with my PDX-10 and use BTV Pro all the time as a portable monitor that shows full screen underscan video in the correct proportion. On my 15" powerbook I've set the default for full screen at 1280x720.

The program has a lot of other features, many of which I haven't even tried, such as time lapse recording. You can also access a variety of "scopes" to analyze the video stream which can be really handy as well.

Give it a try, you can use it in demo mode for free which gives you full access to the features.

Joe Calalang · July 17th, 2004, 04:29 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Mark Sloan : You could fake something like it using FCP too using green screen tech, just shoot the people, the background and the car separately and then put them all together at the end, simply dropping out the green background of the crew, putting the car with its green background dropped out under that "layer", and then the static, normal shot of the background acting as the base shot. Maybe I'm over complecating it? But at first glance you could shoot it that way with very little work to set up and very little post work.

Can FCE do this too?

Frank Vu · July 17th, 2004, 06:44 PM

thanks for the link...i was hoping there was something out there like that. seems like a really easy feature to include in fcp4. i too capture on my pb, and love that i get to shoot exactly what i want and edit immediately.

Vishal Gurung · July 18th, 2004, 03:07 AM

You could do green screen with FCP for sure but as far as my experiences go with green screen, it isn't as easy as just pointing a camera at a subject on a green background and calling it a day.. there's lights involved, distance, focal points, focus.. not to mention a crapload of equipment u'd have to bring... it's doable, but if i don't think as easy as one would gather. Then again i guess one could always rotoscope that car in lol.. gee that'd be fun :/

Gustavo Godinho · July 18th, 2004, 07:58 AM

Hi. The problem is: when I press the "fast-forward" button on my FCP, despite of fast frames, a black screen appears. A very loud noise occurs too.

It´s not captured footage. I´m trying to fast forward from a tape that is "playbacked" from a DV VTR.

The system goes like this:

audio: VTR > AJA capture card > mixer > speakers
video: VTR > AJA capture card > mac G5 with FCP 4

Don´t forget the most important information: I´m trying to fast forward the tape from VTR using the FCP.

Do you think this noise and the black screen was supposed to be happening???

Jeff Donald · July 18th, 2004, 08:14 AM

Some VTR's will not play an image in FF. Some VTR's have to have image playback in FF turned on in an internal menu. Is the noise your audio in FF also?

Steve LaClair · July 18th, 2004, 11:41 AM

I've noticed before in the past if you use audio that didn't match your project settings that sometimes you'd get crackles or whatever. Our current project is shot with 2 vx2100's on 16bit 48kHz, but I'm switching over to a vx1000 which you know is 12bit 32kHz.

Can audio from the vx1000 still work good in a 48kHz project without distortion?

Gustavo Godinho · July 18th, 2004, 12:00 PM

Thanks Jeff. I´ll be more especific: the VCR is a Sony DSR-25. When I try to fast-forward from the FCP, pressing the FF button, a terrible loud noise occurs. The tape begins to roll fast, but no image appears, only a black screen.

I heard someone say that it could be a software problem, and an update would solve the problem. Do you know anything about this update?

July 16th, 2004, 04:16 PM	#976
Matt Elias Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: California Posts: 149	Working between two computers What's the best approach to working between two computers? I'm going to do some rough edits on a dual G4 and then finish my project on a G5 (the computers are in the same location). Should I save my project to an external HD and then move it to the G5 when I'm ready to use it? I want to make sure there aren't any problems with lost clips or the G5 having trouble finding their paths. If there's a better option, then the workflow will be much faster.

July 16th, 2004, 04:39 PM	#977
Jeff Donald Warden Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Clearwater, FL Posts: 8,287	I use the FireWire Target mode. Turn of the G4. Plug a FireWire cable into the G4 and G5. restart the G4 and hold down the "T" key during restart. The FireWire symbol will appear on the G4's screen and the drives plugged into the G4 will appear on the G5's desktop. Transfer the media to a drive on the G5. Turn of G4. Unplug cable and restart the G4. __________________ Jeff Donald Carpe Diem Search DVinfo.net for quick answers \| Where to Buy? From the best in the business: DVinfo.net sponsors

July 16th, 2004, 07:25 PM	#979
Alex Ratson Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Squamish, British Columbia, Canada Posts: 149	Powerbook + PC wireless network solution What I is the best way to network a 12inch Powerbook to my PC desktop so that I can extract files from the PC’s hard drive and share its printer? I would like the Powerbook to be wireless but the PC will be hard wired. Is there a solution to do this economically? I like some of the products I see from Linksys although it dose not say if they will work with the Mac or with the Mac and PC combo. Also I would like to share the same internet connection. Any Help would be great. Thanks, Alex

July 16th, 2004, 07:40 PM	#980
Barry Gilbert Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Winnsboro, SC Posts: 96	Alex, The internet connection will be a breeze. Mac or PC use the standard 802.11b. As for the sharing this guy has a pretty good step by step. http://joelshoemaker.com/computer/mac/pcfilesharing.html __________________ "No matter how good she looks; somebody, somewhere is tried of putting up with her crap." Randy Brazell

July 17th, 2004, 03:12 PM	#982
Frank Vu Regular Crew Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Chicago, Ill. Posts: 26	Viewing Unsqueezed Anamophic During Capture Can I in the capture window of FCP4 on my Powerbook during direct to external harddrive capture? I want to frame my shots properly with my DVX and anamorphic adapter without having to buy a 16x9 monitor. Is there a plug-in solution?

July 16th, 2004, 04:39 PM	#978
Boyd Ostroff Wrangler Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Mays Landing, NJ Posts: 11,801	I have worked between my Powerbook G4 laptop and two G4 desktops using an external firewire drive, but my experience is with FCP 3 and not the newer versions. It all works very well, but there was one "gotcha" that you needed to be very careful of in FCP3. This had to do with specifying a scratch disk. If the computer did not find the disk you had chosen in your preferences (for example, if it was a firewire drive that was unplugged) then FCP would without warning default to putting render files and captured clips inside the documents folder of your "home" on the computer's boot drive. This meant that you needed to always check the scratch disk preference when moving between computers or run the risk of having files end up on an internal drive. Has this been changed in the newer versions of FCP? I found this to be sort of a nuisance on version 3, but nothing that couldn't be dealt with if you kept it in mind.

July 17th, 2004, 01:06 PM	#981
Mark Sloan Major Player Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Venice, CA Posts: 346	Hm. Sharing the printer depends completely on the printer. The easiet thing to do would be to buy an Airport Extreme Base Station and hook that into your DSL or Cable modem. It has a ethernet jack for you to plug your PC into and your PowerBook can connect wirelessly if your PowerBook has an Airport Extreme card (802.11g or b). You can plug the printer (if it is compatible) into the USB jack on the base station and then anyone on your network can print to it... at least in theory. I don't know if the PC will detect it or not. You could go to the apple support pages and do a search or post a question about this setup there. According to the site, if you have windows 2000 or XP it should work: http://www.apple.com/airportextreme/ I would guess there are cheaper solutions out there, but I don't know if they would be as easy to set up. If you just want to share files then take any ethernet cable, connect the two machines, and turn on file sharing on your PC. The mac will detect it when done correctly. I believe Barry's link is accurate for setting this up. It is easier to connect to the PC on your Mac then the other way around. Getting a PC to recognize your Mac's windows file sharing can be tricky. (You don't need to worry about a cross-over ethernet cable, the powerbook's ethernet jack is smart enough to figure everything out)

July 17th, 2004, 04:09 PM	#983
Boyd Ostroff Wrangler Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Mays Landing, NJ Posts: 11,801	I use FCP 3 and know there isn't a feature for this, don't know about FCP 4 but I kinda doubt it. I suggest that you take a look at BTV Pro which is an inexpensive shareware application that I find really useful. You can display and/or capture video in this program and the screen size is fully configurable. I shoot anamorphic 16:9 with my PDX-10 and use BTV Pro all the time as a portable monitor that shows full screen underscan video in the correct proportion. On my 15" powerbook I've set the default for full screen at 1280x720. The program has a lot of other features, many of which I haven't even tried, such as time lapse recording. You can also access a variety of "scopes" to analyze the video stream which can be really handy as well. Give it a try, you can use it in demo mode for free which gives you full access to the features.

July 17th, 2004, 06:44 PM	#985
Frank Vu Regular Crew Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Chicago, Ill. Posts: 26	thanks for the link...i was hoping there was something out there like that. seems like a really easy feature to include in fcp4. i too capture on my pb, and love that i get to shoot exactly what i want and edit immediately.

July 18th, 2004, 03:07 AM	#986
Vishal Gurung Major Player Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Vancouver, Canada Posts: 237	You could do green screen with FCP for sure but as far as my experiences go with green screen, it isn't as easy as just pointing a camera at a subject on a green background and calling it a day.. there's lights involved, distance, focal points, focus.. not to mention a crapload of equipment u'd have to bring... it's doable, but if i don't think as easy as one would gather. Then again i guess one could always rotoscope that car in lol.. gee that'd be fun :/

July 18th, 2004, 07:58 AM	#987
Gustavo Godinho Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Belém - Pa - Brazil Posts: 130	Very strange problem with FCP. Help! Hi. The problem is: when I press the "fast-forward" button on my FCP, despite of fast frames, a black screen appears. A very loud noise occurs too. It´s not captured footage. I´m trying to fast forward from a tape that is "playbacked" from a DV VTR. The system goes like this: audio: VTR > AJA capture card > mixer > speakers video: VTR > AJA capture card > mac G5 with FCP 4 Don´t forget the most important information: I´m trying to fast forward the tape from VTR using the FCP. Do you think this noise and the black screen was supposed to be happening??? __________________ lml

July 18th, 2004, 08:14 AM	#988
Jeff Donald Warden Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Clearwater, FL Posts: 8,287	Some VTR's will not play an image in FF. Some VTR's have to have image playback in FF turned on in an internal menu. Is the noise your audio in FF also? __________________ Jeff Donald Carpe Diem Search DVinfo.net for quick answers \| Where to Buy? From the best in the business: DVinfo.net sponsors

July 18th, 2004, 11:41 AM	#989
Steve LaClair Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Fayetteville, North Carolina/ Upstate NY Posts: 40	Correct Project Audio Settings I've noticed before in the past if you use audio that didn't match your project settings that sometimes you'd get crackles or whatever. Our current project is shot with 2 vx2100's on 16bit 48kHz, but I'm switching over to a vx1000 which you know is 12bit 32kHz. Can audio from the vx1000 still work good in a 48kHz project without distortion? __________________ -Steve LaClair http://www.skateperception.com/

July 18th, 2004, 12:00 PM	#990
Gustavo Godinho Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Belém - Pa - Brazil Posts: 130	Thanks Jeff. I´ll be more especific: the VCR is a Sony DSR-25. When I try to fast-forward from the FCP, pressing the FF button, a terrible loud noise occurs. The tape begins to roll fast, but no image appears, only a black screen. I heard someone say that it could be a software problem, and an update would solve the problem. Do you know anything about this update? __________________ lml