Lumiere HD workflow

Rati Oneli · July 12th, 2006, 12:37 PM

Didn't anyone have similar experience? Please help

Jeff Sayre · July 12th, 2006, 03:14 PM

Two questions:

1.) Are your m2t files sequentially numbered, as in you used Lumiere's Autoincrement function when you captured your files?

If so, then go back to step #9 of the procedure and carefully read the note about using Autoincrement.

2.) Have you posted your issue on the Lumiere HD forum?

That fact that it worked once but not this time must mean that your procedure has changed slightly.

Rati Oneli · July 12th, 2006, 03:23 PM

Hi Jeff, thank you again. :) I did post this on Lumiee forum, but no answer yet.

I did the autoincrement option, but I don't completely understand the requirment for selecting the files. In my first try I think I just selected the whole folder and it did everything correctly. Now, for the second try, I selected the files manually, but how does it makes sense since to select those files I have to access the folder anyway? Which means I have to click on the folder and open it, so the fact of opening the folder already registers with Lumiere. I have many files in there and I only want to use few, so what I did is I pointed the arrow and selected the files I wanted from bottom to top. This didn't work. So the next time I just went into the folder and selected one file only. This didn't work either...

Maybe I should just reinstall the Lumiere from the scratch? Hopefully, I won't loose the license.

This whole thing is quite uncomfortable, especially after paying $200 for it - it feels like they (Lumiere) just glued together some kind of interface together and threw it out in the street for people to have problems with it.

Tom Chaney · July 14th, 2006, 07:39 PM

Hi Rati,

We are using Lumiere to capture only, use MPEG Streamclip to transfer to AIC files for editing in final cut pro.

Do a search for Tim Dashwood on this or the JVC thread, he's got all this stuff figured out and happily has shared his info.

Good luck,

Tom Chaney

www.tomchaney.com

Cal Thorpe · July 31st, 2006, 02:05 PM

When I'm in capture mode, sometimes Lumiere 1.7 will make make data from the camera dropout. I get a black screen for a split second then blue then a pop. I look back at Lumiere and it has stopped capturing. I was having this problem yesterday when I first tried to capture, so I quit Lumiere to make sure it wasn't the tape. No problems with the tape. It plays fine when Lumiere isn't running. I'm not running any other programs at the same time. It seems like Lumiere is trying to gain control of the camera, because the capture works best when the VTR controls on Lumiere aren't working and I have to control the camera manually. Any thoughts?
Steve

Cal Thorpe · August 2nd, 2006, 03:07 PM

If I import my AIC 1280x720 MOV file straight into FCP it keeps its size. If I import the XML that Lumiere made it comes in wanky even though when I look at the movie's properties in FCP browser it still says 1280x720. Any ideas?
Steve

Cal Thorpe · August 3rd, 2006, 02:39 PM

If anyone else has had this problem, I found a fix. Wait to create your project file. Open FCP and then immediately import an XML file, instead of importing it into the already open project have it create a new project. After that, double check all your sequence settings and make sure they are what you want. Every XML file after that should work.

Tim Dashwood · August 4th, 2006, 09:37 AM

I have just finished my first workflow test with version 1.7 and it looks like they have removed the ability to maintain the frame dimensions in the timeline tab.
v1.6b6 used to have a section underneath the codec selection that allowed you to maintain source dimensions or scale to the dimensions of your liking.
This is bad news for those of us who prefer to maintain 1280x720 in AIC and never go back to the m2v source.

It looks like they have removed this option in v1.7 and now the files always downscale to 720x480.

There also used to be an additional Quicktime dialog that appeared when you hit the GO button that allowed you to select 48KHZ AIFF and confirm your codec selection and frame rate. THis is also gone.

Tim Dashwood · August 4th, 2006, 09:43 AM

Rati,

Sorry for the delay in response. I don't visit this sub-forum very often.

This might sound like a silly question, but did you use any "spaces" in your filenames? It is a ridiculous thing that on a mac you would be forced to used an underscore "_" but it seems LumiereHD does not like spaces.

I've also noticed it will hang if the file name you originally entered is too long. Keep it under 25 characters.

Otherwise, I'm not sure what your issue could be stemming from. I have found v1.6b6 and v1.7 to be fairly solid (even though I'm pissed that they removed scale control in v1.7 - see my other post)

Rati Oneli · August 4th, 2006, 12:50 PM

Hi Tim, thank you for your post. I didn't use spaces actually and I couldn't figure out what was wrong until I downloaded the latest version of the Lumiere HD. It seemed to have fixed the problem, although there is another issue now.

I selected four files to be transcoded into M2V files. It did transcode all four of them, but when it created quicktime MOV files there were only three instead of four. This was a bit misterious to me. I didn't really follow up on this and didn't do another conversion because I was busy with shoots, but I hope it won't be an issue when I begin to transcode dozens of files.

Also, I played some of the raw files M2T through VLC player and it did play most of the fine, but it didn't play some of them and for couple it gave me an error. Is it possible that I ruined the raw files by prematurely playing them through VLC player? Does it mean that I can't properly transcode those files anymore and I shouldn't trust the quality?

Thanks,

Rati

Kevin Sabourin · August 13th, 2006, 12:19 AM

Everytime I import a whole 63 minute tape of footage into Lumiere HD, it seems to import it all fine. But after I"m done demultiplexing it and finally getting into an FCP XML file. It cuts the vidoe only off on every tape at exactly 31 minutes 15 seconds into the tape. The whole 63 minutes of audio is still there, and I hvae to end up going back and re-importing the last half of the tape... can anybody help me?

kevin

James Tauber · August 14th, 2006, 02:28 AM

Can't you just select Custom and enter W 1280 and H 720?

James Tauber · August 14th, 2006, 06:29 AM

I was having a problem with Timeline Codec not doing anything until I noticed some of my files were only 4k (the .m2t, .m2v and .aiff). When I deleted those, Timeline Codec worked.

Han Savelkoel · August 14th, 2006, 10:05 AM

You can use lumiere for capture. To encode it for use in FCP you better use Mpeg Streamclip (freeware)

James Fortier · August 29th, 2006, 02:34 PM

I'm capturing 720p/24p footage. Can someone please clarify the FCP proxie files created in the Realtime Timelince Codec in Lumiere HD 1.7? Here are the steps I have taken so far.

1. Choose the PRESETS pull-down menu In the REALTIME TIMELINE CODEC window. Select OTHER.

2. In the COMPRESSION TYPE Pulldown menu, select APPLE INTERMEDIATE CODEC.

3. Select the FRAMES PER SECOND pull-down menu and select 23.98.

4. Select the OTHER button in the COMPRESSOR > PRESET.

5. <b>In the SIZE section, choose the SOURCE button. Note that you can also create a smaller dimension such as 720 x 406 (16:9 aspect ratio) since this is only used as a proxy in FCP to edit with. But if you have the memory and speed, working in the full 1280 x 720 is preferable. These files will not be rendered into your final master. After you edit with this proxy codec, you will use Media Manager to build a new timeline from the full size raw capture images.</b>

Disk Space is the main issue I am dealing with. Because of the additional steps necessary with the HDV 24p footage, I'm taking up tons of disk drive space already. Every GB in the m2t files folder is doubled in the Video files folder after "demuxing" plus the additional space in the Audio files folder. On top of that, the "Realtime" .mov files created after step Three in the Lumiere process (Timeline Codec Apple Intermediate Codec at 1280x720) more than doubles the original video files in file size yet again.

My undersanding in regards to step 5 above was that keeping the 1280x720 pixel size the same would not effect filesize becasue these are proxie files used during the offline. I must have misunderstood this because the .mov video files are bigger than the originals. Can I save disk size by reducing the pixel size of the FCP proxis files during the offline. I have 60 hours of footage to go through still, and I do not need high resolution during the off-line process. My undersanding is that when I create the final on-line sequence with Media Manager I would then up the resolution to Best Quality at 1280x720.

Any suggestions?

July 12th, 2006, 12:37 PM	#151
Rati Oneli Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: New York Posts: 60	Doesn't anyone know? Didn't anyone have similar experience? Please help

July 12th, 2006, 03:14 PM	#152
Jeff Sayre Major Player Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: South Bend, IN Posts: 301	Two questions: 1.) Are your m2t files sequentially numbered, as in you used Lumiere's Autoincrement function when you captured your files? If so, then go back to step #9 of the procedure and carefully read the note about using Autoincrement. 2.) Have you posted your issue on the Lumiere HD forum? That fact that it worked once but not this time must mean that your procedure has changed slightly. __________________ www.SayreMedia.com

July 14th, 2006, 07:39 PM	#154
Tom Chaney Regular Crew Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 196	Use MPEG Streamclip Hi Rati, We are using Lumiere to capture only, use MPEG Streamclip to transfer to AIC files for editing in final cut pro. Do a search for Tim Dashwood on this or the JVC thread, he's got all this stuff figured out and happily has shared his info. Good luck, Tom Chaney www.tomchaney.com

July 31st, 2006, 02:05 PM	#155
Cal Thorpe Regular Crew Join Date: May 2006 Location: United States Posts: 31	Data Dropout When I'm in capture mode, sometimes Lumiere 1.7 will make make data from the camera dropout. I get a black screen for a split second then blue then a pop. I look back at Lumiere and it has stopped capturing. I was having this problem yesterday when I first tried to capture, so I quit Lumiere to make sure it wasn't the tape. No problems with the tape. It plays fine when Lumiere isn't running. I'm not running any other programs at the same time. It seems like Lumiere is trying to gain control of the camera, because the capture works best when the VTR controls on Lumiere aren't working and I have to control the camera manually. Any thoughts? Steve

August 2nd, 2006, 03:07 PM	#156
Cal Thorpe Regular Crew Join Date: May 2006 Location: United States Posts: 31	XML does its own resizing If I import my AIC 1280x720 MOV file straight into FCP it keeps its size. If I import the XML that Lumiere made it comes in wanky even though when I look at the movie's properties in FCP browser it still says 1280x720. Any ideas? Steve

July 12th, 2006, 03:23 PM	#153
Rati Oneli Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: New York Posts: 60	Hi Jeff, thank you again. :) I did post this on Lumiee forum, but no answer yet. I did the autoincrement option, but I don't completely understand the requirment for selecting the files. In my first try I think I just selected the whole folder and it did everything correctly. Now, for the second try, I selected the files manually, but how does it makes sense since to select those files I have to access the folder anyway? Which means I have to click on the folder and open it, so the fact of opening the folder already registers with Lumiere. I have many files in there and I only want to use few, so what I did is I pointed the arrow and selected the files I wanted from bottom to top. This didn't work. So the next time I just went into the folder and selected one file only. This didn't work either... Maybe I should just reinstall the Lumiere from the scratch? Hopefully, I won't loose the license. This whole thing is quite uncomfortable, especially after paying $200 for it - it feels like they (Lumiere) just glued together some kind of interface together and threw it out in the street for people to have problems with it.

August 3rd, 2006, 02:39 PM	#157
Cal Thorpe Regular Crew Join Date: May 2006 Location: United States Posts: 31	If anyone else has had this problem, I found a fix. Wait to create your project file. Open FCP and then immediately import an XML file, instead of importing it into the already open project have it create a new project. After that, double check all your sequence settings and make sure they are what you want. Every XML file after that should work.

August 4th, 2006, 09:37 AM	#158
Tim Dashwood Wrangler Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Toronto, ON, Canada Posts: 3,637	Scale Option Removed in v1.7 (don't delete your v1.6b6!) I have just finished my first workflow test with version 1.7 and it looks like they have removed the ability to maintain the frame dimensions in the timeline tab. v1.6b6 used to have a section underneath the codec selection that allowed you to maintain source dimensions or scale to the dimensions of your liking. This is bad news for those of us who prefer to maintain 1280x720 in AIC and never go back to the m2v source. It looks like they have removed this option in v1.7 and now the files always downscale to 720x480. There also used to be an additional Quicktime dialog that appeared when you hit the GO button that allowed you to select 48KHZ AIFF and confirm your codec selection and frame rate. THis is also gone. Attached Images __________________ Tim Dashwood

August 4th, 2006, 09:43 AM	#159
Tim Dashwood Wrangler Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Toronto, ON, Canada Posts: 3,637	Rati, Sorry for the delay in response. I don't visit this sub-forum very often. This might sound like a silly question, but did you use any "spaces" in your filenames? It is a ridiculous thing that on a mac you would be forced to used an underscore "_" but it seems LumiereHD does not like spaces. I've also noticed it will hang if the file name you originally entered is too long. Keep it under 25 characters. Otherwise, I'm not sure what your issue could be stemming from. I have found v1.6b6 and v1.7 to be fairly solid (even though I'm pissed that they removed scale control in v1.7 - see my other post) __________________ Tim Dashwood

August 4th, 2006, 12:50 PM	#160
Rati Oneli Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: New York Posts: 60	Hi Tim, thank you for your post. I didn't use spaces actually and I couldn't figure out what was wrong until I downloaded the latest version of the Lumiere HD. It seemed to have fixed the problem, although there is another issue now. I selected four files to be transcoded into M2V files. It did transcode all four of them, but when it created quicktime MOV files there were only three instead of four. This was a bit misterious to me. I didn't really follow up on this and didn't do another conversion because I was busy with shoots, but I hope it won't be an issue when I begin to transcode dozens of files. Also, I played some of the raw files M2T through VLC player and it did play most of the fine, but it didn't play some of them and for couple it gave me an error. Is it possible that I ruined the raw files by prematurely playing them through VLC player? Does it mean that I can't properly transcode those files anymore and I shouldn't trust the quality? Thanks, Rati

August 13th, 2006, 12:19 AM	#161
Kevin Sabourin Tourist Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Renton, Washington Posts: 4	Lumiere HD cuts off my Video half way through import, audio is still good. Help! Everytime I import a whole 63 minute tape of footage into Lumiere HD, it seems to import it all fine. But after I"m done demultiplexing it and finally getting into an FCP XML file. It cuts the vidoe only off on every tape at exactly 31 minutes 15 seconds into the tape. The whole 63 minutes of audio is still there, and I hvae to end up going back and re-importing the last half of the tape... can anybody help me? kevin

August 14th, 2006, 02:28 AM	#162
James Tauber Tourist Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Perth, Western Australia Posts: 2	Can't you just select Custom and enter W 1280 and H 720?

August 14th, 2006, 06:29 AM	#163
James Tauber Tourist Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Perth, Western Australia Posts: 2	I was having a problem with Timeline Codec not doing anything until I noticed some of my files were only 4k (the .m2t, .m2v and .aiff). When I deleted those, Timeline Codec worked.

August 14th, 2006, 10:05 AM	#164
Han Savelkoel New Boot Join Date: May 2003 Location: meerkerk, netherlands Posts: 19	lumiere onl for capture You can use lumiere for capture. To encode it for use in FCP you better use Mpeg Streamclip (freeware)

August 29th, 2006, 02:34 PM	#165
James Fortier New Boot Join Date: Jul 2002 Posts: 17	Realtime Timeline Codec File Size I'm capturing 720p/24p footage. Can someone please clarify the FCP proxie files created in the Realtime Timelince Codec in Lumiere HD 1.7? Here are the steps I have taken so far. 1. Choose the PRESETS pull-down menu In the REALTIME TIMELINE CODEC window. Select OTHER. 2. In the COMPRESSION TYPE Pulldown menu, select APPLE INTERMEDIATE CODEC. 3. Select the FRAMES PER SECOND pull-down menu and select 23.98. 4. Select the OTHER button in the COMPRESSOR > PRESET. 5. <b>In the SIZE section, choose the SOURCE button. Note that you can also create a smaller dimension such as 720 x 406 (16:9 aspect ratio) since this is only used as a proxy in FCP to edit with. But if you have the memory and speed, working in the full 1280 x 720 is preferable. These files will not be rendered into your final master. After you edit with this proxy codec, you will use Media Manager to build a new timeline from the full size raw capture images.</b> Disk Space is the main issue I am dealing with. Because of the additional steps necessary with the HDV 24p footage, I'm taking up tons of disk drive space already. Every GB in the m2t files folder is doubled in the Video files folder after "demuxing" plus the additional space in the Audio files folder. On top of that, the "Realtime" .mov files created after step Three in the Lumiere process (Timeline Codec Apple Intermediate Codec at 1280x720) more than doubles the original video files in file size yet again. My undersanding in regards to step 5 above was that keeping the 1280x720 pixel size the same would not effect filesize becasue these are proxie files used during the offline. I must have misunderstood this because the .mov video files are bigger than the originals. Can I save disk size by reducing the pixel size of the FCP proxis files during the offline. I have 60 hours of footage to go through still, and I do not need high resolution during the off-line process. My undersanding is that when I create the final on-line sequence with Media Manager I would then up the resolution to Best Quality at 1280x720. Any suggestions?