NLE Mac / Final Cut questions from 2005

[Zach Mull]

My co-workers like to use the "Make Freeze Frame" command in FCP 4.5 all the time, and they are terrible with media management. When they run the Media Manager to clean up their acts a little, they often lose the freeze frames they make with that Shift-N command. From what I can tell, it appears to me that Make Freeze Frame just creates a reference to the original master clip instead of creating a still image file (as I can't find any of these in the capture scratch or elsewhere). Can anyone confirm this for me? I can't find the answer in the FCP manuals or in forum and Google searches.

If that is the case, then I have a related question. When they run projects through Media Manager, they seem to lose the original media timecode on all the master clips. I don't trust the Media Manager so I rarely run it, but this doesn't seem right to me. Is there a reason the Media Manager would ditch the original timecode (i.e. can I fix this by tweaking a setting I'm not seeing?) or is this error coming from somewhere else? If I could preserve the original timecode then I imagine that would solve the freeze frame problem as well. Anyone have experience with this?

[Will Abele]

When I export a quicktime file with chapter markers from FCP 4.5 and run it through Compressor to add to DVD Studio Pro it adds white lines at the top with the name of the chapter. How do I get rid of these?

[Matt Irwin]

I'm looking for a stand-alone software color corrector for SD to use on my G5. I know of Final Touch SD, but are there any others? I can get by with Final Cut Pro's color corrector, but secondary color correction is nearly impossible.

[Boyd Ostroff]

I posted in another thread about an odd memory glitch I noticed today while upgrading my 15" 1ghz aluminum powerbook. I thought it went away, but in fact it's still there. After reading through the support forums on apple.com I learned that I am not alone on this, and a number of users are having the same problem.

At some point during the past year - hard to say when - the original Apple 256MB SO-DIMM in the lower slot stopped working. I never even realized this until today because I don't usually do RAM intensive stuff on my Powerbook. But this summer I will depend on it while working in South America, so I decided to upgrade to 1.5 GB.

To make a long story short, many people are experiencing failure of the lower DIMM slot on newer powerbooks. Apple has to replace the motherboard to fix the problem. Fortunately for me, I have Applecare. Others don't and aren't very happy about all this. And people who have had their machines repaired fear that the same thing will happen again after the warranty expires.

Apple hasn't acknowledged the problem, but obviously it's real. If you have a 15" powerbook.... have you looked to see how much RAM is being recognized recently? You may get an unpleasant surprise like I did! There seem to be some reports of similar problems on the G4 iBooks.

There are several threads on this in Apple's own forums. The following one describes all the symptoms, and urges people to report this to Apple in the hopes they will do a recall or warranty extension:

http://discussions.info.apple.com/we...5976@.68ab7b77

[Boyd Ostroff]

http://www.apple.com/support/finalcutstudio/

See the PDF files in the Documentation bar on the right side of the screen. Click on each application for the full manuals plus additional resources.

[Boyd Ostroff]

Here we go again! Apple is recalling a bunch of batteries from 12" and 15" Powerbooks plus 12" iBook G4's. See this page to determine if your laptop is affected:

https://depot.info.apple.com/battery...x.html?lang=en

[Harikrishnan Ponnurangam]

After installing Ultimatte plug in. I created two clips A and B on tracks v1 and v2.

1.Select the foreground v1 choose effects- video-filters-ulitmate-advantedge
2.Double click the foreground layer to load in viewer window
3.selete the filters tab in the viewer window
4.Drag the background footage from the bin to the BG preview icon.
5.Click on the AdvantEdge logo button to launch the AdvantEdge interface.
6.Click on Overlay and Add overlay and do video correction and roto correction. then click ok so the final merged clip will be available on the viewer window in FCP.

This is rough work i did last night My question is how can drop the merged clip into my time line or should i created a separate sequence and drop the clip there. Becuase when i delete the source clips the merged clips from Ultimatte also gets deleted. Should i make it as a independent clip. Its just confusing. Please help!!!

[Kevin Spahr]

Does anyone know where the file that controls the keyboard commands for this program is at, since you can't change them to your liking as in FCP?

If I could find that file I'm sure I could modify it, the odd ball command keys bug the crap out of me!

[Gabriele Turchi]

Hi Guys

there a way to convert DVCPROHD into Transport Stream ATSC HDTV?(not transport stream HDV)?


or maybe only th video to mpeg2 1080i/p?


best regards



Gabriele

[Bill Koepnick]

I have a 27 minute HDV sequence in FCP5 ready to export to Compressor for use in DVD SP. I intend to downconvert the HDV content to 16:9 letterboxed SD (4:3) on the final DVD. This is the first time I have used either Compressor or DVD SP (I used to go straight from FCP to iDVD with previous SD DV projects), and even after pouring through the manuals and the workflow guide that came with the Final Cut Pro Studio package, I am utterly confused at the bewildering array of codecs and settings in Compressor.

I am starting with the DVD Best Quality 90 minutes 4:3 preset, and setting the Frame Controls in the Inspector to Automatic (assuming it will fit the wide format HDV picture into the normal 4:3 video frame with letterboxing). This is taking a ridiculously long time - an estimated 8 hours for the 27 minute sequence.

Can anyone tell me if I am headed in the right direction or list the steps to do this the right way? Does it make more sense to use DV-NTSC anamorphic and let the DVD player letterbox the output on 4:3 screens?

Sorry if these sound like idiotic questions, but I haven't found any useful answers in the manuals so far.

Thanks for any assistance you can give!

EDITED: Another Approach...

The method outlined above failed for a number of reasons, but even if I had gotten the right files to import into DVD SP4, the 14 HOURS Compressor took to manage the conversion makes that approach unworkable.

Instead, I have successfully sent my completed project back to my FX1 via Print To Tape as a full bore HDV transfer. This takes about four times the project length to pre-convert before being ready to re-record in real time.

Then I created a standard DV project in FCP, changed the FX1 settings to downconvert via iLink (firewire) so that it creates a letterboxed 16:9 picture in a 4:3 format, and captured the whole thing back to the computer.

It was then a simple thing to Export a reference (not self-contained) QT Movie and use iDVD to burn the required disk. Total time for this process was less than 4 hours. Hardly speedy, but at least three times faster than using Compressor. Of course, the settings I used in Compressor - which produced an unusable file - may have been responsible for the lengthy conversion. If someone knows the right settings, I would be happy to try this again without the trip back out to tape / recapture.

The final DVD looks like a good quality DV product. Fast motion produces noticeable compression artifacts that seem more pronounced than they were in HDV, but the overall impression is that it was shot on a very good SD camera - kind of what I was hoping to see.

[Mark Ross]

I hope I'm not starting too many threads about this in various places, but I'd like to again ask for opinions on getting the best possible quality out of HDV content when transcoding to an SD codec for output to videotape. Let's for the moment NOT discuss the topic of transcoding to MPEG-2/DVD.

I have a 3.5 minute HDV sequence sitting in my FCP 5 timeline right now. I have to get in onto a DVCPro50 tape. Here are the various software/hardware options open to me, as I see it:

- Export a self-contained Quicktime reference movie from FCP using a custom DVCPro50 sequence setting. I use NTSC DV pixel size (720x480), and check "anamorphic." (Any ideas on field order setting here? I know HDV is upper but DV is lower. :\ ) This exported movie could then be brought back into FCP 5 and dropped into a native DVCPro50 sequence. Connect firewire DVCPro50 deck, print to tape.

- Record sequence back to HDV tape (lossless). Recapture as DV, then print to tape. Of course this is a notch down from DVCPro50, but might actually look better if Apple's transcoding in #1 above is subpar.

- Record sequence back to HDV tape (lossless). Recapture as HDV. Use DVHSCap or HDVxDV to extract the .m2t transport stream. Open .m2t in MPEG Streamclip and export as DVCPro50, deinterlacing. Could also do the "Steven White" method of deinterlacing to 1080p 59.97fps, then 720p, then 720i to preserve best quality. I guess this is pretty much the same as #1, it's just the MPEG Streamclip folks vs Apple in terms of compression.

- Record sequence back to HDV tape (lossless). Digitize via Kona 2 card from HDV deck's analog component outputs as uncompressed into FCP. Export DVCPro50 from FCP.

I am in the fortunate position of having access to a Firewire DVCPro50 deck, and my boss has the Kona setup (RAID and all) in his office. After my deadline, I'll try to run a test of all methods and post the results. In the meantime, please let me hear your speculations... Thanks!

[Heath McKnight]

I'm loving FCP 5, esp. with a project I was trying to cut from iMovie HD footage--FCP 5 detected it and I set my sequence to HDV 1080i and checked the anamorphic flag, and I was good to go. Sure, iMovie HD has some artifacts, but I really don't want to have to re-capture and re-cut my short film. It's done, I'm happy.

However, one quick question, because I haven't captured any HDV footage yet: will FCP 5 detect timecode on the HDV cameras (HD10, FX1, etc.), so I can do logs and batch captures? And possibly re-captures?

Thanks,

Heath

[Harikrishnan Ponnurangam]

I have a object in the video clip that moves randomly and i want to lock a specific color on the object so that it remains in the same color where it moves.

I tried Garbage matte, 3 way color corrector but couldn't get the desired result. Any idea what specifics should i follow. Any help in motion would really be appreciated. I'm new to motion.

[Brooks Bennett]

I was wondering if anyone had any experience using any sort of Mac-based playback application.

I work for a municipal access station and we are moving to FCP for our editing. Currently our playback is run through a PVC-8 (programable video switcher) and a Scala system (http://www.scala.com). MPEG2s running from the Scala look like crap, and running DV on the decks really wears them out.

Here is what I am trying to do:

Find a way to use a Mac-based system to playback videos and slide-content (ala the Scala). Scheduling would be an important part of the software package.

Thanks for any help.

[Steve Montoto]

Im pretty new to Mac and was wondering what format and compression settings
would be best to export into final cut pro from Aftereffects for the best quality, right now I am having to render my .mov files before I can view them in FCP 5.

Sorry if this sounds stupid.

steve