NLE Mac / Final Cut questions from 2005

Luis Caffesse · June 21st, 2005, 11:30 AM

I'm seriously contemplating switching from Avid to FCP, and I'm hoping to hear from anyone who may have done just that.

I'm sold on getting a Mac...and in fact I'm contemplating buying it in the next day or so. But, I have to admit, I still have some reservations about moving to FCP.

I realize that most editing systems are the same, and it's the editor behind the system that really matters.... Walter Murch on imovie is going to be better than me on an Avid any day of the week.

But, have those of you who switched from Avid to FCP had any regrets, suprises, etc?

Any advice or experiences on this would help.
Thanks.

Boyd Ostroff · June 22nd, 2005, 09:17 PM

Apple has posted updates to Final Cut Pro 4.5 and Final Cut Express 3.0:

http://www.apple.com/support/downloa...deoupdate.html

Quote:

Desktop Video Update 1.2.1

About Desktop Video Update
Desktop Video Out Update addresses an issue with Final Cut Pro HD 4.5 and Final Cut Express HD 3.0 when using Digital Cinema Desktop Preview (Main).

This update is recommended for Final Cut Pro HD 4.5 and Final Cut Express HD 3.0 customers.

These appear to address the problems which many users of FCP 4.5 reported under "Tiger." As with all updates, be very careful to have backups available in case they break something new. Not a good idea to apply updates to production systems which are currently working well...

Reggie Moser · June 23rd, 2005, 12:20 PM

Hello everyone,
I've been reading a few posts and maybe this question has already been asked and answered. I'm shooting 16:9, 24p with a 2:3:3:2 pulldown on the Canon XL2 and editing with FCP5. I set my capture settings menu in the log and capture screen to anamorphic. In the sequence preset I also use anamorphic and when I create a quicktime movie I also select anamorphic. Once I create a DVD and play the dvd on the computer to display my project on my 23" HD Apple monitor, I get black bars on both sides. I assume it's still in 4:3 mode? On my JVC production monitor the image is 16:9 due to the setting. Can anamorphic widescreen be achieved with the above tools mentioned without the black bars?

Thanks for any advice,

Reggie

Deniz Turkmen · July 2nd, 2005, 11:43 AM

I'm trying to capture some old VHS tapes. I have a Datavideo DAC-100. When I open the log and capture window it says "vtr ok," but the preview is disabled. How do I go about capturing analog footage with a bidirectional converter in FCP 5?

Thanks

Jerry Wilson · July 7th, 2005, 10:08 AM

I have a very specific problem and am hoping someone has dealt with this.

We are a church that is using four cameras through a Videonics MX Pro mixer and sending one s-video signal to a DSR-11 for our TV broadcast (we are tape-delayed). We then pull the audio from a separate audio board in the broadcast room. This all works fine. We capture the service to mini-dv, then capture the service on Sunday afternoon and edit for airing on Television at 8 pm Sunday nights.

This is a time-consuming process. In the absence of a Firestore or similar device, we need to capture this service live so we don't have to waste the hour after the service is over capturing it to the mac.

Here's what we have been doing:

We open the log and capture window in FCP4, set it to non-controllable device and use the capture live feature. The problem is that we have dropped frames. We're using a 1.6 Ghz G5 with 2GB of RAM. The funny thing is that we can capture from the tape for the hour and it will be a perfect capture…absolutely perfect.

If the mac has the "horsepower" to capture for an hour from tape, why can it not capture for an hour with the live feed without dropping the frames every few minutes? Is this a time code issue?

We have no other programs running, or even loaded, on this mac. It's not hooked to the internet and is dedicated to just capturing this service.

Does anyone have any ideas I could try short of buying the firestore?

Gary Miller · July 7th, 2005, 10:49 PM

I clicked "print to tape" and walked away while it did its work for the 48 minute length of the tape. I then checked the tape and all of a sudden the audio dropped out of one set of clips.

I then went back and closed any other programs that were open and re-did the print to tape. It seemed OK -- there were no audio drop outs.

Was this the problem (other programs like email being open)? Are there other tricks to avoid this problem?

Heath Hays · July 10th, 2005, 05:01 PM

hello out there..

Ill just jump right into it. im trying to work with footage from an hdv-fx1. footage taken at 60i with no picture profile. i have a g4 1.5 powerbook. i have final cut 5. ive successfully captured footage. i can edit just as ive edited dv on fcp4. rendering, however, is all screwed up. i modify(ie: de-interlace), render, and then my clip plays, in rendered form, at double speed. halfway through the clip it just goes to black and continues playing. ive tried several of the fcp effects and just get the same results.

anyone have any ideas?

thanks for taking a few seconds.

heath

Boyd Ostroff · July 26th, 2005, 07:46 AM

Today Apple announced a new 12" iBook with a 1.33ghz G4 processor and a new 14" iBook with a 1.42ghz G4. Both models come with 512MB RAM.

http://www.apple.com/ibook/

They also bumped the standard configuration of the Mac Mini up to 512MB RAM

http://www.apple.com/macmini/

John Stromme · July 28th, 2005, 03:50 PM

Hi, I was currious,
has anyone tried running the multicam tool from FC5 on a G4?

How did it perform?

The G4 specs are:
733mhz Quick Silver G4
1.12 gb of ram

We are editing dv video over firewire, if that helps,

thanks

john

Kevin Wild · July 30th, 2005, 04:30 PM

Just wondering if anyone has an opinion on these:

www.thedrgroup.com

They look very fast and perfect for editing HD on FCP, but I've yet to see a review. Anyone use it yet or know of a review? Thanks. Kevin

Bill Hooper · August 2nd, 2005, 02:40 PM

I would like to export an uncompressed 8bit or 10bit quicktime file and take that file and layback to Digibeta (PAL).

Anybody know of any post places that do this, in Los Angeles, or anywhere else?

Has anybody done this? I assume the image will look exactly the same. Right?

Thanks
Bill

Nate Schmidt · August 2nd, 2005, 04:41 PM

Hi, I am having problems burning DVD's on my G5. I'm using a Pioneer Drive purchased from OWC and I'm not sure if it is the drive that is the problem or me! I get no success burning straight from iDVD or DVD Studio Pro. If I create an image in iDVD and burn it throught the Finder it works, but if I build a DVD throught DVDSP to my HD and try the Finder after burning Apple DVD Player says supported disc missing. I also tried burning a Quicktime M2v to take to another computer to author but that burn failed. Sorry for all the info, what I really need is some diagnonsis software that would tell me if the drive is the problem or not, does something like that exist? Thanks in advance!!
Nate

Kyle Fasanella · August 10th, 2005, 12:35 AM

Hey guys I am looking to encode to WMV HD from final cut. I used to do this by encoding the video into an AVI in codex DV/DVCPRO NTSC. That file compression makes a perfect quality DV that I can bring into WME and encode to what I wish. The problem is I need to do this in HD now. I have a PC and Mac networked. What do you guys recommend?

Heath McKnight · August 10th, 2005, 06:38 AM

When I installed FCP 5, I had a film cut with FCP 4.5 with FX1 footage captured via iMovie HD (AIC). I would send an uncompressed HD copy of the film back to iMovie HD, then send it over to iDVD and make the DVD with no problem.

Well, with FCP 5, I had no problems with checking out and tweaking my movie in AIC from iMovie HD (yes!), but I did a regular compression via Compressor and made the DVD. It's all "choppy" and broken up when the people move.

It should also be noted that we shot in CineFrame 24, but I never had a problem like this. It was difficult to watch.

Any ideas what I may have to do?

heath

Tim Baker · August 18th, 2005, 03:45 PM

Hi all...I have an HD100 on order...hope to get it end of the month like everyone else.

I really need to know the challenges that I am going to have posting the 24p...etc on my Final Cut system. I have the Kona2 w/Kbox and the I/O LA.

Will I need a third party plug-in to post the 24p and other frame rates? If so, which would be the best?

A second question if you don't mind...does anyone know a resource for me that would explain the various frame rates/screen ratios and the instances inwhich I would want to use them...which one lends itself to what situation...ie. sports/low lighting/blah...blah...blah.

I am just a 29.97 shooter getting ready for the new wave...any help...a chart, a book, etc. would be much appreciated...I am just a little overwhelmed with the range of frame rates and screen ratios and which situations they may fit best.

Thanks in advance to all.

June 21st, 2005, 11:30 AM	#61
Luis Caffesse Major Player Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Austin, Texas Posts: 704	Any thoughts on switching from Avid to FCP? I'm seriously contemplating switching from Avid to FCP, and I'm hoping to hear from anyone who may have done just that. I'm sold on getting a Mac...and in fact I'm contemplating buying it in the next day or so. But, I have to admit, I still have some reservations about moving to FCP. I realize that most editing systems are the same, and it's the editor behind the system that really matters.... Walter Murch on imovie is going to be better than me on an Avid any day of the week. But, have those of you who switched from Avid to FCP had any regrets, suprises, etc? Any advice or experiences on this would help. Thanks. __________________ Luis Caffesse Pitch Productions Austin, Texas

June 23rd, 2005, 12:20 PM	#63
Reggie Moser Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Charlotte, NC Posts: 113	Trying to achieve 16:9 Widescreen Anamorphic Hello everyone, I've been reading a few posts and maybe this question has already been asked and answered. I'm shooting 16:9, 24p with a 2:3:3:2 pulldown on the Canon XL2 and editing with FCP5. I set my capture settings menu in the log and capture screen to anamorphic. In the sequence preset I also use anamorphic and when I create a quicktime movie I also select anamorphic. Once I create a DVD and play the dvd on the computer to display my project on my 23" HD Apple monitor, I get black bars on both sides. I assume it's still in 4:3 mode? On my JVC production monitor the image is 16:9 due to the setting. Can anamorphic widescreen be achieved with the above tools mentioned without the black bars? Thanks for any advice, Reggie

July 2nd, 2005, 11:43 AM	#64
Deniz Turkmen Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: CA Posts: 166	Capturing analog video I'm trying to capture some old VHS tapes. I have a Datavideo DAC-100. When I open the log and capture window it says "vtr ok," but the preview is disabled. How do I go about capturing analog footage with a bidirectional converter in FCP 5? Thanks

July 7th, 2005, 10:08 AM	#65
Jerry Wilson Tourist Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 1	Capturing Problem with G5, FCP4 I have a very specific problem and am hoping someone has dealt with this. We are a church that is using four cameras through a Videonics MX Pro mixer and sending one s-video signal to a DSR-11 for our TV broadcast (we are tape-delayed). We then pull the audio from a separate audio board in the broadcast room. This all works fine. We capture the service to mini-dv, then capture the service on Sunday afternoon and edit for airing on Television at 8 pm Sunday nights. This is a time-consuming process. In the absence of a Firestore or similar device, we need to capture this service live so we don't have to waste the hour after the service is over capturing it to the mac. Here's what we have been doing: We open the log and capture window in FCP4, set it to non-controllable device and use the capture live feature. The problem is that we have dropped frames. We're using a 1.6 Ghz G5 with 2GB of RAM. The funny thing is that we can capture from the tape for the hour and it will be a perfect capture…absolutely perfect. If the mac has the "horsepower" to capture for an hour from tape, why can it not capture for an hour with the live feed without dropping the frames every few minutes? Is this a time code issue? We have no other programs running, or even loaded, on this mac. It's not hooked to the internet and is dedicated to just capturing this service. Does anyone have any ideas I could try short of buying the firestore?

July 7th, 2005, 10:49 PM	#66
Gary Miller New Boot Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Yonkers, NY Posts: 21	audio drop out when printing to tape I clicked "print to tape" and walked away while it did its work for the 48 minute length of the tape. I then checked the tape and all of a sudden the audio dropped out of one set of clips. I then went back and closed any other programs that were open and re-did the print to tape. It seemed OK -- there were no audio drop outs. Was this the problem (other programs like email being open)? Are there other tricks to avoid this problem?

July 10th, 2005, 05:01 PM	#67
Heath Hays Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Austin, Texas Posts: 60	Final Cut Pro 5 and HDV hello out there.. Ill just jump right into it. im trying to work with footage from an hdv-fx1. footage taken at 60i with no picture profile. i have a g4 1.5 powerbook. i have final cut 5. ive successfully captured footage. i can edit just as ive edited dv on fcp4. rendering, however, is all screwed up. i modify(ie: de-interlace), render, and then my clip plays, in rendered form, at double speed. halfway through the clip it just goes to black and continues playing. ive tried several of the fcp effects and just get the same results. anyone have any ideas? thanks for taking a few seconds. heath __________________ Heath Hays MGD Productions

July 26th, 2005, 07:46 AM	#68
Boyd Ostroff Wrangler Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Mays Landing, NJ Posts: 11,801	Apple introduces new iBooks, Mac Mini upgrades Today Apple announced a new 12" iBook with a 1.33ghz G4 processor and a new 14" iBook with a 1.42ghz G4. Both models come with 512MB RAM. http://www.apple.com/ibook/ They also bumped the standard configuration of the Mac Mini up to 512MB RAM http://www.apple.com/macmini/

July 28th, 2005, 03:50 PM	#69
John Stromme New Boot Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 15	FC5 Multi cam on a G4 Hi, I was currious, has anyone tried running the multicam tool from FC5 on a G4? How did it perform? The G4 specs are: 733mhz Quick Silver G4 1.12 gb of ram We are editing dv video over firewire, if that helps, thanks john Last edited by John Stromme; July 28th, 2005 at 06:25 PM.

July 30th, 2005, 04:30 PM	#70
Kevin Wild Major Player Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Raleigh, NC Posts: 540	Anyone use the DRaid Serial ATA Raid yet? Just wondering if anyone has an opinion on these: www.thedrgroup.com They look very fast and perfect for editing HD on FCP, but I've yet to see a review. Anyone use it yet or know of a review? Thanks. Kevin

August 2nd, 2005, 02:40 PM	#71
Bill Hooper Tourist Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Los Angeles, CA Posts: 4	Post houses that transfer from MOV to Digibeta (PAL) I would like to export an uncompressed 8bit or 10bit quicktime file and take that file and layback to Digibeta (PAL). Anybody know of any post places that do this, in Los Angeles, or anywhere else? Has anybody done this? I assume the image will look exactly the same. Right? Thanks Bill

August 2nd, 2005, 04:41 PM	#72
Nate Schmidt Major Player Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Welland ON Posts: 515	DVD Burner Trouble Hi, I am having problems burning DVD's on my G5. I'm using a Pioneer Drive purchased from OWC and I'm not sure if it is the drive that is the problem or me! I get no success burning straight from iDVD or DVD Studio Pro. If I create an image in iDVD and burn it throught the Finder it works, but if I build a DVD throught DVDSP to my HD and try the Finder after burning Apple DVD Player says supported disc missing. I also tried burning a Quicktime M2v to take to another computer to author but that burn failed. Sorry for all the info, what I really need is some diagnonsis software that would tell me if the drive is the problem or not, does something like that exist? Thanks in advance!! Nate __________________ "We've done the impossible, and that makes us mighty."

August 10th, 2005, 12:35 AM	#73
Kyle Fasanella Regular Crew Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 66	Encoding to WMV High Def from Final Cut 5 Hey guys I am looking to encode to WMV HD from final cut. I used to do this by encoding the video into an AVI in codex DV/DVCPRO NTSC. That file compression makes a perfect quality DV that I can bring into WME and encode to what I wish. The problem is I need to do this in HD now. I have a PC and Mac networked. What do you guys recommend?

August 10th, 2005, 06:38 AM	#74
Heath McKnight MPS Digital Studios Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Palm Beach County, Florida Posts: 8,531	Bizarre! When I installed FCP 5, I had a film cut with FCP 4.5 with FX1 footage captured via iMovie HD (AIC). I would send an uncompressed HD copy of the film back to iMovie HD, then send it over to iDVD and make the DVD with no problem. Well, with FCP 5, I had no problems with checking out and tweaking my movie in AIC from iMovie HD (yes!), but I did a regular compression via Compressor and made the DVD. It's all "choppy" and broken up when the people move. It should also be noted that we shot in CineFrame 24, but I never had a problem like this. It was difficult to watch. Any ideas what I may have to do? heath __________________ My Final Cut Pro X blog

August 18th, 2005, 03:45 PM	#75
Tim Baker Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 28	Posting HD100 in Final Cut Pro Hi all...I have an HD100 on order...hope to get it end of the month like everyone else. I really need to know the challenges that I am going to have posting the 24p...etc on my Final Cut system. I have the Kona2 w/Kbox and the I/O LA. Will I need a third party plug-in to post the 24p and other frame rates? If so, which would be the best? A second question if you don't mind...does anyone know a resource for me that would explain the various frame rates/screen ratios and the instances inwhich I would want to use them...which one lends itself to what situation...ie. sports/low lighting/blah...blah...blah. I am just a 29.97 shooter getting ready for the new wave...any help...a chart, a book, etc. would be much appreciated...I am just a little overwhelmed with the range of frame rates and screen ratios and which situations they may fit best. Thanks in advance to all. __________________ "It is not the light at the end of the tunnel that we should seek...it is the courage to take the next step in the dark that we must find."