NLE Mac / Final Cut questions from 2002

[Jim Sauza]

Thanks for the post Adrian I enjoyed reading it

jim

[Ken Tanaka]

Indeed, the article is a concise, gobledygook-free overview of the Mac tools and, more importantly, the basic process of video editing. Typical Web Monkey style, eh?

[Adrian Douglas]

All through college when I was learning Internet related multimedia development I found Web Monkey to be a great source of info. Not gospel, but always useful.

[Mike Finnerty]

OK, here's my dilemma. I've been gearing up to buy a new PowerMac G4 Dual 1ghz, but now I'm not sure if I should wait and see what happens at MacWorld NY in July. I'm trying to decide if I should take advantage of some of the nice savings being offered right now by Apple. I could save $300 on the G4 and $200 on the 17" studio display....that's money that I was probably going to spend on the system anyways, but now I could put it towards a second hard drive and towards FCP 3. Any thoughts? I'd appreciate your feedback!

[K. Forman]

It doesn't really matter what you do. When you buy what you want, whether it is based on price or performance, you'll feel screwed because they will either drop the price, or make something better/faster the next day. You can't win.

Get what you need now, and clench the next day, but don't keep waiting for them to slow down for you to decide.
Keith

[Jim Sauza]

To some degree I agree with the Capt, L1. That is my Brain says wait for the next super upgrade and my heart is won over with each new release.
In the end Capt. gets my vote, Get it now and start enjoying it now. After all whar ever you get is much better (faster, sleeker, cheaper) than last years model IMHO. But have fun

Jim

[Ken Tanaka]

Historically, the value-spot for purchasing computers is to buy the model that was just supeceded by the newest model. If dealer inventories of, say, the dual 1GHz are glutted you can expect some price reductions when the next models are introduced.

So, if you were asking this question last March I'd say just buy and cry. But since MacWorld is just around the corner you -might- be wise to wait a few weeks to buy the dual 1GHz Quicksilver in the event that Apple introduces a new hair-shirt model.

[Jeff Donald]

What type of work do you do? The current G4 Dual maybe way over kill for what you do. I bought my current machine in January 2001 just a week or two before Macworld SF. I wish i had waited. The little bit faster speed would have made a big difference in features available to me.

Jeff

[Jeff Donald]

Joe-

To the best of my knowledge Jaguar will be free, but the next major upgrade will have a charge associated with it.

Martin-

I agree, I've noticed the same decrease in speed with OS X. I'm hoping Jaguar will help but I doubt it. The real answer is the after market Nvidia and Radeon video cards. I know that doesn't help much, but with the latest release of Radeon drivers for OS X I've noticed a big increase in 3D speed.

Jeff

[John Klein]

I need to make a call to see if my tape was duped or anything but I just saw one of my cable b-casts and the top (white) end sucked.

I use FCP which has something akin to a waveform monitor and I've got a couple of questions.

In FCP there is a saturation button which shows quite different levels than without the button pushed (where it shows what I believe to only be peaks). What is the correlation of the peaks to the saturation levels? And can you be Ok with the peaks (near or at 100IRE) and not OK with the saturation levels?

My tape (if it's the same one I submitted) showed 95 to maybe 100 peaks (man in off-white robe), but the SAT level was about 103. I've seen stuff blown worse, with SAT levels about 110, so I wouldn't think that just over 100 would be too bad. Played fine at home (sorry just a nice TV, no monitor), not on air.

No audio "interference" was apparent, but the whites were crushed and the contrast seemed to be higher than I've seen on my other stuff.

Any idea about the different levels of IRE shown in FCP's WF monitor? There's even different levels of SAT which confuse me even more.

Assuming they duped it via composite lines (from one pro deck to another) could that have messed up my tape enough to get the levels outa' wack?

-Gracias

[Jeff Donald]

Hi,

You don't say what size market your in, but most stations (even in large markets) don't spend alot of time and effort making dubs for broadcast. If you provided a mini Dv tape it was copied to another format and there lies your problem. I worked for a short while at a station in Cincinnati. The job of copying tapes for broadcast was usually given to interns. Not much care was given to see that high quality dubs were being made and broadcast. I would suggest for optimum quality you ask the station what format they use for broadcast. Then take your miniDV tape to a good post house or duplication facility and have a dub made to give to the station for broadcast. Stations can be very particular about the bars and tone at the front etc. so get the stations exact specifications

On the question of levels I keep my peaks at 95 to 98. I never go over 100.

Jeff

[Peter Wiley]

Not using a monitor can be misleading. Many consumer TVs have filtering circuts designed to doctor the broadcast image.

[John Klein]

I'm going from FCP to the DVCPRO tape that should air. If a TC break is detected, it's possible they made a dub. I looked at another "movie" I output to tape. Then in the Log/Capture mode I re read the readings. That's why I'm wondering now about the difference in readings vs. sat. levels. One was OK and another, not.

Just where is white, white? If you only go to 95, is that white? Is it possible to have 100 that is not white? ie..can colors be at 100? Maybe that's part of the saturation levels? I think I'm clueless with regards to colors, contrast levels and the ol' NTSC relationship. I also question the output of our cable system. I just want to do my part.

[Jeff Donald]

Sorry, when I saw broadcast I missed the cable part. Cable stations do use miniDV as source, but I would still double check. Up until a few years ago I knew of cable stations still using 3/4 u-matic for broadcast. I don't use the waveform monitor/vectorscope in FCP much. I have an external one from my old production company I still prefer to use. The video signal can be broken in luminance and chrominance. Luminance is the intensity of the video signal. This differs from the brightness. Brightness is sensory and cannot be measured. The color video signal contains two components: luminance (brightness and contrast) and chrominance (hue and saturation).

Your vectorscope measures chrominance. If color portions of the signal are over saturated this can cause your colors to bleed. White, however, is not a color as far as NTSC is concerned. Your 103 reading is over saturation of one or more colors that can be determined on the vectorscope.

The waveform monitor can show both luminance and chrominance. Switching your settings is probably showing one, then both readings. For DV i never go over 95 to 98 for my luminance. Digital is not like analog when the signal is over driven. The digital signal just clips and the results can be blown out highlights.

You are right to question the cable system. Find out if your master was aired or copied.

Jeff

Hello. I am new to Premiere and a newcomer to this board. I am having a problem.....probably an ID 10 T error (IDIOT ) .
I am on a MAC and have Premiere 6.0.
I create a new movie, import a clip, and drag an effect over the clip. For argument sake lets say color balance. I make my adjustments and see the adjustments I am making, but when I play back the video the effect is not visible. I see my keyframes in the keyframe line, see the effect listed above the keyframe line, see the effect in the history and effects control tab, but when I play back it does not appear.

Can anyone help ?
Thanks.

Jeffyr