NLE Mac / Final Cut questions from 2002

I've had some problems digitizing footage from my XL1 to Final Cut Pro. Actually, what I did was digitize to the FCP, then save QuickTime clips that I tried to import into a Media 100 system. Footage just didn't look very good. Finally abandoned that footage and digitized directly to the Media 100 through an analog connection and the footage looked much better.

Any suggestions as to why this occurred? I would have thought that the footage that had been digitally digitized would look better than the analog stuff.

[Ken Tanaka]

Hello Martin,
It's hard to say what went wrong from your brief description. Offhand my guess would be that either your FCP export settings need adjustment for Media 100 import or vice-versa. Did you look at the footage while it was in FCP? Out of curiosity why didn't you capture directly into the Media 100 system?

[Steve Nunez]

Ken,

turns out the dvd that i made with iDVD did come out great when viewed on a TV set- just about undiscernable (quality wise) from the source DV footage from the XL1S..I'm very pleased (their mpeg2 encoding is excellent)

I also have a Mac G4/400 in my son's room with a DVD-Ram drive- believe it or not- the iDVD DVD's don't play in them- go figure...

I'll have DVD Studio Pro soon to build more elaborate menu's and to set the rate of encoding manually (it has VBR)...

I'm guessing the "interlacing" I saw on my computer monitor was because of the very high-res I run on my monitor at all times- if i view it onscreen at a smaller screen size- it looks great.....
(as soon as I buy my wife her new car- I have to get the Apple Cinema Display!!)

Apple fan for life.......Mac's rule!
Long live FCP/Commotion/DVD Studio Pro and the Canon XL1S.

(I smell a Mac G5 coming soon)

[Joe Redifer]

Make your wife buy her own car and get that Studio Display NOW! :) For that good advice I just gave you, you owe me free copies of DVD Studio Pro, Commotion, and whatever else you have :)

The G5 should be introduced pretty soon. I'm sure they're working out all the bugs now instead of just rushing it to market (hopefully). That's when the dual G4 prices will go down and that's when I'll buy one. I hope the G5 runs OS 9 and is not limited to OS X. I would absolutely hate that. OS X is just not ready to be used prime time yet. Not enough apps!

Ken:

I was trying to save time. I was editing the project with a crackerjack editor who was using a Media 100, but the rate on the suite was in the neighborhood of $200/hour and I was trying to get ahead of the game by digitizing all my footage on a portable hard drive that I thought we could simply plug into his system as and work off it, dragging clips into the timeline as we needed them.

Since posting the question, I've done some further searching on the web and perhaps what I was experiencing was simply a settings failure in the software. There's a pretty good discussion of this at: http://www.emailthis.clickability.com/et/emailThis?clickMap=viewThis&etMailT
oID=1842694670

Thanks for taking the time to reply. Just thought others might have experience the same thing.

martin

[Steve Nunez]

hahahahahahah......

...I think OS 9 will be around for at least another year and a half, just too many small apps that run perfectly on it....

The more I use OS X- the more I like it.....dual OS's are a great thing to have...

If Formac comes out with a 22" flatscreen- i'd buy it- their 17" screen beat Apple's 17" which is a small miracle (ever see how good an Apple 17" is??)...

for now I have to live with my Viewsonic 19"- great .23dp and excellent color- great price point as well....

-1 quick question for all the experts out there- would there be an increase in quality if watching video made with XL1S on a HDTV as opposed to a regular TV?

[Joe Redifer]

I don't know much about HDTV, but my guess would be either "no" or "not much". If you shot in frame mode, maybe you could enable progressive scan on the HDTV and that would make it look better. But otherwise I think it's just "NTSC in, NTSC out" as far as regular video is concerned.

[Ken Tanaka]

At $200/hr I'd try to get ahead of the game, too. <g> Glad to hear you worked this issue out. I'm sure the article link will come in handy for others some time.

Say, what do you think of the Media 100 system? Was it the new 844/X reviewed in the current issue of Videography magazine?

[Ian Austen]

Martin I tried that link and only got an add, could you recheck your link. I would be interested in knowing as I use media 100, but was planning on getting a mac laptop and editing from a portable firewire drive in final cut pro 3 just as you described then taking it to my media 100 system for final post

[Ken Tanaka]

When i entered all 3 parts of the link it sent me to this simpler link:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58637

which seems appropriate.

[Jeff Wros]

Until last night I have been able to capture footage with my XL1. This is no longer the case and I would appreciate your assistance.

I have successfully captured video using my 2.5 year old Sony TRV-350 but can not get FCP to capture any footage using my XL1. I have made sure all the basics have been taken care of (ie: no virtual memory, latest QuickTime drivers, etc...).

I have tried to re-capture using footage that I previously was able to successfully capture. No luck this time around...almost as soon as I hit "capture" it comes up with the error message informing me about dropped frames.

I have been to Apple's site. I've been to 2-pop and posted there. The problem, I think, is an XL1 issue. If you use FCP and the XL1 or XL1s could you please post any preference fixes you've done to correct this problem? I once had it working and no longer can find what I need to do.

Thank you, in advance, for your assistance.

[Ken Tanaka]

Well it sounds like you've made most of the rounds to the usual places on this problem. The next step might be to Canon's service center. I use an XL1s and XL1 and have been able to capture from both (although, admittedly, I rarely do so).

Just a few additional questions came to mind when reading your post.

- What version of FCP are you using? On OS 9.2 or 10.1.2?
- I assume that you've tried the ol' deletion of your FCP preferences?
- Do you have any trouble playing back footage on your XL1?
- Have you tried to capture one of the XL1's tapes using another miniDV camera?
- Is the tape you're trying to capture recorded in SP (versus the infamous LP)?

[Jeff Wros]

Ken,
Thank you for your reply...
To answer your questions:

I'm currently using FCP 2.0.2 on Mac OS 9.1 and 9.2 (2 comps same problem). I have deleted the prefs and even went so far as to re-install the software. The tapes look fantastic straight from the camera to the monitor. The tapes were recorded in SP mode.

I have tried using both my XL1 and XL1s cameras and have not had luck with either one.

This one's gonna cost me a job I think if I can't get this solved by tomorrow night! :(

Again, thanks for your reply...any further thoughts and ideas are welcome ...VERY welcome!

[Chris Hurd]

This may be utterly worthless advice but whenever I used FCP, I had to make sure the XL1 was connected and turned on to VCR mode before I booted the Mac.

Try also www.dvcreators.net -- Josh and his crew are experts at using FCP with the XL1 -- see their FCP Knowledge Base at www.fcp411.net or .com -- link off of DVCcreators.Net. Hope this helps,

[Jeff Wros]

Chris you're awesome! Thanks...I'll try your trick with having the unit connected and in VCR mode prior to boot. Wish me luck & thanks again, Chris!