NLE Mac / Final Cut questions from 2002

[Mike Finnerty]

I recently purchased my first Mac. I bought one of the original dual 1gHz machines when the new DDR models came out. Took advantage of the price drop.

Mine came with 512megs of RAM and I purchased another 512 from a third party and installation was a breeze. I did not purchase an Apple display, would love to get one, but didn't have the cash at the time. I'm hoping they'll soon announce a new line-up of displays. I've read rumors about an all wide screen line-up.

I still don't have Final Cut Pro yet. Also trying to save up some money for that big purchase.

Good luck with your new machine (whichever model you end up with.) You'll love it.

[Mike Finnerty]

Ok, has anyone else seen this type of deal and what do you think of it?

I've found a company that sells FCP for $549.

It basically sells you and OEM version of FCP 1.2.5 with a serial number and the upgrade version of FCP 3.0.

Any thoughts on whether or not this is a good deal or should this type of thing be avoided?

[Matt Stahley]

i probably wouldnt buy that.
i found a Sealed full retail FCP 2 on ebay for around $300 then hooked up with the FCP 3 upgrade and everything is well.

[Ram Nagarajan]

Hi all:
Got my new Mac a fortnight ago, and I'm still drooling over it!
The 1.25 came out just a week before I finally took the plunge, and the 1 Gig dual prices came down sharply, so I took full advantage of that: It helped me get the 17" studio display without exceeding my budget. (Barry's absolutely right: It's a good tradeoff...and, boy, is that studio display a dream.)
Thomas, my config is:
-Dual 1 GHZ
- 17"" studio display + 17"" CRT Samsung 763 DFX flatron
- 256K L2 cache & 2MB L3 cache/processor
- 167MHz System Bus
- 1 GB PC2700 DDR SDRAM (This makes a difference - trust me)
- 1 x 80 + 1 x 40 Ultra ATA drive IBM 7200 RPM drives
(The OS 10.2 + applications + FCP are on the 40 GB disk, leaving me with quite a bit of free space; and the FCP media etc are on the 80 GB drive...this keeps the system from dropping frames and messing up on renders)
- SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW)
- ATI Radeon 9000 Pro graphics
- 56K internal modem

The new DDR SDRAM based machines are noticeably faster: I believe mine was the first one installed in India - pure coincidence - and the local Mac reseller was touchy-feelying his way around the system. I haven't run any benchmarks or anything, but I did carry out a comparison render on the older SDRAM and the new DDR RAM systems, and I can SEE the difference.

Please be warned: I think there are some issues with the new DDR RAM based machines. I don't think all third-party RAM takes on the systems. The reseller offered me a lower cost third party RAM - Alpha and SIMMtronics both - and the system wouldn't recognize it. Only Kingston RAM finally took.

Best,
Ram

As of this posting, 54 members of the great DVi Community have read this e-mail, there have been nearly 1,000 hits to the website, and nobody wants to post a review.

All constructive criticism is appreciated.

- Chip

[Jeff Donald]

Under FCP>preferences, is the box Sync adjust moves over____minutes checked? The box should be checked. You can use the analize clip to get information about the audio and check if it was captured properly. You might want to try deleting the media and recapturing it as a last resort.

Jeff

[Rob Lohman]

I think most of this is done during shooting. Why? Because if you
do it in post you are loosing resolution (because you need to shake
and titlt the image and then you have spots that aren't covered.
So you need to blow the picture up first -> loosing resolution).

I've seen numerous behind the scenes and especially on star trek
stuff I've seen that they just rock the camera on its tripod or
steadicam. Much more real etc. Try expirementing with it!

[Rob Lohman]

I'm one of those who is guilty about reading this, download it
and not writing back.... Sorry bout that. The reasons is pretty
simple though. I have only watched portions of it due to my
lack of time at this moment (it weighs in over 5 minutes). And
I don't want to give my opinion without having seen it all. I'll
try to watch it tonight somewhere and let you know.

Really appreciated that you share it with us though! I hope more
people will chime in with their thoughts on it! Anyway, good that
you finished a short! Good luck.

[Adrian Seah]

The 'sync movies over ___ mins' box is checked and set to 5 mins

I've run 'analyse file' from the menu and both the files (V1,A1,A2) and V3 seem to be similar (timecode, duration etc)... here it is anyway...

For V1,A1,A2....

Filename: KF Adeline Lift 2 VIDEO
Duration: 00:43:58:16
Average Data Rate: 3703k/sec
Audio Shape: Ch 1

Video Track 1 (8.8 GB)
Duration: 00:43:58:16
Frame Size: 720 x 576
Color Depth: 24-bit Color
Codec: DV - PAL at Most Quality
Frame Rate: 25.00 fps
Average Data Rate: 3515k/sec (141k/frame)

Audio Track 1 (Stereo, 483.3 MB)
Duration: 00:43:58:16
Average Data Rate: 188k/sec
Format: 16-bit, Stereo
Sampling Rate: 48.000 khz

Timecode Track 1
Timecode: 00:00:06:10
Reel: Talking with Fishes 2


For A3...
Filename: KF Adeline Lift 2 AUDIO
Duration: 00:43:58:16
Average Data Rate: 188k/sec
Audio Shape: Ch 1

Audio Track 1 (Stereo, 483.3 MB)
Duration: 00:43:58:16
Average Data Rate: 188k/sec
Format: 16-bit, Stereo
Sampling Rate: 48.000 khz

Timecode Track 1
Timecode: 00:00:06:10
Reel: Talking with Fishes 2

Could the problem be because I shot the footage at 12bit and FCP is capturing at 16bit?

I don't know what else to do!

I've even recaptured both the clips again but the problem still remains...

Please help!

Adrian

[Jeff Donald]

Yep, audio sampling rate and format should match between the media and sequence presets. I believe you will need to create a new sequence with matching presets.

Jeff

[Adrian Seah]

Problem is that FCP doesn't seem to offer a 12bit audio capture... its either 8bit or 16bit.

So, should I set it to

8bit, 32kHz?

or 16bit, 32kHz?

or 8 bit, 48kHz?

or 16bit, 48kHz (my original setting)

Thanks!

Adrian

[Jeff Donald]

I think Quicktime has 12 bit options. Import and then change the the bit rate and export the clip. Then drop on the timeline. there may be an easier way but that will get it done.

Jeff

[Dan Ballmer]

Alright, I took a look at the video but because I was sitting in class I had to watch it without sound. Here are my opinions:

Good:

Nice framing on most of the shots.

Generally smooth and pleasing camera movements.

You have obviously shot video before. I see many of the same shots we use for wedding videos in this piece. The strength of this piece rests with the camera placement and movement in my opinion.

. . . of course, it may have excellent sound. I wouldn't know. :P

Needs work:

Lighting! Often the lighting switches from bright to dim, making the cuts seem awkward and disjointed. In some of the early shots people are brightly lit perpendicular to the camera but dim elsewhere (It looks like you used ONLY a camera mounted light on some of the indoor shots).

Stylistically I think you over-used quick-cuts on scenes with continous motion. By this I mean when we see the car backing out of the driveway you make a quick cut to it peeling away down the street (efectively shortening the length of the shot). You do this several times throughout the video and visually it wasn't working for me.

The shot of the two people kissing from below (shooting upward) didn't fit with the rest of the scene (opinion).

Overall I'm impressed with the amount of work you put into this short piece. I'd be interested in hearing how many days (weeks?) it took you to complete this. Good job!

-Dan Ballmer

[Adrian Seah]

I just checked and Quicktime has the same options as FCP (FCP is powered by quicktime anyway), which is 8bit and 16bit. Any ideas? I'm sure you guys out there capture 4 channel audio once in a while, how would you go about this?

this thing is really giving me a headache...

Adrian

[Jeff Donald]

When you export the file do it as 16 bit. Make all your audio match. You may be able to just render in FCP. It may convert it to 16bit in the render.

Jeff