NLE Mac / Final Cut questions from 2002

[Ken Tanaka]

Ask Apple...but I seriously doubt it. Getting the SuperDrive into that chassis was apparently a significant engineering challenge. I'd be very surprised if they offered such an upgrade. Apple has never offered any upgrade to these TiBooks; it doesn't make any financial sense from their end.

[Jeff Donald]

For the near future, PowerBook SuperDrives are not available as a replacement part. Give it 6 to 12 months. The actual PowerBooks will start shipping mid Nov. to mid Dec. FireWire DVD drives are available now. Apple supports DVD-R, but not DVD-RW. However, Toast (software) supports DVD-RW burning. It's confusing I know.

Jeff

I know toast is not an authoring program. But I was wondering if i got Cleaner 6 for the mac and output mpeg2 files if toast could simply make a DVD with numberd tracks of the files.

If not, does that mean I would need DVD pro. I know idvd can't use mpeg files.

[Matt Stahley]

Thanks Ken i needed the update!

[Jeff Donald]

Toast will burn DVDs and I'd hazard a guess that most DVD SP users rely on Toast to burn their DVDs. The Apple burner is less reliable in my opinion. Cleaner is not an authoring program. What will you author with?

Jeff

[Jeff Donald]

It can be done, are you on OS 9 or OS X? I've got some links to tutorials and software (freeware, shareware) that should do the job. Commercial DVD's use an encryption system known as CSS and that's a different story.

Jeff

just trying to find a way around buying DVD pro. I have idvd on an i-mac. but would like to be able to use the higher quality mpeg from cleaner 6. as for authoring all I want are track numbers or titles, don't care about the background etc. It looks like there is no way around DVD pro however.
robert

[Jeff Donald]

I don't see away around it. I've heard of people tricking iDVD into not doing the burn by removing the blank disc during the encoding. But that still won't solve your problem of better quality encoding. I just got Cleaner 6 yesterday and I've done a few short comparissons and it seems 2 to 3 times faster than Cleaner 5. It's a big improvement and I think it's the best software encoder(quality) available. But for what it does (no authoring) it is pricey.

Jeff

[Guy Pringle]

Jeff,
Like I said I have the 800mhz, I edit with FCP3 and although I have DVD Studio Pro, for obvious reasons, haven't used it yet. Along with my WD 120GB Firewire drive, which Firewire DVD drive do you think would suit my set up best?

[Jeff Donald]

Keep an eye on MCE Technologies http://store.powerbook1.com/ They stock just about everything for PowerBooks. The external drives are all pretty similar in function. Some may come with better software or a slimer case. Que, EZQuest, LaCie are among the more popular. If you're looking to save some money, buy a FireWire DVD enclosure, then a bare internal DVD drive. No software or customer support, but you'll save $100 or more.

Jeff

[Marc Potvin]

Hi,

I know FCP supports only Macs with built-in FW, but I'm just wondering if some people have used that program or iMovie with older Macs and FireWire cards with success. I'm just a hobbyist and don't want to spend a fortune. I could get my hands on an old PM 8500 with an upgraded G3 processor. I know there are combination USB/FW cards for older PCI Macs and they're relatively innexpensive. I'm also interested in people having had success in using a CardBus FW card in a Lombard PB as that is my set up (which I can't get to work right now!!). I've heard many people can't get third party FW cards to works in their PBs.

Any info appreciated as I am a complete newbie.

Thanks.

Marc.

[Jeff Donald]

I can only find reference to one article in the Apple knowledge base that address this issue. Article 32082 states that the Bronze keyboard (Lombard) will work with FCP. The date of the article is 1/10/00 and I suspect that means you are limited to FCP 1.2.5 The newer FCP versions clearly state that built in FireWire is required. The article http://docs.info.apple.com/article.h...mous|157456632 lists two, third party PC FireWire Cards that will work.

FCP 1.2.5 was pretty stable and had a few known bugs (couldn't scrub the timeline). It will work in 9.2.2 but not OS X.

Jeff

[Jake Russell]

I've got some really great encoding done with BitVice http://www.innobits.se/

No there is no way around authoring with dvdsp unless you want to spend far more money.

Jake.

[Jake Russell]

I'd say the 'best' hardware encoders are done by Sonic. SD-1000 or SD-2000 and software probably BitVice from http://www.innobits.se/

If you're not having a dvd-r replicatced check out this link:

Compatibility Test done by Ralf LaBarge

http://www.dv.com/features/features_item.jhtml?category=Archive&LookupId=/xml/feature/2002/labarge0702

I'd send a dlt tape to rep house without question if you can. Do a search for DLT4000 on ebay and you can pick them up cheap. You wont need more than that for DVD authoring (Two DLTs for dvd-9, one for each layer). If not then an authoring disc.

I would say not to worry about writing authoring discs at first. I would burn a dvd-RW. Test it on your set top player. If it works great. You've got the test disc you can preview all your projects with. If not then pop to the nearest electric store and test it on set top players that are suppose to play dvd-rw till you find one it works with. Pick it up, you've got all your previewing on tv's sorted out and haven't gotta worry about dvd-r coasters too much. The test above will help you with dvd-r check discs to send to clients if needed. Then submit you dlt to the rep fac' and check the check discs you recieve from them inside out before giving them the ok.

HTH

Jake.

[Scott Shuster]

Thanks for your reply Jeff -- we have FCP 2.0 in OS9 and FCP 3.0 in OSX so we should be able to do just about anything. Tell me more!