Not sure about the 400, but I ran FCP 3 on my TiBook 667 without problems, including an external monitor. Are you talking about a second computer monitor plugged into the VGA port, or an NTSC monitor plugged into the s-video port? Are you using the second screen as your external video device or just as an extension of the Mac desktop? Are you running under OS X or MacOS 9.x? I've never seen an "orange matte" like you describe, that's weird!

It's a computer monitor plugged into the VGA port and used as an extension of the Mac desktop along with my laptop screen. OS 9.2.

Orange matte: strange indeed!

thanks,
Elmer

Hey Guys,

I was wondering if my G5 can handle two monitors straight out of the box or do I need to get a dual monitor card?

I have the ATI Radeon 9600 Pro card that came with the dual G5 and was just wondering what it would take. I currently have a ViewSonic Graphic Series G90fb and another no name smaller monitor just sitting around and was wondering if it would be beneficial to hook it up (using adapters as it's not ready to hook directly up to the mac). It IS NOT the same and have read you should use the same 2 monitors??? Any clarification would be appreciated!

Thanks in advance...
Clay

That is certainly an option. Or record them back out to DV and
store the tapes. That is probably an easier, cheaper and more
reliable method.

I second that.

www.apple.com/powermac/specs.html

•ADC and DVI connectors; DVI to VGA adapter included.

Now all you need to get is an ADC to VGA adaptor (Dr. Bott - $20-$30) and you are set.

So, I finally got the APC BX 800VA. Unfortunately the manual is not very helpful and neither could I find an answer to my question below on APC's web site. According to the instructions before you use a UPS unit, you need to charge it for 8 hours. So what I did was plug the unit into a grounded outlet but I didn't turn it on because soon after it was plugged in, it started making a sort of a "ticking" noise which, I assume, is supposed to when it charges. About an hour later I checked the unit and it felt warm. So my question is this: Is this the right way to charge the unit's battery before use? Should I have turned it on?

Thank you.

I have exported a few stills from FCP4. Of course I would like to De-interlace in photoshop. How would I do this so that the fields are one again?

Any idea or knowlede for a first timer?

Thanks
Joe

click filters, video, deinterlace and try the different options for best result

APC have really good tech support - just phone them up and get your answer direct.

However, on the APC units I have at home and work, I've never read that I had to charge them - just plug the battery in, plug the gear in, switch on and go....

But really, phone them up!

Graeme

Yes. They need to be charged before use.

The ticking sound you hear could be the relays inside doing their job thinking they are protecting an attached computer. The unit gets slightly warm while charging and in use but should never get hot.

Yours sounds normal to me.

I was wondering how those of you that have two seperate computers (1 at work, 1 at home, etc.) deal with editing/programs/files/sharing/etc. I currently have a PC for work and Mac for home (editing) and am toying with the idea of getting a iBook to have at work (and where ever else) and keep the G5 at home. But, I hate having some info on one computer and all my other stuff on another one. Any suggestions would be welcomed! Thanks in advance...

Clay

I have 3 Macs: two G4 desktops and a G4 Powerbook. One of the desktops is getting old (733 single, running OS 9) so I really only use it as a backup and also to do 3d or video rendering when I have a big project.

So on the other desktop I run a program called "Personal Backup X". I have two main folder heirarchies with all my personal an business files in them (probably 15,000 files), and I use this program to do file sync between the laptop and desktop machines. Basically the software compares the contents of these folders between machines and copies files in both directions as needed to keep them identical. Seems to work very well. I have a LAN at home with 100MBS ethernet and plug the powerbook in there, enable personal file sharing, then login to the laptop from the desktop machine and run the file sync program. The desktop machine is sort of like the "master" and there is nothing important on the laptop that isn't duplicated on the desktop.

I don't backup my software generally speaking since I have all the original disks. But every few months I do a full disk copy of the desktop machine's hard drive to an external firewire drive. When I'm being especially conscientious I take one of these drives to the office and keep it there in case of a catastrophe at home.

Now for the big files, like video and 3d animation, it isn't practical to backup as much as I would like. So I generally keep a backup of current projects on a firewire drive, and for the rest I just have the DV tapes. But a bunch of this stuff is also backed up to my old G4 machine.

Important business related files are backed up to one of our servers at the office, and the server gets a daily backup from the IT dept. I can access the file server remotely over IP from home if needed, and this also provides a way to share files with other staff on and offsite (but not big files like video). I think the same things would work pretty well for you in a mixed PC/Mac environment; you could just enable SMB windows sharing on your laptop, mount it on your PC and copy files, or there are various products out there to allow sharing in the other direction.

Been having some problems with certain transitions on FCP 3.0, and was wondering if anyone else had the same problem and/or knew of a work-around?

(I have a G4 dual 1 gig with 240 gigs, and 1 gig of ram)
Two video layers, and I'm adding a "page peel" effect. Nothing. It just shows up as a cut. Yup- done the render, tried changing some of the values too. Nuttin.

Several other Quicktime fx seem to do that too.

Anyone else?

Jeff Patnaude

How many tracks of video are you using?

I captured a tape that I shot this weekend using the capture now command. It seemed like everything worked ok, but it only plays back the first clip on the tape which is about six minutes long. I checked the file size of the clip and it was 12.5 GB. I tried opening it in Quicktime and reimporting into my project, but I still had the same problem.

I guess that I'll have to recapture the tape. I was wondering if anyone else has seen this and knows how to keep it from happening again.

Also, the second tape I captured worked fine.

I have 6 tracks, but only using the two for the edit.

to be honest, I've never tried doing a transition from one video layer to the next but I'm guessing that is what you are doing: transitioning from the end of a clip on V1 to a clip on V2 ?

I'm not sure you can do that BUT you could generate some transparent slug (like generate a lower third clip but not have any text in it) on the same layer as the clip you want to transition out from and it might just do the page pull to a transparent clip which would reveal the video underneath.

Not at my system right now to see if that works but it should. I've used empty generator clips to do stuff like that before.

Started encoding Return on the King from msv to Divx using quicktime on my 1ghz powerbook 2 days ago. Almost 75% complete now... hahahaha I fugured it would only take 3 hours.
But it's for a good cause I want to put every scene in FCP and switch it with Danny Devito in the movie "Whats the worst that could happen" where he's going on about a ring..

Theres my good morning story to everyone.

I'm thinking about purchasing a 933 or 1 ghz i-book for rough editing while on the road. I'd appreciate any experiences from any current ibook owners.

Also, how's the ibook perform with drawing programs like Canvas or Illustrator?

Thanks for the help!!

This topic was covered recently, so do a search on iBook and edit and you should have a variety of opinions to choose from. But your satisfaction will really depend on your level of expectations. For me, the iBook is a little to slow and the screen, a tad too small. However, some users are very happy editing on the run with an iBook. Try to get to an Apple Store and give one a trial run.

twas a bit early when i wrote that. Obvioulsy Danny devito will be golem.

Are you trying to edit divX in FCP?

just trying to get something small enough to sit on the hd for now.

hi

please can someone tell me how to connect my TV to my iMac G4, Final Cut Pro 4.

Many Thanks!

You can connect your camera via FireWire, then connect your camera's AV outs to the AV ins on the TV.

Thanks :)!

My company has been running tests of the best way to get Final Cut Pro sequences into AVID Symphony systems for online. We are running Final Cut Pro HD on various systems. We did a test of the CMX-2600 EDL's and they still seem to have the various problems that they had in the past. In the apst, while we were using Final Cut Pro 3.0 we used Automatic Duck to export OMF files, which seemed to work fairly well, though usually required a little finessing of the final project. Now I would like to use the AAF Export plug in, but on our test we ran into issues.

We were trying to get the AAF to go into an AVID Symphony for Online, but the symphony wouldn't recognize the AAF file, and wouldn't open it at all. I am wondering if this is a Mac to PC file convertion issue. I have heard that AVID Xpress Pro imports FCP AAF files perfectly, but do not have Xpress Pro to test this. If this works we can use one Xpress Pro system to convert our AAF files over to AVID sequences, and u! se that sequence to ONLINE on the symphony.

Does anyone else have any experience with this, or have tried getting AAF's into AVID systems

Last time I tried divX does not edit easily in FCP.

Your best bet is probably DV, which is 13GB/hour. I don't know how to rip a DVD into DV though.

Which is the best recommendable internal hard drive I can install as a 2nd drive for capturing (storing) video of FCP4 on the G5 1.8 Dual?
I know it has to be a ATA, also i'm looking for the biggest HD out there.
Is it 160 for an internal one?
Should I just get an exact replica of the original HD in the G5? Where will I get the best price and service?
Thanks any suggestions appreciated.

The FireWire interface of my DSR-11 seems to have failed. It had been working fine for months and then just suddenly stopped. Still functions as a VTR, however.

The failure happened after an upgrade to system 10.3.4.

What happens is this. When the DSR-11 is plugged into the firewire port and I look for it in the firewire bus with system profiler I see "No information found." as if the whole bus was missing. When I unplug the DSR-11 the FireWire bus reappears, albeit empty.

Same thing happens, unfortuately, when I plug the deck into my G4 of PowerBook G4 with system 10.3.3, so it looks like it's the deck.

What I'd like to know is what caused the failure. Someone the Apple FCP fourm suggested the upgrade might have caused it if the deck was on during the upgrade. We have had some close lighting strikes in recent weeks (but have a whole-house surge protector). Can't understand why it would just stop working.

Fortunately, the deck is still under warranty. Anyone have any troubleshooting ideas before I call Sony?

Was the deck on during the upgrade?

I can't remember if it was on or not.

Hi,

I'm thinking about this new FCP HD on a dual 2 gig G5. I'm currently used to editing on a PC with a Matrox Digisuite LE (SD system-yes, nothing but problems). I can't handle it anymore, and want to change platforms to something stable.

I've got some general questions about FCP HD. How much does it do in real time. When I work on my Digisuite, all effects and transitions are rendered. Color correction is rendered, etc. But to make general cuts and basic edits (including fades in and out and fading from one clip to another), it does all this in real time so there's no rendering, which would be great when the system is working . . . ahem.

Anyway, I can handle doing fx and transitions with rendering, but how about color correction? Is it real time. How about cuts/general edits and fades in and out and one clip to the next? I know some systems have to render a selection ever time you want to preview it. FCP HD is not like this is it?

Also, I've heard FCP HD tends to run slowly sometimes. Are there bugs in it because it's a new program?

I'm just tired of problems and would like something stable. Could someone give me just a few pluses and minuses of this new product?

THANKS!!!

I am looking for a mac compatable DLT drive. I have a powermac G4 dual 867. I need it to send a master copy to a DVD replication house. I noticed that most DLT drives connect via SCSI. what do i need to connect it to my mac?

with a G5 2gigahertz machine I would say that every possible Real Time (RT) effect will be there for you.

You can look at the Apple FCP site for a list of the RT effects but with a G5 Dual, it will do them all I"m sure.

There are some things you'll have to render out but that's with every NLE I think.

Color Correction for FCP is TOP NOTCH. I think it was Steve from DigitalFilm Tree that said it was as close to a De Vinci system as you could get without spending 50 thousand dollars more.

CC in FCP, and in any program, is an artform (which I'm sure you're aware of) but there is some good stuff out there on it.

DigitalFilm Tree has a CC training DVD that is pretty good but most of the same information is in the Apple Pro Training Series book for FCP 4 'Advanced Editing and Finishing Techniques'.

You can see a sample of the CC section over off Ken Stone's fantastic FCP site:

http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/fcp_homepage_index.html

There's a ton of good information and several reviews of FCP and links to great sites.

I'm running it on a Dual G4 system and it's stable as a rock. Haven't noticed any slow down on mine.

Depending on the Mac you're using, you'll need a SCSI controller that is compatible with your OS, a SCSI cable and a SCSI terminator, preferably active. Have you investigated other options with your replicator? I would pick my replicator first, then provide the format they prefer.

To the best of my knowledge the biggest SATA drive available is 250GB. If you are going to RAID the drives, you should get an exact match, at least to the size drive.

most i have talked to perfer a DLT for DVD9 and higher. I was thinking i could pick up a Quantum 4000 dinosaur off of ebay for like 350 and then just buy the card that wouldnt be a bad investment either way i think. Plus the fact that no DVD holds more than 20gb as of right now i dont think i can go wrong. It would give me 20gb uncompressed. this would also help because we have 4 big dvd projects on the way.

<<<-- Originally posted by Jeff Donald : To the best of my knowledge the biggest SATA drive available is 250GB. If you are going to RAID the drives, you should get an exact match, at least to the size drive. -->>>What does "RAIDing" a drive mean?
All I want is a separate HD just for capturing video, 160MB will do, but if the 250MB are a good price, i'll do that.
I read somewhere that it has to be a Serial ATA (SATA) for it to work on the G5.
So I should make sure its a SATA, at least 7200rpm, and 8MB buffer? Anything else I forget?

No, that is all you need. You can do a search on RAID, much has been discussed on that topic.

Wow, sounds awesome!

Great! Thanks for the reply!

Color Correction for FCP is TOP NOTCH. I think it was Steve from DigitalFilm Tree that said it was as close to a De Vinci system as you could get without spending 50 thousand dollars more.

That's a pretty bold claim. Can FCP do power windows like Da Vinci does?

Power windows = applying color correction to only a masked area of an image. Skies and faces are some examples of things where you want to use different color correction.

2- Boris red plug-ins are not real-time on a dual 2ghz system. They don't seem to have the optimizations for the G5 processor to allow them to be real-time. However, most of the Apple filters are optimized well, which makes the G5 fast.

Kevin is quoting someone else, and just says it is close to Da Vinci, not the same. He doesn't mention 3rd party plugins, just RT Effects, which are built in.

"That's a pretty bold claim. Can FCP do power windows like Da Vinci does?

Power windows = applying color correction to only a masked area of an image. Skies and faces are some examples of things where you want to use different color correction."

I've done this with Commotion using rotosplines and the motion tracking tool. Definitely not real time, but a great deal of control nevertheless.

Perhaps it can be considered hand-cranked windows? :-)

Dean Sensui
Base Two Productions

I am working on a project and (fcp4, macg4, 1gig) on two places in the timeline one track (its an sample) won't playback properly. It actually does playback backwards but not frontwards!!! I am using about 8 tracks but on other places it gives no problem.. Its getting worse because now on certain places I get a buzzing distorted sound!!! any idea what?

I currently have the "stock" hd that came with the system, it has everything I have on it, including my FCP4 clips/captured video.
I will eventually get a 2nd internal SATA drive, 160-250GB range.
My question is, how do I transfer my clips/video from the stock HD to the 2nd HD? Do I just drag and drop or do I have to do it through FCP4 and if so, how?
I'm just worried about the program not finding the clips or screwing up the projects/clips.

Why do you need to move the clips? If you absolutely have to move the clips, use the Media Manager.

<<<-- Originally posted by Jeff Donald : Why do you need to move the clips? If you absolutely have to move the clips, use the Media Manager. -->>>Is that in FCP4?
I would want to move them, so I have all my clips on the 2nd HD, not scattered.
I've heard it's a great idea to have all your FCP4 footage on a separate drive.

I'm currently running Final Cut Express on a dual 1.25 G4 with 10.2.8. Soon, I will be upgrading to Pro. The catch is that I will be transferring files/clips between my computer and another with 10.3 and Pro HD. I've read about FCP 4.5 files not opening properly in 4.1, so it looks like I'll have to upgrade both to Pro HD and 10.3 in order to coordinate with the other computer.

So here's my questions...
Is this correct?
How well does 10.3 and Pro HD function on a dual 1.25 G4?