Looking into beefing up my current set-up.

At present, i have a sony portable deck, old school g4, premiere, AE etc and a consumer tv.

Looking at getting pssibly a G5, Final Cut Pro and a production monitor etc..

I mostly do my own captures of dv/dvcam cam/deck and edit out for tvc/corp videos etc. But i'd like to spend money on something that is expandable if needed...

Do i need another card for the g5?

Which Pro monitor is best bang for buck 4:3/16:9 switchable?

My budget is probably gonna start about 5K. Any recommendations?

I just want to be able to go to 35 mm.

heath

IBM, Western Digital, and Seagate seem to be the top brands right now. The IBM SATA drives seem to be a top performer right now, but maybe not for video (see http://www.storagereview.com). Promax recommends IBM drives because they have had a good recent track record in terms of reliability. Keep in mind IBM has had its fair share of disasters (the desk/deathstar line of HDs). Seagate also make pretty reliable drives and they are the quietest. WD makes good drives too, and have 3yr warranties on some lines where other manufacturers don't.

Maxtor doesn't have a good reputation in terms of reliability.

In terms of performance on applications and OS, check out storagereview.com. WD makes the best performing PATA drives and hitachi for SATA drives. 8MB buffer gives about a 30% boost with applications. For video work, I think all brands are pretty close. http://www.barefeats.com has some extra benchmarks (look at the sustained transfar rates in particular). Larger drives will give better performance and are better for video. The more storage you have the better. Once you run out of storage you are in trouble. And you can use the extra space to archive old projects, so the extra capacity isn't wasted.

Apple's new products are up on the website. Final Cut Express 2 is up here http://www.apple.com/finalcutexpress/.

This isn't quite a "video" editing question yet I felt compelled to ask it on a Mac forum beings LaCie seems to be popular amugst Mac folk.

Just got my LaCie Electron Blue IV 22" tonight- have a few questions:


1. Should the monitor hood have two velcro fasters on the middle/top peice of the hood? Mine doesn't- it only has the two on either side.

2. Does it come with only 1 cd which contains the PDF manuals for both the 17" and 22" models including the ICC profile for each? I ask becase in the quick install guide they display a LaCie "Color CD" being inserted...is that the same thing or am I missing this CD.

3. Do you "have" to use both the Lacie INF *and* ICC profile. When I was installing the INF file so my computer would list more than just "Plug n Play monitor" it specifically asked for the ICC file. Why would a monitor INF "need" the ICC. Aren't they two completly different things. The INF tells the computer what kind of monitor is connected and the ICC is a monitor/colorspace profile?!


Regarding the Blue Eye calibrator- would it help with non print work? I primarily do web graphic work.

Am not impressed with the new $99 upgrade to FCX 2.

Does not seem to be worth it.

If soundtrack is $299 and the upgrade is and extra $99 on top then I may as well pay and extra $200 on top of this and get Final Cut Pro for the $599 upgrade fee from FCX to FCP (assuming that soundtrack is worth having (it comes with FCP)

I might just do this! (maybe that is Apple's thinking too!!)

All a bit too clever.

Regards P

The best items that come with FCP is LiveType and Compressor the best being LiveType. This one app is by far the best reason to get FCP as you have such control over a presentation.

But compressor comes with DVD SP (which I have).

What does live Type do?

Regards P

LiveType checkout Apples site and read about it. Did you ever see the text on the newscaster and the moving type this app can do that and more. Watch some of the QuickTime movies and see what it does.
Also you get full features of Color Correction and 24p editing.

http://www.apple.com/finalcutpro/livetype.html

Just got some quotes on some Sony Pro monitors... I was surprised to find that the 14inches are more expensive than the 20inch. Why so?

Considering the Sony BVM and PVM series.

??

It probably asked for the ICC file so it could install it into the
engine, probably just as a convinience so you don't have to do
it later by hand.

Most people here seem to use LaCie for harddisks though I think.

FCX 2 should render faster than FCX. And the 2-way color corrector will actually be real-time.

Yeah I mean that Mac people like Lacie products in general. Seems to be more marketed towards that crowed for some reason.
But yeah...I'm happy with it- kick the crap out of my old Sony E540. I think it's the same model as the Mitsubishi Diamondpro 22. The stats are practically identical...plus LaCie refers to the screen as "Diamondtron Aperature Grill".

For those of us with some old project still lingering a version back, here are some tweaked FCP icons that may help make life a little more sane.

I keep both versions of FCP handy and needed a way to make sure that I was opening certain projects in v3 rather than constantly launching the newer version. After deciding the subtle differences in tones and stripes of the current icons weren't enough to remind me which version was which on the dock, I tossed together these slightly more legible versions.

http://www.globalartways.org/fcp_icons/

HTH,
Clayton

I just realized that the archives are not retaining the icons on the files (used built-in 'archiving' feature of OS X.) Let me try stuffing them with DropStuff. Just a sec.

Well it looks like they're working now.

FWIW, I guess I'm used to using an older version of Stuffit - the latest version uses .'sitx' as the file extension and seems to confuse the browser as to how to handle the file on download. I've changed them to '.sit' and they seem to be working alright. Hopefully your mileage doesn't vary too much. Well back to the real work I guess...

Best,
Clayton

Thanks, Boyd.

I learned this the hard way, and once in a while I still drop the clip in while the right arrow is showing and I have to Command-Z it and re-drop the clip, this time checking to be sure it's got the down arrow.

It's still a heck of a lot easier than the jog-shuttle wheels on an old Panasonic edit controller! :-)

Hello, all. I'm having some difficulties here with FCP4, and could use your expertise...

I have a sequence on the timeline, shot with the DVX100 24pA. I can play back the sequence fine on an external NTSC monitor, but if I try to put one of the clips in slow motion (50% speed) the program crashes!

I'm working on a Power Mac Dual 2GHz w/1.5GB RAM, and over 200 GB of HDD. I can't imagine this computer not being able to handle a simple slo-mo. Are there any settings I need to be aware of? I'm new to FCP, so any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks.

I am not sure why it is crashing, but try changing the real time settings. On the top left corner of the timeline window you will see a tab called RT. Click it and check your settings. Change Safe RT to Unlimited RT and change the playback quality to whatever is the best. These settings even work on an eMac so they should surely run fine on your G5 except for complex video that has lots of filters/transitions/etc which you would need to render first no matter what.

Also double check your sequence's settings to make sure they are correct for that 24PA footage.

What size do you have your viewers at, 100%, fit to screen?

will this work ? when apple says system requirement for dvd studio pro 2 is a single processor g4 733 mhz , does that mean that i can't use my dual 500 mhz g4 at all to use this application ? or that is merely not reccomended ? anyone running less than 733mhz g4 using dvd studio ?

that would utterly blow since my machine should be faster than the single 733 mhz.

My girl friend Gabby is running DVD SP 2 as well as FCP 4.1 without any problems. The key she found out was the RAM, max the RAM on the motherboard and it works great

Compressor takes forever but I can live with that.

Mike Harpe

Got it to work! I set it on Unlimited RT and put the playback quality as "best", and now it works perfectly. The reason it was in Safe RT and low quality playback before was because I got some problems when I first started working on the timeline, and a dialog box came up that suggested I use the low quality/Safe RT settings. Weird...

Anyway, thanks a lot for your replies! Right now I'm playing with the 3-way color correction tool... WOW! I thought DVX100 footage was impressive by itself, but now it looks spectacular!

Thanks again!

O.K., I'm an old multi-image slide guy. Back before the big one (desktop video), we used feathered masks to blend multiple images together vs. a sharp, hard edge. It doesn't seem like such an unusual thing to want to do in video, but I can't seem to find anything in Premiere 6.5 that would allow me to do it. There is a filter called edge feather or something like that...seems logical but it doesn't really do much of anything. I'm assuming either Premiere can't do it or I can't find the right combination of things to make it happen, or I need to get out my slide projectors again (please save me from that).

Any thoughts? I appreciate the advice. Oh, if Premiere doesn't do it, is there anything out there in Mac land that does?

Thanks!

I highly doubt Premiere 6.5 would have that tool. Basically it's
what they made After Effects for. You might have more luck with
the new Premiere Pro, but since I haven't looked at that package
yet I'm unsure whether it has that feature.

I do believe that feathered masks is still more of a high-end tool
that perhaps is more common in compositing applications then
NLE's.

Here's another one for my boss who just upgraded to FCP4 from FCX on his home system. Using a G5 and a Panasonic 2000 deck, he gets VTR O.K. but still lacks control from the computer when attempting to log and capture. In Express, it worked just fine. I use Premiere so I've not been much help.
Is there someplace where he must select the Panasonic deck in order for it to work? (that's what you do in Premiere.) He didn't seem to think he had to specify.

Thanks for the help!

Check this list of compatable equip. on the Apple Web Site:

http://www.apple.com/finalcutpro/qualification.html

May point you in the right direction

Has your Boss read the built in help info on this subject? FCP has a help button on the menu button he can access. It clearly explains how to set-up compatible decks for FCP machine control.

If it doesn't work after setting up per the instructions (assuming the deck is FCP certified) then you might try disconnecting all FireWire inputs (camera, drives, burners etc.) except the deck. Restart and try starting the FCP while the unit powered on etc. The FireWire drivers can be finicky about how and when some decks are powered up. Try different combos and post back if he is still having problems.

all of a sudden (although I guess thats not really true)Quicktime will no longer open up any mediafiles.mov or anything at all. It keeps saying it is not able to open file because of unknown error error number 27728.
Does anybody know what is the problem? I am thinking of getting the installer and reinstalling Quicktime or going back to version 6.4
thanks

I'd just re-install first to see what that does. Looks like it can't
find a playback codec or something.

I did reinstall and yes it works now...I suspect it has something to do with mpeg2 codec installer I have. but thanks Rob... everything fine out there?

I was checking out Shake on the Apple web page, and it looks like After Effects on steriods costing thousands more for some reason.

Does anyone use this software? If so, how is it better than After Effects? Am I totally wrong in assuming that it is an After Effects style of program?

I've only played with Shake at various Trade Shows. It was a purchase by Apple, they are not the original developer. My understanding is that it has very fast rendering and previews. I think this is a major difference over AE. It also integrates with Maya better. Several years ago I had to learn Maya for a client, because of the compatibility of both programs using the same IFF files. I was told that AE didn't support IFF files, I don't know if that has changed.

Looking for recommendations on how to learn FCE2? Is there a pretty good tutorial built-in? What about Apple's Self-Paced training program? Any other good training/learning resources? My only NLE experience is withiMovie.

Thanks.

Glad you got it to work! Everything great here. Trying to write
a few scripts!

I've heard good things about the self paced training course. I haven't seen the materials, so I don't know how basic the instruction is.

Hi ewerybody...

Last night I edited a skate-video for fun. I converted my soundtrack to Aiff-format as I allways do before I import it to Final Cut Pro(3).

But when I Printed my project back to my camera(a DCR-PC6) I heard some "schratchy-noises"( The sound was starting and stopping, starting and stopping) on my soundtrack... They were very annoying and more important, they were not in my project when I saw it on my computer....

What can the reason be to this??

PLEASE HELP ME....

Chr

Mac G4
FCP 3

Can anyone tell me why the audio slips out of sync when re-capturing from a master even though it has been mixed-down.
On re-capture it always goes out by 2 frames. It's not hard to correct but is it possible to avoid the prob?
Regards to all.

Thanks, Jeff. Turns out it was a "order" issue. I should have known; it''s the same way in Premiere.

Hello,

Got such good help here before, i am coming back to seek more advice..I am preparing some animations and graphics for a FCP editor across the country( I am working on a PC) and from what I have gathered the Editor is pretty much of a Newbie to Mac and FCP.. I will be sending him some CD's with AVI files on them..What will he have to do to import them into FCP??
Convert to Quicktime?? Instructions please??

thanks so much..
Mike M.

"Specifically, Magic Bullet does not work with Final Cut Pro because Final Cut Pro supports the Adobe After Effects v3.0 API. Magic Bullet is written for the AE 5.5 API."

This is straight from the redgiantsoftware.com MagicBullet FAQ page.

I'm rather new to all of this. Aren't FCP users using MB? If so, how?

(I currently use FCE).

Thanks.

Shawn

To my knowledge, Magic Bullet is an After Effects plug-in. I've never heard of anyone using it outside of AE.

The common workflow would be to finish your cut and then export your work from Final Cut to AE for MB processing.

Okay brothers & sisters of this forum, we need to pull together. I was one of the proud owners of the new Mac G5. I believed the hype and spent the money for it. One month later they put out a G5 dual 1.8, for roughly the same price as my regular 1.8 (because the original bench tests were slower than they expected) I feel that Apple needs to provide a program to upgrade the people who bought the original G5. A similar program to what they did when they came out with Panther. If we get enough signitures (or support) we can present the case to Apple... SO WHO'S WITH ME!!!

Got it. Now I get to go find out what AE is all about. Thanks, Ken!

Lately I've been playing around with Windows Media Encoder and really like the results. However, as many of you know, I'm basically out of luck when it comes to running this program on my Mac. But what about Virtual PC?
Basically I'm just hoping to hear from someone that already has Virtual PC installed on their Mac. Will it run the free downloadable Windows Media Encoder?

I can't really relate to your situation, but Apple is one of those companies that does not focus very well (anymore). Customer satisfaction is far from top priority. Releasing incomlete software is commonplace, letting the people who purchase it beta-test for them (saving Apple money). Apple figures that there is no reason to release finished software, since they can always fix it with a "patch" later. This goes with the OS as well. They just wanna get it out the door and nothing more.

I love Macs and all, but if you do choose the Apple platform, your a-hole will eventually begin to hurt at some point. But that's typical with many companies nowadays. (Mods: I tried to say that as politely as I could).

Ted, that is officially know as BOHICA (pronounced bow-he-ka), which stands for bend over, here it comes again.

A company like powerlogix might come out with a dual processor upgrade.

The 1.8ghz G5 wasn't a very good buy at the time. I suppose you should have waited a bit.