Dual 1.25GHz G4 vs Single 1.6GHz G5?
 

Well, the title says it all. They both cost about the same, and I don't need Firewire 800 or USB2. I also have no use for OS9. I'd be using this computer to edit one feature-length MiniDV movie using Final Cut Pro 4.

The real question is which machine will handle FCP4 better: dual G4s or a single G5? Now that benchmarks are starting to come out, maybe somebody can chime in.

Of course, I'd fill either one up with RAM, but I can't afford the 4GB RAM max of the G5, so the 2GB limit of the G4 is fine. Also, there is something to be said for the proven stability of the G4 vs the unproven potential quirkiness of the G5.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

Jaime,
I would choose the G5 for its longevity and potential future residual value. The G5 is clearly going to be Apple's target platform for the foreseeable future. The professional products such as FCP and DVD SP will soon be optimized specifically to take advantage of the G5's new capabilities.

Ignore performance benchmarks against current configurations. They're irrelevant, noisy distractions for the myopic buyer. The G5 single processor will more than keep you busy and happy.

If you are just doing the one project and you are starting now, then I'd get the G4. However, Panther (OS 10.3) is due in a month or so. The G5's will start to fly when Panther is released. Apple had to come up with a temporary OS (10.2.7) only for the G5's. That's why they are a little less stable. They are really optimized for Panther. If your project doesn't start for several months, get the G5.

Check the menus for timecode. You may have to set it for FireWire. Some TC is through an external connection, some is on the vertical interval. It should be in the manual.

Duals aren't shipping yet. I've heard a rumor they may wait until Panther ships.

Broadcast Legal Colors
 

I'm sure this has been discussed many times, and I tried a search and couldn't find anything too relevant, so here goes:

I am going to be doing a project soon that will be broadcast. I will use an XL1 and edit with Final Cut Pro. No big deal here as I know how to use both. But the main thing I am worried about right now is broadcast legal colors. Is there a way in Final Cut Pro to make sure everything stays in this range? Is there anything else I should know about doing work for broadcast working with the equipment listed above?

I've been buying LaCie Drives since their very first SCSI "Cirrus" drives. They have always performed well and been very reliable. I have a pair of old "Tsunami" drives stashed away with old projects on them. Currently I have two of the Blue and Silver firewire drives online, storing video projects.

However, I haven't yet seen a Porche drive, but the specs look fine. I'll be needing more space soon, and these are on the list.

LaCie usually includes very good software with their drives, Silverlining is good stuff, although I haven't needed it with OSX.

http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/cc_legal_fcp3.html
That has info on using scopes and the 3-way color corrector and the broadcast safe filter.

If your camera has zebra stripes you can use them to avoid overexposure.

You can more easily add additional storage to the G4 than the G5. The G4 has an extra PCI slot and more drive bays. The 1.8 G5 uses PCI-X slots which might give an advantage for certain types of storage that involve RAID. You only need RAID if you need the protection against data loss from hard drive failure. If you can recapture if a hard drive fails then you don't need RAID.

Regarding G4 versus G5: My *guess* is that the G5 is faster. If dual 1.25 = a single 2.125 G4 (second processor adds 70% clock speed) then it would be 18% higher clock speed than the G5, but the G5 probably does more work per clock cycle and it has a faster architecture (faster FSB and other things).

For some G5 VS G4 benchmarks...
http://njfcpug.org/g5_benchmarks.html
http://www.creativecow.net/forum/read_thread.php?threadid=401783&forumid=8

You also have to consider whether you need the speed. If you're just doing cuts and dissolves then you don't really need it!

Todd,

On my DSR 45, you have a choice to set the time code source in the "TC/UB Set" menu. Choosing external on the "DV IN TC" option will use the time code suppled by the DV source. Great for dubbing duplicates. I'm guessing your deck should function in a similar way with menus that are also similar.

How to get FCP 4 to run on a G3!
 

Hi, all.

Dissappointed with FCP4's inability to run on my iBook so I can edit in Offline RT mode during my train commute to work, I decided to try hacking the program to get it to install and run. After about an hour of tinkering, I got it to work!

I put the hacking details on my website.

www.robmoreno.com/fcp4.html

I hope this helps any of you who purchased FCP4 only to find out that it cannot be used with a G3 Mac.

Cheers!

New 15 inch PowerBooks
 

The aluminum 15 inch PowerBooks have finally arrived. Read about them here. Basic improvements bring the 15 inch inline with the 12 and 17 inch PowerBooks.

Apple has other "New Products"
 

Apple has released the long awaited wireless keyboard and mouse. Details are here. OS 10.2.6 or higher is required. This probably has to do with the latest implementation of BlueTooth

Nice to know about...thanks for the info, Jeff.

But when...oh when...will 10.3 be released?

My best guess on 10.3 is sometime next month. It won't be any later than January.

Final Cut Express Moving Pictures Video
 

I want to create a picture montage type video. Composted mostly of still pictures that are zoomed in, panned across and rotated on screen .

See this company's work for example:
http://www.bluecoremedia.com/movieclips.html

Will a program like Final Cut Express allow me to do this?

the pictures would come from high end 6megapixel digital cameras and be in jpeg format.

Please let me know!

Thanks, Rolland

FCP4 Upgrades
 

Does the upgrade 4.0.2 that is on the Apple web site include all of the upgrades that were released on the 4.0.1 version? Or do I need to download the .1 upgrade also? I didn't see a link on the Apple site for the .1 upgrade so I figured that .2 included all of the previously upgraded items as well, but I just wanted to make sure.

I believe it does contain prior upgrades. It will say if you read the "Read Me" file Apple has posted next to the download. It will not install if 4.01 is required. It won't find the necessary components.

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

Yes. That article has info on how to do it. Skip the first bit because it applies for opacity and sound volume keyframing.

Ken stone's site also has an article on the difference between FCE and FCP3. It also has an article on preparing images for Final Cut Pro. Remember to read it for tips on scaling the picture properly to account for non-square pixels.

I don't know about FCE, but what you want to do is relatively simple in FCP. However, there is an application that does this, and does it well, called Still Life from Granted Software:

http://www.grantedsw.com/still-life/

In addition to the panning and scanning, it does a great job of batch importing photos from iPhoto libraries and will automatically calculate the duration of images needed to match a given song, or series of songs. And, of course, you can always set that manually.

And then you can export the whole thing into a variety of formats, including those that FCP (and I'd assume FCE) can use.

And it only costs $25!

Thanks Jeff. I had read the requirements and it didn't say anything about requiring .01, I just didn't know if each upgrade fixed seperate problems that didn't have anything to do with each other. Thanks again.

emac question
 

I recently bought an emac after my beloved g3 B/W died. I have the old apple studio display monitor that I used with my b/w. Is there a way to hook it up to the emac for a dual display, instead of just video mirroring?

Thanks,

Jeremiah Hall

Thanks all for the advice. I think the G5 would be the wise choice between the two, both being the same price. Glenn, great links to the benchmarks and discussion. It's great to finally get real-world feedback on this.

I'm going to begin editing towards the end of October, so I'm of course waiting for the last possible second to get the equipment and software. If I was in a super rush I might give more weight to the G4, but since it'll be about a month and a half until I start editing, the G5 is probably the best bet. By that point Panther might be out, which can only be a good thing for G5 performance.

As for the RAID thing, I wasn't planning on using it. I was going to just buy an additional internal drive for whichever machine I get. Which brings up another question: Where's a good place to buy a quality Serial ATA Hard Disk? Maybe a 160GB one?

Anyways, thanks for your replies. This helped confirm my gut feelings about G4 vs G5. As soon as I've got my machine ready, I'll keep you posted on how it handles.

newegg.com is usually a good place to get computer hardware. Sometimes deals pop up where you can get a hard drive really cheap.... try any of the hot deals sites around the net. pricewatch.com is also a place to look.

IBM and Western Digital are probably good. Check out storagereview.com for information on which SATA drive is the best (not sure if they reviewed many SATA drives yet though).

You probably don't want RAID if you're doing DV editing.

Thanks Michael. I ended out ordering the Maxtor 5000DV 160GB--having the USB was a nice bonus and the drives have an 8mb buffer. But the LaCie drives are definitely tempting for future purchases. Do you know what kind of hard drives are in the LaCie drives? I'd heard that they had Western Digital. Thanks again for the info.,

Peter

In System Preferences>Display>do you have mirroring checked? What happens if you uncheck it? If it is grayed out it can't be changed. The video card in the eMac may have limited memory to enable dual monitors and is limited to mirroring.

Looked good, and not bad prices either.

I can see that these will come in handy when, someday, you can lounge back on your couch, split your widescreen HD TV screen in two, and watch a movie while you're working on something. Until then, wired is okay for me.

What's the name of this software, Jeff?

One is TC Calculator, the other is MediaCalculator. I think they are both freeware.

Maxtor 40Gig Firewire External Hardisk??
 

There is a used Maxtor 40Gig Firewire External Hardisk near where i am going for about US$120. (Auction)

http://www.maxtor.com/en/documentation/data_sheets/1394_datasheet.pdf

Anyone have any experience with this Maxtor drive for video capture/editing and recommend it?

Thats quite a bargain. And i desparately need a disk for my laptop.

If i get the Green lights from the experts.. i'll go grab it. Yes?

Thanks in Advance.
Lee

I just picked up a new 120GB Maxtor (7200RPM) from Costco (in the USA) for $199. I would think that you could get more than 40 GB for $120 new somewhere, even online. 40GB will fill up pretty fast depending on the kind of editing you do.

At any rate, I'm happy with my investment. Maxtor seems to make quality drives.

AFAIK the eMac's only support mirroring, not separate screens. That was one of Apple's intentional limitations to keep people from buying the eMac instead of a more expensive model. But you really can't beat the eMac when it comes to 'bang for the buck', we have one at work and it's really very nice.

I think the least expensive macs that support multiple screens are the 12" powerbook G4 and the G4/1.25 single processor tower. The iBooks are like the eMac and support mirroring only (or at least the models I'm familiar with are like that).

One thing you could do with your screen... there are some relatively inexpensive scan converters that will take s-video or RCA composite input and send out a VGA signal.

I was just disk shopping yesterday at CompUSA (the system drive on my 3 week old PowerMac G4/1.25 died and I didn't have time to screw around with warranty service... ;-)

They were selling Maxor 40 GB internal ATA drives for $40 (with rebate), that seemed really cheap. There are some smaller capacity (60GB) firewire drives for well under $200 now, I wouldn't pay that much for a used 40 GB drive personally. 40GB fills up really fast... spend a few bucks more, get a bigger drive that's new with warranty.

Laird Blue Flame Pro transcoders
 

Do you folks know if the Laird DV transcoders will work with FCP 3 on a dual 1GHz G4 (MDD). We have them as part of our PC-based avid systems at work, but I want to bring my comp in to capture some stuff I shot a while ago on DVCPro for my demo reel. I can't take the deck home, and the deck doesn't have firewire I/O, anyway, just component, composite, etc. I suppose if worse came to worse, I could rent a DVCPro deck with Firewire I/O and just take the tapes home, but I'd prefer to do it for free.

If the laird won't work, any other suggestions for how to get the footage into my comp?

Audio Noise
 

Hi,

I'm sure this question has been asked countless times before...but here we go again.

I recorded my sound too low. For it to be intelligable at all I needed to boost the gain on it twice by boosting in FCP - export to quicktime - reimport to FCP and boost again. Obviously it has quite a bit of gain hiss.

The audio tools may as well be in Japanese to me. I see the tools and I can play with them, but I have no idea what works.

Does anyone have a way through FCP4 to at least take that hiss down a couple of notches?

On a side note, I am enjoying the upgrade from FCP3 but there are quite a few things I wish they would have left alone. Oh well.

Dan

Try the three band equalizer (EQ). Much of the annoyance of "hiss" is the high frequency content. Adjust the high band so that its gain is negative, for example -10 dB or more. Set the low and mid bands to 0dB, or unity gain. Then, set the high band frequency to some value in the lower part of its parametric range. The lower you go, the more hiss will be removed, but along with the hiss goes your overall brightness.

are we talking external or internal drives here? The going rate on line at reliabe places like newegg.com etc is about $1 a gb or so sometimes less. I just got a 200 gb internal for $160. I did see some external drives with more than 40gb for less than that one somewhere. If you can afford it get a firewire drive. I suppose they are more reliable for transfering video.

The Laird outputs via FireWire, which the Mac will input. No problem there. I have clients with that setup and it works fine.

Thanks for the replies.

I just bought a firewire aluminium casing unit with a maxtor 120Gig 7200RPM hard drive for $195. (Didn't realise how much prices have dropped). I did a check in my area, and this was the cheapest solution. The pre-built drives are about $50-$90 more... Although those small cute ones are quite eye-candy.
The casing i have doesn't seem to have a brand... but is simple, small enough and slim... looks serious. Am Happy so far.