To some degree it depends on your OS. If you're not, you should be on OS X. Leave FCP in the default location, in the application folder. Do not move it to a separate partition. If you want to partition your drive and place your media on a separate partition, it won't hurt. But it won't speed anything up either. It may be less confusing for you to manage your media, but no overall improvement.

What you really should consider is installing another internal drive. Drives are getting real cheap and only getting cheaper. I bought a 160gb internal drive for $85 a month ago or so.

Hi Jeff
I am going to give it a try I am running FCP 4 & OSX10.2,6 I am worried about dropped frames and disk fragmentation I wonder how long I will last on a 60 min project with lot of color correction render filles Say your pictures are great looking I have a tape of an osprey diving and catching a fish from about 150 feet Thanks David LeBlanc

Any PC to G5 users out there? I'm going to switch!
 

If you have recently switched. Do you mind sharing your experience and how you are adjusting to the Mac environment?

I grew up on Macs and used them until 1994, then when Windows95 came out I switched to windows. Been a user since. But now the OS10 is rocking and I think Apple has finally suppassed Windows. After test driving it at CompUSA I am hooked and plan on getting a G5 in a couple of months.

Well, not specifically a PC to G5 switcher here (I just bought a DP 1.25) but a switcher nonetheless.

I've been using PCs for the last 9 years and I must say that I am truly enjoying my first mac. The care that Apple puts into these machines and OS X really is visible. It's so cool to have a computer where everything feels really tightly integrated and things just work with ease.

It's the same way with the hardware. As soon as I got my G4 I put 3 new hard drives in it and it was pretty much a breeze. The care put into the case design and everything is just cool.

I can't say too much about editing yet as my copy of FCP is sitting on my desk waiting for more memory to arrive.

cheers, and have fun with your new mac

pc user since birth
i bought an ipod and fell in love
bought a 15" powerbook, and final cut pro 4
lovin it

os x is pretty good, with panther coming out soon it should be that much better..

you're in for quite a treat- that DVX100 u have and a Mac running FCP4 is an unbeatable combo- have fun.

I'm a lifelong PC user (well, after the Commodore 64 and then the Amiga) and occasionally tinker with Macs.

Recently I spent some time editing a short film on OSX with FCP 3 at a workshop in NYC, and I must say, until now, Macs had always turned me off. Now, if it were not for the fact that I am too comfortably efficient with PCs and I'm also a database and web developer for $, I'd be using it too. I'd rather stay ambidextrous though... If they weren't so 'spensive I'd have both.

The two options just have slightly different focuses, and are geared for different minds and the way they think. With OSX, now I can say I like them both.

Good luck to you!

I would not partition in that case because you want to have one big drive. If you have 12GB left on each partition you can't easily fit an hour of video into either partition.

With an 1 hour project you might run a little tight. You should be ok though. Make sure you have enough space for renders. If you run into trouble then export a self-contained FCP movie- you should have enough space for that. If that keep the room for a final export around it should be enough to avoid fragmentation.

It should be possible to run everything on one drive.

File size in Toast 6
 

Hi,
Okay laugh but I have a Toast 6 question. In the middle of all DSP people. (I thought it might be quicker to use T6 for lighter applications.) It's like being in Germany and saying I don't drink beer. Anyway the question. Has anyone, any idea why- a file -from Compressor out of FCP4 exported as .m2v to toast is seen buy it (toast 6) as approx. twice the size? It will not burn as a result and I cannot seam to catch the problem. If I send it 2.02GB it sees it as 4.9(DVD GB's) 4.4GB's to a HardDrive.
(the audio is 40MB)of the 2.02. and is .AIFF
If I send it 1GB it burns and then reads the file as close to 1GB. Any thought given would be appreciated thanks
Pedar

The two partitions is not that big of an issue. You can specify what partition to capture to or render effects to. The software keeps track of the files and two partitions or multiple disks are not a problem.

Thanks.
 

Ted:

Thanks for the great feedback. It helped. I appreciate you taking the time to respond.

I wanted to invite you to watch my new short film CELL PHONES & ACTION FIGURES on www.ifilm.com.

You can click below to see the film:
http://www.ifilm.com/filmdetail?ifilmid=2458986

It recently played at The New England Film & Video Festival and on The Independent Film Channel. Check out the story on me in IMAGINE NEWS MONTHLY:

http://imaginenews.com/Archive/2003/FEB_2003/01_FEATURES/18A_JOSH_MITCHELL.html

Let me know what you think. I look forward to your reaction.

-JOSH MITCHELL
http://wickidpissaboston.iuma.com

Josh-

Glad the info helped. However I have ALWAYS had major problems with getting stuff to play on iFilm. The site is horrible and does not seem to work in any of my Windows browsers (including IE) when I click on the 200k tab (nothing happens). When I use a Mac browser it opens a new window but then I get a broken Quicktime graphic, indicating that it cannot be played. This is quite common and is one of the reasons iHate iFilm.

Anyone own a LG Flatron or NEC 17" Display?
 

Hi Guys,

I'm looking for a non-apple branded monitor for my G5 and wondered if anyone
has any experience with the following two displays. I've included the links below
to the review pages on both. Thanks, Dan


LG Flatron L1710B http://www.epinions.com/pr-LG_Flatron_L1710B_17_in_Flat_Panel_TFT_Monitor/display_~full_specs

NEC MultiSync LCD1760V (17 in.) Flat Panel (TFT) http://www.epinions.com/pr-Monitors_NEC_MultiSync_LCD1760V_17_in_Display_LCD1760V_BK

Aja I/o
 

Has anyone here used or seen the AJA IO in action? It looks like it solves just about every I/O problem in FCP4 and seems to allow multi channel output with eight discreet channels.

For those of you who actually remember me - I have had to close my recording studio - it was a money pit (like I didn't know that before I started it).

The good news is that out of the ashes I have been able to ramp up some of my video gear, and have actually landed a freelance gig shooting some videos for a horse trainer. It may even get air time on the RFD Dish network. The pay's not great but at least it's a gig :)

Is 768 MB ram adequate for F.C.E. on a G5 1.6?
 

Anyone with personal experience? I'd like your opinions...

Thanks,

Dan

Mark,
Sorry to hear about your music studio. On to new horizons, eh?

This is the product to which you refer?

i would say so
i run final cut 4 on my powerbook with 512 and it runs pretty decent

It depends on how big your projects are and how much nesting you use. With a large 3-camera project (many edits) I found 256MB to be terrible, and 768 faster than 512.

The G5 uses dual channel RAM so you need to install RAM in pairs.

It sounds like it works except that there is a sync problem between the video coming out of the IO and sound coming out of the computer (something like that). There is no fix for that problem.

The response from people I know is lukewarm warm. It is too early to tell for certain, but I don't think it is living up to all the hype surrounding the product at NAB.

I agree with Glenn, the more the better, but 768 should be fine, but hard to do in pairs.

G5 combatible with Matrox RTMac ??
 

Anyone here who knows if the new G5 can be used with the Matrox RTMac card? Or how can I then connect a videomonitor or VCR to the computer ?

The RTMac's OS 10 drivers are just now in beta testing. Given Matrox's history with this product I wouldn't count on certified G5 compatibility any time soon.

The way I connect external monitors to my system is through my Panasonic deck.

Mac -- (Firewire) --> Deck --(RCA)--> monitor

For the relatively short time I was able to use my RTMac, its breakout box was quite handy.

Just remember, when putting in new Ram, it has to be done in pairs. It kind of sucks, but what can you do?

Good luck with editing,

heath

FCP to external monitor through JVC sr-vs30 -dont work..?
 

Hello all, first message here.

I use Final Cut Pro and the JVC sr-vs30e deck that I recently bought. Deck works fine except cant get a picture on TV monitor from FCP.
Log and capture(FCP) works fine -so firewire connection works.

. When I run a tape on the JVCdeck from the computer -I get a picture on the TV monitor.
. Running a picture from the harddrive through the deck to TV monitor -cant make it work.
. Running a picture from the harddrive through a DVcamera -no problem.

Anybody with a solution, I´ll be most grateful!
thanks,
emil, sweden

I don't have an sr-vs30 so I can't check this, but the one time I played with one, it took some time to figure out how to put the thing in the correct mode to make the video go in the right direction. The firewire port did not appear to be bi-directional. I remember that we had to set the direction (I have to do the same thing with my Sony DVMC-DA2).

In your case the firewire must be set to bring video IN from the tape. You'll have to reverse the direction to write to tape and thus display on a monitor.

I don't think LG is in the same league as NEC. I know of no one editing using LG monitors. However, with that said, if the image looks good and has similar specs, I'm sure the price is competitive. It might be worth a shot.

I don't have an explanation for this. Have you tried contacting Roxio? I use Toast 6 and all previous versins and have never had an issue burning DVD's.

Roxio
 

I have not tried contacting Roxio yet. I want to mention also, Toast does not
double the size of files under the 2G mark. Odd.
thank you for your input.
Pedar gilley

Are all your hard drives formatted the same, HFS+?

Need Advice on teaching video editing
 

Hello everyone:
I am needing some input from those of you who teach video editing, particularly to beginner/intermediate learners.
I am pursuing a part-time teaching position in which I would be teaching the basics of editing video using the Apple I-movie software. (the target audience is ages 13 - adult) I would be very interested in learning how some of you plan your syllabus / lessons.

Thanks a lot
Jean King

your email?
 

I have a long reply that is probably better sent via an email. your email address did not resolve properly. if you'd like to send me your email I'll send the information along to you. kuenzli@gci.net

Please post your comments publicly also. The whole idea of the community is that all can share in the knowledge of the group. If answers are provided privately, the other members can not benefit.

MacCentral: NBC's Scrubs adopts an all Apple solution
 

It looks like Charles' alma mater is moving into the Mac world for their post work. (See the article.)

I think Charles noted something to this effect a few months back.

Yup. I visited the editors a few weeks back, they are loving life. They were editing on Avids before at fairly high levels of compression, so having DV quality images (the Super 16mm footage is telecined to HD on a Spirit/DaVinci, then downcoverted to DVCam for the offline and Digibeta for the final assembly) is a big plus for them and the executive producer. And being able to take the work home on their 17" Powerbooks is putting big smiles on their faces. It's going to be interesting to see as things develop, whether they will be able to do the onlines inhouse as well as color correction and effects work on Shake.

It was a little strange watching tonight's season opener episode, the first "Scrubs" I had nothing to do with...! My successor, Rich Davis, is doing a great job in my stead.

Do I need to buy a DVI adaptor for a G5 and a non-Apple LCD?
 

I wansn't sure if what I need comes with the G5, or if I will need
to buy the $100 adaptor in order to attach a non-apple DVI-D LCD display?

Thanks "Guys",

Dan

Converting/Downconverting/telecine?
 

Hello Charles. I am familiar with conversions and telecine but how are all of these extra steps of video conversion efficient other than portability in a laptop. Why aren't you working on Scrubs anymore?

i dont believe so
the adc adaptor is for powerbooks and older macs using vga

i think..

The video cards have two monitor connections, one ADC and one DVI. You may purchase adapter to convert DVI to ADC and vice versa. There is also support for mirroring and dual monitors.

HOW DO I BURN THE dvd-r?
 

I have DVD Studio Pro 1, fpc 3 and a g-4 with kona card.

i can build and watch the story, but everytime i burn it says not permitted after i burn it.

i am dragging video ts and audio ts to the blank DVD on desktop and then clicking burn disc in finder.

the users manuel is not real clear on this crucial last step, or most likely, its just me.

this is getting expensive!!!!