NLE Mac / Final Cut questions from 2003

Joe Lloyd · June 5th, 2003, 05:17 PM

Ugh I'm just too impatient!

Stylianos Moschapidakis · June 5th, 2003, 07:52 PM

Well, if you spend $1,180, you can live in peace without having to worry about replacing your deck's or camera's heads every a certain amount of hours.

I was reading Macworld today and there it was. The Datavideo DV Bank, an external firewire hard drive, that acts like a tape deck. So you can hook it up to your DV camera and capture up to 9 hours of footage --120GB. Isn't that something?!

According to the review one of the advantages of this device is that you can get "instant random access to all of your captured footage." On the other hand, it biggest weakness is that the process of capturing your media to your Mac happens in real time --IMO, no big deal.

After all, maybe this DV Bank isn't that pricy. How much does it cost to replace your camera's heads? About $1,000? At least that's what it will cost me for my PD150.

Boyd Ostroff · June 5th, 2003, 08:04 PM

These devices were recently discussed in this thread. I'm still interested to hear any first-hand experiences.

Stylianos Moschapidakis · June 5th, 2003, 08:13 PM

Thanks for the link.

I had thought it would've been great to have a mini laptop for the same purpose, but didn't know devices like DV Bank existed already.

Nathan Gifford · June 6th, 2003, 06:43 AM

I think one of the questions is how much abuse can one of these machines take. If you bump it and the disk crashes that would be a bummer.

Max Mishler · June 6th, 2003, 07:24 AM

After years of being prodded by my best friend to "make the switch" I've finally seen the light. Actually, I still have my windows laptop so I'm not a complete convert. I plan on using FCE as my main editor and wanted to know what people suggested as an educational source for someone converting from using "Vegas" and "Premiere". I know I can still use Premiere on my Mac but I had already pretty converted over to Vegas for the past several months having never really felt comfortable with Premiere. I can't believe the world I've been missing as I've completely fallen in love with this machine... God, I can't believe I just said that. :) Thanks for any help in advance and now I'm off to offer sacrifices and prayers to the Mac Gods...

Max

Kirk Messner · June 6th, 2003, 09:10 AM

I picked up FCE and a 160gb Lacie D2 firewire drive at the Apple Store yesterday at lunch. I watched the dvd that came with it, along with some of the manual, but I'm still looking for other good online sources for training/tutorials. Any suggestions? I'm sure it will take time to learn all the features, but it sure is a giant improvement over iMovie!! Thanks.

BTW, I have been viewing the forums at Apple, and it seems many people are having problems getting an external drive and dv camera to work together. I just plugged the Lacie into my iBook, and the GL2 into the Lacie, and it works great!! I just changed my scratch disk to the Lacie in FCE, and capture there with no problem.

Kirk

Richard Alvarez · June 6th, 2003, 10:13 AM

AVID runs on both PC and Mac.

Dean Sensui · June 6th, 2003, 01:18 PM

Max...

I'm a Media 100 editor but have played a bit with FCP. It's somewhat similar to Premiere and other NLE's in basic function.

For detailed information there's a book entitled "Final Cut Pro For Macintosh"
by Lisa Brenneis.

I've been reading rave reviews for the upcoming version 4 of the program. If I had to start over today I'd go with FCP. Great value for the dollar and a very extensive upgrade path.

Good luck with the switch!

Dean Sensui
Base Two Productions

Bud Kuenzli · June 6th, 2003, 10:24 PM

most of the sources I know about are tutorials on final cut pro. 90% of that information will be appropriate for FCE but a google search on "final cut express" and tutorial will undoubtably turn up quite a few options. There are tapes, dvds, books and more available for FCP and similar things, I should assume, for FCE. For a start, check out http://www.creativemac.com for some FCP tutorials....

Max Mishler · June 7th, 2003, 05:26 PM

Thanks guys for the help. I bought a copy of "Final Cut Express for Dummies" at Barnes and Noble because it was the only book there that I could find on it. I have mixed feelings about the "for dummies" books but I thought it would at least have a nugget or two of good information anyway. I also saw a DVD tutorial on the web that looked kind of cool too but like anything I'm sure the best way to learn is to just roll up my sleeves and get dirty.

Curtis T. Stoeber · June 8th, 2003, 02:55 AM

What's the real difference between DVD-R and DVD+R formats? I think DVD-R is more compatible with set top DVD players, but the DVD+R camp loves saying how superior their format is. Wouldn't this be similar to CD-Rs having two different formats, both playing essentially the same data, but both can only be recorded on proprietary recorders? Whats the point?

I'm confused. Somebody please help.

Jeff Price · June 9th, 2003, 01:38 PM

The rumor mills are stepping up discussions on the new 970 based Power Macs -

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,1121730,00.asp

Notice, that like a recent Business Week article this article is not from your traditional rumor sites.

The rumor sites still have the 970 as being announced at Apple's WWDC - with Steve Jobs giving a demo of 10.3 (Panther) on one of the new machines.

John Kaye · June 9th, 2003, 04:09 PM

FCP 4 comes with a "full 32-bit floating point per channel video processing".

What is it and what does it do?

Rob Lohman · June 10th, 2003, 04:35 AM

Confusion is all around regarding this. Basically they are just
competing formats with the same feature set. Currently -R
seems to be more compatible indeed, but +R has always
claimed superiour compatability. However I don't believe
they have delivered on this promise (although DVD+RW seems
to do good).

Basically it looks like that for record once -R is king but for
rewritable +RW seems to be liked.

I (nor anyone else for that matter) can tell you which format
(or perhaps both) will prevail. More newer players seem to
support both, but that is also not garantueed by any means.

If you are looking for a new DVD burner I personally would look
into any of the multi format burners like the Sony DRU500a
(replaced by the 510 I believe), the new Nec (don't know what
the model number is) and the just released Pioneer A06. They will
all do -R/+R, -RW/+RW & CD-R/-RW. The main reason to buy a
multiformat burner is that you are more or less garuanteed to
be compatible in the future (can never be 100% sure on this,
ofcourse).

Also media compatibility with players is very important and that
is even more fuzzy....

June 5th, 2003, 07:52 PM	#557
Stylianos Moschapidakis Regular Crew Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Cambridge, MA/Crete, Greece Posts: 189	No more tapes, no more tear and wear; though at a high price. Well, if you spend $1,180, you can live in peace without having to worry about replacing your deck's or camera's heads every a certain amount of hours. I was reading Macworld today and there it was. The Datavideo DV Bank, an external firewire hard drive, that acts like a tape deck. So you can hook it up to your DV camera and capture up to 9 hours of footage --120GB. Isn't that something?! According to the review one of the advantages of this device is that you can get "instant random access to all of your captured footage." On the other hand, it biggest weakness is that the process of capturing your media to your Mac happens in real time --IMO, no big deal. After all, maybe this DV Bank isn't that pricy. How much does it cost to replace your camera's heads? About $1,000? At least that's what it will cost me for my PD150. __________________ Stelios G.M.

June 5th, 2003, 08:13 PM	#559
Stylianos Moschapidakis Regular Crew Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Cambridge, MA/Crete, Greece Posts: 189	Thanks for the link. I had thought it would've been great to have a mini laptop for the same purpose, but didn't know devices like DV Bank existed already. __________________ Stelios G.M.

June 6th, 2003, 06:43 AM	#560
Nathan Gifford Wrangler Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Tickfaw, LA Posts: 1,217	I think one of the questions is how much abuse can one of these machines take. If you bump it and the disk crashes that would be a bummer. __________________ Nathan Gifford Southern Cyclist Magazine & Productions For quick answers try our Search! To see me and Rob Lohman click here

June 6th, 2003, 07:24 AM	#561
Max Mishler Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Myrtle Beach, SC Posts: 53	New Convert After years of being prodded by my best friend to "make the switch" I've finally seen the light. Actually, I still have my windows laptop so I'm not a complete convert. I plan on using FCE as my main editor and wanted to know what people suggested as an educational source for someone converting from using "Vegas" and "Premiere". I know I can still use Premiere on my Mac but I had already pretty converted over to Vegas for the past several months having never really felt comfortable with Premiere. I can't believe the world I've been missing as I've completely fallen in love with this machine... God, I can't believe I just said that. :) Thanks for any help in advance and now I'm off to offer sacrifices and prayers to the Mac Gods... Max

June 6th, 2003, 09:10 AM	#562
Kirk Messner Regular Crew Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Fowlerville, MI Posts: 51	FCE Online Training/Tutorials ?? I picked up FCE and a 160gb Lacie D2 firewire drive at the Apple Store yesterday at lunch. I watched the dvd that came with it, along with some of the manual, but I'm still looking for other good online sources for training/tutorials. Any suggestions? I'm sure it will take time to learn all the features, but it sure is a giant improvement over iMovie!! Thanks. BTW, I have been viewing the forums at Apple, and it seems many people are having problems getting an external drive and dv camera to work together. I just plugged the Lacie into my iBook, and the GL2 into the Lacie, and it works great!! I just changed my scratch disk to the Lacie in FCE, and capture there with no problem. Kirk

June 5th, 2003, 05:17 PM	#556
Joe Lloyd Major Player Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Auckland, NZ Posts: 202	Ugh I'm just too impatient!

June 5th, 2003, 08:04 PM	#558
Boyd Ostroff Wrangler Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Mays Landing, NJ Posts: 11,787	These devices were recently discussed in this thread. I'm still interested to hear any first-hand experiences.

June 6th, 2003, 10:13 AM	#563
Richard Alvarez Inner Circle Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: San Mateo, CA Posts: 3,840	AVID runs on both PC and Mac.

June 6th, 2003, 01:18 PM	#564
Dean Sensui Inner Circle Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Honolulu, HI Posts: 2,054	Max... I'm a Media 100 editor but have played a bit with FCP. It's somewhat similar to Premiere and other NLE's in basic function. For detailed information there's a book entitled "Final Cut Pro For Macintosh" by Lisa Brenneis. I've been reading rave reviews for the upcoming version 4 of the program. If I had to start over today I'd go with FCP. Great value for the dollar and a very extensive upgrade path. Good luck with the switch! Dean Sensui Base Two Productions

June 6th, 2003, 10:24 PM	#565
Bud Kuenzli Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: North Pole, Alaska Posts: 197	ton of tutorials most of the sources I know about are tutorials on final cut pro. 90% of that information will be appropriate for FCE but a google search on "final cut express" and tutorial will undoubtably turn up quite a few options. There are tapes, dvds, books and more available for FCP and similar things, I should assume, for FCE. For a start, check out http://www.creativemac.com for some FCP tutorials.... __________________ on the Internet, when you get where you're going you still don't know where you are

June 7th, 2003, 05:26 PM	#566
Max Mishler Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Myrtle Beach, SC Posts: 53	Thanks guys for the help. I bought a copy of "Final Cut Express for Dummies" at Barnes and Noble because it was the only book there that I could find on it. I have mixed feelings about the "for dummies" books but I thought it would at least have a nugget or two of good information anyway. I also saw a DVD tutorial on the web that looked kind of cool too but like anything I'm sure the best way to learn is to just roll up my sleeves and get dirty.

June 8th, 2003, 02:55 AM	#567
Curtis T. Stoeber Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Lakewood Colorado USA Posts: 150	DVD-R vs DVD+R What's the real difference between DVD-R and DVD+R formats? I think DVD-R is more compatible with set top DVD players, but the DVD+R camp loves saying how superior their format is. Wouldn't this be similar to CD-Rs having two different formats, both playing essentially the same data, but both can only be recorded on proprietary recorders? Whats the point? I'm confused. Somebody please help.

June 9th, 2003, 01:38 PM	#568
Jeff Price Major Player Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Chico, California Posts: 357	G5?, Q37?, Smeagol? - New power macs The rumor mills are stepping up discussions on the new 970 based Power Macs - http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,1121730,00.asp Notice, that like a recent Business Week article this article is not from your traditional rumor sites. The rumor sites still have the 970 as being announced at Apple's WWDC - with Steve Jobs giving a demo of 10.3 (Panther) on one of the new machines. __________________ Jeff Price Flickerflix Nature Videos flickerflix@yahoo.com

June 9th, 2003, 04:09 PM	#569
John Kaye Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: L.A. Posts: 57	FCP 4 question FCP 4 comes with a "full 32-bit floating point per channel video processing". What is it and what does it do?

June 10th, 2003, 04:35 AM	#570
Rob Lohman RED Code Chef Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Holland Posts: 12,514	Confusion is all around regarding this. Basically they are just competing formats with the same feature set. Currently -R seems to be more compatible indeed, but +R has always claimed superiour compatability. However I don't believe they have delivered on this promise (although DVD+RW seems to do good). Basically it looks like that for record once -R is king but for rewritable +RW seems to be liked. I (nor anyone else for that matter) can tell you which format (or perhaps both) will prevail. More newer players seem to support both, but that is also not garantueed by any means. If you are looking for a new DVD burner I personally would look into any of the multi format burners like the Sony DRU500a (replaced by the 510 I believe), the new Nec (don't know what the model number is) and the just released Pioneer A06. They will all do -R/+R, -RW/+RW & CD-R/-RW. The main reason to buy a multiformat burner is that you are more or less garuanteed to be compatible in the future (can never be 100% sure on this, ofcourse). Also media compatibility with players is very important and that is even more fuzzy.... __________________ Rob Lohman, visuar@iname.com DV Info Wrangler & RED Code Chef Join the DV Challenge \| Lady X Search DVinfo.net for quick answers \| Buy from the best: DVinfo.net sponsors

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