NLE Mac / Final Cut questions from 2003

Gary Chavez · September 10th, 2003, 02:32 PM

howdy all,

My tutor left about 4 hours ago teaching me how to key and matte video shot on a green wall. well I just went to open my project and all of the effects are gone!

Now starting from scratch, follwing his/my notes yet i keep getting the green wall behind my subject everytime i use the oval mask in Matte.

I am doing something backwards but i dont know what.
end result is backgorund as hoped for except behind subject, then background is green.

The tolarence level is also much different than when he was here. I get much less of my subject before the green in the screen becomes overwhelming.

any thoughts?

Gary Chavez · September 10th, 2003, 02:35 PM

oh yeah, he brought over for me to borrow a really cool CD, "Secrets of Final Cut Pro 2."

However, it loads up on my OSX g-4 using classic OS9 fine except for the audio. scrambled. how can i fix that?

Peter Richardson · September 10th, 2003, 03:02 PM

Hey everyone--So I'm looking for recommendations on an external firewire drive. It should be Mac/PC compatible, which it seems most are. I'm looking for something in the 150GB to 250GB range. Durability/reliability is most important, and as long as it's fast enough to handle video I'll be happy. It's very difficult to find anything halfway conclusive on the web as to reliability etc. Anyone have some solid recommendations? Thanks!

Peter

Glenn Chan · September 10th, 2003, 08:03 PM

A firewire drive is made up of an enclosure with an internal ATA drive.

Good internal drives are IBM deskstars and Western Digital Caviars with the 8MB buffer.

A good enclosure should be durable and have the oxford 911 bridge chipset.

Lacie makes firewire drives with the oxford chip and WD drives. Many people report sucess with them. Or you can build your own.

Keith Loh · September 10th, 2003, 08:23 PM

I have both the IBM Deskstar and a Western Digital Caviar 120s. They haven't failed me yet.

Jeff Donald · September 10th, 2003, 10:04 PM

I believe the new Oxford 922 chip set is available. It will give you greater options for future expansion and compatibility..

Jeff Donald · September 10th, 2003, 10:10 PM

In OS X open QuickTime, File>Open in New Player. Click on CD Icon, the files are usually in a folder labeled Video, click on files and they'll play in new player. This may be adjusted in the Info window, depends on the type of files you're watching.

Jeff Donald · September 10th, 2003, 10:15 PM

Sounds like a problem with old tapes. Analog deteriorates over time and you may be having problems with the quality of the signal. But if one tape works fine and the other doesn't, and nothing in the setup changed, it points to the tape.

Monitors are very forgiving instruments. You can feed them signals way out of spec and they'll still display them OK. A capture device is much more picky and I have a feeling the tape is old and out of spec. The sync signal has deteriorated and the device doing the conversion is losing the phase of the color signal. Just a guess, a scope would be need to correctly analyze the signal and diagnose the problem.

Rob Lohman · September 11th, 2003, 04:37 AM

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...threadid=13937
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...threadid=12502

Gary Chavez · September 11th, 2003, 06:27 AM

Thanks
i figuered out the key clip problem. I was keying the darkest part of the screen, leaving about 80% of the lighter green show thru.

man, this is a process.

Graeme Nattress · September 11th, 2003, 07:08 AM

I've got a nice set of Levels filters for FCP at www.nattress.com that allow you to see the curve you're generating. They even have a special mode for S-shaped curves.

Graeme

Mark Argerake · September 11th, 2003, 08:23 AM

<<<-- Originally posted by Tim Tonner : Thanks for the info...however, will the VHS deck record with such a configuration? In other words, does the DV deck simply just have to be turned on, with outputs leading from it to the VHS deck, to get a successful VHS tape to record the project? I guess I'll give it a shot... -->>>

Tim let me first say, I wish I where in Stowe right now. SoCal is nice, but I miss New England seasons.

The DV deck should (hopefully) have a setting someplace for electronic passthrough. This allows it to be teh middleman between your computer and VHS deck. Also make sure the settings on the dv deck ar set for the proper input (dv) and output (ntsc video or whatever it is).

Peter Richardson · September 11th, 2003, 11:57 AM

Thanks for the help guys. I will look into the LaCies.

Peter

Peter Richardson · September 11th, 2003, 12:34 PM

Hi everyone--So I'm researching external firewire drive solutions and am leaning towards one of these drives:

http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?id=10096

The new LaCie drives designed by Porsche. Especially appealing is that they are supposedly very quiet, and of course they look great. Does anyone have any experience with LaCie drives, or these drives in particular? I noticed they only had a 2MB buffer, which seems pretty low, but they also run the Oford 911 chipset, which I hear is good. I'm trying to find out what harddrives are actually in the enclosures, I heard Western Digitals. Anyway, any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

Peter

Boyd Ostroff · September 12th, 2003, 08:56 AM

Help out a Mac only guy! I have a lot of video edited in FCP and compressed with the QuickTime DV codec. What would I need to do to convert this to AVI files? We are using some presentation software called "Dataton Watchout" to drive a big DLP projector. This software runs on both Macs and PC's and can use Quicktime, but according to the user manual AVI files are preferred for the best DV output.

September 10th, 2003, 02:32 PM	#961
Gary Chavez Major Player Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: San Antonio Posts: 355	key clips howdy all, My tutor left about 4 hours ago teaching me how to key and matte video shot on a green wall. well I just went to open my project and all of the effects are gone! Now starting from scratch, follwing his/my notes yet i keep getting the green wall behind my subject everytime i use the oval mask in Matte. I am doing something backwards but i dont know what. end result is backgorund as hoped for except behind subject, then background is green. The tolarence level is also much different than when he was here. I get much less of my subject before the green in the screen becomes overwhelming. any thoughts?

September 10th, 2003, 03:02 PM	#963
Peter Richardson Major Player Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Portland, Oregon Posts: 608	Best External Firewire Drive Hey everyone--So I'm looking for recommendations on an external firewire drive. It should be Mac/PC compatible, which it seems most are. I'm looking for something in the 150GB to 250GB range. Durability/reliability is most important, and as long as it's fast enough to handle video I'll be happy. It's very difficult to find anything halfway conclusive on the web as to reliability etc. Anyone have some solid recommendations? Thanks! Peter

September 10th, 2003, 08:23 PM	#965
Keith Loh Air China Pilot Join Date: May 2002 Location: Vancouver, B.C. Posts: 2,389	I have both the IBM Deskstar and a Western Digital Caviar 120s. They haven't failed me yet. __________________ -- Visit http://www.KeithLoh.com \| stuff about living in Vancouver \| My Flickr photo gallery

September 10th, 2003, 10:04 PM	#966
Jeff Donald Warden Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Clearwater, FL Posts: 8,287	I believe the new Oxford 922 chip set is available. It will give you greater options for future expansion and compatibility.. __________________ Jeff Donald Carpe Diem Search DVinfo.net for quick answers \| Where to Buy? From the best in the business: DVinfo.net sponsors

September 10th, 2003, 10:10 PM	#967
Jeff Donald Warden Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Clearwater, FL Posts: 8,287	In OS X open QuickTime, File>Open in New Player. Click on CD Icon, the files are usually in a folder labeled Video, click on files and they'll play in new player. This may be adjusted in the Info window, depends on the type of files you're watching. __________________ Jeff Donald Carpe Diem Search DVinfo.net for quick answers \| Where to Buy? From the best in the business: DVinfo.net sponsors

September 10th, 2003, 02:35 PM	#962
Gary Chavez Major Player Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: San Antonio Posts: 355	oh yeah, he brought over for me to borrow a really cool CD, "Secrets of Final Cut Pro 2." However, it loads up on my OSX g-4 using classic OS9 fine except for the audio. scrambled. how can i fix that?

September 10th, 2003, 08:03 PM	#964
Glenn Chan Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 4,750	A firewire drive is made up of an enclosure with an internal ATA drive. Good internal drives are IBM deskstars and Western Digital Caviars with the 8MB buffer. A good enclosure should be durable and have the oxford 911 bridge chipset. Lacie makes firewire drives with the oxford chip and WD drives. Many people report sucess with them. Or you can build your own.

September 10th, 2003, 10:15 PM	#968
Jeff Donald Warden Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Clearwater, FL Posts: 8,287	Sounds like a problem with old tapes. Analog deteriorates over time and you may be having problems with the quality of the signal. But if one tape works fine and the other doesn't, and nothing in the setup changed, it points to the tape. Monitors are very forgiving instruments. You can feed them signals way out of spec and they'll still display them OK. A capture device is much more picky and I have a feeling the tape is old and out of spec. The sync signal has deteriorated and the device doing the conversion is losing the phase of the color signal. Just a guess, a scope would be need to correctly analyze the signal and diagnose the problem. __________________ Jeff Donald Carpe Diem Search DVinfo.net for quick answers \| Where to Buy? From the best in the business: DVinfo.net sponsors

September 11th, 2003, 04:37 AM	#969
Rob Lohman RED Code Chef Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Holland Posts: 12,514	http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...threadid=13937 http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...threadid=12502 __________________ 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

September 11th, 2003, 06:27 AM	#970
Gary Chavez Major Player Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: San Antonio Posts: 355	Thanks i figuered out the key clip problem. I was keying the darkest part of the screen, leaving about 80% of the lighter green show thru. man, this is a process.

September 11th, 2003, 07:08 AM	#971
Graeme Nattress RED Problem Solver Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Ottawa, Canada Posts: 1,365	I've got a nice set of Levels filters for FCP at www.nattress.com that allow you to see the curve you're generating. They even have a special mode for S-shaped curves. Graeme __________________ www.nattress.com - filters for FCP

September 11th, 2003, 08:23 AM	#972
Mark Argerake Major Player Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Murrieta, CA Posts: 227	<<<-- Originally posted by Tim Tonner : Thanks for the info...however, will the VHS deck record with such a configuration? In other words, does the DV deck simply just have to be turned on, with outputs leading from it to the VHS deck, to get a successful VHS tape to record the project? I guess I'll give it a shot... -->>> Tim let me first say, I wish I where in Stowe right now. SoCal is nice, but I miss New England seasons. The DV deck should (hopefully) have a setting someplace for electronic passthrough. This allows it to be teh middleman between your computer and VHS deck. Also make sure the settings on the dv deck ar set for the proper input (dv) and output (ntsc video or whatever it is).

September 11th, 2003, 11:57 AM	#973
Peter Richardson Major Player Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Portland, Oregon Posts: 608	Thanks for the help guys. I will look into the LaCies. Peter

September 11th, 2003, 12:34 PM	#974
Peter Richardson Major Player Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Portland, Oregon Posts: 608	Experience with LaCie Porsche Drives Hi everyone--So I'm researching external firewire drive solutions and am leaning towards one of these drives: http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?id=10096 The new LaCie drives designed by Porsche. Especially appealing is that they are supposedly very quiet, and of course they look great. Does anyone have any experience with LaCie drives, or these drives in particular? I noticed they only had a 2MB buffer, which seems pretty low, but they also run the Oford 911 chipset, which I hear is good. I'm trying to find out what harddrives are actually in the enclosures, I heard Western Digitals. Anyway, any advice would be appreciated. Thanks! Peter

September 12th, 2003, 08:56 AM	#975
Boyd Ostroff Wrangler Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Mays Landing, NJ Posts: 11,787	AVI files? Help out a Mac only guy! I have a lot of video edited in FCP and compressed with the QuickTime DV codec. What would I need to do to convert this to AVI files? We are using some presentation software called "Dataton Watchout" to drive a big DLP projector. This software runs on both Macs and PC's and can use Quicktime, but according to the user manual AVI files are preferred for the best DV output.