Correct. When you start your capture, you'll see a tab on the Capture panel titled "Capture/Input". Select "DV to OfflineRT NTSC (Photo JPEG)". (Or select the "Anamorphic" option if your footage is 16:9.) Then just capture as you normally would.
Yes.

The term "offline" is imprecisely and ambiguously used so, indeed, your confusion is understandable. The other context of the term is when a clip is inaccessible. That is, it's been logged in the project, with in and out points, but FCP can't find the source clip at the expected location. Reconnecting the clip is generally just a matter of telling FCP where to find it.

Unless you're under the gun, experiment! Remember, FCP can't trash your master tapes. The worst that will happen is that you'll have to trash your project and start over. But you'll certainly learn something along the way.

Have fun!

Success! Trashing the preferences and repairing permissions worked - Thank you.

Final Cut Jitters
 

Last night I captured a miniDV tape recorded by a friend and burned it to dvd. It looks great on the computer monitor, but terrible on the television. Everything is jittery when movement is involved, almost as if repeating frames. At first I thought it might be the tape, but recorded new footage with my own camcorder and burned that to dvd. It resulted in the same jitter-look as my friend's footage.

I'm pretty sure this isn't camcorder related because, when plugging the camcorder directly into the tv, the footage looks great. I'm also pretty sure its not related to field dominance because I've changed those settings as well, but received the same results. Also, frame mode seems to look better than interlaced, but still a little funny.

This is my first project since updating to Quicktime Pro 6.5.1 and Toast Titanium 6.0.5. Could this update be related? Has anyone else had similar problems?

You need to make sure that your capture settings are correctly set, the settings might have changed or you need to change them for this camera or this footage.

I'd start there.

Did you shoot this footage differently then other footage you've captured?

Footage Archive Options
 

I've got some footage that is of part of a documentary we shot for a company, I captured all 4 tapes onto my system before I shipped them the tapes (being paranoid and wanting to get paid) but now I've got these four big files (11, 10, 11 and 1.9 gigs) on my media drives and I want to get them off but don't want to delete them since I might want to use some of it for a reel or something.

I know the simplist answer is going to be "buy a big ass hard drive and dump them on that and unplug it and store it. " but I just don't have the cash to drop on a 100+ gig HD right this week.

I have been thinking about using a compression program to split them into sizes that would fit onto data DVDs.

Any sharp ideas or suggestions would be MUCHO appreciated!

Thank you guys both. I posted this same question on other forums and it sounds like APC is tha way to go.

Mac OS X 10.3.4 Update released
 

Apple has released a new update, possibly the last before Tiger, which is due the end of summer or early fall. The following is a list of improvements:


The 10.3.4 Update delivers enhanced functionality and improved reliability for Mac OS X v10.3 "Panther" and is recommended for all users.

Key enhancements include:
- improved file sharing and directory services for Mac (AFP), UNIX (NFS), PPTP, and wireless networks
- improved OpenGL technology and updated ATI and NVIDIA graphics drivers
- improved disc burning and recording functionality
- iPods connected via USB 2.0 are now recognized by iTunes and iSync
- additional FireWire audio and USB device compatibility
- updated Address Book, Mail, Safari, Stickies, and QuickTime applications
- improved compatibility for third party applications
- previous standalone security updates

For detailed information on this Update, please visit this website: http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n25764


It can be down loaded via Software Update (System Preference, or Apple Menu) or at the link above. If you down load via software Update I recommend downloading only and not installing directly.

Transparent Photoshop CS Graphics in FCP4
 

Hey everyone

I'm working on a wedding video, and having some problems with photoshop graphics. I attempted to do a scrolling credits file with fairly large text (approx. 20-25 pt) and once it is keyframed, the text jitters on playback.

I thought that a deinterlace filter would help fix this problem, but it did nothing.

I have also had some text jitter problems on static graphics (no keyframing) with somewhat smaller text (around 15pt or so). Is there a general rule for a minimum text size to prevent these jitters?

does anyone have any ideas on how to fix these problems? I love the new non-square pixel compatibility in photoshop cs, but i really need these files to display properly in final cut!

This tutorial should help. I would also consider Live Type as well.

Thanks Kevin, but it actually ended up being the Toast update. For some reason it goofs up the mpeg-2 encoding. After trashing that version and installing 6.0.3, everything worked just fine. At this point, I'd advise against updating until Roxio makes a patch or something for this.

Final cut pro question
 

How do I export stills from my fcp footage to use on my website?

Ryan,

Place the playhead over the frame you want to capture.

Go to File>Export>Using Quicktime Conversion

and then at the bottom of that window choose "Still Image". Name it and save it to disk.

After that, import it into Photoshop, choose Image>Image Size

UNCLICK the constrain proportion box and resize the height to 534 (if you're using an NTSC camera).

Crop off the black sidebars, RECLICK the constrain proportion box and resize as needed, and then choose Save for Web.

You may also want to de-interlace the image and if you have Photoshop got to Filter>Video>de-interlace to remove the interlacing.

Any pointers you can pass on, Jeff, about using the Deinterlace filter? I can never seem to get a smooth deinterlace. It always looks as though someone took their fingers and smudged the image in rows...like dragging your fingers through a wet painting.

I've had to resort to localized deinterlacing, and floating a semi-transparent layer with Gaussian blur to get really smooth results. But I'm sure there's something I'm overlooking with the filter.

Use a digital still camera (DSC). Here is a site that can probably answer all your questions. There is no simple answer, each image is different, based on the motion present in the video frame.

<<Use a digital still camera>>

Pow! In the kisser! I'm down for the count. ;)

That's an informative site, Jeff. Thanks. For some reason, I couldn't view the .avi samples, but I get the idea from the still samples.

External Monitor--Single Frame Only!
 

The external monitor will show only the first frame at the playhead, and whatever frame I stop on. Nothing in between--no motion. "Show All Frames" is checked.

I'm using a JVC TM-910SU NTSC external monitor. I'm running a G5 1.8 single processor, 2gigs ram. I'm using an ADVC-100 converter through firewire--s-video out from the converter and into the monitor.

I'm using 24 fps on the timeline, used advanced 2:3:3:2 pulldown for my footage (shot in 24p on Panasonic AGDVX100). RT unlimited, playback "high."

Please help! Looking forward to color correcting, but just can't figure this out....so close....Thanks for you thoughts on this subject. I'm sure there's some setting that I'm failing to tweak properly.

Could it have something to do with the advanced pulldown removal? The canvas shows the footage perfectly.

Manual for FCP 2
 

I am in need of "the best" (if that's possible) manual for FCP 2. What do you suggest?

Did a little research and found the following manuals that are currently available. Has anyone used any of them?

-Final Cut Pro 2 Editing Workshop
Tom Wolsky

-Macworld Final Cut Pro 2 Bible
Zed Saeed, Keith Underdahl

-Final Cut Pro 2 for Macintosh : Visual QuickPro Guide
Lisa Brenneis, Wendy Sharp (Editor)

-Final Cut Pro 2.0 for Firewire DV Editing
Charles Roberts, Foreword by Ralph Fairweather

-Revolutionary Final Cut Pro 2 Digital Film Making (with CD ROM)
Luther Blissett, George Kingsnorth, Jerome Turner, Diannah Morgan, Schuman Hoque

Thank you.

Tom Wolsky's book is quite a good logical dance step guide.

Lisa Brenneis' "Visual" books are good references and are well structured presentations.

Browse our Read About It forum for more suggestions and ideas.

Using ext. monitor to split edit-Canvas orange
 

I have a TiPB 400 I'm using with FCP 3. I connected an external monitor to split edit. But when I play the Canvas on the PB's screen I get an orange matte. Even the Viewer sometimes has an orange matte when it plays.

Is there something in my Preferences or Audio Video Settings that's wrong, it's not RGB+Alpha which gives an orange tint, this is like an orange matte.

Or maybe the PB 400 can't handle it, I don't know.

Goin' crazy,
elmer

Not sure about the 400, but I ran FCP 3 on my TiBook 667 without problems, including an external monitor. Are you talking about a second computer monitor plugged into the VGA port, or an NTSC monitor plugged into the s-video port? Are you using the second screen as your external video device or just as an extension of the Mac desktop? Are you running under OS X or MacOS 9.x? I've never seen an "orange matte" like you describe, that's weird!

It's a computer monitor plugged into the VGA port and used as an extension of the Mac desktop along with my laptop screen. OS 9.2.

Orange matte: strange indeed!

thanks,
Elmer

Quick Dual Monitor question...
 

Hey Guys,

I was wondering if my G5 can handle two monitors straight out of the box or do I need to get a dual monitor card?

I have the ATI Radeon 9600 Pro card that came with the dual G5 and was just wondering what it would take. I currently have a ViewSonic Graphic Series G90fb and another no name smaller monitor just sitting around and was wondering if it would be beneficial to hook it up (using adapters as it's not ready to hook directly up to the mac). It IS NOT the same and have read you should use the same 2 monitors??? Any clarification would be appreciated!

Thanks in advance...
Clay

That is certainly an option. Or record them back out to DV and
store the tapes. That is probably an easier, cheaper and more
reliable method.

I second that.

www.apple.com/powermac/specs.html

•ADC and DVI connectors; DVI to VGA adapter included.

Now all you need to get is an ADC to VGA adaptor (Dr. Bott - $20-$30) and you are set.

Help needed w/ an APC UPS
 

So, I finally got the APC BX 800VA. Unfortunately the manual is not very helpful and neither could I find an answer to my question below on APC's web site. According to the instructions before you use a UPS unit, you need to charge it for 8 hours. So what I did was plug the unit into a grounded outlet but I didn't turn it on because soon after it was plugged in, it started making a sort of a "ticking" noise which, I assume, is supposed to when it charges. About an hour later I checked the unit and it felt warm. So my question is this: Is this the right way to charge the unit's battery before use? Should I have turned it on?

Thank you.

Stills taken from video
 

I have exported a few stills from FCP4. Of course I would like to De-interlace in photoshop. How would I do this so that the fields are one again?

Any idea or knowlede for a first timer?

Thanks
Joe

click filters, video, deinterlace and try the different options for best result

APC have really good tech support - just phone them up and get your answer direct.

However, on the APC units I have at home and work, I've never read that I had to charge them - just plug the battery in, plug the gear in, switch on and go....

But really, phone them up!

Graeme

Yes. They need to be charged before use.

The ticking sound you hear could be the relays inside doing their job thinking they are protecting an attached computer. The unit gets slightly warm while charging and in use but should never get hot.

Yours sounds normal to me.

Dealing with 2 computers...
 

I was wondering how those of you that have two seperate computers (1 at work, 1 at home, etc.) deal with editing/programs/files/sharing/etc. I currently have a PC for work and Mac for home (editing) and am toying with the idea of getting a iBook to have at work (and where ever else) and keep the G5 at home. But, I hate having some info on one computer and all my other stuff on another one. Any suggestions would be welcomed! Thanks in advance...

Clay

I have 3 Macs: two G4 desktops and a G4 Powerbook. One of the desktops is getting old (733 single, running OS 9) so I really only use it as a backup and also to do 3d or video rendering when I have a big project.

So on the other desktop I run a program called "Personal Backup X". I have two main folder heirarchies with all my personal an business files in them (probably 15,000 files), and I use this program to do file sync between the laptop and desktop machines. Basically the software compares the contents of these folders between machines and copies files in both directions as needed to keep them identical. Seems to work very well. I have a LAN at home with 100MBS ethernet and plug the powerbook in there, enable personal file sharing, then login to the laptop from the desktop machine and run the file sync program. The desktop machine is sort of like the "master" and there is nothing important on the laptop that isn't duplicated on the desktop.

I don't backup my software generally speaking since I have all the original disks. But every few months I do a full disk copy of the desktop machine's hard drive to an external firewire drive. When I'm being especially conscientious I take one of these drives to the office and keep it there in case of a catastrophe at home.

Now for the big files, like video and 3d animation, it isn't practical to backup as much as I would like. So I generally keep a backup of current projects on a firewire drive, and for the rest I just have the DV tapes. But a bunch of this stuff is also backed up to my old G4 machine.

Important business related files are backed up to one of our servers at the office, and the server gets a daily backup from the IT dept. I can access the file server remotely over IP from home if needed, and this also provides a way to share files with other staff on and offsite (but not big files like video). I think the same things would work pretty well for you in a mixed PC/Mac environment; you could just enable SMB windows sharing on your laptop, mount it on your PC and copy files, or there are various products out there to allow sharing in the other direction.

Fcp 3.0- Problems With Transitions
 

Been having some problems with certain transitions on FCP 3.0, and was wondering if anyone else had the same problem and/or knew of a work-around?

(I have a G4 dual 1 gig with 240 gigs, and 1 gig of ram)
Two video layers, and I'm adding a "page peel" effect. Nothing. It just shows up as a cut. Yup- done the render, tried changing some of the values too. Nuttin.

Several other Quicktime fx seem to do that too.

Anyone else?

Jeff Patnaude

How many tracks of video are you using?

FCE Capture Weirdness
 

I captured a tape that I shot this weekend using the capture now command. It seemed like everything worked ok, but it only plays back the first clip on the tape which is about six minutes long. I checked the file size of the clip and it was 12.5 GB. I tried opening it in Quicktime and reimporting into my project, but I still had the same problem.

I guess that I'll have to recapture the tape. I was wondering if anyone else has seen this and knows how to keep it from happening again.

Also, the second tape I captured worked fine.

I have 6 tracks, but only using the two for the edit.

to be honest, I've never tried doing a transition from one video layer to the next but I'm guessing that is what you are doing: transitioning from the end of a clip on V1 to a clip on V2 ?

I'm not sure you can do that BUT you could generate some transparent slug (like generate a lower third clip but not have any text in it) on the same layer as the clip you want to transition out from and it might just do the page pull to a transparent clip which would reveal the video underneath.

Not at my system right now to see if that works but it should. I've used empty generator clips to do stuff like that before.

The little powerbook that could...
 

Started encoding Return on the King from msv to Divx using quicktime on my 1ghz powerbook 2 days ago. Almost 75% complete now... hahahaha I fugured it would only take 3 hours.
But it's for a good cause I want to put every scene in FCP and switch it with Danny Devito in the movie "Whats the worst that could happen" where he's going on about a ring..

Theres my good morning story to everyone.

Ibook And Fce
 

I'm thinking about purchasing a 933 or 1 ghz i-book for rough editing while on the road. I'd appreciate any experiences from any current ibook owners.

Also, how's the ibook perform with drawing programs like Canvas or Illustrator?

Thanks for the help!!