NLE Mac / Final Cut questions from 2004

[Joshua Cohen]

Well, the subject could be a tad misleading, but I don't think it is.

I filmed a wedding a little over 2 weeks ago, and I'm nearly ready to burn it onto DVD, using DVD Studio Pro 2. What the happy couple asked me to do, was, when the DVD is put in, and they wanted to play through the movie, the only title that would appear would be the first one. Saying something like So and so's wedding on this day...

Now, when what they also requested, which is the main reason I'm seeking advice, is when they go to the chapter selection page, when they select a chapter they want to watch, they want a title to appear, then the movie starting. So, my question, is how to I set it to do that?

I thought I had it figured out, but I don't remember anymore... I guess turning 20 really is old...

Anyways, would you be able to export all of the titles, 25 total (it's a lot, I know, but it's what was requested) and somehow put each titles before the video on the chapters page?

I'm looking for the easiest way, but I'm ok for doing things which take some time, but the end justifies the means.

Thanks again!

[Vic Owen]

Nice catch, Rob. I was thinking of the AIFF you can bring into SP2 rather than the PCM output. I still like the bit rate budget of AC3, even when it's just stereo.

Cheers

[Rob Lohman]

If I remember correctly (and this is from long ago) AIFF is basically
just another form of PCM. So your authoring package is just
writing it to disc as PCM (probably) or perhaps recoding it to
MPEG audio. Keep in mind that PCM encoding is LOSSLESS, which
the other formats aren't and it can even go to 96 khz / 24 bit
if you want (only not with full surround then due to bitrates),
although not a lot of people have the audio equipment to hear
the difference with that.

So if you want maximum audio quality PCM is the best way to go,
but ofcourse AC3 and especially dts sound good as well.

If you want more technical details on the possible audio formats
and what frequencies etc. are supported see section 3.6.2 of the FAQ.

[Joshua Cohen]

Yes, the speed of scrolling text is varied by how long the clip is. I do not know of a way to input the speed you want it to travel at, I would just recommend playing with some of the controls, because there are a few options, but I found that it's a quick trial and error thing. It usually takes 2 times, maybe 3, to get the speed you want it to be at.

Hope this helps.

[Joe Lloyd]

i just like plain text. Plain text over video or on black. But then perhaps I just have no imagination....

[Vic Owen]

Under your Tools drop-down menu, you can use Quickview to check up to a 10 second segment for speed. It's pretty handy and saves having to render the entire roll to check it.

[Ram Nagarajan]

I'll second that, Joe: I'v efound that if you can keep the text relatively simple, it's impossible for the guy at the VHS copy place to screw it up, or bad technical quality on a broadcast system to mess up.
Having said that, of course, I must add that a good technician can and does preserve quality on titling (no bleeds/jitters etc.)

[Grant McClintock]

I can't seem to find the final answer to this. Is there any way to shoot 24p and edit in FCE? Thanks, Grant

[Jeff Donald]

I don't use FCE, but my understanding is that 24p can't be edited in FCE. You'll need to get FCP in order to edit 24p.

[Stylianos Moschapidakis]

What is the best way to unmount my Lacie d2 Firewire External HD since my eMac (running OS 9.2.2) frooze and needs to be shut down. Could someone respond asap? I have two important projects on the Lacie and cannot afford to lose/damage them. Thanks.

[Boyd Ostroff]

I don't think there's a lot you can do other than shut your mac down if 9.2 has crashed. Generally speaking you should be OK from my experience. But I would go out immediately to a local store (like CompUSA perhaps) and get a copy of DiskWarrior. Then after re-booting the mac run DiskWarrior and have it check the drive before attempting to do anything with it. While you're at it, you might want to invest in another external drive and run a backup.

I had a crash during a backup between an internal and external drive (under 9.2) and to my horror both drives appeared to be trashed! Of course this was at 4:00 AM while finishing a huge project as well. I spent some nervous hours until I could get back with a copy of DiskWarrior. Happily it repaired the damage on the external drive, although the internal was never the same.

[Stylianos Moschapidakis]

Boyd, thank you so much for your quick reply.

Should I unplug the Lacie before shutting down the eMac?

[David Slingerland]

I used a scanner to make some copy's of graphics out of a book. I plan to zoom and move over them to give them just that little bit more. But when I put them in the timeline they all of sudden have "lines" running downward and when I pan and zoom they show up because they start to interference like a tv monitor would do when you shoot it( or if you are filming a person with a shirt that the camera has problems with, you know what I mean?)
I have no idea what is causing this, the files are frame size 1639x1275 and photo JPEG,
I tried tiff files but no difference ...

I checked the manual and I saw that you need to import the grahics the size dv would like but I have no idea how to do that + I would like to zoom so they need to stay good when I get close( I use wireframe and resize the image the way I want)
Is this the proper way? and next what is wrong with the images to behave in such a way?
ps
Because I wanted to check the sequence settings I did that command but fcp then all of sudden quits on me, any suggestions?

[Daniel Kohl]

Hi David,

The images probably have a fine dot matrix in them if they are grayscale or tonal. This is a part of the printing process and will cause a moiré effect when combined with the grid system of a video image.

You can try slightly blurring the images in Photoshop before importing them to FCP.

I hope that's a help,

[Jeff Donald]

Just reboot the Mac. You should never unplug a mounted drive. If your machine is locked up, the drive can not be unmounted. Your drive will probably be OK, unless it is the source of the error.