Thanks for the update, Jeff.

Depends on your iMac
 

From the Apple website you also have other options (although I believe this might be simply like adding a second monitor and not a video out):

Apple Video Adapter

The Apple Video Adapter for iBook, PowerBook G4 (12"), eMac (with AirPort Extreme), or 17-inch iMac (1GHz) was specially designed to allow users to connect to S-video or composite video devices. The video adapter cable plugs into the Video Output port (mini-VGA) built into the back of the computers listed. The Video Output port supports VGA, S-Video, and Composite video out. Use the Apple Video Adapter cable for S-Video or Composite video output only (connect to your TV, VCR, or overhead projector's S-Video or RCA (composite) cable). Use a separate VGA Adapter for VGA video out.

Important:
Requires iBook without an external reset button,12-inch PowerBook G4, eMac (with AirPort Extreme) or17-inch iMac (1GHz) with mini-VGA por

toast 6 question
 

How do i make multiple copies of a Studiopro2 project?

I am aware I only have one burner. Thats not the problem

It seems like i must re-copy the project in Toast everytime i wish to create another DVD copy of the project?
I this correct?

Were all your source tracks sampled at 48kHz before importing?

If not, it might be worth doing that (i.e. resampling to 48kHz with Quicktime Pro) and re-importing.

Where are my captured files? FCP 4
 

Hey all, I'm on FCP4 and I just finished logging and capturing a third tape today from a project I was working on. I had logged the 4th and final tape and proceeded to Batch Capture when FCP froze and I had to restart the computer. Now my file for some reason didn't autosave itself today and now all my files which I captured from tape 3 are not listed in my project file. I'm trying to find these files on my external Lacie with no luck, as this tape took several hours to log and capture. My capture scratch has been set to my Lacie the whole time so it's not an issue of it being on the internal HD. I can't find any of the captured files even the ones from tapes 1 and 2 which I can play from my HD, I just don't know the location. Please, if anyone knows how to retrieve captured files and import them back into the project, that'd be a lifesaver. Thanks so much. (obviously I'm not a Mac regular)....

When you elect to "burn" in Toast there is a box to enter the number of copies you want. You can also save your project in Toast and open it at a later time to make more copies.

Click on your Desk Top. Hold down the Apple Key and the "F" key, the Find window will open. Check only the drive name you captured your media to. In the first pull down, set it to Date Modified. Set the next pull down (going across) to today (or the day of the capture). Set the third pull down (under the first) to visibility, and the last to visible and invisible items. Click search. In several seconds the names of all the files from that date will appear. The media files may have been temp files and have odd names. You should be able to open them with QuickTime to verify the contents. Import the files into your new project.

I can't thankyou enough Jeff...

Glad I could help.

MPEG-2 importing
 

I've gotten myself into a bit of a pickle. I backed up about 9 small projects onto a data-DVD as Final Cut files for use later. Unfortunately, in a total lack of intelligence, I didn't save them as self-contained files, and therefore can't retrieve the projects. Fortunately, I burned a video-DVD with the different projects in iDVD. My goal is to "rip" my projects out of the DVD to be properly archived.
I've purchased Quicktime MPEG-2 and imported the video_ts files, but all I can retrieve is the video with no audio. I know there has to be a way to get my audio back as well, but don't know how. Does anyone have suggestions or recommendations?

i knew there had to be a better way..just couldnt find it in Toast help.
thanks

Quicktime ready to add AVC codec
 

http://www.internetnews.com/infra/article.php/3366831

The company said the technology, known as MPEG-4 part 10 or H.264/AVC, is the next-generation video compression technology in the MPEG-4 standard. Already ratified by both the ITU and ISO MPEG, Frank Casanova, Apple Senior Director, QuickTime Product Marketing, told internetnews.com that the company is pole-positioning the improvements as the standard for video encoding for everything from 3G to High Definition (HD) broadcast.

"We took the basic recipe and we're now testing it internally on our campus in Cupertino, Casanova said. "We're not shipping it yet. It's not a question of 'if', only a matter of 'when.'"

Earlier this year, Apple demonstrated MPEG-4 part 10 showing content encoded at full HD resolution (1920x1080 24 frames progressive) and played back between 6.8 and 8 Mbps on one of Apple's current dual-processor computers. The company suggests that H.264/AVC is the likely successor to MPEG-2, which is still the industry standard.


That's impressive. 1080P @ less than DVD bitrates. The encoding is going to be a bear though at 8x the power needed for MPEG2. However the results are amazing. Apple previewed trailers in AVC at NAB 2004 and I hear they looked excellent.

Licensing of AVC is more expensive than WM9 but you have the safety of a standards body so you know things will stay static.

Panning Stills with FCP?
 

Is there an easy way to pan and/or zoom stills using FCP? I have done it with Premier, but can't seem to find how to do the same with FCP. I basically have several high-res photos (JPG) that I would like to pan and zoom during my video. Any help will be greatly appreciated. I am using FCP 4.5 HD with OSX 10.3


Thanks!

Jim

AVC is also part of the new HD-DVD mandatory supported codecs: http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,116471,pg,1,RSS,RSS,00.asp

<<<-- Originally posted by Mark Sloan : AVC is also part of the new HD-DVD mandatory supported codecs: http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,116471,pg,1,RSS,RSS,00.asp -->>>

Yes Mark. AVC is the huge behomoth codec that consumers have no idea about yet. In fact there are many who think the only efficient HD codec is Microsofts WM9(aka VC9 which has provisional HD-DVD support as well).

I'm expecting that the recent talk concerning Quicktime is a build up to WWDC the end of this month. I expect to see QT7 announced along with OSX 10.4.

Final Cut Pro is simply not going to be able to grow in some areas without a revamping of the core which is Quicktime. Things to look for are going to better MPEG2 support and more than stereo audio input in QT. I think we'll see Final Cut Pro 5 next NAB with a bunch of new features granted by its synching with QT7

I also imagine that we'll have the choice to take HD or HDV video and transcode to Pixlet or AVC quite easily.

I use Photo to Movie and export as a Quicktime.

Thanks Jeff, but are you telling me that FCP cannot do something as simple as this? So, I need to spend $50 to achieve this?

Thanks,

Jim

You could try:
http://www.macdesktops.com/

It is a good idea to have all your media files on a seperate drive. The problem is that if you move project media files around then your project won't be able to find them. It registers their file paths so if you move them you'll get a bunch of missing clips error messages. Use the built in media manager if you want to save yourself a headache.

Probably the best thing to do is simply start all new projects on the new drive. Just finish your current projects where they are, archive them and move on. You may want to adjust your FCP preferences as well so it saves temp files and captures to the new drive by default.

after effects does this really well adn simply - but it's a little more than $50.

As for FCP - I'm almost positive there's a way, but sorry, I can't think of it right now.

FCP does it with key frames and motion paths. FCP help has info on key framing and how to do the panning effect that that you want. i use Photo to Movie because it saves time and my time is worth more than the cost of the application (plugin).

<<<-- Originally posted by Mark Sloan : It is a good idea to have all your media files on a seperate drive. The problem is that if you move project media files around then your project won't be able to find them. It registers their file paths so if you move them you'll get a bunch of missing clips error messages. Use the built in media manager if you want to save yourself a headache.

Probably the best thing to do is simply start all new projects on the new drive. Just finish your current projects where they are, archive them and move on. You may want to adjust your FCP preferences as well so it saves temp files and captures to the new drive by default. -->>>

Where is the media manager? Also, let's say if i have clips and projects finished on the reg HD. Then I get the 2nd HD and start another project, with everthing new saved there. Let's say I want to use some of the clips (raw footage) that's on the reg HD. Will media manager let me access it or transfer the footage, or can I simply copy it to the 2nd drive and later archive or just erase it from the reg HD?
I'm just trying to figure out if I should just wait till I get the 2nd SATA HD or if I can just keep capturing now and editing and later transfer or get footage from the reg HD.

Adobe Photoshop Question
 

I just loaded Photshop 7.0 on my computer and when I try to important a picture it crashes every time. I've tried installing it several times and the same problem continues to occur. Any suggestions?

Hi there..

HA finally something i can answer! I've done tons of panning/zooming on wedding presentation projs and it's easily achievable with FCP with via keyframing in the picture itself. i.e you drag your file on the timeline, click on it, open up the Motion tab on your file in the view screen and you can do anything u want with it in terms of zooming and panning. It's easy to do but somewhat time consuming if you've never done it before in FCP but after a bit, it get's faster and easier. cheers!

What format (tiff, pict, jpeg?) are you trying to import? Have you tried to Open the file? How much ram does your computer have? What size is the file?

Is it a specific picture or any picture? Small, large?

I have tons of RAM - 1 GB. The files are very small and it doesn't seem to matter what kind they are.... .jpg, .gif, etc...

<<<-- Originally posted by Bryan Litt : I have tons of RAM - 1 GB. The files are very small and it doesn't seem to matter what kind they are.... .jpg, .gif, etc... -->>>
Try re-installing.

How much ram is allocated to PS, in PS preferences? I agree with Ray, you'll probably need to reinstall. If the reinstall produces the same results, then it's time to call Adobe.

I just did this on Monday. Someone gave me their project on a drive they needed back.

Find the media folder with the media in it on the drive you want to take it out of. Then just drag and drop. It was that simple.

If your media is scattered on the drive in different folders just name a folder in the source drive and drag all the folders into that one.

FCP and G5 real-time questions
 

Does FCP sport real-time rendering of footage?

If so, does it require a G5 to pull it off? I've worked with Matrox RT boxes at my last cable co. job, and loved having the speed and power to crank through projects like that.

New job is Mac based, and they're looking for another reason to upgrade the editing computer. :-)

Does the real-time functions in FCP work similar to the MAtrox system? On MRTs, we could cut, edit and dump to finished tape/disk in minutes. I tried doing that with FCP on a G4 1ghz, and it took about an HOUR per minute to render.

What other apps are avail. for the MAc that offer real-time video editing? Any of these handle uncompressed HD?

The more powerful the computer, the more streams of video you can have and the more RT Effects will work. Not all effects in FCP are RT effects. This is a list of various I/O capabilities and what is required to achieve them:


Supported formats and I/O*


Uncompressed 8- and 10-bit HD (4:2:2, YUV) via PCI card

Uncompressed 8- and 10-bit SD (4:2:2, YUV) via FireWire or PCI card

DVCPRO 50 (4:2:2) via FireWire

DV/DVCAM (4:1:1) via FireWire

NTSC and PAL

HD at 1080i and 1080p (23.976, true 24, 25, 29.97, 30 fps)

Pull-down tools for telecine insertion and removal (DVX100)

Sample-accurate A/V synchronization

Frame-accurate log and captures

Serial device control (RS-422, RS-232)

FireWire device control

Log and capture tool with support for batch, clip and on-the-fly capturing

Still images: PSD, BMP, JPEG, PICT, PNG, SGI, TARGA, TIFF

Insert and assemble editing to tape

Compressor tool for batch export and encoding to MPEG-2, MPEG-4 and other QuickTime formats



* Some features require additional hardware. DV, DVCPRO50 and DVCPRO HD output requires a FireWire-enabled camera or deck. SD output via FireWire requires an AJA Io. Please contact your Apple Authorized Reseller for information.



Uncompressed HD will require a third party board. Depending on the board you may get additional RT Effects.

On a side note a rendering time of 1 hour per minute of program is extremely slow. Are your programs very complex? How much ram is on the system? What version of FCP are you using?

Apple posts demo movie of Motion
 

Apple has finally posted a demo movie of motion at

http://www.apple.com/motion/video/

It looks amazing. And they are selling it for $299!?

Update to RAID purchase - additional question
 

Hi everyone,

I mentioned about a week ago that I was going to buy another internal hard drive, so I could RAID my system.

Here is my question -

I was about to order my new internal drive (Seagate 160gig that's identical to the exisiting one inside). However, the guy on the phone at Other World Computing (who says he's an expert) said that I didn't need the FirmTek SeriTek/1S2 card. That doesn't make sense based on what I read on this thread from you guys.

Also, I called another place and they said I shouldn't run my system on a Firewire drive. Instead, I should keep my internal drive for system and then use SeriTek/1S2 (or wait until a few weeks for some newer cards to come out that are even better) to RAID two external drives in an enclosure.

I'm confused because the 2nd place I talked to quoted $750 for the entire setup which would include two Hitachi 250gig drives.

Sorry to ask so many questions, but I have multiple opinions on what to do - and the one posted on this board seems the cheapest and easiest. But, I did call to order everything and the people on the phone are saying I need to do it differently!! ARGH!

Any advice/help would be highly appreciated.

Murph

FCP HD Crash lesson 19 adding text and Grapics
 

FCP HD crashes on me when i try to complete lesson 19 in the book (FCP 4 Editing Pro Video)
By Diana Weynand.
I think it has some thing to do with fonts
Help Please

can't open a avi file on a MAC
 

Hi all,


Today i burn .avi file ( not compressed , audio is pcm ) on a dvd.

My friend took it to his place and tried to put into his G4. Now the mac knows that something as big as 3.5 gig is the the dvd but he sees no file .

My friend tried with three different MAC and it was all the same.

Did i do something wrong ??

is there any trick for uncompressed avi on a MAC ,

My friend doesn't know much about PC and i don't know much about MAC,


Any help will be greatly appreciated.


thx a bunch

Phil

Check with the Apple FCP support site. In the recesses of my memory I seem to recall seeing this problem documented there, with a work-around, while researching a different topic.

Free apps VLC and Divx Doctor may help. VLC is a really nice media player and will play some .avi files. Divx Doctor will convert most non compatible .avi to quicktime movie file.

I've had students run into this. Search at Apple's support site, by the error code that is generated.

Boot drive questions: Is this correct??
 

I want to make sure I am best utilizing the speed of my new powerbook (15" 1.5 1 Gb RAM):

I'm getting a firewire 800/400 160 Gb external drive and I have two 60 Gb external firewire drives (one is currently used for backup)

Please let me know if this is what I should do:

1. Install the OS (10.3.3) on the 160 external drive (and possibly others)
2. Install Final Cut Pro 4 on what I will intend to be the boot drive for editing (i.e. the 160 or at least part of it) as well as the internal PB drive.
3. Boot from the boot drive (by selecting it as the boot drive in the OS sys prefs) and run FCP on this drive. Or should I run FCP on the internal PB drive?

4. Save the FCP files on either of the external hard drives.

Regarding partitions, is it ok if I partition the 160 for half OS boot drive/FCP and other apps/ half storage/backup? Is this possible?

Also, is it really that much faster if you run the app from an external boot drive? Is it because the ext. drives are 7200 rpm and my internal is 5400?

Thanks so much for any advice!!