NLE Mac / Final Cut questions from 2004

[Shawn Mielke]

Are there many FCE users out there who are also utilising DVDSP. Succes? Problems? I ask because I had a fellow recommend strongly to upgrade from FCE to FCP, expressly to work with DVDSP, that I will probably avoid compatibility and workflow issues. Does this make sense to others who know better?
(I am about to get DVDSP, and it will be a professional dvd product type of application). Or is FCE going to be fine?
Thanks very much!

Shawn

[Ken Tanaka]

Apple has posted some photos of the production of the 2004 ceremony's opening montage.

[Matt Stahley]

Sweet Airstream studio. Thanks for the link Ken.

[Matt Stahley]

Seems when I preview and or buid disc in SP 1.5 I get a pumping and breathing effect on audio as well as dropouts and phased sounds. The audio (16bit,48k AIFF) is encoded in APack to Stereo AC3 192kbps - Dianorm set to -31 and Preprocessing is set to none. The AC3 monitor will play back the audio fine. Thought it was just the preview so i built the disc and it happens here as well playing the Video TS file with Apple DVD player. Any ideas what could cause the problem? System is 10.2.8 -FCP3- DVDsp 1.5 - 1.2GB ram. thanks Matt

[Ted Springer]

I am starting to wonder how good A.Pack really is, because this is a common complaint. Notice when the sound is supposed to be loud like an explosion (you DO have explosions in your video, correct?) it gets exceedingly quiet and stays quiet for awhile and then begins to slowly creep back up.

For what it's worth, my 5.1 mixes never pump when played back on a 5.1 system, unless some moron has his DVD player/receiver set to "nighttime" mode or something else equally retarded that quiets the loud sounds. I wish I could program the DVD not to play unless the player/receiver are set up the way I want 'em. I don't think you can take Apple's DVD player off of "nighttime" mode so it will always give you the pumping. When my 5.1 mixes are played back in stereo, I will sometimes hear the pumping.

Also, leave the dialog normilization at -27. I never touch it. I don't even know what it is supposed to do, but chances are it was designed to mess up your sound instead of just compressing the damn file. Be sure to set the sound to "Complete Main" as well.

[Matt Stahley]

Sorry Ted no explosions. Just live concert audio. Complete main is selected and I set Dianorm to -31 following a tutorial over on Ken Stones site when I was researching this problem. Thanks

[David Slingerland]

well the downgrading did not go exacly smoothly... lot of files wont open anymore, I have lost my quiktime pro and safari had to be installed again and the recent problems I am having with fcp are probably also related.
I have no idea what I am supposed to do with the file called "previous system"
greetings

[David Slingerland]

I think the problems I am having with fcp are quiktime related... When I open it and want to look at the registration nothing happens, there is no box were formely I could enter the pro-key. I have to versions of installer on my computer all of sudden. 1.3 and 1.4 (the last one does not work)

help

[Milt Lee]

Hi folks, I've been a PC user for long time, and use Vegas 4.0 which I really like, but I frequently see reviewers start with the preface - "Of course, Final Cut Pro is the standard for NLE.

So....pardon this question, but what is the difference between Vegas 4.0 and Final Cut Pro?

I really appreciate your knowledge, as I clearly have none.

Thanks,
Milt Lee
Lee Productions

[Glenn Chan]

There are big, big difference between Vegas and FCP. If you use FCP Vegas will make no sense to you.

The workflow is completely different. You can try the demo for Premiere Pro, which is very similar to FCP. FCP can handle pro formats like SD/uncompressed, HD, etc. whereas other NLEs may not be able to do it or are expensive like Avid (in the past Avid cost a lot more than it does now). FCP has better media management and has some more useful editing tools like roll edit, which Vegas doesn't seem to have. Vegas gives much more performance for the dollar, has much better audio capabilities (but no OMF export), and some other differences. Vegas seems a lot more stable and doesn't have the "preparing video for display" crap.

FCP now comes bundled with Livetype(titler), Soundtrack (like Acid), Cinema Tools, etc.

2- FCP isn't really the standard for NLE except in some areas like movie trailer editing (and maybe in budget places where people buy the cheapest system available). Avid is really the industry standard in most areas. It shouldn't really matter though unless you need to online on a Avid or FCP system. Get the NLE that's right for you. Since you like Vegas you might as well stick with it unless there's something lacking.

[Milt Lee]

Thanks, I really appreciate the honest appraisal!

I do like Vegas, and I especially like the audio capablities. At some point, I expect to be doing doc's that I want to show on Public Television, so I want to have something that I can output in a broadcast standard.

Thanks,
Milt Lee

[Ken Tanaka]

Milt,
As a relatively long-time FCP user I concur with Glen's remarks. Although FCP is well on its way to becoming a mainstream professional editing tool on par with Avid, Avid has had many years of headstart and has a dedicated sales force permeating the film and broadcast industries.

I would only add this thought. Technical aspects aside (ex: format and functional limitations) the tool you use to edit your work means squat. Viewers of your work don't know and could not care less if they did. If you have become adept with Vegas, Premiere, iMovie, Bozo's Magic Editor, etc. and it serves your requirements use it and be happy. (Editorial comment) I think that far too many people devote far too much energy and expense toward their tools rather than their skills. From what I've seen Vegas, in particular, has matured to a very full-bodied editor leaving little to be desired.

Have fun!

[Matt Stahley]

If anyone was looking into this thread a burn and playback on a consumer DVD player resulted in no audio stuttering or dropouts and breathing like I was experiencing on the DVDSP preview and Apple DVD player.

[Rik Sanchez]

The same audio pumping happened to me also.

What I did was set the dialog normalization to -31 and on the Preprocessing I set the Compression Preset to None and unclicked all the filters (RF Overmodualtion Protection, Apply Low-Pass Filter, Apply DC Filter, etc.)

Hope this helps, let us know if you get it straightened out.

[Alfred Okocha]

Hi.

I finished a job in FCP 3. Exported to a selfcointained FCP file and then recorded a iDVD, dvd.
This DVD was then transfered to a BetaSP.

Not the ideal transfer, I know. But how bad is it?

Thanks.