Hi Jeff- well, I re-did all my cabling, and now, I get my choices back. But I'm back to a problem I had before, and can't recall how I fixed it---I go to capture from the VHS deck, and I get the message that "the operation cannot be completed as there is no video."

I also must still have something wrong, because when I hit the DV "in" on my converter, while I have my analog device hooked up (and the Panasonic DV deck powered off), everything plays okay through my monitor. When I change it to "analog in", (which logically should be pressed if I'm digitizing from VHS, right?), I get a tone sound- constant- and the video starts flickering between a blue screen and snow on my NTSC monitor. This is not something I experienced before, but it seems everytime I fix one problem I end up with another anyway, so I guess it's par for the course.

It appears that you may have a video and audio feedback loop created. You may need to re-cable again. You can try disconnecting just one set of wires, and the feedback should be gone. But a constant tone, as you describe, is almost a sure indication of cables connected in a loop. A loop is when the A/V Outs of one device are connected to the A/V Ins of another device. Then the outs of the second device are feed back into the in of the first device, creating a loop.

Fixed
 

Hi Jeff

I seem to have fixed it. Removed Norton completly after a struggle, it sure gets around... Uninstalled didn't work, just failed miserably. Had to delete everything manually.

Anyway, didn't solve the problem...

Took your advice and removed the preferences etc as mentioned at the top of the forum. OK, lost the custom settings I had created for the XL1 and capturing audio etc but it seems to be working OK now.

I can capture short clips and press escape and it doesn't freeze. I will be capturing longer stuff over the weekend so I'll give it a good testing then.

One thing I noticed is that in the capture directory it's creating

untitled-av
untitled-av-1
untitled-av-2
...
untitled-av-21

Is this normal to create these 22 files? I deleted them and I can still play the other proper clips it captured. These files are all small at 8K each. Should I ignore them?

For now I'm happy to start using it agian. thanks for the help. really appreciate that.

Donie

Education Version of FCP - for commercial project
 

Is it legal/permited/ok to use an educational version of FCP to learn video editing and to also work on a project that may be commercially profitable in the future?
Where is the line drawn?

The FCP that we are about to purchase will be used for educational purposes and to edit a documentary we (2 fellow students) are trying to produce on dvd and then sell to a distributor.

Is it ok to use an educational version to learn editing and to edit the documentary, then upgrade to the FULL version of FCP as soon as we start selling the dvd? (Informed answers would be greatly appreciated)

Cheers,
Mark

Your 2nd paragraph expresses your intent to use FCP to develop a project for commercial use. That is not allowed under the terms of an educational license even if you are also using it for education.

We are all getting educated when we use these products, that does not mark them as educational use.

Donie,

It's normal for FCP to name files in that manner, however, if you name them in the description field of the capture and log window, they will show up as what you named them. If you capture and leave the description field blank and then rename the clips in the Browser, they will still have the generic names FCP gives them. The names will only be references in that case. It's best to name them as you capture them.

If you delete them you are screwed.

The small files you are deleting must be from either the Auto Save Vault, Thumbnail Cache Files, or Wavfoerm Cache Files folders.

FCP sets up 7 folders by default, 3 of which should NOT be located on your system drive but rather on a dedicated media drive, whether internal or external:

Audio Render Files
Capture Scratch Files
Render Files

Project Files can be saved any where but FCP defaults to Documents/Final Cut Pro Documents/PROJECT NAME. In the FCP System Preferences you can tell FCP where to save files. Below I have copied and pasted this same info that I prepared for my boss. He recently invested in an FCP set up after switching from a PC. Hope this helps. Just replace MEDEA Raid with whatever your drive is named.

------------------------

Non-Media Files

Project Files:
Documents/Final Cut Pro Documents/PROJECT NAME

Auto Save Vault:
Documents/Final Cut Pro Documents/Auto Save Vault/PROJECT NAME

Thumbnail Cache Files:
Documents/Final Cut Pro Documents/Thumbnail Cache Files/PROJECT NAME

Waveform Cache Files:
Documents/Final Cut Pro Documents/Waveform Cache Files/PROJECT NAME

Note: these folders and files are stored in the default location that FCP sets up and should never be put on a media drive because they are constantly being written and re-written and can cause fragmentation of the media drive.

Capture and Render Folders/Media Files

Audio Render Files:
Medea Raid/Audio Render Files/PROJECT NAME

Capture Scratch Files:
Medea Raid/Capture Scratch/PROJECT NAME

Render Files:
Medea Raid/Render Files/PROJECT NAME

Note: Final Cut will automatically make audio render, capture scratch, and render sub folders for any project and use the name that was given to the Project File.

countdown
 

I need to stick a countdown at the head of my project and am specifically interested in the old classic film academy leader. Is there some sort of sight that may provide such a thing? Would love some help locating it....

What NLE are you using, Tim? FCP actually provides one free, although it reads "Final Cut Pro".

Offhand, I don't know of a site that provides these countdown leaders free. But I can tell you that they're relatively simple to create using something like Photoshop. For that matter you can create one directly in FCP.

HI Dave

The *-av-1 files were in the capture directory along with the actual video logged. I will look at this again in case they had been dumped there during a previous run. I'm sure they were'nt.

I logged that last test without regard to the project layout and I am aware that I shouldn't delete the dirs you mention.

It's just these av files that worry me. I have a feeling that there is some sort of bug here and it'll be addressed in a future release but for now I'm happy to work around it.

Thanks for the help
Donie

I think you will have to read the actual FCP educational license if you want the real answer. Have you done that Ned, or are you speaking in general terms? Conceptually I'd agree with you, but that isn't the same thing...

As Boyd points out, your concept is a great idea, who wants to pay for something before we use it. However, Neds comments are more to the fact of the matter. I teach, and this topic has come up before and our school's counsel took the view that if the intent of the project was commercial, even though there were no sales, it was violating the EULA.

Actually I was agreeing with Ned's concept, not Mark's! :-)

Donie,

That's odd. I now understand what you are talking about. I use Final Cut Express at home and Final Cut Pro HD at work. I'll check the folders this A.M. to see if I see anything like what you've described.

countdown
 

I edit in FCP 3...does it provide a countdown and if so where?

Thanks,
Tim

I was afraid you'd ask that. I use FCP 4 but I believe 3 is similar in this matter. When you use "Print to Video" you are presented with a panel offering several options, one of which is "Countdown". From there you can select FCP's built-in countdown or a clip of your own.

Can somebody tell me what my stupid Mac might have screwed up here?
 

. . . Note before reading: I am a former PC NLE guy turned Mac out of desperation to find a system without stupid bugs that makes everything crash all day long, so you're listening to a very angry individual right now . . . that said . . .

I'm installing new software on a brand new mac G5. (FCP HD)

The software comes bundled with other software like live type and Cinema tools and what not. As usual, the stupid read me files don't say a word about where to put things like the plug ins for some of these things in the "Extras" section on the FCP HD DVD, and sense they also don't self install, I was trying to figure it out on my own . . . .yes, I hate the entire computer world . . .

Anyway,

I didn't know where to put this crap, but decided to stick it all under a personal folder so I'd have access to it and wouldn't have to stick the DVD in and everything again, and I could just copy it from the personal folder to the correct folder when I found out about it.

Then later, I found some info in one of the manuals regarding the installation of After Effects plugins, it said put the plug ins into . . .

Home/Library/Preferences/Final Cut Pro User Data/Plugins

I checked my computer and sure enough it had that set up
And I assumed this is where all FCP plug ins go, so I copied the files into that folder and then tried to delete them from my personal one and I get a meassage saying I'm not allowed to do this, which I assume has something to do with the stupid "security access" or something.

Anyway, I still had the installation DVD in the machine and figured it might have something to do with that, so I took it out, and then suddenly I was allowed to delete the folder I created in my personal folder with all the plugins I had put there. So, I didn't want that there anymore, naturally, I put them in the trash and emptied it.

Then I went back to:

"Home/Library/Preferences/Final Cut Pro User Data/Plugins"

. . . accept . . . .

The damn thing no longer listed "Final Cut Pro User Data" folder. Naturally, there wasn't a "Plugins" folder either.

WHAT THE HELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't know what the hell happened, but now I'm worried the "Final Cut Pro User Data" folder had something else in it besides plug ins, and the "Plugins" folder had plugins I might have somehow deleted . . . I REALLY DON'T WANT TO DO ANOTHER FCP INSTALL AS I AM TERRIFIED THE DAMN THING WILL NOW HAVE STRANGE BUGS . . . can someone give me if I deleted crap I needed, and then explain to me IN DETAIL what to do with all this extra crap on the FCP DVD please:

1. Boris Caligraphy

2. DV camera Tuner Scripts

3. EDL Access

4. Head Leaders for Cinema Tools 2

5. Live Type Extras

6. This other DVD called PEAK TYPE EXPRESS


Sorry to sound so angry and pointed . . . but I've dealt with crashing PC's for 7 years and simply can't give any leeway on my new system.

Thanks!

I was also a "long-time PC guy". (Actually a vast understatement, but clarity on that point is not important here.) I, too, was bewildered when first faced with installing and de-installing software on the Mac. I was accustomed to placing apps in cubbies of my personal preference.

Big mistake, particularly with OS 10.x.

My first recommendation is that you just go to bed Laurence (if you've not already done so). You seem pretty frustrated and fried...been there myself many times.

My second suggestion is that you remove the software you've installed and start fresh. Yes, painful. But just write it off as a learning experience.

ALL Mac applications should be installed in the Applications folder. I've not yet encountered an installer that does not prefer this and it makes for a tidy system. It also makes for a system that's far easier to manage. The apps know where they want to place their plug-ins. FCP, for example, places them in Library > Application Support > Final Cut Pro > Plugins.

In general, when installing Mac apps let the installer "do its thing", making sure only that it wants to install to Applications.

Have a good weekend.

Hi Chris,

Are the images jagged and shaky after rendering? Do you have your renders set to high?

I've done a bunch of photo montages and the RT previews have always been shaky. On rendering and print-to-video / export to Quicktime, everything is smooth.

Borris Graffiti
 

I was trying to figure out how to build a similar title effect that I have seen many times on commercials with Boris Graffiti with no luck... Was wondering if there was anybody out there that could try to help...

The effect is like this... You have a simple title and then from with in the actual title you have a wave of light that is emitted and pans across the screen...

Any help would be greatly appreciated...

Brian Gauthier

erase the date and time
 

Hi. .

I have made the biggest blunder. while filming an interview..my big finger must have hit the date and time button on my 8mm camera, and it recorded through the whole piece. And, yes I looked right at it in the view finder and it didn't register. I was thinking about so many other things.
We learn as we go and gotta laugh about it.!

So, I'm sure somone else has done this and been brave enough to admit it and ask the following question . . .
Can it be edited out, separated from, removed in FCE?
Hopeful

Hey thanks for the reply...

I'm not sure why the pictures were displayed jagged like that. It would happen even after rendering. My best guess is that it had to do with parts of the image having too much detail to be shown correctly on a TV that is lower resolution. I could be wrong though.

Anyway, I ended up adding a gaussain blur of just 1 pixel to each image, and it cleaned it right up. All the jaggies were gone, and the image still appeared very clear on the screen.

I still have another similar problem... and that's scrolling text. I made a credits sequence for the project I'm working on and the scrolling text has the same sort of jaggies. The deinterlacing and 1 pixel gaussian blur help a little, but does not fix the problem entirely. The scrolling credits I'm using now is actually a large photoshop file that I keyframed in final cut, but the same problem occurs when using final cut pro's scrolling text generator. The photoshop file I'm using is in 23 point type, and the font is Lucida Grande. I assume this font is big enough to be displayed without problems on the screen, but I may be wrong. However, I can't really afford to make the type any bigger. Also, the PS file has a black background, and has been flattened, so I am not trying to set scrolling text with a transparent background over video in final cut.

I hope that's enough info for anyone who may be able to help...

Thanks!

I doubt you can do it in FCE. But it can be removed but it requires
a LOT of hard manual labour. I would suggest add black bars till
you get rid of it if that is an option...

Or if it just is one scene for example you might get away with
cropping to a smaller resolution and blowing that up to full DV
again.

thanks for your reply!!

the cropping to a smaller resolution sounds intriguing. .
is that something i can do in FCE ?

it is a whole scene. may be too long.
but. perhaps edited in segments first. .
i'd be willing to try.

I guess it really depends on WHAT is underneath those letters and numbers. If it's a static background then it might be relatively simple to fix. But if people and things are moving in that area it will be much more difficult. I suspect that FCE can do this, assuming it has inherited some of FCP's features. Read through your manual about compositing and you should get some ideas.

Cropping would be easy. In the canvas make sure you have selected to show both the image and wireframe. You may need to drag the window larger and/or reduce the view scale to 50% so you can see the area outside the active image frame.

Grab one of the "handles" in the corner of the image and drag outwards. This should zoom your image wider. Now if you point to the middle of the image and press the mouse button you can drag it around until it's positioned such that the numbers don't show. Try not to enlarge the image any more than needed because it will quickly degrade as it's zoomed. You'll need to render this. If you just want to watch the video on a typical TV set you can get away with this up to a point, but on a good monitor you will notice that the image looks soft.

An alternate approach you might try would be letterboxing the image, as though you were shooting 16:9 or even something more extreme. Would that cover the numbers but still give you a decent composition? This can easily be done using the crop property of the motion tab . Click on the triangle next to "crop" and then move the top and bottom sliders to any desired position to create the letterbox you want. Again, this requires rendering.

Caveat: this is how it works in FCP, I'm assuming FCE is similar. Good luck, and let us know what you end up doing.

Thanks for your reply!!

I have been thinking about the crop idea. . .
wow.. sounds like it may help... i will try this as soon as i can...

have not imported any thing into FCE yet. . .

I'll keep you posted on how this works out!!

Thank you for your help!

FCP4 Rendering Issues
 

In my sequences, when I try to render the final "cut", so I can export the sequence, most of the time I have issues rendering.
Most of the time when I try to render all or the current sequence, either the rendering time window/bar pops up for a millisecond and then dissapears and nothing happens or I get this message after it starts rendering 1/4 or 1/2 of the way through.

File Error: The specified file is open and in use by this or another application

Could this be a memory issue or something else?

Also, when I try to go into the rendering settings, the application quits.

It could be, how much memory do you have?

<<<-- Originally posted by Jeff Donald : It could be, how much memory do you have? -->>>
1.5GB of memory.
It's weird, earlier I went back on to FCP4 and it worked no problem, maybe it's just that the memory is all backed up. Well, I was doing a good bit of editing and had a lot of stuff to render.

Anytime you have a problem like that you can always save your work and log out or restart the computer. This will force any open programs to quit and restart. Quitting FCP and trashing the preferences may also help.

Questions about RT rendering and G4
 

i just notice that FCP 4 requires panther, but i had installed in on my 10.2.8 already. i am able to use the software alright (maybe there are problems that i am not aware of), but i am not able to utilize any real time effects at all. my friend is running FCP4 on her powerbook and she is able to get several effects put on and viewing in real time. i have a 12 in powerbook 1Gz with 768 mem, and her mac is a 17 in PB 1Gz with 512 mem. i suppose that we have the same clock speed CPU will make us equal in performance. the only difference is that she is running Panther, and i am not. i know that 17in pb has bigger cache, but i don't know why that she can get some real time effects and i can't?

second, is dual 1.25 G4 is still up for the challenge?

thanks

In order to get all the features of FCP HD you'll need to upgrade to 10.3.4 I edit at home with FCP HD on a dual 450 with no problem, so I suspect a dual 1.25GHz should do just fine.

<<<-- Originally posted by Jeff Donald : Anytime you have a problem like that you can always save your work and log out or restart the computer. This will force any open programs to quit and restart. Quitting FCP and trashing the preferences may also help. -->>>
I did the restart and all was the same.
But, I logged out of my account, and my girl use her account for about 45 minutes, then I logged back in, and I tried rendering all, and it worked perfectly and very quickly.

I did try to go to the Rendering settings that time, so I can't say if I would still have issues with the application quitting when trying to access the settings.
Also, what exactly does trashing th preferences do, and how would I do it?

Silhouette in FCP
 

I have shot footage of a totally black silhouette against a sunset, and I now wish to replace the sunset with something else. What would be the simplest way to isolate the black portion and to be then able to composite in other footage behind it using Final Cut Pro? Any advice would be greatly appreciated...

Final cut pro 4.5 Question
 

Driving me nuts! Could someone help me. When in Final cut pro 4.5, my video play back in viewer and canvas window ( both at 50%) are playing slow and out of syc. but when I go To 25% in viewer and canvas window,
video is playing in syc and okay. Problem is too small to view for edits I need to do.

Is there something I need to click on or off in my Final cut pro set up?
It has been working fine, that is the same project untill two days ago.

I have a G-4 laptop, 768 MB of memory, 26 gigs of space.

Ron

What happens when you set the size to "Fit to window"?

Just apply a Luma Key to the clip and tell it to key out anything brighter than the black silhouettes.

The the first post in this forum, at the top of the list of threads.

Upgradding to 10.3.x usually shows a performance _gain_ due to greater optimizations in the OS code. For me, it meant even my old PowerBook G3 333MHz is much more responsive as well as my DP 800MHz G4. The Journaled file system helps keep your boot drive running smoothly as well...

Brian,
You should check out the livefont ...Spotlight... in Livetype. You don't have tons of control but I think the effect is what you are looking for.

Premier 6.5 export for IDVD
 

I cant seem to get the quicktime movies that I export from premier to retain the quality and proper field dominance when I import them to IDVD. I have the most recent version of IDVD and I also have Quick time pro with the MPEG 2 plug in,(even though I cant seem to locate it as an option). I have tried exporting as DV, DV stream, Annimation and video. I have my options set for best quality with the proper field dominance. When I play the rendered project in Premier I dont see these problems and I am playing them to an external TV monitor. Do I really have to export to tape and re import to IMOVIE for IDVD access?