Thanks Adrian,
Yeah, I have just been told about this. We are probably going to rent a PAL version PD-150 or something, whatever is available, and designate this camera for the news feed, have an extra guy shoot it. While we concentrate on what we're really doing.

Just started surfning. My back is sun burnt like crazy.
not been to Chigasaki yet. Must be some pretty good waves now that the Typhoon is here.
Chears.
Takeshi

With FCP 3 they bundled a copy of the Peak DV audio software. I've never really played around with it much, but the manual says that it has this feature. Are they still bundling it or has it been replaced with SoundTrack?

Yes, GarageBand does allow you to change pitch, although my only experience with it is using a MIDI keyboard, so not sure if that feature works with live audio. GarageBand is sort of limited regarding import/export from what I've seen.

Vegas will pitch shift
 

Ship it to someone you know that works in Vegas. They'll pitch shift up or down 24 semi-tones very easily by selecting the audio track and pressing the + or - key (other shortcuts for full octave shifts). They can then render it back out and send it back to you.

BTW, John Kerry actually sounds better pitch shifted down a octave to Hillary Clinton's normal range ; 0

(Probably going to get sent to the penalty box for that one.)

Thanks for the replies.
I think I'm going go go with Boyd's suggestion. Peak 3 Express comes bundled with Final Cut Pro. I haven't ever used or even installed this program and was hoping FCP could be sweet-talked into changing the pitch, but apparently that's not an option. So it looks like I'll get to have some fun with a new program.

Thanks again.

Render problem with FCP 4 HD. Please, help!
 

Hi guys.

My FCP4 HD wants me to render EVERYTHING I capture and place on a timeline. When I scroll the mov file to this timeline, the red render bar appears. Why??????

When I press the PLAY button of the Canvas, after rendering, it doesn´t output properly to the monitor.

I´m using a mac G5, AJA Io and Final Cut Pro 4 HD updated last week.

What may be the problem?

The AJA troubleshooting manual says "the sequence setting does not match the clip setting". Is it right? Maybe the problem are my settings?

Settings should be the first place to look when everything indicates a need to render. What is the source of the material and what are your sequence settings?

Your best option is to shoot 16:9 PAL and convert it to everything else :-)

Get a house to do a tape to tape conversion with a Snell & Wilcox box or some of the software options are:

Procoder, PC only, http://www.canopus.com
DVAtlantis, mac/pc http://www.dvfilm.com/atlantis/macversion.htm
Nattress FCP plug-in, http://www.nattress.com/standardsConversion.htm
Convert, mac/pc, http://www.mtifilm.com/

FCPro doesn't support Standards Conversion as is, you need the plug-in or a 3rd party app,

Jake

Let me know if you have trouble getting a PAL cam as I have a PAL XL1.

If you want to surf in Chigasaki bring a longboard and don't come on the weekend. The tyhoon has bought a good swell but as usual the banks here can't handle it. The strange thing about surfing here in Shonan is that when it's small, .3m, almost every day, there's 100s of people out but as soon as there is some size the crowd almost disapears. If the banks were good I'd be stoked as I hate surfing small waves.

audio phase shift in FCP4?
 

does anyone know if there's a way to flip an audio track 180 degrees out of phase. at work i often edit interviews that use 2 microphones and alot of the time they are out of phase. if there was a plugin or something in fcp4 that would do this, that would make things a helluva lot easier. thanks.

corey

<--The AJA troubleshooting manual says "the sequence setting does not match the clip setting". Is it right? Maybe the problem are my settings?-->

Yes, this sounds correct. You can control click the sequnce to change its settings but it sounds like your FCP setup settings don't match the source material.

You would at least need software that would support this. I'm on
the PC where I believe Nero does this. Not sure about the Mac.
Would this be for a onetime thing or do you want to do this more
often? A duplication station might be a better way to go then?

I'm not sure. But if you have a friend with a PC you should be
able to convert the ASF footage to something you can read like
QuickTime if he has QT installed and a program that can read
the file (like Vegas).

How large is the file? Otherwise someone here might be able
to do it for you (myself included).

Thanks Rob! I do have a PC at work. I'll see if I can work it out on this end. Pretty funny footage actually. It's like " Okay smile! Dang, out of memory, hold on..." Hehe. It's just wierd reaching for another button to take hi-res stills...

Titles in LiveType look like crap?
 

Hi,

Does anyone know when rendered type from Livetype looks jagged? It doesn't look aliased at all.

I'm editing HDV footage, so the footage looks great. But, the titles look horrible.

Any idea?

Thank you!!

Murph

Editing on FCP 4 with DVX-100 and DAT... HELP!!
 

I am working on a feature that I filmed on a DVX-100A in the 24p advanced mode (3:2) and recorded sound externally to DAT. The DAT was run at 29.97fps. Using FCP 4 I will be editing my video footage at 23.98fps.

My question is, which of the following is the best workflow solution:

1. Use FCP's "log and capture" to remove the 2:3:3:2 pulldown then sync sound.

2. Log and capture footage at 29.97, sync sound, THEN reverse telecine to remove the pulldown using Cinema Tools.

I am extremely worried about losing sync with my sound in the conversion. Also, what is the best way to finish so that I can preserve my 24p cut to keep my options open in regards to *maybe* printing to film.

Any and all advice regarding these systems will be exremely helpful. Thanks!

Importing Quicktime File
 

Help!!! I created a quicktime file and imported into FCX. When I inserted the clip into the timeline, the audo was missing except for a repeating beep.

Am I missing something simple? Can I either silence the beep or restore the original sound?

Thanks.

Lacie Big Disk Extreme
 

I'm thinking about purchasing a 320GB Lacie Big Disk Extreme to use for backing up my video files. I tried searching for some reviews on the web but couldn't find any. Does anyone whose used it have any comments on it?

Thanks

The beeping means that the audio needs to be rendered. You should see a red line at the top of the timeline indicating as such.

Render the audio and see if the beeping goes away.

analog to digital conversion
 

Anyone have an easy/effective method or workflow to move content currently on Beta SP into FCP (while maintaining quality image and audio)?

If this exists elsewhere in the forums, please feel free to redirect me.

thx t

FCP is a little strange with Quicktime files sometimes and I don't understand it myself. FCP files are really just Quicktime movies. But I was capturing a bunch of clips in FCPjust yesterday, which I saved using the "save clip" command. Then when I tried to play one of these files back immediately afterwards I got the beeping you described. I checked its properties and my settings were all correct. So I closed the file, and tried dragging its icon to the browser which added it to the clip list. When I opened it by double-clicking in the browser it was fine, no more beeps. Strange.

So anyway, you might try what I did. But Steve is correct in that for some reason FCE wants you to render the audio. This might be necessary for a number of reasons depending on its format. Create a new sequence, drop the Quicktime clip to it and render. That should fix the problem regardless of the source.

Hi Chris,

I might be able to help you as the folks here at DVcreators.net just spent the last couple of months creating a LiveType tutorial DVD-ROM.

Couple of questions:

Does the Rendered Output look bad on your NTSC monitor?

Or just in your Viewer/Canvas?

How are you outputting from LiveType?
Are you using File>Render Movie?

Or are you dragging and dropping the document icon from LiveType to the FCP timeline?

What are your Project Properties set at in LiveType ?

Do your FCP titles look good?

Thank you. I will attempt to render the quicktime file and I'll let you know the results.

Anamorphic editing
 

I shot a short on a DVX 100 in anamorphic. I log and captured all my clips and then edited my short toghether. Then I tried to make the sequence anamorphic by switching on the anamorphic option in the browser. Now, on my camera it looks like it switched it to anamorphic but when I play it back on my television everything is stretched out. Does anyone know what the problem may be? I am pretty sure I'm doing everything right. I use Final Cut Pro three. Oh, and when I make my clip anamorphic before I lay it down in the timeline, it switches to widescreen.

I have the 250 gig unit and with the PCMI card (firewire 800), it is simply mahvelous...quick, accurate and it sure takes a load off the computer drive...

Is my "Capture Now" not working on FCP?
 

I just got a brand new g5 with fcp. I was in a hurry to get a project out, so I read the quick tutorial book and started off (I'll get to the manuals when i can). Coulnd't quite seem to get the Batch Capture going right (probably something i did). So I decided to just do "capture now" on this first project. The book says that capture now will last for 30 minutes then shut off and you must make a new file. But when I hit capture now, it doesn't get far at all, say 3 minutes at the m ost, and then it stops, repositions some frames, and captures some more stuff. Sometimes this goes on for a bit and i capture pretty much what. Most of the time I have to babysit the thing becasue I know it's going to stop working at any time and I'll have to start capturing were it left off.

Is this a common problem? or is i tpossible my camera (vx-1000) is just getting old and the heads in it have a hard time reading the track on the video tape (thus leading to the code line breaking and the computer gets stumped?) I think the footage I'm using was shot on an older tape too. (Erased over the first tape with other footage). Perhaps this makes for drops in time code. Not sure.

Any advice?

Thanks!

Laurence

Laurence, all of the things you mentioned (old tape, heads out of align, etc.) could be the potential causes of your problems. Check you FCP preferences to make sure FCP is ignoring TC breaks

Color Bars, tone, and final cut express
 

I'm about to shoot my first dv short and edit it with final cut express on my emac. I'm shooting my short with my GL2.
I have made some minor adjustments with the color presets. I have a small color tv that I plan to use on set to monitor the video as I shoot it.

How do I use the color bars and tone in FCE so that my final product on dvd looks & sounds like I intended it to?

Are color bars and tone even necesssary?

Any takes/opinions appreciated!

Thanks

The main use for the color bars would be calibrating your monitor. Do a search, this topic comes up a lot.

The tone provides a reference for your decisions in presenting the audio. The Final Cut Pro manual actually has a pretty good section on this and I'm guessing that FCE also covers it in the manual, have a look in the index. But basically, depending on the nature of your sound (dialog, music, etc) you need to choose a reference level and adjust the tone to match that. It can then be used for equipment calibration when someone else uses the tape.

FCX and DVX100A matte problems
 

Hey there,

I'm pretty new to the board and modern day video editing. New to FCX and my camera. Whew!

Anyway, I've just bought the DVX100A, shot some footage in 24p mode and captured clips to final cut express on my G4 Tibook.

When I captured the clips, I noticed that the frame rate was 29.97 instead of 24. I've since learned that FCX doesn't support 24p editing so maybe that is what's causing the following problem problem during editing.

When I capture the clips, they look fine. However, when I'm asked to render the clips, FCX crops the top and bottom.

Is there any way to get around this in FCX? Or is it time to move up to FCP to alleviate the issue?

I realize that this may have been answered in some form already in archives, but I didn't find a result in my searches.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Not quite understanding your problem here.... The correct sequence for editing anamorphic is to make sure each clip is flagged as anamorphic as you capture. You can do this by using a capture preset with the anamorphic property checked. I also use FCP3 - there's a box that says "anamorphic 16:9", be sure to check that. Now if you forgot to do this and captured as 4:3 that's no problem. Open each clip in the viewer and choose Edit > Item Properties. Now check the anamorphic box.

The next thing you need to do is make sure your sequence is also anamorphic. Again, this can be done with the sequence preset or manually. Create a new sequence and notice whether it's in the 16:9 proportion when you open it in the canvas. If not then choose Sequence > Settings and check the anamorphic box. You should see the canvas change proportions from 4:3 to 16:9.

Now your clips and sequence will both be anamorphic and will match. But you need to do this BEFORE you add clips to the sequence. If you change the sequence after editing you'll distort things.

What confuses me is your statement "when I make my clip anamorphic before I lay it down in the timeline, it switches to widescreen." What does that mean? This is what's supposed to happen. You also say "when I play it back on my television everything is stretched out." Does that mean that everything looks too tall and skinny when you play the sequence on a standard 4:3 TV (as opposed to a widescreen TV)? That is also what's supposed to happen. When you edit inside FCP everything will look properly proportioned inside a 16:9 window. But when you view on an external monitor it will look tall and skinny if the monitor is 4:3 but will look correct if the monitor is 16:9. That's just the way anamorphic video works.

Do you want your video to be letterboxed for a 4:3 monitor? If so then create a new 4:3 sequence in FCP (eg: don't check the anamorphic box) and then drop your finished 16:9 sequence into it. That will letterbox it, but of course you will need to render and will need to use separate versions for 4:3 and 16:9 TV's. Another approach would be to leave everything anamorphic and burn the finished video to a DVD. The DVD player will automatically letterbox your widescreen video for 4:3 TV's.

Does any of this help?

Thanks for the advice Boyd. I did search and read alot of different things on the topic. I'll try and find more info on it in the manual.....

I don't shoot 24p so I'll let someone else answer that. When you say the top and bottom is cropped do you mean it's letterboxed inside a 4:3 window? If so then it sounds like you captured the clips as anamorphic 16:9 and then put them into a 4:3 sequence. This will cause FCP (and I assume FCE) to letterbox.

Make sure that the sequence settings match the clip settings before you start. In FCP you would open the sequence and choose Sequence > Settings, then check the anamorphic box. That will change the canvas window to the 16:9 proportion.

Note that when you edit anamorphic 16:9 it will look correctly proportioned on your computer screen inside the program, but if you send output to an external 4:3 monitor it will look squashed (too tall and skinny) but will look correct on a 16:9 monitor. So you need to determine what your final output is for before using anamorphic vs letterboxed. One way to get around this would be burning the finished project to DVD so that the DVD player will automatically letterbox when connected to a 4:3 TV.

<<<-- Originally posted by Boyd Ostroff : I don't shoot 24p so I'll let someone else answer that. When you say the top and bottom is cropped do you mean it's letterboxed inside a 4:3 window? If so then it sounds like you captured the clips as anamorphic 16:9 and then put them into a 4:3 sequence. This will cause FCP (and I assume FCE) to letterbox. -->>>

Aaah. I will definitely try that tonight! Thanks so much.

Aaah. I will definitely try that tonight! Thanks so much. -->>>

Oh, I forgot to answer that the clips were letterboxed. I hope that your suggestions will provide a fix. Since I sequenced a number of these clips and saved the project, I wonder if I'll have to redo that over again or even recapture them again.

Putting bars and tone on your tape is only necessary if you are going to have your show dubbed to another format or broadcast on TV. The color bars and reference tone are for dub facilities and TV stations to calibrate their equipment to the color and audio on your tape.

If you are just going to DVD, ignore these. When was the last time (first time) you saw a DVD with bars and tone. When have you seen ANYTHING with bars and tone? THey are not foryou, but for the technicians.

1) Dub the footage to DVCAM. If you are going to digitize and work with this footage with FCP basic setup (firewire drives, DV footage, etc) this would be the best route to go. Make sure that when you have the footage transferred that the timecode from the beta tapes is transferred too, just in case.

2) This one enters into an area of higher cost. Purchase a capture card such as an AJA I/O or Decklink SP. Both these cards can capture an analog component signal. The only this is that with this you will now need to look at buying a drive array capable of working with uncompressed footage. External SATA RAID arrays are the best route.

3) If you don't care about the TC and will never go back to the original tapes for ANY reason, purchase the Canopus ADVC-100 converter. It will convert a composite or SVHS signal to DV...and it is the most stable of this type of conversion. The only problem is that you'll have to manually press play on the beta deck and "capture now" using the non-controllable device setting...thus you won't capture any time code so the footage cannot be redigitized in sync in the future.

Hey Guy,

I might just go ahead and order that DVD...it looks pretty cool. Thanks!

Murph

I used to think this too, but not anymore. The bars don't seem particularly useful, but the tone is. I want to establish consistent levels when adjusting the volume of my monitor speakers.. So - following the advice in the FCP manual - I decide on a reference level for starters (in the case of opera which has a huge dynamic range I use -20 dB) so I put the tone at -20 db at the head of my master tape. That way if I or someone else wants to come back and use the tape later it will be easy to see what my assumption was.

However when I burn a DVD from this material I do not include the bars and tone, and that's easy enough to do.

Chris, what to you want the final results to be? Anamorphic video that will look right on a widescreen TV but not on a 4:3 TV?

You should not have to recapture regardless. Select the clip in the browser, or opening it in a clip window and choose Edit > Item Properties. You can see if the anamorphic box is checked, but from what you describe it will be. If not then you can check it.

Again, guessing that isn't your problem since a 16:9 clip won't letterbox unless it's dropped into a 4:3 sequence. Open your sequence and check the settings; I'll bet the anamorphic box is NOT checked, so now check it. You'll probably go "yikes!" at this point because it will squash your clips even more, but don't panic. Go to the timeline and individually open each separate clip by double-clicking on it. In the viewer window click on the Motion tab then click the triangle next to the Distort property. Notice what it says in the Aspect Ratio box. It will probably be -33.33. Change that number to 0 and your clip will change to the proper proportions both in the viewer and canvas. You will need to do this will all clips that have been inserted into the previous 4:3 sequence FROM THE TIMELINE. Normal video shouldn't need to be rendered but effects and transitions may have to be.

In the future just be sure that your sequence is set for 16:9 anamorphic before you start dropping anamorphic clips into it and you can avoid the whole mess!

Caveat: this is how I would do it all in FCP, but I suspect FCE will be similar in principle if not identical in the details. Hope this helps.

<<<-- Originally posted by Boyd Ostroff : . Go to the timeline and individually open each separate clip by double-clicking on it. In the viewer window click on the Motion tab then click the triangle next to the Distort property. Notice what it says in the Aspect Ratio box. It will probably be -33.33. Change that number to 0 and your clip will change to the proper proportions both in the viewer and canvas. You will need to do this will all clips that have been inserted into the previous 4:3 sequence FROM THE TIMELINE. Normal video shouldn't need to be rendered but effects and transitions may have to be.
Hope this helps. -->>>

Boyd, I will check it out tonight when I get home from work. I might end up either dumping it back to the camera or connecting my powerbook to my sony VPL-HS10 projector to check out the footage, so 16:9 is the goal.

Thanks for the quick and informative responses.