QT Pro Key for v.6.0.1
 

I have QT 6.0.1 and now would like to purchase the Pro Key. However, I don't want to upgrade the current version of my QT Player because I don't want to mess up with iMovie (2.1.2), which i still use very often. I use my computer, almost exclusively, for video editing and so upgrades are not important to me. That said, will the current Pro Key offered by Apple work with the (relatively) outdated version of my QT?

Thank you.

its OSX 10.3 and FCP 4, tried that, still says i don't have the right hardware...

Call Apple support, something isn't right. It could be something with the ram. I know FCP does a ram check, but I thought that was only after the install. It would make sense to check ram prior to install as well. Do you have the Apple Ram Test CD? If so, run it over night if possible, but at the minimum for several hours and see if any errors are found.

I don't think the QT key will work with the older version. You should look into upgrading iMovie for greater compatibility with current offerings from Apple.

Jeff, thank you for replying.

I think I wasn't clear enough... QT Player 6.0.1 is the version that I have on my computer now. According to Apple's site it is recommended that one upgrade to the latest version of QT Player, which is 6.5, before purchasing the Pro Key. So, my question is this... If I don't upgrade, will the Pro Key currently offered by Apple work with my QT Player 6.0.1?

Timecodes
 

Can anyone help me? This is probably a simple matter, but I'm relatively new to FCP4 and never had this problem with v1.2. If there is a timecode break in my miniDV tape, I cannot seem to capture the footage after the break (when the timecode starts back at '0'). I've tried Batch capture and capture now, but nothing seems to work. I'm guessing this is a simple Preferences setting, or is there something I can do when I'm shooting to get rid of timecode breaks? Whenever I look at the footage and start again, even if I overlap with the previous footage, there's a break. Thanks so much for your help!

Have you tried changing the FCP setting of User Preferences -> General -> on timecode break? I don't understand why you get timecode breaks if you overlap with previous footage though. I suggest that you check the camera settings too.

Call apple for a definitive answer, but to my understanding the new QT key will not work with older versions.

Justin, this is entirely possible in FCP, but how good is it going to look? That depends on how careful you are at planning the shots, getting the shots, and how adept you are at using the tools. Well, and how complex the shot/effect is going to be. Does the effect follow hard on your characters butt or follow a couple steps behind? Is your camera moving or locked? What are you shooting on? What are you delivering on? I can imagine scenerios where this would work well in FCP, and others where it would require more fit-to-purpose compositing software.

Here is a crazy idea. Try shooting a practice reel of this and seeing what you can do! Take it to your local Final Cut Pro Users Group and ask for some advice. Post clips to your .Mac site and ask people to take a shot at it. Hire an a cinematographer that knows this kind of work, a director, an editor, someone, anyone, with some experience.

And make sure to post your work-in-progress asking for advice. Who knows, it might be easier than any would think with all the help available.

Thank you Jeff.

thanks
 

Hi Graeme,

A belated thank you for your reply.

PAL post in NTSC land
 

I'm editing PAL 16:9 material on a mac in NTSC land. We are trying to determine what additional hardware we need to be self sufficient in post. Do we need a multisystem DVD recorder to output for both PAL and NTSC audiences? And what kind of PAL monitor is recommended?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, as always.

Gamma Correction Slo-Mo in FCE
 

I just finished a football highlight reel for my son's team and stumbled upon something strange to me. I edit in FCE and generally use "color corrector" and "desaturate" filters to improve the look a bit (but I'm no expert). In FCE, there is no gamma adjustment within the color corrrector, just the ability to adjust highs, mids, lows and white balance.

Since I know very little about gamma, other than understanding that it can be tweaked to make video look more like film, I thought I would apply a "gamma correction" filter to a clip set at 25% speed. This gamma filter in FCE only has a slider that can be adjusted from the the default of 1.00 to say .50 which makes it brighter, or 1.25 which makes it darker.

Funny thing is, when I set it at 1.25 and rendered the clip, the slo-mo suddenly looked much smoother (and a bit darker). The difference was more than subtle, and I wish I had tried this before burning 15 copies of my DVD!

Can anyone explain what is going on? Note that I didn't do any sort of de-interlace on the footage.

Repair DEAD PIXEL footage with Final Cut Pro
 

Here's one solution which allows you to hide a dead pixel in footage using the "DH_Reincarnation" Plug-In for Final Cut Pro. Allows you to hide two (2) dead pixels at a time.
http://www.digital-heaven.co.uk/fina...gins_flash.htm
Plug-in cost: $10
(There's also a nice video tutorial demo of the plug-in on the Digital Heaven website)

Spread the word to anyone you know who needs a bit of dead pixel relief!

Lots of other highly useful and affordable plug-ins from Digital Heaven, including the "DH_Dropout" plug-in, which allows you to repair dropouts in footage much easier and better than before.

- don

Letterbox on DVD player
 

Hi all

I know this issue has been discussed to death here but I've created a DVD using FCP and I'm using 16:9. It looks ok in final cut but I export the video to dvdsp3 using compressor as an mpeg2 120min two pass template.

When I view the mpeg file it appears stretched, to be expected I think. However, when i import into dvdsp3 it still appears squished even though I have selected 16:9 as the project format. I'm not sure, the options are 4:3 letterboxed or 4:3 pan and scan or both???? Which one should I select???

When i play the created dvd in my standard phillips Q40 dvd player it doesn't letterbox. I am forced to select widescreen on the tv to view it properly. Even when i tell the dvd player my tv is 4:3 the output is the same, no letterbox.

Have i missed something??? I'm worried that the fact that it appears as 4:3 (squished) in dvdsp3 is the problem?

Can anybody shed soem light on this? I know it's been talked about before but I'm obviously missing something I guess?

Thanks
Donie

<<<-- Originally posted by Duane Martin : Justin, this is entirely possible in FCP, but how good is it going to look? That depends on how careful you are at planning the shots, getting the shots, and how adept you are at using the tools. Well, and how complex the shot/effect is going to be. Does the effect follow hard on your characters butt or follow a couple steps behind? Is your camera moving or locked? What are you shooting on? What are you delivering on? I can imagine scenerios where this would work well in FCP, and others where it would require more fit-to-purpose compositing software.

Here is a crazy idea. Try shooting a practice reel of this and seeing what you can do! Take it to your local Final Cut Pro Users Group and ask for some advice. Post clips to your .Mac site and ask people to take a shot at it. Hire an a cinematographer that knows this kind of work, a director, an editor, someone, anyone, with some experience.

And make sure to post your work-in-progress asking for advice. Who knows, it might be easier than any would think with all the help available. -->>>

thank you I will take that into consideration. Much thanks

rendering DV for film look, MAGIC BULLET or other?
 

I have shot a feature on a SONY TVR 900 in the standard mode, looks great, but I heard that a more film- like motion can be had by rendering with programs such as Magic Bullet. Has any body tried this program or do you have any advice about making DV look more film like. THANKS-Robert

Magic Bullet for Editors, for FCP does not do the 24p part of film look. Check out my Film Effects at www.nattress.com for a true 24p effect, and faster rendering than Magic Bullet. You could also use DV Film Maker which does a 24p effect. I'd adivse to download the demos of all, and email the authors with your questions and see what their tech support is like. Check out the quality of the 24p effect too.

Graeme

Turning on Macrovision in DVDSP3
 

Hi all

Does anybody know what the implications of turning on the macrovision bit for dvd's you burn yourself. DVDSP3 warns of patent or whatever on macrovision but the checkbox is allowed to switch. I've looked on the macrovision site but it gives very little away and I cannot get a return call from their sales guy in the uk (I've tried him 4 or 5 times today but all i get is voice mail).


Do I need to pay royalties to them to switch on this feature? Does it work for DVD-R burned in a powerbook?

I'd appreciate some info...
thanks
Donie

Not an expert but maybe blue screen the peron walking in the same area with a screen behind her so that your camera angles are correct. Maybe there are better ways, I don't know.

Then shoot the before for the before, change the layout (whatever) and shoot again. If you don't move the camera it should be ok as regards position.

Tehn show the before room with transition to the after shot . I'm sure you can find a tranisition that follows the person who is moving in the shot.

Then add the person you shot earlier on the blue screen with the background removed.

Should be easy (sortof) but I havn't done anything like that before so I don't know the pitfalls....

Donie

Having Editing Problems with Final Cut Pro Suite. I am a novice.
 

I am new at non-linear editing. I just purchase final cut pro 4 hd along with dvd studio pro 4. I need help bad. I have already create my project in fcp but I am having trouble importing and burning it to a dvd in studio pro. I tried to burn it but when it finished I got a lot of warning messages saying things like "folder not found." I hope that I am making sense. Can someone help me please!

Thank you
Clint

capturing 24p
 

I just captured 24p video at 30fps on accident. i finished
out the project and realized what i had done.

how bad is this??

thanks!

Tyler

no it does not work with dvd-r

This has been discussed in several different forums in the past, so you may want to do a search. It sets a flag that tells the replicator to apply Macrovision on the DVD's that are replicated from your DLT tapes.

I've never none that, so I'm uncertain of the consequences. I would suspect that you might have audio sync issues at the least.

So all of the editing in FCP went fine? It was just when you tried to get the project into DVD SP for burning a DVD that you had a problem? What were you trying to do in DVD SP? Did you use menus, transitions, etc? Or were you just testing it out trying to burn your FCP movie?

That's pretty cheap for a useful plugin.

For those who don't want to spend money though, you could place the same clip on another video track, offset it by pixel (or two), and crop it down to 1 pixel dimensions.

Could work :)

cheers,
Peter

How did you export your final edited project for DVDSP? Did you use Compressor? Did you export a reference movie, did you export a quicktime movie?

compressor issue
 

FPC 4.5
Comp 1.21
upon export to Commpressor, it runs in FPC 4.5
not indepently as with FCP4.
this renders FCP 4.5 useless.
Is this a known bug?

Quicktime playing full screen on external powerbook monitor?
 

Hi all

Quick question, is it possible to get quicktime to play full-screen on an external monitor ie: connected to dvi output on side of powerbook.

I put the window onto the external monitor and then select full screen from the quicktime menu. I would expect it to full screen onto the monitor it's on but no, it full screens on the powerbook's own lcd screen.

Is there a way to do this?

thanks
Donie

i don't quite get your post....compressor isn't an NLE so how does it render FCP useless?

Any Hard Drive Gurus here ?
 

I have a G5 Dual 2.0 with the stock 160 Gb HD. I just purchased a Seagate 200 Gb SATA HD (internal) and a Vantec Nexstar case with a western Digital 200 Gb IDe HD. I plan on using Carbon Copy cloner to clone the two internal drives to the external. My question is how do i use the Seagate as a media drive ? Do i install panther and make this drive bootable. All i want this drive for is media (final cut pro/express, pictures, music etc) What is the best way to set this drive up ? Do i install a copy of final cut on this drive or do i just store only media files ?

I believe most professional monitors support both PAL and NTSC,
but I could be wrong in that. Keep in mind that if you are using
a camera to output to this monitor you will need a PAL camera
in this case (or set your project properties to NTSC).

A burner inside a computer coupled with an authoring application
like DVD Studio Pro can make both NTSC and PAL DVD's.

The problems are in getting the footage in a computer (ie, an
NTSC camera will not process a PAL tape, but it sounds like you
already did this phase) and getting it out to a monitor. Other
than that, basically all video processing applications on a
computer can handle both formats.

I wouldn't go as far as to combine gamma correction with film look.
Gamma correction is another way to brighten or darken an image.

I cannot really answer your question as to why it would like better,
perhaps the darker tones supress some problems or the filter
does some other things as well, who knows.

It sounds like your DVD is actually NOT 16:9. The first clue might
be your export from Final Cut. Is your footage in final cut in true
16:9 or do you want to crop it to 16:9 on output (ie, the footage
was shot in 4:3)? Is your FCP project 16:9? When you output to
mpeg2 you should be able to indicate the footage is 16:9 to let
DVDSP know.

Then in DVDSP the project and everything else should be in 16:9
as well. Not 4:3 letterbox or Pan & Scan.

I don't have a Mac so I cannot tell you the exact workflow. But
your problem sounds like the "this is 16:9 footage flag" is NOT
enabled on the DVD.

kyle,
I've had a GL1 for a few years, and recently bought an xl2. I want to use both cameras together, and use 16:9. I never realized that the GL1 has some sort of 16:9 (also never tried it). Would the two work togather?
Thanks
Bruce yarock

I think that information is incorrect guys. A DVD does not have
macrovision (as does a video tape) since this is an ANALOG
protection scheme. Macrovision is just a bit being set in the
video stream (DVD rippers can remove that bit as well) which
instructs the DVD player to emit a macrovision signal.

The *ONLY* thing we cannot do (unless you have an authoring
burning with authoring media) is CSS encryption (due to different
sector sizes and encryption keys you need). Macrovision and
region encoding should be a non issue, as long as your authoring
application SUPPORTS this!

However, in the case of Macrovision I'm pretty sure you will need
to pay for a license to use it in your discs.

Why not enable the bit and see if you can record your DVD
playing back through a namebrand (some cheaper brands do
NOT output Macrovision, at least here in Europe) DVD player
onto a VCR? With Macrovision this should not be possible (it
will record, but only garbage).

Now it might've been that DVD Studio Pro supports this bit ONLY
when exporting to DLT (ie, to make sure you pay your rights),
that could be (and I don't know). But in theory it should be very
easy to include Macrovision and/or region encoding on your own
DVD's (licensing issues aside), technically. They are both a set of
bits, nothing more.

That depends on what the source was. If you can try to do an
inverse telecine (IVTC) to interpret the footage as 24p (there
should be some setting/template for that probably).

bump!

I think I understand
 

Yes, if you export to Compressor directly from FCP, then FCP is tied up while compressor does it's thing.

That's why I export to a quicktime file (NTSC settings) then import that file into Compressor outside of FCP. FCP is still free for editing.