Finally going in...
 

OK, I'm leaving the PC world behind and stepping up tp Apple and FCP. I'm even going to get real honest to goodness education.

What I need is some advice regarding Apple resellers. I need to save as much as much as I can on the hard/software.

If I used an older FCP, say 2 or 3, would that allow me to use an "older" (G3) machine?

I realize that if I do that I will have to up grade much sooner than later, but at the moment I really need to just get in the game.

I would really like your thoughts on this.
Esp. if you think I'd be makeing a mistake.

THX
Joe

Just get a new iMac or eMac and get a copy of Final Cut Express.

You'll have the latest Apple hardware which includes a DVD burner, Panther OSX and most of Final Cut Pro features - it'll cost you MUCH less...and when you go to upgrade you'll be able to re-sell that stuff for much more.

Trust me, it's better to have this stuff than an older G3 with FCP 3.

Murph

While it will probably run on a G3 (see another thread on this topic here), I'd say to get something with a G4 processor. You can still get a new G4 tower with a single 1.25ghz processor for $1,300. Used g4's are even cheaper. If at all possible consider this path since it will give you better expansion capabilities and speed. I think your introduction to the Mac would be frustrating if you buy too slow of a system.

G3's are really only acceptable for iMovie. Any renders from FCP on a G3 will seem like forever. I would recommend a G4 also.

How are you viewing this? Passing the signal through all those components will result in some loss of quality. But the loss would exist in pause or play. I suspect your seeing a difference in display methods between play and pause. I would record the signal to tape (DV) and play it directly into your TV. Try the same pause play experiment and it should be a little better. But many devices display a freeze frame from a digital frame buffer when paused. This helps the apparent resolution and images may appear sharper.

Let me Try and clarify
 

Ok hear goes. I saw my friend using Cleaner and what he does is use the 16:9 guides in his XL1s to film his projects. Then what he does is edit the whole film in 4:3. The what he does is export his movie to a quicktime dv file. Then while in cleaner he crops the dv file and converts to mepg2 so that all that is left is a file that is in the cropped, with no need for black bars and in a widescreen format.

From what I can see is that this way saves some time because my friend no longer has to render bars for a 2 hour movie!

Now what my question is, Can i do the cropping in FCP4 some how, or possibly Compresser? Or do i need use another program like Cleaner?

Thank you...I will look into it.

The SoundSticks may be the source of the problems. What version Mac OS are you using and on what computer? Are you using a USB hub? It probably is not a sound card issue. The drivers for USB sound are pretty weak on earlier versions of OS X. I always had trouble with OS 9 and SoundSticks on my G4 dual 450.

I have Final Cut Express which should not vary too much in this area, so here's what I would do (I actually just tested it out and it works fine).

- Edit the movie in 4:3 ratio.

- After completing the edits, start a new sequence.

- Import the original sequence (click and drag from the browser to the timeline) into the new sequence. This will allow you to change the properties of the entire movie rather than clip-by-clip.

- Control-click the sequence/clip in the timeline and select "open in viewer."

- Now the entire, edited 4:3 ratio movie is seen in the viewer window.

- Open the "motion" tab so you can adjust the size and scale properties.

- Change the scale from 1.0 to 1.33.

- Change the aspect ratio (under the "distort" tab) from 0 to +33.

- Render.

- Export the file as a custom, 16:9 ratio (multiply your desired height by 1.78 to calculate the correct width).

This will take some render time, but everything does. This will result in a video file in 16:9 widescreen format without black bars, like the movie trailers you see on the Apple Quicktime website. If you plan on making dvds (is that the final destination for your friend's mpeg2?) you will either need the black bars, or export the stretched movie to a DV, AVI, or uncompressed MOV (first try without making the movie self-contained, that will save lots of time). Then, use a dvd production program that can export anamorphic dvds.

I am using 10.2 connected by USB. I have heard that the USB issue may be the problem......anyone want a new set of sound sticks?!?!?! :)

Another G-5 question for Jeff.
 

I have no luck getting through to apple support, so I'll ask here, again.
My G-5 (dual 1.8) sometimes makes a strange electronic beep at the very close of shutdown. Like, I said, it is only sometimes and there doesn't appear to be any correlation between how long the machines been on or how hard I've been working it or anything like that. The sound is not coming from the speaker; seems to be from somewhere further back.
Other than this, the machine is running fine, so I'm not even certain I should worry; considering what I paid for it, though, I'm worried anyway.

Thanks.
Michael

Thanks! I'll go with the G4 option.

If it doesn't come from the speakers, it would likely come from a moving part(s). There are very few moving parts in a computer, so it's probably related to the drives or fans. There are a few reports of the power supply causing a chirping or rubbing noise. Some users are claiming that the software, Chud, fixes the problem. Chud is available from Apple here.

If the noise becomes consistent, in that it happens frequently, I would consider sending the unit to Apple for service.

DRIVE
 

Thanks again, Jeff. I've read about the chirping problem with the power supply, but from what I gather it is just a bit different than what I've heard.
I'm inclined to go with your drive theory
I just installed a new drive, and now that I think about it I never heard the noise beforehand. Hmm...
Guess I'll disconnect the new HDD tonight and see what happens.
I feel better already.
Thanks!
Michael

If you have Studio Pro 2 you could force 16:9 aspect ratio.

Or read how Ken Stone suggests to do it.

http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/understanding_16_9.html

Lastly I recall there is a filter for FCP that could force 16:9 for export.

16:9 headache
 

I just finished editing a project that combines digital 16:9 footage with footage that was shot with a 16:9 lens adapter and I can't get everything to match. In other words, the digital 16:9 footage wants to output to tape letterboxed and the adapter footage remains stretched. I want to make two versions of the completed project -- one stretched, and one letterboxed. In the manual it says I can change the properties for a clip from the item properties box under the edit menu by clicking or unclicking the anamorphic 16:9 box. The only problem is, there's no box. Everything else in the window matches the picture in the manual so I'm confused. I realize that the best way would have been to capture everything using the same setting from the beginning, but it's too late for that now. I have hundreds of clips. Can anyone tell me how to fix this? I'm using Finalcut 2.

I think I've seen this problem in FCP3, and it involves how you open the clip. Open the ORIGINAL clip in the viewer window. It won't work if you open a copy of the clip from the timeline. If you go to Edit > Item Properties there should be an "Anamorphic 16:9" checkbox.

But I don't know that this is really the problem anyway. If you want to letterbox the "real" 16:9 first make sure that it's flagged as anamorphic as described above. Then drop either the individual clips or your completed sequence into a new 4:3 sequence. It will automatically letterbox to fit. You will need to render.

Going the other way, from letterbox to anamorphic, is another matter. It sounds like you shot the video with a camera that just cropped instead doing "electronic 16:9". In this case, create a new 16:9 sequence and drop the clip into it. Now you will see that it's "pillarboxed" in the 16:9 window. In the canvas window be sure you're set for image+wireframe. Now use the other drop-down buttton to set the view to 50% so you can see the grey area around the image. Point to one of the dots in the corner of the image, press the mouse button, and drag outwards until the image width fills the full 16:9 frame. Of course you'll lose quality this way, but that can't be avoided since you didn't shoot real anamorphic 16:9. You'll also have to render this.

Hope this helps.

NOW I've done it.....help / FCP4
 

I recorded my in-camera black bars onto
my footage---my images came out a little dark,
so NOW I need to go in and
brightness/contrast my images
WITHOUT lightening my black bars as well---

I haven't performed this type of 'selected
filtering' before...what's going to be
the easiet and/or most efficient way?
(PS - I have a LOT of scenes to fix)

Could you crop the black bars, but leave a solid black layer behind your video or maybe just a black background instead of transparent?
To correct an entire edited piece, I always finish it without corrections, then import that sequence into another sequence, and change the entire piece at the same time. So, if this applies, you could import the first sequence, crop the bars off, color correct your video, make the background black.

you recorded pseudo widescreen black bars at the top and bottom, is that what you mean?


In FCP you can use mattes or in the 3 way color correction panel you can be selective about what range of colors or luma you want to effect.

I would go with the Matte option since the bars should be in the same place throughout the entire footage.

Also since they are not going to move you could generate an alpha channel item and use that ....

all else fails you could create a matte with solid 100% black in the places where the bars are and the area where the picture is as transparent and that way it'll be like lying a transparent cell over you footage with the lines on it.


OH, and about having a lot of scenes to correct: I would do you edit first, get it close to a lock and THEN do your color corrections and your color balancing. You'll be able to get a better balance and it won't kill as much hard drive space.

To get a good color balance and color correction each and every take must be done seperately but you can apply the corrections to the same take no matter if you've inserted cut-aways or whatever into it which is a savings. Color correction first and then go back and do the balance.

Right. there's only so much space on the tape for audio data.

If you really need 4 channels you might want to consider an external recording device like a DAT or something and then capture that and after you sync it up to your footage you can link them so the 4 channels are locked together.

I think you need to capture in 2 passes to get the 4 channels.

4 channels are going to be at 32khz sampling rate instead of 48khz. This is fine for dialogue but not so for music and anything with high frequencies (harmonics, overtones, etc.).

Thanks Boyd. This actually didn't work for me. Every time I dump the footage into a 4:3 sequence everything stretches up again. No idea what I'm doing wrong. I ended up just outputting it as a FinalCut movie and then squashing down the whole clip against a black background.

Real Time rendering on a G4
 

I am really intrested on upgrading to Final Cut Express 2 after hearing about the improvements in real time rendering. My question though is if it is possible on a g4. A friend has led me to believe that Final Cut Express 2 and RT Extreme is more or less for the G5 crowd. I am currentley running a G4 1.25 ghz mac with 1gb of ram.

I was just wondering if someone could clear up exactly what I would need to handle the improvements in real time rendering.

You can find the specs for FCE on the Apple site here. Yes, RT Extreme will work with any Dual Processor Mac. However, I would recommend getting as much ram as you can afford.

Fcp4 ///fix My Sound!!!
 

Hey FCP'ers...
after a weekend shoot, I wound up with some
60Hz hum over part of my dialogue.

I employed a FANTASTIC audio cleaning
program, Bias SoundSoap ($80...buy it!)
but ithad to extract so MUCH hum that it left
my dialogue slightly stark and 'tin' sounding...

what are my FCP options to bring just a touch
more 'fullness' back to that particular actor's voice?

I would also use an Apple EQ in FCP to dial in the hum. Apple makes one with a very wide band, all the way down to 20hz. Or try the FCP Noise Gate to cut out some of the background hum.

That's too bad, I hate it when that happends. I hope the hum is not really long. You should be able to clean it up.

Live Type titles not looking good in FCP
 

When putting in titles and backgrounds from Live Type to FCP 4, the colors are dull. They seem to lose the saturation. Then when I go to output, the titles blur on the final product.

Has anyone ran into this problem? In Live Type, they are how they should look, but on the time line in FCP they look bad. I haven't noticed it before, just on this last project that I did. I am using the Academic version of the software, could that be a problem?

Thanks,

Matt

Hi Matt.

I have run into it as well. I think I just used a different background. Some of them are very dark once out of LT.

Have you tried to full render them in FCP? Hit Option + R after a normal render (commadn + r). I noticed that some of my work looked a bit fuzz without the Option + R.

You can also try lightening up the BG in LT by choosing the layer you want and going to the Attributes Tab and usign the Hue / Sat / Lightness sliders. Kick them up a bit and the output to see what happens. At the very least, you are backt to were you were.

- Aaron

How do I capture stills from a DVD?
 

I need to get some still images from a DVD movie. How do I do that?

I can't find any functions in Apple DVD player that can grab stills from a DVD...

Any suggestions?

What version of Final Cut Pro are you using? Shouldn't matter if it is Academic. I haven't had this problem at all. Then again, I refuse to upgrade my Final Cut Pro from 4.0, but my Livetype is at 1.1.1.

I did the update so I am now using 4.1.1 I believe. I think a lot of my graphic issues have arised after i put panther on.

press apple-shift-3 and a screengrab will appear on your hard drive. Make sure your mouse isn't over the image you want to grab and that the image is shown at full size. You may also want to de-interlace the image with Photoshop.

what format for voiceovers
 

Greetings---
I am about to book some studio time for voiceovers I need for a piece I'm working on. What format should I record to? I presently edit in FCP 3, OSX, with G4. I do not have MP3 playback capability, 1/4 inch, etc. However, I am able to capture from CD or miniDV. Thoughts?

Thanks,
Tim

If I was you I would save the recorded audio onto a CDR at the studio as an AIFF 48Khtz and then when you get home copy this to your HDD and then import it into FCP.

I have tried this before and I get a mesage that says you can't take stills from dvds how do you get it to work?

Transferring from DVCPRO 50 to Betacam SP... quality loss?
 

Hello all.

My work has recently purchased a new Final Cut Pro 4 system to replace the 12 year old turbocube that luckily for us pretty much exploded during a severe power spike not too long ago.

We will be capturing uncompressed SD via an AJA IO box from a sony beta deck.

Currently we are shooting DVCPRO50 24p on Panasonic AJ-SDX900 cameras. For use with our FCP system all of our footage will first need to be dubbed over to betacam, so heres my question.....

Since i dont know the technical details of each format, i would like to know if dubbing over to betacam sp from DVCPRO50 is going to cause a noticeable quality loss above and beyond the regular degradation common with a component transfer.

Of course ideally we would want to transfer from a DVCPRO deck via SDI into FCP, but unfortunately we are out of DVCPRO decks and we were lucky our bohemoth parent company opened up its wallet for the new FCP system. Beta is really our only choice at the moment.

Thanks for the help!!

Edward N

Yes, there is a loss of quality. The degree of loss is relatively subjective. However, it sounds like a moot point, since your out of options. However, if your corporate parent opens it's wallet again I think there is a FireWire option for that camera that would allow you to get digital video into FCP. I think that would be a fairly low cost (compared to buying another deck) way to stay digital.

You can download a Freeware DVD player called "VLC". (plays all region DVDs and VCD etc) Then you can do the Apple-Shift-3 combo to get snapshots. It works!

Is This $5000 System Meant for Me?
 

Hello!

I've been licking my chops at the ad copy for this eBay package deal. My background is in 16 and Super-8 film shorts, so I'm new to NLE. (I'm adept at Pro-Tools in radio production, but the tech problems were always the engineer's.)

I'd like to read some comments on the ad below. The $5000 system tops my budget. Dual G5 packages from this seller start at $10,000. I'll be shooting with a Sony VX2100.

How much footage could I expect to hold with this kind of memory? I intend to produce some fairly short subjects for starters.

The ready-to-roll pre-configurations are obviously attractive to a novice like me. Do you see any immediate problems with the combo? Please read and advise!

Thanks,
Carl Russo

"This system was designed for high-end video production on a tight budget. This system comes to you completely configured, ready to start production. Just hook up all the cables with one of our trained technicians on the phone, and you are ready to start working immediately with a state of the art lowest priced Mac G5 Processor system.

The "Sister Kahuna G5" editing bay is Mac video editing and multimedia production heaven! Based around Apples latest G5 1.6GHz Processor, 19" High Res CRT Display, 14" JVC Production Monitor,1: 80GB Primary Hard Drive, 1: 120GB SATA Media Drive, 1GB DDR RAM, and Studio Audio Package, "Sister Kahuna G5" will allow you to take on the most comprehensive projects that cutting-edge production requires.

This system is especially well suited for Feature Films, Documentary Video, Television Commercials, Video Intensive Multimedia Authoring, DVD Authoring, High-End 3-D Graphic Design, Audio Mastering, and Voice Over Recording. This incredible system will allow you to produce broadcast quality finished work day in, day out. And best of all, its incredible Real-Time Editing Capabilities keep you on deadline and completing jobs in record time. This system comes to you ready to use and completely configured for production.

INCLUDED IN THIS AUCTION:

Computer

Apple Macintosh 1.6GHZ G5 Computer w/Keyboard and Mouse
80 GB Serial ATA Primary Hard Drive
120 GB Serial ATA Media Drive
1 GB DDR400 RAM from 4 256 MB Stick
NVIDIA GeForeFX 5200 Ultra Graphics Card
SuperDrive DVD/CD Burner
56k Modem
Software

OS-X (Latest Version Apple Includes)
Final Cut Pro 4 (Boxed Retail)
DVD Studio Pro 2 (Boxed Retail Version)
Apple Live Type (Included with FCP4)
Apple Sound Tracks (Included with FCP4)
Production Equipment

NEC FE991SB Flat Screen CRT Monitor
JVC TH-H1375 CGU 13" Production Monitor
JVC SR-VS30U DV and S-VHS Dual Digital Video Tape Recorder
Monsoon Planar 14 Planar Array 2.1 Speaker System
Behringer 1002 10 Channel Audio Mixer Microphone
Complete HOSA Brand Cable Package for entire system"