FCP and modifying media file names
 

Hello all,
I noticed something rather strange while capturing for my current project. Im runnning 2X2Ghz G5 FCP 4.1.1 - capturing with a Sony DSR-50. When capturing I decided for organization reasons to change some of the clip names and naturally decided to change the media file name at the finder level and reimport as to avoid confusion later. (confusion==having a master clip and a media file with different names). So when I reimported the renamed QT I noticed to my astonishment that the Media End TC was now different than the originally captured file by a couple of seconds!! The Media start time was uneffected. My thoughts immediately went to - OK worse case scenario my drive dies and I have to redigitize... will it restore the clip and me be on my merry way. Hmmm... still not sure... just checking out there to see if anyone has run across this non-frame accurate problem. Thinking it was a software glitch I called Apple. Nice guy, his response - the manual somewhere refers to the fact that you must reconnect media instead of reimporting... geee thanks. Ill add that to my exceptions list. Reminds me a bit of English class.

anyone?
thanks
j

I don't ever rename clips. It's asking for trouble. Same with just moving clips and not using the media manager.

Have you played the clips? Are they the same or different?

Yes I have played the clips.
When I put the original clip on V1 and the name-modified clip on V2, I found that V2 contains 1sec 5fr additional media than the original clip - (you actually see the timecode break occur on the QT). All footage appears to be frame-accurate when compared to tape up to the point of the tc break.

When testing to see if the longer clip will batch capture .... mixed results.

So, I guess manually attempting to keep things clean and tidy between clip names and media file names is a no, no. I better brush up on the Media Manager a bit more...

j

If you want to try to separate your media files, you can also use the color labeling provided in Panther.

Capturing live video in FCE ?
 

I've been trying to do this for the last couple hours. I've got my GL2 connected to my G5, and I can see the live video in the capture preview window, and the audio meters indicate sound. When I click on capture now, I get the message "Waiting for timecode. Device must be in VTR mode when device control is enabled." It shows VTR OK in the preview window. I've tried Realtime and Firewire from the View menu with no success.

So, needless to say, I'm stumped on this one. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!

Kirk

Not sure about this since I have never tried, but the error message sounds self-descriptive. Did you try disabling device control? You might have a look at BTV Pro for live capturing and monitoring on the Mac. Very nice little shareware program. I've used it on my Powerbook as a field monitor.

Thanks Boyd. I must just be missing some setting in FCE. I just went into iMovie with the camera connected, and from there I can monitor the live video, and capture it by just clicking on import.

I think the titler in FCP4 is aweful, but I'm sure if you're only creating simple text then it should suffice.

I cut mostly television commercials so the necessity of having an intuitive titler is greater. I was really dissappointed with the lack of a standard WYSIWYG within Final Cut Pro.

Livetype has some cool features but having to export an entire project into livetype and then back out to FCP for export to tape is too cumbersome for me. So is the option of creating titles first in photoshop.

Our Avid Xpress has a WYSIWYG titler, so does our AVID DS, and even Adobe Premiere has a decent titler, so I guess I just assumed FCP had the same, but sadly I was mistaken.

Eddie

FCP 4 render problem when applying motion blur and drop shadow...
 

Whenever I apply a drop shadow and motion blur to a clip using the motion tab FCP4 decides it does not want to render.

If I only use one of those effects it renders fine, but when i apply both FCP opens the render status window for a split second then disappears, leaving my timeline unrendered.

Is this a glitch in the system or am i missing some sort of software setting? I'm working with 10 bit uncompressed media via an AJA IO.

Any suggestions? Thanks.

Eddie

Have you tried selecting the clips with the attributes applies in the timeline (so that they are "highlighted") and then select "Render Selection"?

Yes. No luck.

I tried everything I could possibly think of and have narrowed it down to a problem with applying both the drop shadow as well as motion blur at the same time in the motion tab.

I've recreated the problem numerous times with different clips just to be sure it wasnt just a random issue.

Thanks for the reply.

Eddie

I've never used FCE, but on FCP 3 you would go to "Audio/Video Settings" under the FCP menu. There is a pulldown menu "Device Control Preset". Based on your error message I assume you need to choose "non-controllable device" from that menu.

I've done it couple of times and it's like Boyd Ostroff says "Audio/Video Setting" / " non-controllable device"

Edward,
I do not believe that this is a malfunction at all. You did not tell us nearly enough to enable an accurate diagnosis.

Based on what you did indicate, however, I would guess that your "problem" is actually related to (a) your the real-time rendering / timeline preference settings (on your sequence of your general prefs) and/or (b) the processeor platform of your Mac.

Spend some time with the FCP doc, particularly familiarizing yourself with the various RT and rendering settings.

dual monitor problem....help
 

Trying to finish up a "huge" project and my dual monitors just spazzed out!!! Everytime I try to turn a monitor on, the monitor goes into shut down mode and will not respond to my mouse???

So, I shut my computer (G4 Dual 1g) down and restarted with the same result. Eventually went around back of computer, unplugged monitor cables and tried to plug them back in, switch them around, etc. Nothing is working....so now I'm stuck with 1 monitor.

I can get an image on both monitor, so I know the monitors are OK, I just can't get an image from both at once.

It sounds like the video card that drives the monitors has a problem. Are you using two video cards or a single card with two outputs? What version of OS X are you using?

Hows Panther and FCP4?
 

Want to install panther but need stability.

Um, well.. yeah. They work decently together. No worse than 10.2.8 and FCP 4 I'd say. But have fun with Panther in general. I don't care for it. I'll pass and wait for the far superior 10.4 "Calico".

dual monitor problems
 

OS X 10.2.6 is the version I'm using and the card has 2 monitor outputs.

For me it worked better than 10.2.x. Much better.

Small Scale DVD Production: What Do I Need?
 

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=22545

:-)

Thought I'd cover some territory and save some time.
I'm hoping to order DVDSP2 and whatever else I'll need, and have it by the weekend. I repeat: is my computer enough for these programs (FCE,DVDSP,TOAST,....)? Any other programs that I need to start dvd authoring and production? Help! Please!

Shawn

Hard disk size? Lots of disk space and RAM really help when editing video and creating dvds. A quick check of the boards will probably show quite a few discussions involving firewire drives for storage, etc. (I have two extra drives, and I only use iMovie and iDVD, so...)

I don't have a program suggestion but I looked at your other thread and have something to add.

You'll want something to make your DVD's look nice because you don't want to write on them with felt pen. Oh, and don't use labels - many people have had problems putting labels on DVD's. Get yourself a printer that prints directly to them. It depends on what quality level, run size, and bank balance you have which will influence what you buy. There are nice thermal printers for several thousand bucks, but I recently bought a Canon i865 inkjet printer for NZ$430. It's absolutely perfect for what I do. I only run off a few DVD's at a time so I don't know if it will be robust or quick enough for you.

The quality is impressive for my needs and at about 1 minute a disk, I can handle that.


Cheers
Aaron

Thanks for the replies!

What would you say a healthy amount of RAM is?
I will check around on what others have said here, it's just that I'm trying to get up and running by the weekend, and so am asking dumb questions as well as doing the research.
Thanks again.

Have I got enough processing power to, I don't know, not cause problems?

Shawn

It sounds like the card has a dead output on one side. Here are the sets to follow to try to revive it. Good luck.

DANGER! This procedure exposes you to high voltages that can result in death or serious injury. DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS PROCEDURE IF YOU HAVE NOT BEEN CERTIFIED AS AN APPLE-AUTHORIZED TECHNICIAN.
1. Check all video cable/card connections and connector pins.

2. Remove all third-party devices.

3. Reseat the video card.

4. For the Power Macintosh G4 (PCI Graphics) computer, check jumper block at J25. Make sure it is the correct color for the processor type, that it includes all required inner metal clips, and is installed in the correct direction. See "Processor Module" in Service Source Take Apart for more information.

5. Clear parameter RAM. Hold down Command-Option-P-R during startup but before "Welcome to Macintosh" appears

6. Reseat SDRAM DIMMs. Make sure DIMMs are PC-100 DIMMs.

7. Remove all SDRAM DIMMs and try replacing them one at a time to test. Replace any bad DIMMs.

8. Power Macintosh G4 (PCI Graphics): Reset Cuda chip. Refer to article 95065: "Power Macintosh G4 (PCI Graphics) Resetting the Cuda Chip".

9. Reset the logic board:
- Power Mac G4 (AGP Graphics/Gigabit Ethernet): Refer to article 95037: "Power Mac G4 (AGP Graphics/Gigabit Ethernet): Resetting the PMU on the Logic Board.
- Power Macintosh G4 (PCI Graphics): Refer to article 95066 "Power Macintosh G4 (PCI Graphics): Resetting the PCI Logic Board".

10. Test with known-good monitor. Replace monitor if necessary. Refer to appropriate monitor manual to troubleshoot defective monitor.

11. Replace video card.

12. Replace processor module.

13. Replace logic board.

Hey, I have a powerboook G4 with 512mb of ram and have had quite alot of success with both FCE and DVDSP. In november I recorded my high schools production of Annie, edited two camera angles togeather and color corrected. Outputed the two hour movie into compressor. Compressed for DVDSP and burned about 60 disks all togeather and the computer never skipped a beat. I have never tried toast so I do not know how that plays into the equation.

Brian

I get dibbs on Jason's Mac!

Good news, Brian, glad to hear it.

Can't be too careful these days.

DVD-R's in G4
 

My G4 wont recognise blank DVD-R's and just spits them out after trying to read them for about a minute. It even happens with the Apple DVD-R's they supplied when I bought my G4. Can anyone offer any solutions as I dont wanna have to put it in to Apple again because of the downtime.
Any help is appreciated!

Thanks, Tim

I've heard this is a drive failure (hasn't happened to me personally)...
make sure they're not dvd+r's and if they're dvd-rw's use disk utilities to erase them.

My guess is that it's a faulty drive. I'd think you could yank it and mail it in...

get a usb drive for the time being or if you have a dual optical grab a dvd read drive and then you have two...

could i ask which software you're using and at which point you're inserting the disks?

Which SuperDrive do you have?

can you still burn CDRs?

find in the finder
 

Anybody ever experienced the following Cant find my OMFI Mediafiles(avid) in the finder when i use find, however the files are there when I open the disk...(or when I use the command "reveal file" in Avid Xpressdv.
It seems to be the only thing my os cannot find...

Fce + Dvdsp?
 

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

Apple and the Academy Awards Opening Montage
 

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

Sweet Airstream studio. Thanks for the link Ken.

A.Pack problems possibly?
 

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

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.