Thanks for the highly useful info - I think really because of potential artifacts, currently the only real option (with the highly complicated workflow) is Lumiere, until of course Apple bring out a version of FCP (and they may not even do this in even the next version or the one after!) that offers an artifact free solution with workflow that is no more complicated than standard definition. I have been workin with FCP since 1.0 was released and in my experience Apple should not be trusted one little bit.

Yes, we've been discussing this at length since January.

As a side note, I've been using FCP for 5.5 years now, since 1.0 as well, and I have no issues with it. With the exception of the VERY SHORT LIVED FCP 2.0 which, in my humble opinion, was a complete disaster.

Anyway, I like iMovie HD, but when I made a digital still from my FX1 footage, I saw the artifacts and that p'd me off.

heath

Simon, if you want to see the artefacting, I posted an example on this thread:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=39017

Eric

Please verify whether iMovie HD can edit HDV
 

I'm about to buy the Sony FX-1.

I own a PowerMac G4 933 Mhz with 768 Megs of RAM.

If I buy iMovie HD:

1) Will I be able to edit HDV footage captured from the FX-1 with this system (seems to exceed the minimum specs) using iMovie HD? If not, what upgrades are recommended?

2) Will I absolutely need to import the AIC files from iMovie HD to FCP HD to edit?

3) Can I use Final Cut Express HD to both capture and edit FX-1 HDV video?

4) Is anyone using DVFilmmaker to convert 1080i 60i FX-1 footage to 24p footage and editing it in FCP HD?

Can someone who is actually editing HDV using similar equipment and software answer my questions?

Thanks very much in advance!

Read this thread.

heath

<<<-- Originally posted by Dylan Pank : AIC is 4 times HDV's datarate (1m=1GB) but much easier to edit. Conversion starts as you capture, but you have to wait, depending on your computer's speed, for the conversion to catch up. Only a dual 2.5 G5 seems capable of simultaneous realtime conversion. -->>>

My dual 1.8 (PCI-X) does real-time 1/1 HDV-AIC capture/conversion in iMovie HD. I have 2GB RAM so that probably makes all the difference.

<<<-- Originally posted by Murad Toor : My dual 1.8 (PCI-X) does real-time 1/1 HDV-AIC capture/conversion in iMovie HD. I have 2GB RAM so that probably makes all the difference. -->>>

I expect you're right about the RAM. Since I don't have access to any G5s at the moment my test was based on Internet reports, so it's good to have a real world example.

<<<-- Originally posted by Dylan Pank : I expect you're right about the RAM. Since I don't have access to any G5s at the moment my test was based on Interet reports, so it's good to have a real world example. -->>>

Yup... I recall reading somewhere in these forums that someone with a dual 1.8 and 1GB RAM (maybe Heath?) didn't get real-time 1/1 HDV/AIC capture/transcoding, so when I tried it on my system and got real-time 1/1 I figured it's the RAM.

I have a 1.6 ghz Power Mac, single processor. I'm curious how those with dual-processors are fairing. And the 1/2 to 1/4 speed was in capture, not playback.

heath

photos not importing correctly into imovie
 

I resized some photos in photoshop cs to 720 x 480. They are letterboxed (black bars on left and right sides) to maintain the correct aspect ratio.

When I bring them into imovie 4, the photos have a black bar on the top and are cutting off some of the bottom. They imported fine into fcp hd.

Anyone know why imovie isn't displaying the photos correctly?

Make sure the Ken Burns effect is not being applied by default. I seem to remember that being a problem with importing photos into iMovie...

iMovie expects stills to be 640x480. If you resize and crop your photos to that size, they'll import nicely (without letter boxing).

Mono to Stereo with Imovie?
 

I just recorded a family wedding with a lav mic. Imovie will only pick up the audio as a single track on the right side. Is there a way to balance the audio in Imovie? Alternatively, is there a low budget approach to balance a single audio input short of purchasing Final Cut?

This is a cinch with Quicktime (but I think you need the Pro key for QT) In iMovie, click 'Share' in the File menu and select Quicktime. Select advanced options and save your movie to AIFF on the Desktop. This may take a while depending on your processor and RAM, but you will then have a file on your desktop that is a Quicktime version of only the audio of your movie. Open that file in a sound editor (there are numerous good free onces available on the net) and when you have it open, you may see a stereo field where the audio is only on one side. Copy that whole side and paste it to duplicate on the other side also. This will give you audio for both left and right. Save the file.

Re-open your iMovie project and drag your new audio file into the timeline and make certain that it is in sync with your movie.

(Note: At this time, you will want to silence the video track and use the audio from your new stereo track)

Hope this helps.
-Jon

I got QT7 pro and it worked great, Thanks!