Thanks Joe,

Do you know of any freeware to convert them to AIFF.

Yep. SoundApp will do that. SoundApp will convert almost anything to AIFF or WAV (and even a few other odd sound formats like PSION series 3, 5 and PARIS). SoundApp can also play just about any type of audio file you can think of. It's competely drag and drop: you don't need appendages on your file name like .MP3 or .WAV for SoundApp to figure out what to do, just drop the file on there. You could have an AIFF file called "Microsoft.wav" and SoundApp would still know to play it as an AIFF. This app is also very small and uses little RAM and OS resources. It hasn't been updated for awhile and there isn't an OS X version yet, but you can get it at the URL below:

http://www.spies.com/~franke/SoundApp/#download

Just to add to

Final Cut Pro will not play MP3's. If you convert them to AIFF you will be good to go.

Who ever told you MP3's don't play on the Mac was dead wrong. In fact the new iPod works only with MP3's and sounds great. They take up a lot less space. Unless you are doing some really important it will not make a difference in quality.

Great rule of thumb, anything a PC can do a Mac can do, only better.

mp3's
 

I am editing on media 100/mac and have no problems with MP3 Files. I receive all my voice overs via the internet and am able to import them into my bin and play them without any type of file conversion. Quite nice!

Shimmer
 

Users,

Okay, all you folks with way more expertise and experience than me
( that would probably be most people on this board ). Here is my question.
I have footage which was shot using an XL1 and then captured
in Final Cut Pro 2.
When I resize the footage ( i.e., make it smaller to do do split screen
things or something similar ) I seem to get a fairly noticeable shimmer
( this probably isn't the technical term, but it's the word which best
describes the look ). It is particularly eveident if I zoom in or out
of the clips or have them in motion on the screen. Anyone else experinced
this? I assume it's the resizing that creates it.
Any ideas on how to keep the image a bit more stable.
As always, thanks for the ideas and help. Glen

Hello Glen,

Does this "shimmer" appear on yur Mac's screen, on a video monitor or on both?

It sounds like an interlacing effect that has perhaps been magnified by your resizing. Try applying a de-interlace filter to the resized clips and see if this helps. It's non-destructive and can always be removed.

Hi Mike,

Ken and I have almost identical setups. So, for my .02 cents, I'd get 1 Gb RAM...you can choose the 80 Gb second drive over the 120 Gb to save some cash to allow the RAM upgrade now.

Most of the stuff I shoot for corporate use goes directly to the web. So with more RAM, I'm able to have FCP open to edit/export the test footage, Cleaner open for the compression, GoLive open for adding the test file and uploading to the site, and IE open to check it all out. Something to consider. Makes testing and final uploading a much faster process. No syrupy slow processing. No crashes. Everything works fine.

So whether you'll be making video for the web or not, extra memory elbow room always comes in handy.

Welcome to the club!

Firestore/MAC revisited
 

Awhile back, we had a thread going on the Firestore. Since then, I've gotten the free upgrade, but I'm still fighting a FW drive issue.

Has anyone found a firewire drive that the MAC G4 will recognize when running OS-10? The Videonics website FAQ identifies a unix file fix, which I've done on two different computers -- neither will recognize a FAT32 formatted volume (which is what the Firestore needs). I'm using a Cooldrive "Ice" model. Maybe there's another fw drive that someone has gotten to work?

The Firestore works great, but does me little good, unless I'm willing to use FCP 3 under OS-9.2, which I'm not.

There might be a good deal in the offing on a Firestore in the near future!

Thanks.

Wintel community myths about the Mac are always amusing. It's like they haven't checked in on the Mac community since the early ninetees.

In my opinion no multimedia architecture outbeats QuickTime. Import and Export of media is lika a dream on the Mac. And if QuickTime do not support it - Media Cleaner Pro sure will. And if you are going to MP3, Itunes does a super clean job.

Shimmer
 

Thanks Ken,

I de-interlaced the clips and this seemed to improve the picture
a great deal. Why would the interlacing give the clip the shimmer?
It seems particulary noticeable on white scenes. I've been shooting
lots of skiers in motion on the snow. The resizing ( making smaller in
this case ) seems to magnify the effect. I'm a bit technical and like
to understand the theory behind things, so if you have the time
and inclination I'd appreciate a bit of an explanation. Thanks
for the help. Glen

I'm certainly no video engineer, Glen.

Remember that interlaced video consists of two "fields", or sets of interlaced scan lines. Resizing the image on the computer, however, is a free-form maneuver that has no relation to the image's interlacing. But ultimately the end product has to be re-interlaced to be displayed on an NTSC (or PAL) monitor. Resizing an interlaced clip forces the process to deal with resizing each field which can often lead to that shimmering effect. De-interlacing before resizing removes one of the fields and "smooths" the apparent results. Interestingly, the "shimmer" can be dependent on the amount that by which you reduced the original clip. Try making several sizes of clips and you may find one or two that just don't seem to flicker at all.

Anyway, I'm sure someone with much more video knowledge than I have could provide a better explanation. I'm glad to hear of your success, Glen. Have fun!

small changes in image size usually result in increased moire. moire results from the harmonics (beat frequencies) of interlacing line spacing with pixel spacing on the view screen...or worse, raster line spacing on a TV monitor.

So, in this case, moire is not better! (Sorry, just couldn't resist.)

Thank you, Bill, for a far better technical explanation than I could provide.

shimmer
 

Bill and Ken,

Sorry Bill, but Ken's joke made more sense than your explanation.
I'm afraid you jumped into a level of understanding that is past me
at the moment. Still, like a little puppy dog with a bone, I'm going to
try to get me head around the new terms. Great stuff. Thanks
Now Ken, a question? I de-interlaced the resized image. It it more
effective to de-interlace the original image and then resize. And then
do I have to re-interlace the image before display on my NTSC monitor?
Questions seem to lead to more questions in this line of study.
My head hurts so I'm going to go for a quick ski and retackle the answer
when I get back. All the best. Glen

Have you ever tried to tune a musical instrument..say a guitar? As you turn the key and pluck the string you hear a tone not the same as the pitchpipe. When you get close to the right tone of the pitchpipe, there is an audible raising and lowering of the volume of the mixed tone that you hear. If you're a pilot, you can hear the same "beating" when the two props on your twin Cessna are slightly out of sync with each other. (as if we all have twin cessna's eh?) anyway, this is the audio equivalent of video moire.

sufficiently confused? slow day, here....;-)