...and think of each of the fields in the interlaced video as a guitar string tuned very close together. As they're each "vibrating" on and off they somtimes cycle in coincidence with each other (the "harmonic" aspect of Bill's explanation). To our eyes it looks like the whole picture is flickering.

Normally I'll de-interlace before I resize, although I rarely resize at all. Try it both ways to see which works best for your situation. No, you won't have to re-interlace the image, as that will automatically be done when it's displayed on a video monitor.

Sufficiently sorry you asked for a deeper explanation? <g>

After reading this thread, I followed Ken's link to firewiredirect.com. 120 GB 7200 rpm drive for 299.00. Seemed like a good deal compared to others I have seen, so it is on its way!

Following up on the question I asked in the Firestore post, has anyone found a firewire drive that MAC OS-10.1.4 will read as a FAT32 volume?

Thanks

NTSC/PAL conversion in FCP is unsatisfactory. There is a long-running discussion about this issue on the "PAL issues" board at 2-pop.

An alternative is at www.dvfilm.com/atlantis/

Never used it myself so can't judge (although nothing beats "real" hardware conversion)

The best way to convert a PAL stream to a NTSC DVD is todo
the following... (as far as I know):

make a 23.976 fps progressive NTSC DVD. If your footage is
interlaced make sure to de-interlace it before you do the
following:

- import/alter the movie to play at 23.976 fps instead of 25..
I DO NOT MEAN that you must CONVERT the framerate
(ie drop frames). On a windows PC there are utilites that
one can use to CHANGE the rate a file is PLAYED without
actually dropping any frames. Ofcourse your total time will
change, but this will be unnoticable.
- PAL full res. is 720x576. NTSC is 720x480. Crop the picture
vertically for it to fit. If you do letterboxing this is even easier.
If you find that people look to TALL now you must do a
resample instead of a crop. MAKE SURE you use the BEST
quality resample routine you can find (Usually this will be
a bi-cubic or bi-linear resample)
- you also need to convert the color space from 0 IRE to
7.5 IRE (black should be 16,16,16 instead of 0,0,0)

This should work out quite nice.

I love free stuff...particularly useful free stuff...
 

Cruising around Apple's website, trying to learn everything I can about iMovie2, I found something that I don't think many people may be aware of.

If you are running OS X, you have free storage space on Apple's site called an iDisk. Most of us know that, but did you know that stuck in a folder on your iDisk are 2,100 royalty free music files?

Go to your iDisk, then click on the "software" folder, then the "extras" folder, the the "freeplay music" folder. voila'.

No more worrying about when the copyright police are going to come knocking.

Too bad this is only for Mac OS X users.... :( We PC users
are left out huh. Nice thing though!

Are you allowed to use these in your (commercial) projects
as well? There is a difference in free music and free "usable"
music!!

According to the information from Apple, they are "royalty free". That would imply commercially as well as private, at least to me.

Filling Text with Video
 

Here's one for you FCP 3 gurus.

Is there a way to fill text created with the FCP 3 text generator
with video? Basically I'm looking to do what would be a split key
on a production switcher.

I've just upgraded to a dual 1ghz G4 with FCP. Love it, love it,
love it.

Thanks for any help you may be able to offer.


Bill

I know of no way to do this in FCP3. I'm not saying it can't be done there, just that I don't know how.

This is really a job for which AfterEffects (and its peers) were really designed to tackle.

If you're devoted to doing this in FCP3 and don't have AE you might shop around for an AE plug-in that might be able to get the job done and might be used with FCP.

I haven't up graded to FCP 3 but on FCP 2 I did that effect. After making the title I put in on Video track 1, I put the video clip I want to put into the text on Video track two.

Next I select the video clip on V2 and go into the modify>composite mode> and select Travel Matte-Luma. If you have multiple title tracks, it will only fill in the text with video on the track right below it. I made a qt movie of the two title tracks(two different title clips, V1 & V2) and re-imported it into FCP and then did the composite mode- travel matte-Luma again and then it put the video into all of the text. The same can be done in AE, but haven't gotten around to learning AE.

used to subscribe to the newsletter-DV "la vida loca", I think that's what it was called and that video in the text was one of their weekly "tips".

Hope this helps.

btw, Happy Cinco de Mayo

Gentleman,

Thanks for the speedy reply. Looks like I have some "playing" to do today.

I appreciate your help.

Bill

Rik,

Thank you for the FCP tip! Happy Cinco de Mayo to you, too!

The fact that the music is royalty free is the good news. The bad news? Have you listened to any of it?

I've wound up using a couple from there recently in a short feature I shot. It took me forever to surf through dozens of samples and find two that were "adequate." Like always, you get what you pay for.

With that in mind...don't forget the option of making your own. It's amazing how many shows use really simple percussive background music...like a simple guitar rhythm, or piano or any other instrument. One of my favorites is "Dead Calm." It's basically just someone "heavy-breathing" a rhythm. (I may wind up making my own for this project anyway since I'm not very happy with the two samples I picked from iTools).

Bill, thanks for reminding my about that video in the text effect. Had forgotten about it and now I'm reworking some titles using that effect.

In the FCP 2 book by Lisa Brenneis, page 547(the compositing section), there is more on this effect. In case you don't have her book I recomend you get it, it has been very helpful getting me through FCP.

Have fun.

Thanks Ken, always happy to spread what little knowledge I have.

Works Great
 

Rik,

Thanks for the tip. Works exactly as I wanted.

Bill

Bill,
glad to hear you were able to acheive the effect you wanted. let me know if I can help you in any other way. see on the boards,

Codecs
 

Ive just done my first project.
A football (soccer match) i recorded.
I originally compressed the edited footage out of FCP2 as a quicktime file using the default codec(dont know which this one was).
when viewing back on quicktime the pixels were all hazy and jumpy - it was so unwatchable - I also burnt it to dvd and tried it there also- again it was unwatchable still

I then compressed the file again with the sorenson codec but still not much improvement.

I tried again - this time with the dv video codec, the image has certainly improved but not what i would call 100%, I know about video noice but its worse than that.

Have you guys any suggestions for the best exporting format and codec - The files will be going on DVD

thanks

For files going to DVD you want MPEG2 720x480 best quality. Be sure to encode that from the original DV source material and not something that has been compressed and recomepressed 100 times in various formats. For web I usually make my Quicktimes Sorenson (never Sorenson 5, though) with a quality setting of about 65%, 29.97fps or 15 for smaller files. Size =320x240 or 160x120 for smaller files. Never a limit on the file (where it says "Limit file to 192kbps" or whatever it says). Sound = Stereo IMA 4:1 44100.

hi,
the easiest thing to do is to make a FCP reference movie.
Export->FCP movie->make self contained. There is ZERO quality loss(until your DVD authoring program gets ahold of it). Compressing it beforehand makes no sense.
Aren

...actually, I screwed up. For a reference movie, UNCHECK the box make self-contained. This way, the file just points to the media on your hard-drive, which saves space and time.
Aren.

thanks for the replies guys,
after trying compression a few times with different codecs,
i finally made a final cut pro movie.

this worked well with apples idvd2, and i now have a good dvd of my football(soccer) match

If you don't mind a PC, AVID DV Express Ver 3 is pretty good.
I'm currently cutting several shows on one.
Nice hi-res NTSC monitor, two 22 inch computer monitors, studio speakers, trancoder for s-video and compostite, "Rosetta Stone" to control RS422 remote for UVW-1800, plus the latest Dell computer
All for less than $5000

It looks and acts just like the regular version of express.

At home I have FCP, After Effects and a "Snow" imac which works great too!

Macs and DDR RAM
 

I want to get one of those new dual 1Ghz Macs. But I refuse to purchase one. Why? Because they are not using DDR RAM yet. Does anyone have any word on when Apple will finally see the light and make computers with DDR RAM? It really does make a difference. I think they offer a server that has DDR but I don't want a server. Does the system bus in Macs still run at only 100MHZ?

I dream of the day when Macs are fast by todays standards.

This is probably a dead horse (thread is nearly a month old, purchase has probably been made) but....kick kick kick.

I stayed away from Macs as long as I could until all of this FIreWire stuff started a couple of years ago.
I had my PC running with Premiere and was pretty happy.
Then I tried getting FireWire (already installed) to work with Premiere (Note, bad configuration from the PC manufacturer, FireWire DOES work with Premiere on many systems I've come across).
I couldn't get MY PC to work with Premiere and FireWire.
I picked up an iMac, plugged it in, plugged in my camcorder via FireWire, started iMovie, captured some video, edited some video, took the iMac back, bought the (then) top of the line PowerMac G4 w/SuperDrive.

Sure you can get RT cards for the PC, but with FCP 3.x you don't need anything other than a G4 500mhz or faster to get RT.
If you go PC, you'll end up working with Premiere and After Effects, and still won't have the flexibility and power of FCP (IMHO). Apple never intended to compete with Premiere, they set their sites on AVID...and are starting to bite (OK small tiny baby bites) at AVID's business.

If you already had a PC, I'd say go with Vegas Video.
If you were already familiar with (and couldnt' live without) AVID, I'd say get AVID DV Xpress (on a Mac, not a PC).
If you want a nice turn-key system that will scale from simple home movies up to feature films, go G4, iMovie, FCP.

- Chip

p.s. Everything Ken said...I agree with.

Wow, this thread is back up again! Anyway, I am really glad that you guys replied bec. I havent bought the system yet. I was planning on getting the MJ-12 PC editing system at alienware.com.

Now I tried to look at the MAC system and it is definitely a very popular system for editing. I kinda went back to looking at PC bec. of the "no rendering" capability of Canopus. But at the back of my mind I still think that FCP is the way to go.

I need a dv editing system ASAP. I want to get a price quote on the system Ken listed above. I havent received a quote yet. Anyway, do you guys know anybody in Chicago or online, besides "MacSpecialist" (they still need to get back to me), that can give me a turnkey dv editing system?

Thanks!

Allan

By "turnkey" do you mean that FCP is already installed? I ask because, that relatively small task aside, a Mac basically -is- a turnkey system. Adding a 2nd ATA drive (such as the IBM DeskStar) is a 5-10 min job with a Mac, even if you're a compu-klutz. The side flips down and the drive carriage is right in front of you. Much easier than the anthropological dig required by most PC's.

If you're really in a hurry, I'd recommend putting most everything together at macconnection.com (outstanding site, excellent service, very competitive prices and impressive inventory). Unlike many PC's the Mac itself is a relatively fixed-price item. You won't find more than a $10-15 variation for a specific configuration among vendors. You'll pay shipping, of course, but with Chicago's 8.75% sales tax you'll likely save money on such a large sale.

Dropped Frames In Fcp
 

Just got FCP 3 and my new G4 1G dual... It's loaded with 1.5G ram and two Seagate X-15 Hard drives (striped), plus an 80G IDE for the main....

Problem is, no matter what, I constantly get dropped frames, even on the tutorial... Have cleaned EVERYTHING out, started FRESH, reinstalled all software, but still get it.... Have also removed all added hardware and everything by process of elimination, with NO change...

HAS TO BE A BUG... ANYBODY GOT THE SAME PROBLEM PLEASE LET ME KNOW...

Thanks

Re: Dropped Frames In Fcp
 

It's not a bug because it doesn't happen with everyone's system.
The most likely causes for dropped frames are trying to capture to your startup drive or to a drive that isn't fast enough to handle the data stream.
Do you drop frames when attempting to capture to each of your drives?
Why did you stripe the x15s? Are you capturing uncompressed component?
If your RAID is the only volume that is dropping frames you've got a SCSI problem. Those are easy to cure or nightmares, depending on your familarity. If all of your drives are dropping frames there is something fundamentally wrong with your FireWire setup, most likely.
Can you play back without dropping any frames if you use imported files from tutorials on CD or DVD?

david


<<<-- Originally posted by sergeant : Just got FCP 3 and my new G4 1G dual... It's loaded with 1.5G ram and two Seagate X-15 Hard drives (striped), plus an 80G IDE for the main....

Problem is, no matter what, I constantly get dropped frames, even on the tutorial... Have cleaned EVERYTHING out, started FRESH, reinstalled all software, but still get it.... Have also removed all added hardware and everything by process of elimination, with NO change...

HAS TO BE A BUG... ANYBODY GOT THE SAME PROBLEM PLEASE LET ME KNOW...

Thanks -->>>

Anyone using Boris Red?
 

I just upgraded on my media100 from grafitti 1.0 to boris red 2.1 and every title I had in my system is now way out of whack. Any suggestions on how to open grafitti once I have installed red?

Dropped frames (DFs) were a frequent problem with FCP 1.2.x and became less prevalent with each successive release. Now with FCP 3 it seems to be somewhat of a rarity...which, of course is no consolation to you, sergeant.

DF's can be a real bogey-man induced by a relatively wide variety of causes. On a brand-new system such as yours my bet would be with your settings or your RAID configuration. RAID can be a -very- tricky animal and, to some degree, it can be overkill for FCP. I would look first at your RAID. If possible, de-install the RAID and install a single drive on your ATA bus to determine if this is the culprit.

BTW, you didn't note whether you're using OS 9.x or OS 10.x.

Dropped frames
 

OX10 latest edition.... Had removed ALL drives but main... Nothing in the system but the ONE drive which is on the ATA buss (80G Baracuda) ... EVERYTHING else is out... STILL the same... Zeroing out that main hard drive as we speak and going to reload all.... Zeroing was the ONLY thing I haven't tried... Maybe something on that drive thats corrupting the files... 80G, taking over 8 hours so far, and about 3/4 done now.... Hope the hell that does it.... Even has Apple stumped... Did every test under the sun and the hardware is fine.... It's definately a software problem and they're not sure if it's FCP or OX10 at this point....

Re: Re: Dropped Frames In Fcp
 

<<<-- Originally posted by bogiesan : It's not a bug because it doesn't happen with everyone's system.
The most likely causes for dropped frames are trying to capture to your startup drive or to a drive that isn't fast enough to handle the data stream.
Do you drop frames when attempting to capture to each of your drives?
Why did you stripe the x15s? Are you capturing uncompressed component?
If your RAID is the only volume that is dropping frames you've got a SCSI problem. Those are easy to cure or nightmares, depending on your familarity. If all of your drives are dropping frames there is something fundamentally wrong with your FireWire setup, most likely.
Can you play back without dropping any frames if you use imported files from tutorials on CD or DVD?

Be sure to check creativecow.net FCP forum and Apple FCP forum for a different kind of expertise.

david


<<<-- Originally posted by sergeant : Just got FCP 3 and my new G4 1G dual... It's loaded with 1.5G ram and two Seagate X-15 Hard drives (striped), plus an 80G IDE for the main....

Problem is, no matter what, I constantly get dropped frames, even on the tutorial... Have cleaned EVERYTHING out, started FRESH, reinstalled all software, but still get it.... Have also removed all added hardware and everything by process of elimination, with NO change...

HAS TO BE A BUG... ANYBODY GOT THE SAME PROBLEM PLEASE LET ME KNOW...

Thanks -->>> -->>>


Hi...

It's not hardware and not in capturing... It's only in playback.... Stripped the X15's as they're only 18G drives and they run at 15,000 rpm 3.5 dt.... Runs just a litle bit faster than a single drive and don't have to switch drives if they filled up at 18G.... No, not uncompressed... Just a big project.... About 24G in size... Not using main drive for any capture or work..... Unit is dedicated for editing only...

Hi,

The 80 gig AT drive should be partitioned into at least three partitions. OSX and FCP 3 on one partition. OS 9.2 on second partition. Third partition should be for media files. Capture and playback with the media, OS and FCP 3 on the same partition can cause problems. Are the dropped frames occuring when you are printing to tape or just playing back from the timeline?

Jeff

<<<-- Originally posted by jtdonald : Hi,

The 80 gig AT drive should be partitioned into at least three partitions. OSX and FCP 3 on one partition. OS 9.2 on second partition. Third partition should be for media files. Capture and playback with the media, OS and FCP 3 on the same partition can cause problems. Are the dropped frames occuring when you are printing to tape or just playing back from the timeline?

Jeff -->>>

Thanks for the reply.... The software comes loaded as it was.. Now getting rid of the 80 G AT drive ands putting the system on one of my X15 drives... Going to use the 80G for storage only... It's slower then hell, but OK for that purpose.... 9.5 access @ 7K rpm... The X15 is 3.2 @ 15K... Much faster... X15's never caused a problem... Ran them in my PC, loaded to the hilt.... I did zero out the Mac drives and reloaded everything and it SEEMED to clear up the situation, however, I'm not satisfied with the speed.... As of now, I'm zeroing out everything again and will load onto my X15's... I'm beginning to think it's the mismatch in speed or the slow speed that may be causing the problems... Never had this with Premier 6.0 on the PC with the X15's... Problem was, Premier was just too limited, even with After Affects, for me..... Will let you all know what happened after I get it ready to run....

Hi,

The AT drives are plenty fast if your are only capturing DV. The specs for AT 7200 RPM drives far exceed the requirments of DV. SCSI is needed if you are doing uncompressed video. It is a known issue that have the system software (OSX), the program software (FCP3) and the media (your digital files from the camcorder) all on the same partition will cause dropped frames.

If you require SCSI for uncompressed video via a third party board from Aurora, Pinnacle or Digital VooDoo check the Apple site to make sure your SCSI controller is approved by Apple for FCP3 and OSX. If your board is not approved by Apple the drivers for your board are probably the source of your dropped frames. If your board is approved then go to the boards MFG's site and download the latest OSX drivers and reboot.

If you want a really killer AT drive system get the 133 Sonnett Raid card and two 120 gig Special Edition drives from Western Digital. Their speed is exceeding Ultra 3 SCSI drives. The total cost in only $600.00.


Jeff

Save your pennnies and see what Apple bring out at Mac World in July. I am sure you see DDR memory in the new G4's and some other goodies. The discounts on the dual 1gig G4 will also look very good. I use a dual 450 and I figure I'll have to upgrade in a year or so. when I bought mine In January of 2001 it seemed like it was screaming. Oh, well. It still does does what I bought it for and more. Such is the state of computer hardware.

Jeff

Audio missing on Print To Video
 

Hello everyone,

working on a small project (dv) with a few tracks of audio (about 6) and I have noticed that upon playback onscreen- all the audio plays fine..if i try to Print To Video back out to a mini-DV camcorder- the video has certain audio elements missing- as if they've been muted or not even processed.....if I export the sequence as a .mov file- the audio is present again- anyone have any idea why the audio (only certain small parts on 2 tracks) isn't playing back out to dv?

Using a 933 Mac G4 quicksilver with FCP 3.0
Thanks fellas...

Hi Steve,
I've not had much practice printing to tape with FCP so I'm not sure what's happening. But, for what it's worth, I have a suggestion. Make a copy of the sequence you're trying to print to tape and mix-down the audio to 2 tracks before performing the export. Then see if the problem recurs. Another wild-hair brainstorm that may be worth checking is to see if each piece of your audio is at the same sampling rate.

I own a Dual 450 too. The fastets mac I ever owned was a 7100 80mHz. The operative was blazing fast and stable. How can this be? Well, each system upgrade get heavier to run. My dual 450 is not as fast as when I bought it. Not by a long shot. I used to be able to play Unreal without any lag at all. I can't do it today even though it's the same software. I imagine the heavier system software is designed to make our computers feel old so that we keep buying new hardware. Macs are great computers but when will the industry come to sense? They are creating a need for DDR that perhaps we would not need if they could write the darn system the right way. Don't get me wrong. I love speedy hardware and DDR. But I know that in a year that hardware will not be as fast as it was when I bought it.