Considering switching from Avid to FCP

[David Bogie]

These are huge, unresolved issues with FCP.
Stay happy.
Don’t switch.

bogiesan

This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: “For crying out loud, read the freakin’ manual.”

[Tony]

You can’t mix codec and expect Real time performance but there is no limitation on mixing two different codec one of which is common to the sequence and rendering the clips which are uncommon.

Depending on how many different formats you have you would capture at one common codec when ingesting so that all the clips will be native to the sequence codec

Ie – shoot dvcam capture dvcpro 50
shoot betacam capture at dvcpro 50
shoot dvcpro 50 capture at dvcpro 50

Then all make the sequence dvcpro 50 and magically all the clips can be dropped into the timeline without need for rendering.

There are many third party video capture boards which can deal with standard def or HD analog, SDI, as well as HDV. The video card takes care of all the input/output (IO) for capturing, laying off to tape and monitoring on an external monitor.

You should take a look at AJA’s Kona LE for example if you believe you will be dealing with SD analog and SDI material as well as HDV.

Do a search here on the Cow on the benefits of uprezzing DV 4:1:1 to DVCPRO 50 4:2:2 as to the merits of working in a timeline at 4:2:2 and the end improvement for the graphics etc.

Tony Salgado

[David Bogie]

You see? Kluges and hacks.
Don’t switch.

bogiesan

This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: “For crying out loud, read the freakin’ manual.”

[Donato M. rondinelli]

If all your decks have SDI, capture through a card like Kona or Decklink. Keep it all at the same rez. & you won’t have a problem. Yes, you will waste disk space but it all comes down to dollars. A fully loaded FCP is $20-30K less than Adrenaline. With the left over $ you could buy a $1000 SDI Cobalt Digital converter for your Beta, enough extra hard drive space & get another DV deck with SDI & still have some left over. Adrenaline is buggy, over priced & for the money, lacks features. Xpress Pro with mojo is way to slow for anything other than DV25.

-dMR

[Brett Sherman]

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I agree with you on Adrenaline. I think it’s the worst mistake Avid has made. However, I currently use Mojo for 1:1 and DV50 and it works perfectly. Hopefully Apple will be able to mix formats on a timeline, it seems like a huge workflow issue. I commonly digitize 20 hours or more of material to work with. If I have to render that to DV50 that’s a huge issue.

[David Roth weiss]

[Brett Sherman] “Hopefully Apple will be able to mix formats on a timeli”

I’ll bet you anything that right out of the box the new Final Cut Extreme, premiering at NAB, will allow multiple formats on the timeline. Of course its also rumored to sell at $10,000 MSRP.

DRW

[Frank Nolan]

[Brett Sherman] “I commonly digitize 20 hours or more of material to work with. If I have to render that to DV50 that’s a huge issue.”
If you capture it as DV50 to start with then there is no need to render, it will drop right into the timeline along with your other DV50 footage.
The only time you need to render is if you capture the footage at a different codec to the timeline you are working in, so if you plan accordingly you will be fine.