FRUSTRATED!!!! Any Real-Time render solution for Chroma Key in FCP 4.5? Is Avid/Mojo better?

[Shahriar Rahman]

I used to do this, and I know many people who output this way regularly. However, I had two concerns about playing from the timeline when outputting:

1) I thought that just playing from the timeline may increase the chance of a frame dropping. Print to video renders it in memory and it makes the system “primed” for outputting to ensure no dropped frames. Am I incorrect? Is there really no difference?

2) Now that we have the Decklink HD card installed, I do not get our Sony DSR-25 deck to recognise the video int he timeline over firewire, even after I make sure that the Video and Audio playback are set to Firewire NTSC DV in the AUdio/Video settings.

Any comments/suggestions?

-shah

[Walter Biscardi]

[Shah] “Do you by any chance know of any significant differences between the capture/output feature set between the two?”

Not really. I only tested a Decklink card briefly last year. I pretty much migrated from CineWave to Kona 2 and Aurora PipePro.

[Shah] “Also, do you know if the Cinewave 4.7 is supported by 10.4 Tiger?”

No clue, you’ll need to check with Pinnacle. Just be advised that the product line is all but dead at Pinnacle so be sure you really want it for the Chroma Key before purchase.

[Shah] “One more thing: any thoughts on the post earlier in this thread of the Motion 2 PrimatteRT chroma-key filter under FCP 5 which is supposed to be software-accelerated real time?”

No thoughts yet. I just installed Tiger / FCP Studio onto my secondary editing system and will test it out on a “non mission critical” project for at least a month before putting it onto our primary editing system. I want to make sure everything works as advertised with both Tiger and the full FCP Studio. Will certainly let you folks know what I think as I play with everything.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Creative Genius, Biscardi Creative Media
https://www.biscardicreative.com

Now in Production, “The Rough Cut,” https://www.theroughcutmovie.com

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Videomansf]

Both! some ,like one in 200 frames might drop, but you can fix this with a ram preview… that will take about play time. Or, you can export to the shows codec and import the footage (once again about play time). Do not however, import the motion timeline into FCP and expect the FCP render to be speedy, by doing this your avoiding the power of the GPU, preferably a 6800 NV or X800XT ATI.

VM

[Mel Matsuoka]

[Matte]“If you have fully rendered your timeline, there is absolutely NO NECESSITY to use “Print to Video” at all. The quality is identical if you just PLAY the timeline.

Make sure your audio playback is set to “High Quality” and perform an “Audio Mixdown” before you dub out.

Just hit record on the deck and play the timeline.
You can add the Color Bars, tone, slate and countdown right on the timeline.
You can even very closely hit a given TC on a tape, if you are just careful when you hit the “play” on FCP. “

This is “good” advice (note my use of quotes :P) only if you are laying off a short sequence, such as a TV:30. In all other cases, laying to tape by just hitting the spacebar is BAD ADVICE. I don’t see the point of doing it this way when there are so many potential pitfalls with it that are eliminated by using PTV/ETT instead.

What is the point of “even very closely hit(ting) a given TC on a tape”, when you can hit the given TC exactly, by using Edit to Tape? What happens when FCP decides to drop frames on you, when you’re 26 minutes into a 30 minute program? What happens when you’re in the middle of laying off your program, and someone (or some-thing) accidentally hits a key on your keyboard? What happens when you forget to switch the Audio Playback setting to “High”?

The PTV/ETT tool is there for a reason. It alleviates all these potential problems, and is designed to make your life easier. To me the only advantage to hitting the spacebar for mastering out is that you save yourself the 10 nanoseconds that it takes to call up the PTV/ETT dialog box in the first place.

Aloha,
mel