[Alan Okey]

If you’re an After Effects user, you should strongly consider configuring your Mac Pro with the fastest CPUs you can afford – AE is limited by CPU speed, not graphics card performance.

Get the nVidia GeForce 8800 GT graphics card – you won’t regret it.

Order your Mac Pro with the stock amount of RAM and a single 500 or 750GB hard drive. Any additional RAM or hard drives can be found at much better prices from third party suppliers. Don’t buy additional hard drives or RAM from Apple – they charge a hefty premium for both. 4GB of RAM would be a good start, 8GB would be great. At least one separate hard drive for video/scratch would be a good idea.

If you’re doing much more than DV format video, consider adding 2 or 3 additional drives (you can have a total of four internal drives). Ideally, you could use Apple’s Disk Utility to stripe 3 of the 4 internal drives together in a RAID 0 configuration for faster storage throughput – just make sure you back up your data, because RAID 0 has no redundancy.

[Alan Okey]

Mark,

The ATI X1900 XT is somewhat notorious for having these problems. Check the Apple Discussion Forums (Mac Pro forum) for the sordid details.

I purchased the X1900 XT as an upgrade for my Mac Pro last year and after about 9 months I started having exactly the problems you described. Fortunately the card was under warranty, so Apple replaced it free of charge. All of the problems I was having went away upon replacing the card.

It’s rumored that there are two versions of the card – a Rev. 1 and a Rev. 2. I can’t confirm this, but I can confirm that many people have experienced issues with this card, especially after upgrading to Leopard. Whether the X1900 XT fails because it slowly cooks itself over time due to ineffective cooling (leading to irreversible degeneration) or whether users simply got a bad batch remains uncertain.

Have Apple replace your card under warranty and see if that fixes the problem.

[Alan Okey]

[David McGiffert] “Alan,

I want to also add how interesting and clear that link is.
Thanks, I learned a lot.

David”

You’re quite welcome. It really is astonishing to me how many people are not aware of this issue. Then again, if everyone knew everything, there’s be no consulting work left for me to do!

😉

[Alan Okey]

This is another link that explains the problem in a way that’s a bit easier to understand:

https://www.signvideo.com/dv-black-levels-dvd-authoring-mpeg-2-part-1.htm

Good luck!

[Alan Okey]

Please describe how you are feeding signal to your NTSC monitor. If you’re sending video via Firewire out of the Mac to a DV deck or camcorder, then connecting your NTSC preview monitor to the analog output of the deck or camcorder, you’re most likely seeing an image that’s darker than it should actually look. That’s because most DV camcorders and DV decks do not add setup on the analog outputs – they output a black level of 0 IRE instead of the 7.5 IRE black level of NTSC. That’s why your DVDs look washed out; your preview monitor is displaying your footage too dark when you’re doing color correction in FCP.

Unless you use a proc amp or DV equipment that is capable of adding setup on its analog outputs, you aren’t seeing an accurate representation of your footage.

More info here:

https://www.adamwilt.com/DV-FAQ-tech.html#Setup

[Alan Okey]

[drazen stader] “Can Kona Lhe have multiple outputs at the same time…such connecting component out for SD CRT monitor and at the same time monitoring through HD-SDI on JVC HD LCD monitor…
“

Yes, the Kona LHe has three simultaneously active video outputs – two independent HD-SDI/SD-SDI outputs and one analog output that can be either component (HD or SD), Y/C (SD) or composite (SD). You can simultaneously output HD and downconverted SD signals as you described. Examples:

SDI 1: HD
SDI 2: HD
Analog: SD (downconverted)

SDI 1: HD
SDI 2: SD (downconverted)
Analog: HD

Etc.

The Kona LHe user manual is freely available for download on AJA’s site here:

https://www.aja.com/pdf/support/AJA_KonaLHe_manual.pdf

[Alan Okey]

I have the Kona LHe and a Sony PVM-14L5/1. The Kona is a great card, and is a perfect match for Color and Final Cut Pro. Along with your Mac Pro with the ATI X1900XT, with the Kona card and a good monitor you will have the perfect system for Color.

If you’re just doing SD DigiBeta, look for a good Sony PVM-M, PVM-L or BVM series CRT. It will be better than any LCD for SD color work.

No LCD monitor will reproduce SD as well as a CRT, so if you need an HD monitor, don’t plan on using it for both HD and SD – just use it for HD.

[Alan Okey]

[Robert Morris] “Through my research I have discovered that FCP is 4:2:2 and the Quicktime Animation codec is also 4:2:2.”

That’s incorrect. The Quicktime Animation codec is 4:4:4 RGB, and can have an alpha channel. The gamma shift is not a 4:2:2 vs. 4:4:4 issue, it’s a YCrCb (YUV) to RGB conversion issue.

For a great codec reference resource, check out:

https://codecs.onerivermedia.com/

The central issue for you is how the post house is digitizing the 16mm footage: are they capturing via telecine to an HD video codec/format, or capturing via datacine to DPX, Cineon or TGA image sequences? Aside from HDCAM SR, HD video formats are YUV 4:2:2. Does the post house offer digitizing to a 4:4:4 RGB HD video codec? You may not even be starting out with 4:4:4 RGB video to begin with.

I’d suggest exporting your AE comps as .tga or .tif image sequences. The client can then open the image sequences in Quicktime and export them as self-contained Quicktime movie files using the appropriate codec for editing in their FCP project.

[Alan Okey]

This is normal if you are viewing the timeline in preview mode and haven’t rendered the dissolve. Try forcing a render by checking all of the “Render All” options in the render menu.

[Alan Okey]

[Devin Crane] “You must be a Sony guy, Ikegami has had flat screen CRTs for years now.”

Sorry, just going by what I’ve seen in the B&H catalogs. I was a Sony guy, back when they made CRTs. Now I don’t know what I am…

😉