Al Bergstein
Forum Replies Created
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Thanks to David and Bob for the responses, as I hadn’t turned off my email notifications I saw them.
Bob, I totally get your points. I did download the EOS plug in for L&T, and noticed the 4444, but hadn’t yet used it (I worked on Vegas yesterday instead of FCP). I didn’t see that I could change the setting so that is good to know. I’ll try today.
As to compressor, it finally got down to less than 4 hours, so I think I would have to say that it is a *tool* but one that is worse case scenario in this instances, this said for the sake of anyone searching for a similar answer on this forum in the future. Given that I did manage, as mentioned, to get the whole job completed on a different platform in far less time than compressor took to convert, I didn’t try the EOS plug in. But I have clients and partner filmmakers that will require me to work with them in FCP, so knowing the shortcuts is worth the time online. But not the frustration. (G).
having worked in the computer trade for many decades, I’ve seen flame wars on email since the beginning (it was actually much worse then). And I know that given the partisan nature of any forum the mere mention of alternatives makes some people see red. I’ve got a thick skin but having been on this forum for almost a year, I thought it was better than that. Sigh…
Anyway, thanks for your rational post. I’ll continue to choose the right tool for the right job, given that I am fortunate enough to be able to do that. Now I’m going to view a seminar this morning online on “Killer Titles in FCP” by the Boris crowd, led by Larry Jordan, a person I regard as having one of the necessary books for FCP (Power Tools), it’s saved my bacon on more than one time, and saved me enormous amounts of time. I’m not sure why Apple doesn’t include his information into their documentation. They certainly seem to be the leaders in 3rd party tools like this on both FCP and Vegas (I assume others too). Maybe one of these days I’ll try Avid, or the new ‘supertool’ that is due out as shareware this month..
As an aside, we had a monster wind storm here last night, and my battery backup saved my bacon, and my systems. Worth remembering that mother nature doesn’t wait for you to save your work.
Alf
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You know, given the answers I’ve gotten from some of you folks like Raphael, I’m going to leave this forum and find answers elsewhere. It’s really amazing that you feel that you can insult people that are simply trying to better understand this very complicated and frustrating product.
I’m very clear in my understanding that FCP needs transcoding, as I said in my original post, though the marketing literature of many major camera manufacturers would have you think otherwise. Go look at JVC’s *professional* web site (yes I am aware this is often marketing BS, but it *says* “no transcoding needed” for example. And yes, I understand that this is MOV wrapped MPEG.
https://pro.jvc.com/prof/attributes/features.jsp?model_id=MDL101860
What I meant by “far worse” was that the rendering time of non transcoded video was far worse than I anticipated.
I have been working in FCP for over a year, almost daily. I do know workflows, but your attitude towards someone who is on this board trying to comprehend this stuff is quite pathetic. Your dismissive attitude says more about you than you might imagine. CU Later.
Alf
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I have an i5 w/8 GBs RAM, quad cores, and W7 64x w/Vegas 10 (Trial) and 9e. I think your rendering time is accurate, but would wonder what your times would be if you convert to AVI using Neoscene and then render out. It’s supposed to be a lot more efficient to use AVI for rendering and editing than AVCHD. I still edit in AVCHD for some small jobs, but neoscene so easy to convert that I’m doing it more and more. It *seems* to be reducing my render times, but no tests yet. Converting is batch process that’s very easy and fast. (I just converted 5 clips to AVI that were shot on MOV/AVC format (Canon 7d) and the entire conversion took 33 minutes. I’ve not yet rendered out the content. Maybe I’ll to it tonight.
Update: I just completed the 28 minute clip, rendering the AVI HD video from the Canon 7d (transcoded from MOV to AVI) into Sony AVC for SD output to Vimeo. Looks like I’m getting 28 minutes in 30 minutes for this kind of output on this machine. I’m happy.
Alf
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I agree with John. I use one 512GB internal for Windows 7, and all apps.
1TB internal D: drive is where I put my “active” projects.
External eSata dock (cost like $50 and an esata card for hooking it up) and various 1 and 1.5 TB drives for archiving.No RAID yet, I just copy files using Robocopy.
Alf
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Well, it seems that either I didn’t write clearly or some folks jumped to conclusions. part of the selling points of manufacturers using MOV file wrappers is *because* they can drag and drop into FCP. That’s a marketing issue, JVC and Canon both use it, and Yes, I’ve read the files that have been posted here in the past. However, I thought I would try it to see how bad it is. obviously, it’s far worse than I thought.
The graphics card doesn’t make a difference. The transcoding doesn’t have anything to do with the graphics card, does it? That’s all CPU intensive from what I’ve seen. And not GPU intensive.
As to your thoughts about “use what I prefer”, which I read as “don’t bother us with details, get lost”, I don’t *prefer* either computer, I’m technology neutral. These are all tools, not religious artifacts, though I must say that many people on this board, and others would have you think that these tools are made by divine spirit and not programmers and marketing people making cold hard calculations…
I wasn’t doing any resizing, as I said, it was simple short documenting of an event. Nothing at all other than typical flat titles and lower thirds. I thought I made that clear in my first post.
I have downloaded the EOS plug in for L&T and now that I’m home, will put that to use tomorrow, and see if it helps. They say it does.
While it seemed odd to me also at 3 hours, I shared this both to ask if I did something wrong, like maybe get the answer about the EOS utility, but also to share with folks because I don’t think that people are aware of just how slow compressor is vs. the competition. This is hourly wages money we are talking here, unless everything you do is for free.
Anyway, there is much to like about FCP. No slams intended. Well, I asked what I might have done wrong, and got “learn your workflow”. I know my workflow, so please don’t be condescending. I know people who bought JVC professional cameras because they are drag and drop MOV files. Read my post again. *I transcoded on Windows and completed my job in the time it took to transcode on my Mac…” So if the answer is ‘transcode on the Mac” the answer is, ” I don’t think so..” But I will try the EOS utility and see if it improves this process dramatically. Parity with my Vegas machine with Neoscene will keep me on the Mac, as I have some others in town I sometimes work with that don’t have both machines.
sheesh…
Alf
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If you find one let me know. I just went through the same thing last month. No luck after days of trying many solutions. None worked.
Alf
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I’m running MS’s excellent Security Essentials, free. I’ve not had any issues with 10 and Win 7 with it. At least none I’m aware of.
Alf
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Thanks VERY much. This is the kind of info I needed.
Alf
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Just caught up with this thread. Great information.
Dave, in answer to your question, I do understand that Windows supports hi resolution monitors. I have the *same* HDMI 1080p 24″ monitor with two inputs attached to both my Mac Pro and HP Win 7 64 bit machine. I toggle between them for what I need. So whatever calibration the monitor has, is the same, the variable is the underlying computer and it’s graphics card and tuning.
No I haven’t professionally calibrated either the Mac or the Windows machine, I need to but haven’t sprung for the device yet. So this is like any standard user that would try and use either of these machines. I’m not doing a huge volume of commercial work, but I have been getting paid for what I do.
I do editing preview on both machines. The *same footage* looks noticeably better coming off the mac. No question about it.
I don’t understand your comment about “no need for application to support a graphics card.” Of course the OS is where the drivers live to support the app, that’s what I was meaning. Whether the app can output the right quality of resolution would be some code in the app talking to the OS, which is all the tuneable settings in Vegas or is this no longer true in Windows 7?
Perhaps my problem is that if I properly calibrate the Windows machine to the monitor (which is what I guess that device will do for me), I’ll get a closer rendition to the Mac output on it. But that’s the point of my post, the Mac just does it without me messing with it… if there’s something I need to know about settings on the Windows machine, (i.e. what *are* the right settings for us in the project properties dialogue? there is no training material I’ve seen to help me understand when to change those settings!) And also in Options>preferences>Video and Preview Device …for example, should I be tuning the Monitor color profile? I just can’t find decent info on those variables. It might help those of us who are struggling to just get things done fast and clean, to use more of Vegas.
I agree with you, I get simple things done “much” faster on Vegas. Cross fades are a perfect example, and for simple jobs “why transcode?” It *makes* me money to not transcode when the job is simple.
So some decent pointers to some training on how to properly color balance this highly tuneable machine is needed. For me and apparently others on this thread.
The Mac can operate on assumptions of underlying hardware and software that we on Windows can’t. So we need help. Sony? You listening?
Alf
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I’ll give it a try too. I’ve been working on some footage that seems like it might need something like this. I’ll send you an email in a minute.
Alf