Alex Elkins
Forum Replies Created
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Just zoom in to the clip until it fills the frame. Double click the clip in the timeline, then go to the Motion tab in the Viewer window and scale up to about 133%.
You can then copy that clip and paste the same motion settings to every other clip in the timeline.
Best,
Alex Elkins -
Hi Swami,
It’s difficult to suggest a format that’s both good for storing online and also for editing with.
My suggestion is perhaps something you’ve already considered, but if not it may be useful to you.
Have a look at some software called CatDV – it’s ideal for archiving. Basically you capture the tape, then CatDV converts it to a proxy file. Then in CatDV you can review files, add annotations etc and even do offline editing with the proxies. You can then send an XML from CatDV to FCP, and tell FCP to re-link to the original hi-res files.
It’s not exactly what you’re asking for but it’s a solution which might work for you.Someone else may be able to offer different solutions.
All the best,
Alex Elkins -
Hi Alexander,
I often deliver commercials as Quicktime files. The company who distribute the commercials to the channels specify that I deliver SD anamorphic with PhotoJPEG compression. The quality is pretty good and seems to be compatible with various other systems from my experiance. That said, I’ve no idea whether the PhotoJPEG format would work with an Avid, but I’m sure someone will tell you.
You could also consider exporting to an Avid DNX codec, which you can download from the Avid website.
One thing is I’d recommend doing your conversion to SD using Compressor, not FCP. Render your HD timeline to ProRes (not XDCam), export, then bring that file into Compressor for the conversion.
All the best,
Alex Elkins -
[Stephen Trombley] “What do I need in the way of hardware and software that would take me through all stages of post-production to deliver a broadcast master”
Hi Stephen,
As I’m in the UK, my answer is based on the figures I know in the industry here. Hopefully it is still of some use to you.
To put together an FCP machine capable of online editing here are the main things you need (in my opinion):
– Mac Pro, with 8GB RAM or more
– AJA Kona 3 (or LHi if you’re not working at 2K, i.e. RED camera etc)
– Calibrated monitor (FSI seem to be popular and very competitively priced)
– Fast storage – we use a local fibre channel RAID here. You could get away with an e-SATA array. If you have more than one machine you may consider shared storage.
– Final Cut Studio (obviously!)
– The usual peripherals – monitors, speakers etcAll of that can come in at around £15,000 (pounds not dollars!) and from there really you can add as much to it as you like. VTRs, bigger and better monitors etc.
Basically a Final Cut online system is very good value.
All the best,
Alex Elkins -
[Rafael Amador] “I think that most of the people working with XDCAM have no problem at all, like my self.”
Hi Rafael,
I’m sure you’re right, not all people have the problem. We just hear about the people who do, but it does seem that A LOT of people have this exact problem though. The question crops up every week, and there still isn’t a solid reason or, more importantly, a solution for it other than work-arounds.
All the best,
Alex Elkins -
Hi Kevin,
Inside FCP…
Tools> Render Manager…
From here you can delete render files for entire projects or specific sequences. Very handy.
All the best,
Alex Elkins -
Hi Andrews,
It seems like everyone using XDCAM EX material faces this problem, myself included.
The standard answers are:
– Turn off clip thumbnails (both in timeline and browser)
– Turn off audio waveform
– Keep projects under around 100mb. If the project is over that sort of size, it can be split by cut/pasting certain clips or sequences into new projects.Transcoding to ProRes would probably solve the problem, but I’d guess it’d take much longer to do that than to just carry on editing and deal with it crashing quite often. Just keep saving!
All the best,
Alex Elkins -
Hi Erik,
Do you have a Kona card and a standalone DVD recorder? If so, the Kona card can output with a TC reader, which you run straight into your DVD recorder. It saves on a LOT of rendering because it does everything in realtime. Of course, the edit suite is out of action while this is going on though.
If you have to do this in software, render the clips with the TC reader, then export a Quicktime reference file, and bring that into Compressor. From there you can apply one of the DVD presets, then create the DVD in DVD Studio Pro.One quick suggestion here, if you’re stuck doing this with FCP/Compressor/DVDSP: As this is presumably for your client to pick out TCs for a rough cut, you might consider setting your timeline to render in lower resolution & frame rate, in the Sequence Settings tab. This will seriously speed up the rendering in FCP, and for preview purposes it should be fine.
All the best,
Alex Elkins -
[Stephen Linehan] “managed to “Log and Transfer” the clips into FCP……only I couldn’t do anything with them then.”
Do you actually have the clips transferred successfully into FCP now? If so, what do you mean when you say you can’t actually use them?
The latest version of FCP is version 7. However, you can upgrade to 6.0.6 for free, because you already have version 6.x.x.
The Mac OS you have can also be updated for free, or you can buy version 10.6 (Snow Leopard). This isn’t the cause of your problem though, 10.5 should work fine with the clips you have.
It may be that you also need to update your version of Quicktime. Again all of these updates should be available via Software Update in the Apple menu, or on the Apple support website, all for free.
All the best,
Alex Elkins -
Hi Stephen,
Have you tried attempting to open single clips at a time?
[Stephen Linehan] “Final Cut Pro 6.0.1 part of Studio 2
MAC OS X version 10.5.2 running on a MAC Pro”You may want to try updating FCP and your OS – both of these are out of date, so there may be fixes incorporated into the upgrades. Run software update or download from the Apple website.
FCP 6 is at version 6.0.6
It’s always worth trashing FCP preferences when you have a recurring error. There is some free software called Preference Manager which automates this process, among other things.
All the best,
Alex Elkins