[Andreas Kiel]

Hi Eddie,

I talked to the ARRI guys today because of your issue and some other issues. As said there will be a firmware update very soon and they are willing to help. Also other things seem to come up soon.

Another thing is to understand the QT file structure and the way FCP (or any other NLE) does handle these files.
Unfortunately not all of the options or rules are documented which make a QT file a good QT file or do make it a good QT file for FCP (or anything else). With QT there are – like with any container format – some headers which are used do describe how the content should be handled or anything which might be used for anything else. There might be subtitles, markers, chapters or something like an iXML with audio.
Jeremy does know a bit about how I handle for example P2 MXF and that files can be prepared upfront to contain the right data.
It’s like juggling — sometimes this is done well, sometimes not (even within the Apple programming teams).

One thing (as I said above) you always can do is to strip down a QT file to its basics via simple AppleScript and a bit of reading and logic. That’s why I learned AppleScript and the basics of QT.
You also may try to use the ‘Batch Export’ or maybe Compressor to ‘flatten’ the files to the basics.

Andreas

Spherico
https://www.spherico.com/filmtools

[Andreas Kiel]

I saw this thread by chance.

With the Alexa – as with any new hardware or software there had been issues – with the early firmwares/releases.
The firmware might have been responsible to write not complete FCP compatible QT files as FCP looks deeper into the file than for example QT Player 7.
Earlier versions of the firmware did write more and especially different timecodes to the QT file. These TC tracks could have different timebase, for example 24 and 25 and 30 or whatever. This might cause a sync issue. Different from the RED the Alexa saves a real flag to each timecode track and FCP will read that because of the flag.
As the Alexa does not record audio this can be a serious issue.

Earlier versions did write a ‘film info’ into the QT file which could make FCP to be confused . As far as I know the current version does not do that any more.
But latter can make the FCP Media Manager working a bit strange as it doesn’t know what to do. The ‘-v’ normally shows that a file isn’t complete.

To solve the current problem you may write a little AppleScript for QT Player 7 which automates to save all your stuff as a new file.
Next time make sure to have the latest firmware installed and the camera operator will have done the camera setup in a way you need. The Alexa manual is not that thick or big, but you need to understand the options.

My AlexaTool can help FCP to understand better what’s going on – as long as you use XML. XML can make FCP to modify the actual QT metadata of a file when working with FCP. That’s the reason sometimes people see a new modification date of a file even though they think they never touched it before,

The Alexa has been proved to be working fine with FCP and that tool in a real lot of soaps here. Also ARRI did support kind of complex commercial with some big company and some big car manufacturer in the US in last december using the tool and everything was flawless.

There will be an Alexa firmware update probably next week. Also ARRI support will be probably very willing to help (I’m in Germany and can call them here, in the US I think they have an office in Burbank)

Maybe it helps a bit to understand.

Andreas

P.S.
I don’t work for ARRI nor do I have any business relation to them. I even haven’t touched or or seen an Alexa — only the files created with it. And I’ve read the manual.

Spherico
https://www.spherico.com/filmtools

[Andreas Kiel]

Hi Sascha,

Yes I’m german. 🙂
Just saw that my reply missed some part of the code.
I’ll try again:

<parameter>
<parameterid>size</parameterid>
<name>Size</name>
<valuemin>0</valuemin>
<valuemax>200</valuemax>
<value>24</value>
</parameter>


Andreas

[Andreas Kiel]

Hi Sascha,

I’m a bit late on this thread.
It’s not that complicated with those XMLs. First do not export the whole project as XML just the sequence.
In TextEdit (or way better – because of Hebrew – in TextWrangler, TextWrangler is free) open the XML.
Search for your font name for example Helvetica. Then replace all '>Helvetica<‘ with for example with ‘>Arial Hebrew<'. The brackets do help to replace exactly what you want to replace.
Font size is a bit more complicated. If you want to change for example font size from 24 to 21 there probably will be many XML entries which contain 24 and might not be related to font size.
So to understand and figure out what ’24’ you need to replace, create a new sequence and drag 1 of your subtitles into it. Then export the sequence as XML. Open it in the text editor. Now look for ‘generatoritem’. From there you can scroll down until you find the XML entry for the size might look like:

Now copy the above into the 'Find' entry of the 'Find and Replace'. Change the 24 with the 21 in this example, copy all and paste into the 'Replace' entry of the 'Find and Replace'. Now activate your 'real' sequence and replace all.
If you got several different kinds of text generators within your sequence you have to do it for each kind of generator.

Another thing you can do is to use TitleExchange
https://www.spherico.com/filmtools/TitleExchange/

Andreas

[Andreas Kiel]

You even can go further and export the text track as text, add your comments (without changing the timing) and re-import again. You may change the chapter after that as well.

Andreas

[Andreas Kiel]

In QT Player Pro go to the properties (cmd-j) and switch the text (chapter) track to visible. The marker names will be displayed above the video.

Andreas

[Andreas Kiel]

Dupelicate the text track.
Move 1 of the titles the amount of pixels you need, copy and paste atributes to the others of this track.

Andreas

Spherico
https://www.spherico.com/filmtools

[Andreas Kiel]

Hi Paul,

I’m not that familiar with Cat DV. Maybe you can send me an example how description can be saved/exported from Cat DV.

Regards
Andreas

kiel(at)spherico(dot)com

Spherico
https://www.spherico.com/filmtools

[Andreas Kiel]

Hi Raul,

Here it is:
https://www.spherico.com/filmtools/TitleExchange/TitleExchangePro_SL.dmg

Drop me a mail if you got any questions.

Andreas

Spherico
https://www.spherico.com/filmtools

[Andreas Kiel]

You can use my TitleExchange for that.

Andreas

Spherico
https://www.spherico.com/filmtools