[Ann Clark]

The main question here is — what do FCP users prefer to use to catalog audio?

Is iTunes “intended” to be used to catalog audio within a FCP workflow? I would argue that, yes, it is intended for that purpose because it has those qualities. I would also say that it is intended for the end-consumer of music from the iTunes store.

Again, for anyone reading the forum who actually uses some other software for this purpose, what do you use?

Just looking for people’s preferences.

[Ann Clark]

Your comments were somewhat helpful, but not what was needed for this exercise.

Thanks for your input, though.

MacPro 2 x 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon 14GB memory – OSX10.5.8 FCP6

[Ann Clark]

Really? you find lots of pros using iDVD?

I was actually surprised to find so little reference to iDVD in Creative Cow. I thought at least there might be a small thread or forum on it, but really there was just nothing.

Just for the record, my friend who’s making the disk isn’t a “pro.” He just wanted something fast and dirty — and as a non-techie, he asked me how to do it. So I asked the Cow.

He’s just some guy trying to make some other guy a disk for a one-off sample to send to a festival. At least that’s what I gathered.

If you seem to bump into a lot of people using iDVD, it might be worthwhile to start a Creative Cow thread for it. That way, those who want to help answer an iDVD question can do so, and those who desire to GENTLY steer the forum’s posters toward DVDSP could do so, too.

MacPro 2 x 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon 14GB memory – OSX10.5.8 FCP6

[Ann Clark]

Okay, then their instructions are just a bit wrong. It said that the menu wouldn’t play if you follow their directions, but apparently that’s not the case.

MacPro 2 x 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon 14GB memory – OSX10.5.8 FCP6

[Ann Clark]

Wow, dude.

I don’t think you read my post correctly.

The manual says that what we want to do IS possible. I’m not asking for the moon here – just something simple.

The program just wasn’t performing to spec — and I thought I’d do my friend a favor and ask on Creative Cow.

The iDVD documentation really does give instructions for creating exactly what my co-worker wants.

The program just doesn’t seem to do what it says it will.

As for Apple, I realize people are very loyal to the company, and for the most part, I am too. They sort of left me disappointed here.

If you know how to make iDVD do what we need it to do, great – let me know.

MacPro 2 x 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon 14GB memory – OSX10.5.8 FCP6

[Ann Clark]

What I found out when I went to the Goog’s website is that, indeed, they didn’t want a slate, countdown, etc., just the clip containing the ad. This, I believe, is new for them. What’s not new are requirements like upper-field dominant, and some really specific requirements for size and Mbps.

Anybody know why they would require upper-field dominant, rather than the more common lower-field dominant?

Anyway, although the problem is not entirely solved, it was helpful to finally find out from the client that they were taking our ad to air on Googals odd, little cable system. Actually, it’s not cable, but rather, satellite. If anyone wants to be on that satellite system, they can just contact Dish TV directly. You don’t have to go through the Goggle website and do all the bidding, etc.

MacPro 2 x 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon 14GB memory – OSX10.5.8 FCP6

[Ann Clark]

Thanks for the replies.

Yes I’m sure I could get the hang of DVD Studio Pro, with just a few tutorials. My co-worker, eh, maybe not… he likes to take the simplest route, and has asked me a question specifically about iDVD (which he has on his machine) rather than DVDSP, which he probably hasn’t loaded on his machine yet. He was having enough trouble navigating iDVD. [Can I say it… new computer + old guy = ask Ann a lot of questions…]

The Ken Stone method for creating the DVD sounded like it would do the trick. Convincing someone else to load DVDSP on their machine and try those instructions, well…

If iDVD actually did what its help text claims it did, we wouldn’t be outgrowing iDVD. Sounds like most people just start learning DVDSP because they’ve bumped into a problem with iDVD. Thanks, Apple… ;-0

I don’t, myself, have much use for making DVDs with nice menus, chapters, markers, etc. We’re not that kind of production house. So, I didn’t want to learn a new program I’d hardly use myself, and didn’t want to have to talk my co-worker through an unfamiliar interface, so he could make one little DVD.

Hey, maybe he could mail me a DVD and I could roll the production onto a DVD with my machine. Oh wait… 😉

MacPro 2 x 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon 14GB memory – OSX10.5.8 FCP6

[Ann Clark]

Just to follow up, and for anyone in the future bumping into this same problem, here was the solution that worked for me in this case.

I typically use Waveforms, as they are vital to the intensely accurate cutting that is required for commercials. (So, please, nobody tell me to turn them off – I need ’em!)

I opened several projects on the main disk I use for editing – every project exhibited similar audio sync problems. (And no, my active projects do not reside on the same disk as FCP.)

I opened a project on a different disk, and its audio sounded fine. So, I returned to the disk where most of my active projects reside, and discarded the files inside the Waveform Cache. This allowed FCP to start fresh with new waveforms, and the problem disappeared.

Prior to discarding the waveforms, I had already tried the usual things, which I do BEFORE jumping on Creative Cow for help: trashing preferences, running Disk Utility, even recreating sequences to replace the sequences where problems occurred. None of these basic steps had an effect.

The one move that worked was discarding waveforms. I don’t know if this was the fault of FCP, because it is possible that a waveform file became corrupted through other means. However, if audio problems seem to persist across different projects, discarding waveforms may be a solution.

I realize that only an editor with numerous, audio-intensive projects may ever bump into this issue, but if there’s anyone else with this problem, perhaps my solution is one way of solving it.

Hope this is helpful.

MacPro 2 x 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon 14GB memory – OSX10.5.8 FCP6

[Ann Clark]

You could be right that they don’t want the countdown, etc. any more. That would make these arbitrary frame counts make more sense.

I’ll have to investigate the Goog specs, myself.

The client is spitting out the error message to us, so that’s basically all I have.

My feeling is that the client has been uploading the spot themselves on that dumb Goog air time site, and not really understanding what is being asked for.

This same client already tried uploading a .WMV web video of the spot that we sent them for web-use only (I think they were trying to get away with something). Of course, that was just a small file, 320×240 pixels, and Goog busted them for it.

So we sent them the full size thing, adding bars, slate, countdown, and all, because in the past that had worked for other people, at least by all reports.

If I find out something useful, I’ll report back…

MacPro 2 x 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon 14GB memory – OSX10.5.8 FCP6

[Ann Clark]

Joey (and everybody):

Seems like there are standards, and yet not standards. And then there are standards that make no sense. 😉

Recently a client, to whom I sent a broadcast-format spot electronically, wrote back to say the spot was “rejected” and they forwarded some specs that included a spot length of “450, 900, 1350, 1800, 2250, 2700, 3600 frames” — and mine apparently came in at 3541 frames, which included 15 seconds of black at the end.

This is the first time I’ve had a spot rejected, and I’ve been creating commercials for a number of years. The client finally admitted he was sending the spot to the dreaded Googgle for airing. Previously, I hadn’t had any difficulty with sending files that eventually ended up in their system.

Since I’m supposedly 59 frames off, I am wondering what they expect. There’s nothing mentioned about how long each part needs to be. Currently, the formula I use is 1 minute bars/tone, 10 second slate, 8 second countdown, 2-pop, 30-second ad, and then 15 seconds of black at the end.

I could change out the countdown to add 2 seconds, but hey, does this make any sense, anyway? Why not add 2 more seconds of black to the end – or for that matter, 2 seconds of bars/tone? Or, absurdly, why not add 2 seconds to the commercial itself?? 😉 How is it important to have this frame count, when there’s no spec for what is required for each piece? And what’s a 450-frame spot?

As someone else points out, many times, when the spot is ingested, the leader material is chopped off, leaving 1 black frame at the head of the spot.

ALSO – they said the video bit rate was 5.97 Mbps and they wanted 6.0Mbps. Cripes. Compressor made the video (I picked one of the standard output formats), so I don’t know how to make this fit their spec.

(Mine was a :30 spot — how the heck would a 60-second or a 120-second long-form spot fit in this scenario?)

Anybody ever work with the Goog? What’s their thing?

MacPro 2 x 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon 14GB memory – OSX10.5.8 FCP6