[Ben Holmes]

[todd reid] “To each their own”

Amen to that – and let me add “fool me once…” – I always give a make another chance, every one has odd bad models. When I get two in a row, I call it a day. Nowadays, all my client masters are backed up on RAID 5 storage (I won’t say which vendor) at base, so these G-RAIDs etc. are just field drives. As such, I also carry a spare at all times…

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[Ben Holmes]

My problems were with the firewire connectors – they did not like being repeatedly connected/disconnected. When I cracked one open, I found it was basically spot soldered to the board, with no real attachment to the chassis of the drive. Coupled with other reports from colleagues, and on here of drives failures it was enough for me to make a switch, although I fully accept my drives get put through a bit more of a stress test than others!

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[Ben Holmes]

As with the previous full number update, projects require updating, and once re-saved, cannot be used with FCP6.

I have had no problems with updated projects, except to note that renders of clips with speed changes are lost – I assume this is to do with the way FCP now processes speed changes (a much improved system from what I have seen). Other than that, no problems.

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[Ben Holmes]

Much the same happened to me ordering a g-raid mini. It looks like G-Tech are in the process of refilling their supply chain with updated versions of some products – in the meantime, they ran out of the older stock – whoops. I’m sure this was not planned, and is pretty bad business – I wonder if it had something to do with G-Tech being bought recently?

Whatever (pure speculation above) it’s worth waiting for the G-Tech drive, or looking for one still in stock at a reseller. Unless you plan on never unplugging the drive or moving it, I wouldn’t recommend Lacie drives, as I have had too many failures in the past due to poor quality connectors – others here will tell you of drive problems as well. I only use G-Tech now for outside broadcast work.

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[Ben Holmes]

Put the clip in the timeline, double click to open it in the viewer, go to the motion tab on the clip, put playhead or first frame. Click the diamond next to scale to set a keyframe. Move sliders for scale as required. Click on the diamond by position, then the cross for position as required (drag cross to canvas to move footage). Move playhead to last frame of clip, repeat process (for end of move – will not require you to press diamond button as new keyframes are automagically created now). Done.

If you want dissolves between clips, note that the two keyframes need to be at the first and last frames of the dissolves, which will be earlier/later than with cuts, so apply the dissolve first.

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[Ben Holmes]

As Rafael says, this is because you have scaling in the sequence – check the motion tab for the clip you are trying to apply the garbage matte too.

Change your sequence settings to match the clips, then go to the first clip and hit the x button on the motion tab to set everything to 100 percent – if the new settings are correct, you will not need to render the clip (with the filters disabled) in the timeline. If this works, then copy the clip and paste the motion attributes to all other clips to resize all to fit properly – assuming you did not want any resized…

Cheers,

Ben

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[Ben Holmes]

[gary adcock] “I do not believe that your BMD Extreme card can do this, but I might be wrong”

If you have the BM card, ensure you have the latest drivers for the series, as it lists a number of new setups for 2k and RED footage. I cannot verify your exact requirements will be met, but it certainly looks as though there is considerably more support for your workflow – and about time too!

In answer to the original question – yes! The live scaling options in the Kona and BM cards are specifically to facilitate 2k production, as few FCP suites have 2k monitoring….

What actual resolution have they transferred them at? RED 2k is not the same as 2k for film, and at 2:1 (a common RED frame aspect) it’s actually 1024 vertically – so below the 1080 required for full HD resolution, and would leave bars at the top and bottom of an HD frame.

Just a thought.

Ben

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[Ben Holmes]

FCP will not import or play .avi files. If, however, they are playable in quicktime (via Perian) and you cannot export them, it suggests the file is corrupted or faulty in some way.

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[Ben Holmes]

Hello Julian! How the hell are you? Still directing football, like the good old days at MTV?!

If you find the answers here a bit techie, let me know – I’ll sort something out for you!

Cheers,

Ben

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[Ben Holmes]

If you have the FCS3 upgrade (so have FCP7) you can now bypass DVDSP for simple Blu Ray creation – just click on ‘Share’ on the file menu select the pretty obvious options for Blu-Ray. If you have a player that can play AVCHD disks, you can even burn them using good old DVD-Rs (although the bitrate is lower). In theory a PS3 can play these, although I’ve yet to test it with FCP generated discs.

I’ve been using an internal Blu-Ray drive and an external burner for over a year now and had no problems before using Toast (and some limited success with huge issues using Encore) and it all worked fine on a Mac, contrary to all the whingeing about Macs and Blu Ray.

Now it’s even simpler.

One caveat – always check the client’s player can play your burnt disks. Not all will have the correct hardware or firmware (think DVD-R a few years ago). If you need total compatability you will have to consider a more pro setup, as Walter suggests. For client or personal approval, the above works fine.

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