[Ben Holmes]

Just read thread below. Please don’t double post!

Ben

[Ben Holmes]

Got no real deets for you – but the Dell 24″ monitors are consistantly praised on this forum, for price, quality and connectivity (they have video inputs as well).

I think there’s an updated model out recently.

Of course, I’m a Mac snob so I only ever buy 30″ Apple monitors….

Ben

PS – Keep an eye on Apple refurbs for monitor deals – and I’m kidding re: Apple above – they’re great monitors, but not unbeatable (especially on price) but they sure are purdy.

[Ben Holmes]

Many thanks – to both of you. I did know this stuff once, I’m sure. Sounds like DVCPro50 is the way to go then – best SD quality via firewire from what I can gather.

All the best – another speedy COW response.

Ben

[Ben Holmes]

[Tom Mooney] “When I try to open the file, Window Media Player tells me it cannot recognize the extention”

An Mpeg4 Quicktime needs to be played in Quick Time player – Not WMP.

Ask him to download the latest version of Quicktime Player off Apple’s website. It’s free and easy to use.

[Ben Holmes]

[Quentin Block] “first time I did this I exported from FCP as 8 bit uncompressed Quicktime, then Compressed it (with Compressor), brought into DVDSP and created the files for the DVD.”

Quentin – just ‘export using compressor’ straight from the timeline in FCP – saving an uneccessary export step with no benefit to quality.

If your footage track in DVDSP is specified as 4:3, the DVD player should, by default play it back that way, and the screen should as well. If it’s not then either the DVD player settings are wrong/odd or DVDSP thinks the track is 16:9. You can specify in DVDSP how a DVD Player set to 4:3 will deal with each track in your DVDSP project – 16:9 letterbox / pan-scan or 4:3. Try altering these settings – they appear when you select the track itself in the outline window (normally top right in DVDSP).

Hope this helps.

Ben

[Ben Holmes]

Jeremy. Many thanks – not dismissing the LD, I think it’s a great product with the MBP, but I normally travel a full Mac Pro kit with AJA Kona LH or 3. This is a pretty exceptional circumstance that I just can’t see myself repeating enough to spend even $1000 on the LD. Love the idea otherwise.

Am I correct in thinking DVCPro and DV50 are either a) one and the same or b) exactly the same quality? And can I get DV50 from a deck over firewire?

Dumb questions I know – I just don’t work in these ‘intermediate’ formats. If you see what I mean.

Ben

[Ben Holmes]

[Cofe] ” Final Cut Pro 5.1.3 resolves cases in which cross dissolves did not work as expected in nested sequences containing still images with adjusted motion parameters”

Is this a roundabout way of saying they FINALLY fixed the ‘Out of Memory’ error that can kill your project when using nested items – I was sure it did it most often with gfx/stills. That’s been bothering me for ages – I have avoided all nests as much as possible because of it.

Ben

[Ben Holmes]

[walter biscardi] “ou’ll get the most realtime converting the HDV footage to DVCPro HD during capture. We use the AJA Kona 3 on our systems to do this.”

100 percent absolutely agree – it’s like a different workflow to terrible, horrible HDV. Pics will look better too. You’ll need the HDV deck to do this, capturing via the component connections, so it’s an expensive upgrade with the Kona 3. Depends what your budgets/workload are like. DVCPro HD also requires a faster drive speed – Don’y think 2 striped drives (assuming they’re internal) will do it – having all 4 bays filled and striped should do it, but a faster external array will always help – with reliability and access speed as well as RT streams of playback (always a rather bogus comparison IMHO).

Ben

[Ben Holmes]

[davidjaku] “I am trying to make full res quicktimes for the color correction”

Please look at my above post for viewing anamorphic QTs correctly. Anamorphic footage IS 4:3, FCP just flags it to play 16:9 in the canvas. So, if you re-import those QT’s into other software for CC, you should be able to flag it again as 16:9.

It’s not a problem for you – as long as your QTs are full frame (ie no black bars in the frame) you can work fine with them. Just make sure that when you reimport them into FCP you flag them as anamorphic in FCP. Hate HDV – if you have the HDV player and a Kona HD card, import the footage as DVCProHD next time – looks better, edits better.

Ben

[Ben Holmes]

I could be wrong about this, but if OS X recognises the second monitor via the DVI output, FCP should allow you to use it as a second desktop or ‘video’ window. Try that F7 key on the MBP or check the help for monitor setup.

Where Steve is right about the MXO is that the DVI output you’ll see for video will probably not look very good on your TV, as it will not have the correct refresh rates for video. As I understand it, the MXO is supposed to get rid of that problem and display video ‘properly’ via your monitor/TV. For all I know it does – but looking at video via a TV or monitor is not a proper solution for colour-correction etc. – Be alright for client viewing maybe. Hooking up an output via a FW device will definitely look better, and actually look like interlaced video.

If you can’t get a picture – even mirrored – on the TV, your TV doesn’t support the resolution or refresh rate you have selected. Mine is very fussy via a DVI-HDMI connection (from my Mac Mini) although it works a charm via VGA. If your TV has a VGA input as well, you may want to try that as well via a DVI-VGA lead. I was amazed to find my Loewe give a sharper picture, with widescreen options that I did not get via DVI/HDMI.

Of course, I could be talking rubbish. Always a possibility.

Ben