[Ben Wharton]

Hi George

Something that no one seems to have flagged up:

1. In HD there is no such thing as anamorphic – it’s square pixels all the way.

2. Only FCP 5.12 / 5.14 can interpret the full range of DVC Pro HD codecs that the P2 cameras use.

I guess (1) could happen if they put an anamorphic adapter on the lens (why?). BUT what you should be aware of is that we had issues on a recent project dropping P2 footage into After Effects 7 – it interpreted the footage AS IF it were anamorphic. Which was odd.

FCP 5.1.4 looks like a fairly safe release (making sure 3rd party plugins / hardware are installed / re-installed after).

As for Digi layoff, you’ll need a realtime downconvert card/box or a re-render in a new timeline set-up for uncompressed SD, dragging your cut HD timelime into your viewer window and inserting onto your new timeline… Making sure your distort is set correctly for the sequence once it’s there. (right click on compliled video on timeline, and say show in viewer. Then click on motion tab to change distort value of whole seq)

At least I think so! I’m still making the Avid -> FCP transition too!

Good luck.

Ben

[Ben Wharton]

Hi Rich

Thanks for the reply.

My FCP example was just suggesting that MPEG4s could be done right and wrong. The problem is that the MPEG4s that this department is dealing with are *User Generated* – they’re uploads for a documentary film website. We give very detailed instructions for asset upload but you’d be amazed (or maybe not) at how completely wrong many of the files are in terms of specs – sample rates, frame sizes, frame rates, codecs etc…

While going through FCP or dumping to tape wouod certainly “Normalise” the footage – it would generate a massive amount of extra work for the department dealing with the films and probably degrade the often fairly degraded films already with yet more encoding stages.

Premiere Elements is a shockingly powerful program for its price. If I can get it to work (accepting a lack of batch export),for what we want it to do, it will thrash FCP Studio and Sorenson Squeeze in one go. That’s

[Ben Wharton]

Anyone?

[Ben Wharton]

Hi Lars

Thanks so much for the reply.

I’ve certainly heard of the AE7 preference menu, thought it might be an option, but hadn’t had a chance to test settings. So I’ll give that a go.

I still wonder about the graphics card tho as it wasn’t crapping out on the other systems…

When you got those replacement graphics card from Apple did they supply driver disks with them? Were they different cards or just the same models?

Does anyone else know about the related question: i.e purchasing an NVIDIA card NOT from Apple to replace the ATI one and whether it HAS to be one of the same models originally bundled with the G5s or could it be one of those bundled with the new Intel-based Mac Pros or in fact any NVIDIA card?

Thanks again.

Ben

[Ben Wharton]

Glenn –

The only work around I can think of is pretty grim:

Dub the tape and digitising from the dubbed tape at the same time with “Uncontrollable Device”
and then typing in beginning and end media on the captured clip via the modify timecode dialogue.

Again, unacceptable.

SO, again, Community leaders, is there a correct way to report this bug? To know if it’s being dealt with?

Ben

[Ben Wharton]

Glenn –

I still don’t think the warning about timecode breaks is something suitable for professional environments. Fine for one real break, but what if there are 3 real breaks? Or more? Not that unusual unfortunately. You’d get the end section correct with your method. Then you’d have to rewind back to some unspecified point or points to redigitse again and line up. Then again… Meanwhile you have 80 tapes to digitise all from 30-55 minutes in length with 4 editors and 3 producers and an exec breathing down your neck…

Looking at this ever growing list of people with the same issue – both on DV and 422 control with downconvert and no conversion, with Xsan and no Xsan involved, I think we can safely conclude that is:

A SERIOUS SERIOUS BUG IN FCP.

I admit to be very new to FCP but this is really unacceptable.

Forum leaders, what are the procedures for reporting bugs to Apple and actually getting them adressed (if not,then at least admitted to)? The offical Avid forums do a good job of hounding Avid about bugs after every version revision and often getting them fixed. It can be slow but it’s something.

Is there anything similar in the Apple community? I have yet to get acquainted with their forums.

Ben

[Ben Wharton]

Mattyc –

Thanks for the reply. A relief of sorts to know that someone else is having the same issues. And yes, capturing whole tapes in general. I know that you’re supposed to chop up tapes into two or three sections but still, this shouldn’t be happening.

Did you have the same breaks when NOT downconverting?

And anyone else out there able to confirm this problem? And if it’s on a specific version of FCP or even happening on Avid too?

Any official Apple FCP reported bug?

Ben

[Ben Wharton]

Hi Wayne

Unfortunately the “warn after capture” isn’t an option because when there ARE timecode breaks, FCP will keep on generating new TC and everything after the break(s) will be out of sync with the real TC on the tape. Way too dangerous for online.

Does anyone else have this issue? We really need to discover where the probelm lies and if it can be rectified.

Thanks.

Ben

[Ben Wharton]

Hi John –

Thanks for that swift reply yesterday. I think the decision was taken to get the compositor to come to us rather than re-render all of the footage which would’ve taken a couple of days…

As far as the Blackmagic uncompressed codecs are concerned – you’re able to install them on systems WITHOUT Blackmagic hardware and go PC->Mac Mac->PC without issue, it being a choice in the QuickTime export dialogues?

Ben

[Ben Wharton]

HI Charlie

Thanks for the reply. It’s happening on more than one tape – not that often, but often enough for it to be a pain – esp on multi camera set-ups.

Where does reading LTC instead of VITC come in? The deck or in FCP?

And does the above mean that FCP doesn’t do this kind of stuff normally?

Thanks.