[Bret Williams]

I’d guess that the 1500 is probably more durable, but the specs are the same as far as speed and useability go. It’s never going to as responsive as a beta deck. Why DVCam decks can’t be like that I don’t know. It’d be nice.

[Bret Williams]

Alright, so it’s convenient and I do it too. It looks great. But there is no debate that a component digital signal via firewire looks immensely better both on scopes and in person than an svideo signal. Perhaps if your monitors aren’t hooked up via component, then it’s sort of a weakest link thing. If uou’re viewing everything via composite or svideo (you didn’t say) then there would be absoletly no difference. But if you’re viewing component, then you’ll notice the lack of sharpness from the svideo. And hopefully you’re bumping up the illegal blacks that come out of the dsr-11 to match other analog sources. But I know you are.

[Bret Williams]

Make sure all the render options are checked in all menus. Make sure you have no in and out points. Select all in timeline. Press cmd+r. Press cmd+option+r (audio mixdown).

You shouldn’t see any red lines.

But it should export even if it’s not rendered. It would just render it for you. Might want to check QT compatibility and that sort of thing.

[Bret Williams]

You can change it any time with a hot key and a click.

For example, we are currently using a firewire deck, AND a beta deck routed through the component of the firewire/dv deck.

So we use RS-422 through a serial adapter for beta control, and firewire for deck control.

You need to create an easy setup, which is the entrie hardware setup prefs.

If you’re using firewire for output/control during print to video here’s what you’d need to do…

1. Press ctrl+q to bring up easy setup and select DV NTSC. That sets up everything to come in over firewire and be controlled by firewire. Probably the setup you’re using for output. If you’re using something else, choose that.

2. Now, go to the FCP menu and choose audio/video settings. Change the device control preset to non-controllable device. Then click on the create easy setup button. Name your setup. Probably something like “non controllable capture” or whatever you want. You have to type a description for some goofy reason.

3. No you’re ready to switch quickly. Any time you want to switch from controllable to non-controllable, simply press ctrl+q, and select the setup you want from the menu. It’s also a nice convenience if you’ve got multiple editors always mucking around with thesettings. Just press ctrl+q and you know all your hardware is set up correctly.

[Bret Williams]

Not sure about the current version, but in the past the only way to export an alpha channel from Final Cut was to turn off layer 1, which always fills with black.

So, move everything onto layer 2 and above and turn off layer 1. Then export as you did.

[Bret Williams]

I don’t know how to make it happen, but active just means “down” I think. It’s the state while the mouse is held down. There isn’t a state that specifies the active page. You have to use javascript for that. And while there is plenty of code bits for an active page, it’s a little more specified for an iframe.

Good question. Curtis?

[Bret Williams]

Shockwave Flash files (.swf) or just “flash” files will open in QT. From quicktime, just export them as whatever codec you like. You’ll need QT pro to export. Works wonderfully.

Drag the file onto the QT icon in your dock or wherever, or right click on the file and choose “open with…”

[Bret Williams]

You can make it region code free as well. Just check all the regions in DVDSP if I remember right.

[Bret Williams]

1 gig of memory might be enough, but your project file is huge, and I wouldn’t consider running FCP without 1.5 gigs. A gig of memory isn’t much these days. But it should open. Possibly your system drive is full, which is used to cache memory when neccessary.

I’m guessing however, that the file is corrupt in some way or it just doesn’t like it. Try duplicating the project and making it smaller and smaller and see if it opens. That’ll let you know if it’s a memory issue.

[Bret Williams]

And the New AE 7 has a lot of stuff built in these days. FCP, a copy of PS, and AE. Buy some fancy plugins for AE. I don’t like working with plugins in FCP. Too slow.