[Christopher Mcdonell]

Thanks Eddie. I do get better performance out of FCP in the first half hour or so, and have actually been restarting quite frequently to improve capture. Hmm. I can pay for another diagnostics ($110), or try replacing the video card myself and see what happens (if I can find one cheap enough, but logic board… probably too pricey and not worth it. Must give this some thought.

Jim: I didn’t do any kind of re-formatting. I just ran the erase and install OS Leopard, I think, from the startup disk, then did the updates…

Also, it might be worth noting that I experienced a weird glitch with the display last week. When I turned the computer on, the display stayed black. The display light flashed several times, in series of 3’s, I think, fast ones. I restarted and everything went been back to usual.

[Christopher Mcdonell]

Mauricio, I don’t have an answer to your question but felt like chiming in after reading some of the responses – I’ve faced them myself from time to time. Why is that whenever someone poses a question about gamma or color or anything related to picture quality, people automatically fire back with the ol’ “you should never judge what you see without a properly calibrated monitor” and ‘therefore that’s your problem’ response. We’re not idiots! We know what we see, and if we’ve been monitoring off the same device for any period of time, we know what’s not right. That’s not say, in my case, that I would ever finalize a project with an uncalibrated monitor. I’m just an editor. The lab can do the color correcting. But your query, Mauricio, seems simple enough – that QT appears to be playing your image dark, and that VLC plays it better – in accordance with how it looks in FCP. Why? (I find this quite odd, because for me, VLC plays it lighter (not having the 2.2 (?) gamma correction setting that QT does)). Strange…

[Christopher Mcdonell]

I can’t answer all of your questions, but I might be able to steer you in the right direction. I’ve done a fair bit of graphics work and have learned to ALWAYS import images that are sized to match your timeline for best results. Otherwise, as you’ve noted, FCP skewers the aspect ratio – and almost never in a good way. If only we knew the correct numbers to fix this ourselves. (Anyone?). So, if you’re working with HDV for instance, use photoshop’s hdv preset (1440 x 1080 , 72dpi). For text especially, I’d suggest using the title/action safe guidelines as well. They’re awesome.

Now, the important stuff. If you’re just going to use stills, without applying any motion to them, FLATTEN your file first – exactly as you want it to appear in fcp. Then import, throw it in the timeline, render (if necessary), and boom. You’re good to go. If I’m working with a file that has layers (text on photo for instance), I’ll always save a layered version for re-editing (with ps), and a flattened version to import into fcp.

If you need layers in fcp, however, like if you’re bringing in a map and want to fade in one layer at a time, and need everything to be lined up just so – or if you want to zoom in or out of a photo (explained later) – then you’ll have to save your file as LAYERED (basically do nothing) and import that. When you import a layered psd, it appears as a sequence, not a file. When you double-click on the sequence, you’ll see each layer as a separate video layer in your timeline. Drag each of these layers, one at a time, into your browser (a graphics bin or something). They will turn into workable files. Name them accordingly as you drag them over as they will take on the name of your layered file and things can get confusing pretty quick. Once you’ve copied them all over and named them, close the sequence they came from. You may even want to just delete the sequence. Now you can edit with the files, dropping them into your timeline, and their sizing and aspect ratio should be exactly as they were in photoshop. (Actually, sometimes fcp changes the size and x/y’s./ But you can reset this to 100 and 0, 0 – and voila! Least it doesn’t muck up the aspect ratio).

As you probably know, the image of a flattened file only exists within the borders of the visible frame (1440 * 1080 for example). The image of a layered file can exist beyond the borders. So if you want to zoom in to an image, you’re best to save it in photoshop at its FINAL-SIZED STAGE and import it as a layered file. Does that make sense? That way, in fcp, you can start at 80% and finish at 100% (for instance), rather than having to finish at 120% – which will kill your image quality. This is also useful for moving around on a large image.

One more thing. If you make changes in photoshop to the imported file, fcp will recognize this and usually re-link the file (with the amendments) just fine. But not always with layered files. This is generally where I see fcp mucking up the aspect ratio. Maybe someone out there has an answer to this. Otherwise, you may have to just reimport and go through all the steps again.

Hope this helps in some way.

Chris

[Christopher Mcdonell]

I can’t answer all of your questions, but I might be able to steer you in the right direction. I’ve done a fair bit of graphics work and have learned to ALWAYS import images that are sized to match your timeline for best results. Otherwise, as you’ve noted, FCP skewers the aspect ratio – and almost never in a good way. If only we knew the correct numbers to fix this ourselves. (Anyone?). So, if you’re working with HDV for instance, use photoshop’s hdv preset (1440 x 1080 , 72dpi). For text especially, I’d suggest using the title/action safe guidelines as well. They’re awesome.

Now, the important stuff. If you’re just going to use stills, without applying any motion to them, FLATTEN your file first – exactly as you want it to appear in fcp. Then import, throw it in the timeline, render (if necessary), and boom. You’re good to go. If I’m working with a file that has layers (text on photo for instance), I’ll always save a layered version for re-editing (with ps), and a flattened version to import into fcp.

If you need layers in fcp, however, like if you’re bringing in a map and want to fade in one layer at a time, and need everything to be lined up just so – or if you want to zoom in or out of a photo (explained later) – then you’ll have to save your file as LAYERED (basically do nothing) and import that. When you import a layered psd, it appears as a sequence, not a file. When you double-click on the sequence, you’ll see each layer as a separate video layer in your timeline. Drag each of these layers, one at a time, into your browser (a graphics bin or something). They will turn into workable files. Name them accordingly as you drag them over as they will take on the name of your layered file and things can get confusing pretty quick. Once you’ve copied them all over and named them, close the sequence they came from. You may even want to just delete the sequence. Now you can edit with the files, dropping them into your timeline, and their sizing and aspect ratio should be exactly as they were in photoshop. (Actually, sometimes fcp changes the size and x/y’s./ But you can reset this to 100 and 0, 0 – and voila! Least it doesn’t muck up the aspect ratio).

As you probably know, the image of a flattened file only exists within the borders of the visible frame (1440 * 1080 for example). The image of a layered file can exist beyond the borders. So if you want to zoom in to an image, you’re best to save it in photoshop at its FINAL-SIZED STAGE and import it as a layered file. Does that make sense? That way, in fcp, you can start at 80% and finish at 100% (for instance), rather than having to finish at 120% – which will kill your image quality. This is also useful for moving around on a large image.

One more thing. If you make changes in photoshop to the imported file, fcp will recognize this and usually re-link the file (with the amendments) just fine. But not always with layered files. This is generally where I see fcp mucking up the aspect ratio. Maybe someone out there has an answer to this. Otherwise, you may have to just reimport and go through all the steps again.

Hope this helps in some way.

Chris

[Christopher Mcdonell]

Cade, thanks. I read through the posts on the macforum site, and applied some changes according to what I found at the bottom (following). It didn’t work. If you think you can help me, I have a single core 2GHz PPC.

I’m a little confused by Smudo’s suggestion. He ends by saying that fcp now thinks your “your g5 quad ppc CPU is cpuclass 22”. Class 22? The first line with 2330 in it ends with cpuclass = 46. Guessing, I tried amending the lines (as indicated) ending with cpuclass = 36 and 43; each time trashing prefs and restarting. Nothing!

Any suggestions?

======
from Macforum:

Smudo or RHNYC or anybody dealing w/ rt enabler settings, can anyone give me the necessary changes to the text file for a 2 Ghz PPC?

thanks
try this:
else if (cpucount > 1 && cpuspeed >= 2330 && cputype == cputtype_x86 && !(ispowerbook || ismini) && x8664bit)

changed to:

else if (cpucount > 2 && cpuspeed >= 2000 && cputype == cputtype_ppc && !(ispowerbook || ismini) && ppc64bit)

I actually just imported the Final Cut 2 file and replaced the content – not the header stuff – I don’t think its possible to get rid of the nag screen after you change the file – but iM HAPPY TO BE WRONG – YOU DIDN’T SAY IF IT WAS DUAL OR NOT IF IT ISN’T CHANGE cpucount to 1

=========

Mine is a single core 2 GHz PPC. I made the changes as indicated and still NO high setting is available. Now to be sure, I first applied the changes according to Smudo’s suggestion in the line ending with cpuclass = 46. But he states that fcp now thinks your “your g5 quad ppc CPU is cpuclass 22”. Class 22? This is a little confusing.

[Christopher Mcdonell]

Cade, good to hear you’ve solved things on your end! I’m eager to try, but would like some clarification before I muck things up. (I’ll copy the original anyway). Is this a fix for FCS3 on a G5 quad though? I’m working with FCS2 on a 2 GHz PowerPC G5, single core I think. Should I try the same numbers, as seen in your last post, or should I modify the CPU speed for instance? This is pretty much a foreign language for me. Anyone else have something to add, be my guest…

Here’s a copy of my RT Software Enabler file, if that helps. Top portion only…

Chris

//
// FCP Real-time Enabler for Software Effects
//
// Copyright 2001 – 2007 Apple Inc.
//

FileVersion(25168, 29199, 726086)
startuponly
code

// —————————————————————————–
// Capture Data Rate (~300k/sec) & Settings…This is used in determining CaptureNow Limit and in Batch Capture
// The codec gives has a highly variable data rate, so the actual average (~300k/sec) is doubled for assurance
//
// NOTE: we always add this chunk of data, regardless of if RT is enabled, to support consistent capture using JPEG
//
dictputmany(“_rt_JPEGCapture”, 0,
“preferredSpatialQuality”, 364,
“avgVideoDataRatePerSec”, 600000,
“preferredHeight”, 240,
“preferredWidth”, 320);

float cpuclass

if (dictget(“switches”,”realtimeVideoFX”,”cpuclass”,”value”) == 55)
cpuclass = 55
else if (cpucount > 7 && cpuspeed >= 3200 && cpubusspeed >= 1600 && cputype == cputtype_x86 && x8664bit )
cpuclass = 54
else if (cpucount > 7 && cpuspeed >= 3000 && cpubusspeed >= 1300 && cputype == cputtype_x86 && x8664bit )
cpuclass = 53
else if (cpucount > 3 && cpuspeed >= 3000 && cpubusspeed >= 1300 && cputype == cputtype_x86 && x8664bit )
cpuclass = 52
else if (cpucount > 7 && cpuspeed >= 2800 && cpubusspeed >= 1600 && cputype == cputtype_x86 && x8664bit )
cpuclass = 51
else if (cpucount > 3 && cpuspeed >= 2660 && cpubusspeed >= 1300 && cputype == cputtype_x86 && x8664bit )
cpuclass = 50
else if (cpucount > 3 && cpuspeed >= 2000 && cpubusspeed >= 1300 && cputype == cputtype_x86 && x8664bit )
cpuclass = 49
else if (cpucount > 3 && cpuspeed >= 3000 && cpubusspeed >= 1300 && cputype == cputtype_x86 && x8664bit)
cpuclass = 43
else if (cpucount > 3 && cpuspeed >= 2660 && cpubusspeed >= 1300 && cputype == cputtype_x86 && x8664bit)
cpuclass = 43
else if (cpucount > 3 && cpuspeed >= 2000 && cpubusspeed >= 1300 && cputype == cputtype_x86 && x8664bit)
cpuclass = 43
else if (cpucount > 1 && cpuspeed >= 3006 && cputype == cputtype_x86 && !(ispowerbook) && x8664bit)
cpuclass = 48
else if (cpucount > 1 && cpuspeed >= 2800 && cputype == cputtype_x86 && !(ispowerbook) && x8664bit)
cpuclass = 47
else if (cpucount > 1 && cpuspeed >= 2330 && cputype == cputtype_x86 && !(ispowerbook || ismini) && x8664bit)
cpuclass = 46
else if (cpucount > 1 && cpuspeed >= 2160 && cputype == cputtype_x86 && !(cpuspeeddynamic || ispowerbook || ismini) && x8664bit)
cpuclass = 45
else if (cpucount > 1 && cpuspeed >= 2000 && cputype == cputtype_x86 && !(cpuspeeddynamic || ispowerbook || ismini) && x8664bit)
cpuclass = 44
else if (cpucount > 1 && cpuspeed >= 2000 && cputype == cputtype_x86 && !(cpuspeeddynamic || ispowerbook || ismini))
cpuclass = 43
else if (cpucount > 1 && cpuspeed >= 1830 && cputype == cputtype_x86 && !(cpuspeeddynamic || ispowerbook || ismini))
cpuclass = 42
else if (xsanhost)
cpuclass = 41
else if (cpucount > 1 && cpuspeed >= 2500 && cputype == cputtype_x86 && cpuspeeddynamic && ispowerbook && x8664bit)
cpuclass = 40
else if (cpucount > 1 && cpuspeed >= 2330 && cputype == cputtype_x86 && cpuspeeddynamic && ispowerbook && x8664bit)
cpuclass = 39
else if (cpucount > 1 && cpuspeed >= 2160 && cputype == cputtype_x86 && cpuspeeddynamic && ispowerbook && x8664bit)
cpuclass = 38
else if (cpucount > 1 && cpuspeed >= 2160 && cputype == cputtype_x86 && cpuspeeddynamic && ispowerbook)
cpuclass = 37
else if (cpucount > 1 && cpuspeed >= 2000 && cputype == cputtype_x86 && cpuspeeddynamic && ispowerbook)
cpuclass = 36
else if (cpucount > 1 && cpuspeed >= 1830 && cputype == cputtype_x86 && cpuspeeddynamic && ispowerbook)
cpuclass = 35
else if (cpucount > 1 && cpuspeed >= 2200 && cputype == cputtype_x86 && cpuspeeddynamic && x8664bit)
cpuclass = 34
else if (cpucount > 1 && cpuspeed >= 2160 && cputype == cputtype_x86 && cpuspeeddynamic && x8664bit)
cpuclass = 33
else if (cpucount > 1 && cpuspeed >= 2000 && cputype == cputtype_x86 && cpuspeeddynamic)
cpuclass = 32
else if (cpucount > 1 && cpuspeed >= 1830 && cputype == cputtype_x86 && cpuspeeddynamic)
cpuclass = 31
else if (cpucount > 1 && cpuspeed >= 2000 && cputype == cputtype_x86 && x8664bit)
cpuclass = 30
else if (cpucount > 1 && cpuspeed >= 1830 && cputype == cputtype_x86)
cpuclass = 29
else if (cpucount > 1 && cpuspeed >= 1660 && cputype == cputtype_x86)
cpuclass = 28
else if (cpuspeed >= 1500 && cputype == cputtype_x86)
cpuclass = 27
else if (cpucount > 3 && cpuspeed >= 2500 && cpubusspeed >= 1250)
cpuclass = 26
else if (cpucount > 1 && cpuspeed >= 2300 && cpubusspeed >= 1150 && l2cachesize >= 1024)
cpuclass = 25
else if (cpucount > 1 && cpuspeed >= 2000 && cpubusspeed >= 1000 && l2cachesize >= 1024)
cpuclass = 24
else if (cpucount > 1 && cpuspeed >= 2700 && cpubusspeed >= 1350)
cpuclass = 23
else if (cpucount > 1 && cpuspeed >= 2500 && cpubusspeed >= 1250)
cpuclass = 22
else if (cpucount > 1 && cpuspeed >= 2000 && cpubusspeed >= 1000)
cpuclass = 21
else if (cpucount > 1 && cpuspeed >= 1800 && cpubusspeed >= 900)
cpuclass = 20
else if (cpuspeed >= 2100 && cpubusspeed >= 600 && ppc64bit)
cpuclass = 19
else if (cpuspeed >= 1800 && cpubusspeed >= 600 && ppc64bit)
cpuclass = 18
else if (cpuspeed >= 1600 && cpubusspeed >= 500 && ppc64bit)
cpuclass = 17
else if (cpucount > 1 && cpuspeed >= 1420)
cpuclass = 16
else if (cpucount > 1 && cpuspeed >= 1250)
cpuclass = 15
else if (cpucount > 1 && cpuspeed >= 1000)
cpuclass = 14
else if (cpucount > 1 && cpuspeed >= 800)
cpuclass = 13
else if (cpuspeed >= 1600 && cpubusspeed >= 160)
cpuclass = 12
else if (cpuspeed >= 1500 && cpubusspeed >= 160)
cpuclass = 11
else if (cpuspeed >= 1300 && cpubusspeed >= 160)
cpuclass = 10
else if (cpuspeed >= 1000 && (l2cachesize + l3cachesize) >= 1024 && cpubusspeed >= 160)
cpuclass = 9
else if (cpuspeed >= 1001 && cpubusspeed >= 160)
cpuclass = 9
else if (cpuspeed >= 1000 && (l2cachesize + l3cachesize) >= 1024)
cpuclass = 8
else if (cpuspeed >= 800 && (l2cachesize + l3cachesize) >= 1024)
cpuclass = 7
else if (cpuspeed >= 1000 && cpubusspeed >= 160)
cpuclass = 7
else if (cpuspeed >= 1000)
cpuclass = 6
else if (cpucount > 1)
cpuclass = 5
else if (cpuspeed > 500 && (l2cachesize + l3cachesize) >= 1024)
cpuclass = 4
else if ((cpuspeed >= 500 && !ispowerbook && (l2cachesize + l3cachesize) >= 1024) || (cpuspeed >= 730))
cpuclass = 3
else if (cpuspeed >= 660)
cpuclass = 2
else if (cpuspeed >= 550)
cpuclass = 1
else
cpuclass = 0
end if

[Christopher Mcdonell]

Cade, thanks for waking up this post. I did what I said I would in my last post and it didn’t make any difference. I’m working with the latest version of 6.0.6 now, which I’m pretty certain is the same I was using before. Interesting that you’re now seeing the same thing in vs 7. I truly hope someone can shed some light on this for the both of us!

Chris

[Christopher Mcdonell]

If I haven’t made this clear already, I HAD High Quality Playback with my current set-up and everything was working just fine, until I suffered some sort of kernel panic — after which, FCP has greyed out my HIgh Quality setting. That is what I want back. Focus is critical in HD, and medium quality makes everything look soft. Without the ability to see what I’ve shot – on my Apple Display – it’s impossible to choose takes and I am therefore having to do a VLC or QT runaround which is a total waste of time.

Now I’d really appreciate it if someone could please enlighten me as to why VLC seems to be outperforming FCP and QT, and if this is then pointing to a software issue that is fixable.

(Thanks to all who respond and try to to help. I will do my best to try to give back to this forum, and if I don’t have the answer to someone’s problem, I won’t pretend to.)

Chris

[Christopher Mcdonell]

I’m surprised no one’s suggested using photo editing software first which I think is a total must. Do you have photoshop for instance? Or PS Elements? If so, you can open a new file in PS set to your video dimensions (DV NTSC, or HDV, etc. – or for the latter, 1440 x 1080), then import your photo file there, resize or position it accordingly, using the safe title/action guidelines, and save it as a .psd or tiff. So long as it’s dimensions match that of your video, you can import it into FCP, drop it in the timeline, and all will be good.

Flattening your file first will give you a media file ready to use upon import, just like any other. If it’s a layered file, and there are advantages to these, it will import as a sequence. You then need to open the sequence and drag the file from the timeline back to your bin where it will now appear as a ready to use file that you can then cut into your timeline. (Hope that makes sense.)

If you’re planning on zooming in to your photo, or moving around with it (as one might with a map), you’ll definitely want to import a layered file and keep it large (or enlarge it) in PS before importing where your final size is at 100%. That way when you scale down in FCP or Motion during a move, you can do so from 100% to 80% (for instance), rather than 120% to 100% (where you’ll lose quality in the 120% blowup).

Make sense?

If I’m wrong about any of this, someone can surely correct me! Hope that helps,

Chris

[Christopher Mcdonell]

This is not doing what I want it to do and nothing I try is. It is only making copies of the subclips and putting them into a new project – but they’re still subclips with the wavy icon. I want to see new media files being copied in my capture folder from the subclips. I want to be able to delete the big file and then import or have the 20 new files created from it. Is this not possible???

Incidentally, I’ve never had to capture like this before. But the “create new clip on stop/start” detection was missing 5-10 seconds on some clips, giving me the message “Searching for media” before capturing. This happened on maybe 20% of the files. HDV. Could it be because I had copied over previous footage and was capturing from the same tape? Or is this just an ongoing symptom of my dying computer?

Chris