[Craig Seeman]

Compressing a compressed file is never a good thing.

I’d export out of FCP using Quicktime Movie with “current settings.” You will get a very large file since there won’t be any additional compression.

You then take THAT file and put it in Squeeze and compress to the format and size you want.

[Craig Seeman]

[Duncan Craig] “Even though you can multiclip using inpoints, without genlock on the cameras you’ll get drift.”

Not in my experience. I’ve been shooting multicam with miniDV for 7 years. No drift (or at least significantly less than a frame for 2 hours). Offset maybe but never drift. Only drift is when trying to lock to DAT or other digital audio source since the clocks aren’t truly dead on.

[Duncan Craig] “I’m editing a 110 minute concert I’ve just shot. 4 Sony Z1’s captured in DV and a locked off wide DV camera. The timecodes are of course different. I’m having to do it the way I always have, dropping the clips in the timeline and adjusting sync through the show chopping out or adding singles frames roughly every 20 minutes of rushes on the timeline.”

Maybe there’s an issue with the “conversion” on the Z1 given the encoding for audio and video but that’s not inherent in miniDV. Some of us have seen “drift” issues with Canon XL-1 too but that hapens when Quicktime “handled” the audio from DV to DV wrapped in Quicktime.

[Craig Seeman]

[Sean Lander] “A. Don’t capture footage with timecode breaks.
B. Capture each clip individually. C. Can you multicam subclips? If so do that.”

A – Time code breaks happen on reel changes. No way to avoid that.
B – For a 90 minute performance shot on 60 minute tapes, each clip is 30 – 60 minutes
C- Yes but that can be an awkward work around.

There are many work arounds. I want to know what others are doing?

[Craig Seeman]

This might clarify

I set Aux TC1 of each camera to match the timeline time so all cameras now have matching AuxTC (this wouldn’t work with a stop/start accident as AuxTC “ripples” throughout a clip). In this current shoot the only TC break is on the reel changes.

The cameras have staggered their reel changes so there’s always one camera rolling coverage. That’s three break points. Two cameras (2 and 3 below) infact changed reels only seconds apart.

Here’s a visual representation.

1———- ———-
2————– ——
3————- ——-

BTW the manual mentions using Multiclip Sequence if you have time code breaks in free run mode (Vol II p257). You can set an overlap which determines whether it breaks into a new Multiclip or stays continuous. UNFORTUNATELY MS uses TC only, NOT Aux TC.

[Craig Seeman]

Hmm, it plays back fine on my Mac as progressive download using Flip4Mac Player plugin in Quicktime 7.0.1, OS 10.3.9

[Craig Seeman]

Hi Les,

The reason why I brought up the “business” side as far as learning is concerned is that if after about 6 months of learning, you want to start doing work you may be right back to why didn’t I buy a little more computer and the Intel Macs for the “high end” might still be a year or more away.

You certainly use FCP Studio on a G5Imac. The first big hurdle is that you’ll have to buy an external firewire harddrive since you should not use your boot drive for edit media. That firewire drive will cost more than buying an internal drive for the desktop model. The desktop model is expandable so it can grow with you a bit. Even if you buy the single processor 1.8G5, you can buy a faster graphics card if you find you get into heavier compositing, more layers.

When comparing Single Processor G5 Imac to Single Processor G5 Desktop, the extra hard drive for the desktop will be cheaper and faster than a firewire drive (because you can add an internal one – SATA). The Desktop will allow you to upgrade the graphics card if you find you want more out of Motion.

The problem with the Single Processor G5 vs the cheapest Dual2.0G5 is that if you find yourself using DVDStudioPro (or even iDVD) alot, there’s no (easy affordable) way to add a second processor if you find encoding takes too long.

If you’re just learning you’ll likely find that it’s not worth the extra money for PCI-X (which you may never use) and 4 memory slots which can expand up to 4Gigs to be plenty for a couple of years. IMHO the Dual 2.0 will give you room to grow as you want/need.

iMacG5 – you must be external firewire drive and no easy way to improve Graphics card as you learn with more layers.

Single1.8G5 Desktop. You can add internal hard drive (cheaper and faster than firewire drive) and you can get a faster graphics card if your Motion lessons become more demanding. The single processor will result in much longer encodes if you’re doing lots of iDVD or DVDStudio pro work. The longer it takes to encode DVDs the less time for other stuff.

Dual2G5 Desktop. Expandable like Single1.8G5 but much faster iDVD/DVDStudio DVD encoding. It has a “faster” graphics card than the Single 1.8G5 which may keep up for a bit as your Motion learning gets more demanding, This will be an excellent startup computer for your business. Since you’re not likely to deal with shuch things beyond miniDV/DVCAM and/or HDV you’re not likely to miss the PCI-X slots. PCI will be good enough.

Is the iMac adequate? Yes BUT you’ll end up spending more money especially if you find you need more computer in a year and the desktop Intel Macs may not be out yet. There’s no easy way to expand it.

My thinking would be that at this moment in Mac history, you’d want a computer that you can expand as much as you can until you’re happy with the Intel Mac offerings.

As a “student” a Dual2G5 could take you comfortably through the next 2 or 3 years as you move from student to those small miniDV jobs. You’ll be able to add what you need when/if you need it without paying more upfront for the 2.3 or 2.7 (whose PCI-X and memory slots aren’t really a necessity).

I’d chose between the Single1.8G5 and Dual2G5. Just be aware that Single processor can become a drag on your time with some of the longer renders, especially when you start getting into encoding DVDs. If you’re just going to learn FCP than the single1.8G5 might be fine since you wont be hit too hard with long renders if you’re doing miniDV work and you’re not using lots of filters. It would be good for Documentary style editing for example.

t’s a much tougher choice these days no matter where you are – Student – Startup – Seasoned post house – with the Intel Macs 1-2 years away. Hope this helps. I

[Craig Seeman]

After much thinking I went with the Dual 2.3 G5 for my purchase. I currently have a Dual 800 G4.

In the broadest sense, faster systems come out every year so that shouldn’t be the biggest factor in a purchase. Current G5s are at least close to comperable to current Intels (AMD might have a slight edge here).

I know folks who use single chip Powerbook G4s to edit with, also folks who use single chip G5 iMacs. Given that it’s the iBooks and Powerbooks that can’t,will never get G5 versions, THOSE are likely to be the first Intel Macs. My GUESS is that the “high end” Intel Macs won’t be out until January-June 2007.

I was thinking about a Dual 2.7 G5 BUT i think the current G5s will have a little shorter compatable life.
Example. My GUESS the next major FCP upgrade will be late 2006. My 2001 Dual 800 G4 will run FCP 5 but maybe not FCP6. So it’ll have a usable compatible life from 2001-2006 (5 years). I do NOT think a G5 purchased today will run the then current FCP in 2010 (5 years). So I’ll spend a little less knowing I’ll likely upgrade sooner (maybe 2 years instead of 3 or 4 years) and use the savings on other currently needed gear for my business. Anything slower than a Dual Processor may inhibit my productivity.

The question is whether saving $1000 between single 1.8 and dual 2.3 is really a “savings” if you end up loosing significant time with DVD encodes, web compression, multi layered Motion effects with GeForce 5200 vs Radeon 9600 and single processor vs dual processor, especially if you end up having to wait 18-24 months for the high end Intel Macs. For some Motion users even the Radeon 9600 isn’t fast enough and they move to the 9800 or X800.

You also need to factor in 4 vs 8 memory slots and PCI vs PCI-X if you may need a PCI-X specific card before the Intel Macs come out.

The question you should ask is how soon will you be making money from your purchase (if at all). If you’re a hobbyist you might not make up the $1000 other than it will take much longer to render things. Even If you’re a low budget professional, saving an hour or so a week or fitting in another hour of paying work a week with a faster machine, should make you that extra $1000 you spend, in a few months.

IMHO the differences between a single vs a dual processor and a GeForce 5200 vs Radeon 9600 are significant enough that one should want to pay the extra $500 for the Dual 2G. On the other hand you then need to compare 4 memory slots and PCI of the Dual2G5 to the 8 memory slots and PCI-X of the Dual2.3G5 and Dual2.7G5. For ME, I decided I’d definitely end up expanding my memory before I upgraded to an Intel Mac in 2007. For my small video business I’m not sure about PCI vs PCI-X but I didn’t want to be shut out if I needed such a card nor forced to buy a G5 with PCI-X closer to the time the Intel Macs come out.

Your reasoning may be different but I think you and others might enjoy looking into my insight and reasoning in buying a Dual2.3G5 after the Intel Mac announcement.

The factors in purchase:
My GUESS – G5 bought today will have a shorter COMPATIBLE life than past purchases-downside
My GUESS – Capital cost of upgrade will happen sooner-downside
CONFIRMED – Business will have productivity/income benifit even if I buy now – big upside
Conclusion – Buy “just enough” for 2-3 years rather than anticipate 4-5 year life.

[Craig Seeman]

Here’s this tip from Philip Hodgett’s ProAppsHub. Updating prebinding can fix slow to open apps. I’d post a link instead but there’s no way to do that given the way ProAppsHub works. It’s a great resource so I’ll post the link to where you can read about and download “The Hub” https://proapps-hub.com/

OS X Applications slow to open?
Despite the name, prebinding has not bondage overtones. Prebinding accelerates the launching of applications that are made up of more than one file. Most applications on OS X have many files inside the application “bundle”.
Control + Click on an application and select “Show Package Contents” to see the files that make up the application. This is particularly interesting for Final Cut Pro or DVD Studio Pro.

Most of the additional files are Libraries of prebuilt functions that are shared between applications rather than being included in the application directly. Libraries included in an application are “static linked” while any of the 150 or so libraries included in the default installation of OS X and only linked to the application are considered “dynamically linked”.

However, all this looking up of libraries and making sure all the symbols (individual functions, classes, constants, globals, etc.) are there in the library would take a long time when the application launches. Instead prebinding improves launch times because prebinding creates a cache of all those symbols already bound to the application. That’s why an installer goes into an “optimizing for performance” phase after installing an application – that’s prebinding.

If the prebinding didn’t happen, or the cache has become broken, and the application is slow to open even when there’s plenty of available RAM, try prebinding manually.

To force OS X to go through all applications and make sure that all the linkages are up to date and that caches are bound to the applications:

Repair permissions for the boot drive using Disk Utility;

Open the Terminal from Applications > Utilities;
type: “sudo update_prebinding -root / -force” (without the quotation marks)

Ignore the lines of text that will scroll through your Terminal window. That means the command is doing its work.
The whole process should only take a few minutes, although if you have a lot of applications installed it could take up to an hour. While the prebinding is happening your computer will slow down. Prebinding is something best done over a break.

When the process is finished reboot your computer.

[Craig Seeman]

Clean install Tiger, repair permisions and update it to 10.4.1 and repair permissions. Then just install Final Cut Studio and enter the old serial number when it doesn’t find the old apps and repair permissions. No reason to install old apps AFAIK. The very reason that one has to hunt down old serial numbers and, even worse, start installing and updating scores of apps is the very reason why I’m not a fan of clean installs.

[Craig Seeman]

Graeme,

Given one of the key reasons for Apple’s decision is the lack of G5 laptop, they may be one of the early (2006) MacIntels. So how might this affect people who use FCP on laptops (those remote edit sessions) or ProTools?

Yea, it’s speculation but as you’ve seen from my posts elsewhere, it has the potential to pit us with some tough purchase decisions and/or some serious productivity bumps.