[Dan Brazil]

Brilliant – that’s sorted me out completely! Thanks Vincent.

Mac Pro, 2×2.26 GHz Quad Core Intel Xeon, 8GB RAM

[Dan Brazil]

Thanks for this advice Angie. Just to check I understand the ‘even multiples’ rule OK given my recent anti judder endeavours. Specifically,in your example of running it at 75pps for a PAL comp – wouldn’t that be a multiple of 3 – making it an ‘odd multiple’? And would an odd multiple yield an undesirable artifact?

Mac Pro, 2×2.26 GHz Quad Core Intel Xeon, 8GB RAM

[Dan Brazil]

Thanks Kevin – I’ll check it out.

Mac Pro, 2×2.26 GHz Quad Core Intel Xeon, 8GB RAM

[Dan Brazil]

From Blackmagic tech support:

“I have found that the clicking noise (that we have observed) is due to a fan inside the G5. When working in HD, data writes can be very long compared with SD. Other processes may be trying to occur at the same time and so the fan starts to spin up.
Just as that happens, the data write from DeckLink will finish and so the fans spin down again. The result is a strange clicking or electronic noise emanating from the front grill of the G5. Does that sound like your problem? If so, that’s just the way the cooling mechanism works in the G5 and there’s no way around that other than to have the G5 further away from your ears, eg under a desk. This might or might not explain your problem so please let me know what you think.”

[Dan Brazil]

Yes, I think there is fundamentally something that disagrees with having the Blackmagic video desktop set to ‘on’ and the smooth running of the G5. Interestingly this is a solution that helped me to resolve another issue which I posted on the Blackmagic forum earlier on this week.

https://forums.creativecow.net/cgi-bin/new_read_post.cgi?forumid=124&postid=857648

A bit of pain, but atleast there’s a temporary workaround. Hope it gets resolved soon.

[Dan Brazil]

Thanks fo that. I have done that and yes it dramatically reduces the interference – I no longer hear anything when I scroll along the dock, however, I do still hear a faint noise when I resize windows. Infact it is very minimal but if you crank up the volume of the line out you can hear it.

I spoke with the supplier of the card and he recommended that the card be placed in the very top PCI slot – the one that’s numbered #4. Quite a battle to get it in given that it is partially obstructed by the internal SATA connection (poor design here Apple). However, this didn’t affect the noise I was hearing.

I am awaiting a resoinse from Blackmagic tech supprt on this so will let you know what I find out.

[Dan Brazil]

I had already updated to that update…

[Dan Brazil]

Yes that is exactly what I am experiencing. I just updated to 10.4.3 and Motion 2.01 and every time I add a filter it immediately crashes. I thought this was just me given that this was the first time I have applied filters using Motion…so an auspicious start. I wonder if Apple are aware yet?

[Dan Brazil]

I’d actually caution against using VBR at all. One of the problems with Compressor (or at least v1.2) is that you can’t really trust it when you set VBR – you know when you set your average and max rates? well inrealitythere are often spikes that exceed your max rate that are illegal in terms of the official DVD spec. There is software that can analyse your actual data rate on the .m2v that has shown this to be the case. By setting CBR you will ensure that you have a constant rate that you are in complete control of.

Maybe anyone who has used the new version of Compressor may care to comment on a tighter integration?

It is also worth adding that just because you can encode at high levels (around 7-8) it doesn’t neccessarily mean that it is advisable. Most domestic cheapo DVD players have cheap lasers that are not always happy with burnt discs that push the bit rate to the max. I try to keep to around 6 mbps to ensure the greatest compatibility across the board. And use good discs as well – e.g. Verbatim or Infiniti. Always try to cater for the lowest common denominator for the greatest success.

Hope this helps.

[Dan Brazil]

Yes this is something of great interest to me too. I think it is a fantastic innovation to incorporate layer transparency for use in flvs. I recently attended the IBC in Amsterdam and MAcromedia were doing big crowd-pulling demos of the new products and they were really promoting the layer transparency innovation. They didn’t specifically demo how it works, but I spoke to the chap and he said – like you are trying to achieve – that it all begins from exporting the alpha from FCP or AE.

I have only just downloaded the evaluation version of Flash 8 and haven’t had a chance to try it yet so please let me know if you have sussed this yet.

Good luck,

Dan