[Dave Gage]

[Zachary Potter] “Did you try “Miro Video converter” it could be a solution.”

No, but I got it work out okay and ultimately with a single file. I went to the Apple Compressor forum to research. The simple solution was to use MPEG Streamclip instead of Compressor or FCP X. I was even able to use my x264 codec within MPEG Streamclip. The resulting .mp4 files works with all modern web browsers (within my proprietary Flash player) and then also with HTML5 on iPhone, iPads, web browsers not running Flash, and Android 3.0 or higher.

The problem is that at some point, I have to go back and re-export about 75 classes from FCP X and then run it through MPEG Streamclip to create the new .mp4 file, change the webpage code, upload, etc. I won’t have time for a while to do this, but at least I have a solution.

Thanks,
Dave

[Dave Gage]

[Ronny Courtens] “OTOH if you import your footage without copying the media into the Event (creating only symlinks in your Original Media folder) and then you duplicate the symlinks over to your Proxy Media folder the process won’t take any extra time or drive space, and your original media will work just like Proxies in FCPX Proxy mode.”

Ronny,

Yes, very nice tip. I had not thought of it that way before.

Thanks,
Dave

[Dave Gage]

[Bret Williams] “I prefer to avoid all the mess and make a project folder in the library and do your versioning in there”

One “thumbs up” for Bret’s method. I’m likely still a bit paranoid from the early days of Compound Clips, so I do as he does. Also, because I just edit for my business, I do a lot of the same types of edits over and over again. So, I created Template Projects that when I begin a new edit I click on the Template, Duplicate it and then begin with the new edit.

The template is primarily a 1-2 minute Gap clip with my standard intro and outros attached, my most commonly used lower 3rds, plus a small video clip with my typical audio and video effects and color adjustments that I just copy and paste onto my new project clip and it gives me a good starting point. I believe I originally started doing this based on the way I use saved templates in Logic.

I get that this method of using templates won’t work for most editors with clients and very diverse types of edits to deal with, but this saves me a TON of time.

[Dave Gage]

[Oliver Peters] “OTOH, it’s not recommended to run any laptops constantly with the power adapter plugged in.”

Yes, my understanding is that this can be a cause of the batteries expanding and thus making the “clicks” on the trackpad very difficult. I believe have a bit of this going on at the moment.

[Oliver Peters] “So there, I’m not sure if it is ever truly off unless you pulled the battery.”

You mentioned with the battery in, a complete shutdown might not be possible anyway. Speaking of removing the battery, I will have to remove my battery in the very near future to see if and how much it has expanded and how much this is effecting the difficulty of the clicking on the trackpad. It might be time for me to put in a new battery.

Speaking of general maintenance, do you ever randomly zap the PRAM for good measure. I used to do back in the “old days” but not so much anymore.

Thanks,
Dave

[Dave Gage]

[Oliver Peters] “I frequently run into problems with PCIe cards, like KONA or BMD, that are only solved with a full power down/power up procedure.”

Makes sense, but since I only use a MBP and virtually never use external hardware (except to back up), I’d imagine that isn’t quite as relative for my situation.

I do think though that it wouldn’t hurt for me to do that once a month. In theory, with the newer Lithium laptop batteries you don’t need to take it all the way down to 0% and then let it sit over night to completely run down the battery, but I still try to do that once or twice a year for good measure.

Thanks,
Dave

[Dave Gage]

[Oliver Peters] “The best performance is if you shut down nightly with a complete fresh start in the morning (power off completely if you can, not just a computer shutdown). Then during the day, restart FCP X 2 or 3 times.”

Interesting. I use the free app, “Free Memory”, so I always know where my MBP’s 16GB of RAM are. Whenever I see it drop below 10GB, I re-boot FCPX. My experience is the same, it just works better after the re-boot.

I almost never completely cold re-boot my MBP though unless I’m doing hardware upgrades. Would you mind expanding on why it’s good to occasionally re-boot the machine vs. simply restarting? I’m a “sleep” and “restart” kinda guy.

Thanks,
Dave

[Dave Gage]

[Craig Seeman] ”
[Dave Gage] “Anyway, I’d love to discuss this more, possibly in a new thread or offline.”

Maybe on the COW Web Streaming forum so others can benefit.
https://forums.creativecow.net/webstreamingaudiovideo“

Craig,

Since this is off-topic here, I did start a couple of new posts in the “COW Web Streaming forum”.
https://forums.creativecow.net/webstreamingaudiovideo
(I wasn’t aware of the existence of this forum. Great, another forum to follow.)

Thanks,
Dave

[Dave Gage]

[Craig Seeman] “I’m neck deep into live streaming (It’s part of my business) so I have lots of questions and thoughts about this.”

Craig and Bill Davis,

(I’m sorry I wasn’t able to make it, I hope it will be archived online to view.)

I’m also involved with live streaming, although not to large crowds, just small groups of website members, but I also have problems and questions about this.

Bill mentioned using LiveStream. I’ve been using Adobe Connect with lots of issues and will likely try a trial of GoToMeeting in the near future. Fortunately, I’m always in the same “studio” to shoot (a back room of my house), so most of my issues are less complex, but I do have some hardware issues I’d like to discuss.
—

Up to this point, I’ve been using my Quad i7 17″ MBP built-in FaceTime HD camera and mic which works “okay”. I don’t own a stand-alone video camera that the Mac will see, but I am considering buying a Logitech 920 webcam/mic to see if it works better for me.

The main problem with the built-in camera is the lack of controls built-in by Apple, i.e. white balance, color, contrast, exposure, saturation, etc. So, I’ve tried two 3rd party solutions for this: Webcam Settings, and iGlasses. Both have problems.

Anyway, I’d love to discuss this more, possibly in a new thread or offline. I can be reached directly at webmaster3 (at) harmonicalessons (dot) com if that works better than posting. And I do realize that it’s boorish and against web etiquette, but I could even talk on the phone about this. I won’t post the number here, but I could email it to you.

Thanks,
Dave

[Dave Gage]

[Edward Troxel] “It will copy the previous “good” frame over the “bad” frame so the time length will be exactly the same.”

Very good. Thanks for the clarification.

Dave

[Dave Gage]

[Chris Walsh] ” Have you looked at NewBlueFX Flash Remover?.”

Chris,

I emailed the company to see if their plugin would work with a flash other than white and what exactly it was doing. I assumed it was removing a frame or two. Here’s their reply:

“Thank you for your interest in NewBlue. The color of the flash does not matter. Our plugin looks for high luminance and makes the correction from there.

The product is actually removing the frames from the video.”

I suppose I could first try deleting a single frame or two and see how that looks.

Dave