[David Eaks]

Haha for sure, I was meaning in the field, as opposed to currently driving 😉

Same behavior here, adding a clip to the secondary after the workaround causes the frame size bug again. Also, I tried messing with spatial conform settings after the bug, it doesn’t bring the clip back to 4k.

[David Eaks]

Hmm, I’m not sure. I’m on the road, will check that in about 45min

[David Eaks]

I also see the same behavior. With a 4K clip in the primary of an HD timeline, and an HD clip connected to it. Making the connected clip into a secondary storyline will cause the 4K clips frame size to change to 1920 x 1080.

Workaround- connect the connected clip to a different clip (preferably a clip with the same frame size as your project), make the connected clip into a secondary storylines, then Drag it back into position over the 4K clip. Frame size remains intact

[David Eaks]

Ha! These are great! Nice find Jeremy.

[David Eaks]

Hi Daniel,

Is this new drive going to be for your OS and Apps “System Drive”

or

For your video files etc. “Media Drive”?

And what is the computer it is going into? For example- 2008 Mac Pro 3,1 2.8Ghz dual quad core, or, 2011 MBP 6,1 2.66Ghz dual core (my systems).

Of course there is no arguing with Bobs points. Hard drives fail and you must have backups. In fact I was just discussing with my father how inexpensive drives are and that if any of our backup methods saved us from losing one or two average undelivered clients media files, the backup system pays for itself in cash instantly, then it buys me a new one in the future. A pretty sweet deal, viewed in that light. And a lot of the time there are more than two clients media files “at risk”. Yeah, do backups.

Anyway,

If this is for your system drive, I’d say get a relatively small SSD. I’ve been getting by fine with 128GB SSD system drives on both my Macs for a while now. Happily using Crucial and Samsung SSDs with OWC mounts (also an Opti-bay in the MBP).

For media drives, I’ve had very little trouble with Western Digital Black, both 3.5″ and 2.5″ drives (“Caviar” & “Scorpio” were recently removed from WDs naming convention). For this reason I’ve barely even touched any other brand (to Bobs comment, don’t let me come across as “buy WD, they are more reliable”). I’ve just had a pretty good run. With that said, since 2008-2009 I have not kept any hard drive in main production use for more than one year. Media drives (3 disk RAID-0 internal in Mac Pro) are replaced and the old ones are put into other use as extra backup (besides the Time Machine array) or some other use like “sneaker net” file transfers. Same with system drives except those get cycled a few times before being demoted (haven’t demoted an SSD yet), each functioning as a backup of the current system while the other gets a clean install. My logic here is that before any drive comes anywhere near MTBF, it is demoted to non-mission-critical use. Also, I get to have tons of extra drives to use individually or RAID together in inexpensive external enclosures and use for, whatever. Not spending more money on enterprise drives and keeping them in use for years on end, means a lower cost at time of purchase (though a higher total cost) also the higher turnover rate lets me keep up with storage density a little bit better and my total in-house TBs of storage increases in a seemingly perfect ratio.

Currently, two out of three 2TB WD Blacks from a previous RAID-0 Media Drive (two rounds ago), are acting up. When they were removed from the Mac Pro all three were formatted, labeled and put into individual external enclosures. Disk Warrior saved everything from one that wouldn’t read or write at all otherwise. The other is beginning to have some trouble. Both of those are now out of “The Loop”. Eventually I will “harvest” the magnets from them, for fun. The third of that group seems fine, but I just now ordered a 3TB WD Black from B&H to take its place, as a dedicated “Original Camera Cards Backup” storage drive, because the mere thought of that drive being in use churns my stomach.

If you don’t already use two separate drives for the Operating System and your Media, you should. In that case I’d say get both, a small SSD for system drive and HDD for media. If there’s no room for a second internal, get an external for the media drive. No USB 2.0, minimum FW800. Of course 7200rpm minimum as well.

Here’s a link to the WD product list, where I go to look for a bare drive model number then copy/paste to google for the best price- https://wdc.com/en/products/catalog/

I’m currently in the process of archiving old projects, consolidating backups and moving hard drives “down the line”. So, waiting for file transfers and encodes gives lots of time to type… : )

[David Eaks]

I really don’t think it was a simple plugin effect, but a whole bunch of creative decisions made in post. While there probably wasn’t a lot of highly advanced technology involved, it is definitely the techniques and the creative talent of the editor that makes the effect attractive to your taste.

To get a better look at the effect, I recorded playback on my iPad screen with the slow-mo video mode on my iPhone. It looks to me like there are four main aspects to it, three still frames and the following video clip.

The first still frame is the artist looking forward singing into the mic, the image begins enlarged and has the main long trails as it moves down and left to actual size and fades out. The second still is the artist with his head cocked to his right and positioned closer to the end point of the movement (down and left). Its motion is very slightly delayed from the first and has nearly identical movement/blur. These two together give the feel of actual head movement “with” the movement of the effect in general, like he’s being pulled into himself, but it’s stills. As this first part of the effect finishes it dissolves to a third still frame of the artist looking up singing into the mic. This still begins with the blurred trails that move up this time, maybe looks more like a blurred light rays type of effect that is reduced ending with the unblurred still frame. Similarly, the difference in head position combined with blur and trails lend the feel of human movement, again, it stills. As the effect on the third still finishes, it dissolves to the actual video clip of the artist performing and he kind of walks out from behind the final still.

I don’t think the still frames were necessarily from that particular moment in time of the song, but were chosen for the expressions of the artist and scale/positioned to line up with the artist in the video clip. Surely there are some blend modes involved, cropping or masks, maybe a global blur/light rays/trails that reduces throughout the entire effect and of course the audio, as always, has a great deal of influence on the feel of the effect. Where the first lyric, I, audibly matches the feel of the ghostly trails effect. Then the lyric “see” hits just after the effect ends and the artists arm movement emphasizes the delivery (which I’m not convinced that the video clip is actually from that point of the song either but again chosen for the artists expression to enhance the effect).

Hope this helps, if nothing else I enjoyed attempting to pick it apart.

[David Eaks]

Herb, I think your confusing the Tube being able to support three 4k monitors, with, FCPX being able to edit 16 angles of 4k when running on a tube.

[David Eaks]

Hi Gary,

Please post the actual version number instead of “latest build”.

I work with NX5U clips all the time and am currently running FCPX 10.0.9 on OS X 10.8.4. I highly recommend that instead of importing from the camera, you remove the SD Card from the camera and copy it to its very own folder on your media drive. Nothing else is ever to be put into or taken out of this folder, it is dedicated to this one camera card backup. Then in FCPX, import clips from that backup.

Or you can use FCPXs built in camera card archive function. Either way you really need to have a backup of the original camera card, with its file structure perfectly intact.

I’m not sure if that will solve your problem, but it’s important nonetheless. Do your video clips playback fine in-camera using the visual index?

[David Eaks]

Just a word of caution when working with expanded audio. Specifically, there is some unexpected behavior when you expand the audio to apply a video-only transition and then you make a cut at some point on either side of it. The in/out point of the audio is automatically moved to line up with the video transition and a fade in/out applied. It can end up leaving you with unwanted pops, lip smacks, breaths or any other sounds that you carefully trimmed your clip to NOT have. Totally unacceptable for an NLE to make changes to my in/out point without being instructed to do so. If it’s a J/L cut you’re fine, if you apply a transition to a clip with collapsed audio for an A&V transition you’re fine, if you expand audio because you want a video only transition and the audio is a straight cut centered on the video transition… Beware. Be aware.

From another thread- https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/344/18364 -I was also having trouble with the unexpected audio fades. I investigated the strange behavior and posted a video showing the cause and a way to get around it (nudge).

https://youtu.be/Cv5EhMLXLd8

On further investigation since then I’ve found that even if the audio is collapsed after applying a video only transition, making a cut will still move the audio in/out point and apply a fade. You just can’t watch it appear, but you’ll know when there’s suddenly a little bit of a cough or something unwanted in the audio. Nudging to offset will still prevent it though.

[David Eaks]

Have you upgraded to OS X Mavericks? If so, see the video Steve linked to in this thread- https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/344/24421