[David Eaks]

Thanks Charlie, I got the Pro Versioner Trial setup on my secondary system and did some testing and project restoring. I am really happy with it overall.

Would you say Backups would be “good enough” on its own, or if you could only have one would it be Pro Versioner hands down?

[David Eaks]

Pro Versioner looks good

[David Eaks]

Michael, I have since been able to get good results with Compressor, see below.
I don’t mean to predict the imminent death of DVD, just wish it.

Delphine, the article below gives a good walkthrough for HD to SD in Compressor, the “best of the best’ settings do take a painfully long time, but the second best does a pretty darn good job too.

https://lumenosity.blogspot.com/2010/07/best-apple-compressor-settings-for-dvd.html?m=1

In short:
-export current settings from FCP (not “send to” or QT Conversion)
-import to Compressor & apply Apple DVD preset
-make sure the Format tab matches what your FCP timeline settings were
-change to 2-pass & set bit rate (for longer projects I shoot for 3.8GB estimated size, in the info tab)
-ensure motion estimation is on Best
-enable Frame Controls and set resize, deinterlace & rate to either better or best
-enable adaptive details
-I think thats it

Do a short test clip at each quality and call me in the morning 🙂

[David Eaks]

Since you don’t seem to be in dire need of a new machine, I’d recommend waiting to buy any new Mac. Supposedly a new Mac Pro (or something else to replace it) is going to be released for Creatives/Pros within 2013. The current Mac Pro was outdated when it was released but the current “high end” iMac seems to be pretty well regarded.

I’d recommend grabbing a new small SSD, like 128GB at least and do a clean install of your OS and Apps. Use an external drive or the OWC Data Doubler for your media drive. Low cost upgrade, make your system a bit snappier and it’ll give you something to play with in the mean time. 😉

[David Eaks]

Rob, do you have any version of FCP currently installed?

[David Eaks]

[James Daugherty] “FCPX is not a pro tool and the people who use it are not as obsessed as professionals”

Oh crap! I better give all my clients from the last year or so their money back. This is going to put me into some serious debt because I have already spent most of that money buying cameras and switchers and Macs, Oh My!

And I should unsubscribe from the plethora of FCPX information that floods my inboxs. Stop using stuff like page2rss and ifttt to feed me email notifications as soon as there are updates to certain FCPX related sites.

*sarcasm off*

[David Eaks]

Yeah, or maybe do something similar to that fake widescreen look, where the black pillar boxes of a 4:3 image are filled with a scaled up and blurred layer of the same image to fill a 16:9 frame. Along with some other creative effects, besides just key framing rotation, you might be able to pull off a pretty good look.

[David Eaks]

My first thought regarding user group name changes was about this video, where Philip Hodgetts interviews Micheal Horton about the beginnings of LAFCPUG. He says dropping the F shouldn’t be a surprise, since the first year of the group they had talked about other NLEs, especially the last five years have not been FCP-centric (just no PCs LOL), and the change had nothing to do with FCPX.

Interview starts at 2:18, name change question at 5:29- https://www.fcp.co/final-cut-pro/news/1076-real-time-logging-with-lumberjack-from-intelligent-assistance-demonstrated-at-lacpug

[David Eaks]

My first thought is to add a background while the frame flips, to make it less noticeable. Also, make the flip as fast as feasibly possible.

Just I thought.

[David Eaks]

Nothing to worry about. The little “wifi signal” looking symbol behind the triangle means that the project has been shared before. The triangle means that it has been changed since the last share. It worried me at first too, turns out to be pretty handy.

How to take “corrective” action? Export the project.