[Dixon Johnston]

Thanks again P2 Forum! Ive been running into intermittent card copying problems on my HPG20, and the write protect thing seems to have solved the issue..

Dixon Johnston
Creative services Director-WRIC

Dual 2.0 G5, 4G RAM
OSX 10.4.1, FCP 5.1, QT 7
AJA Io-Beta SX (SDI)
P2/Beta SX Aquisition, decks, card readers

[Dixon Johnston]

Jeremy, thanks for the reply. I thought that might be the case, but wanted to consult the experts here first.

Dixon Johnston
Creative services Director-WRIC

Dual 2.0 G5, 4G RAM
OSX 10.4.1, FCP 5.1, QT 7
AJA Io-Beta SX (SDI)
P2/Beta SX Aquisition, decks, card readers

[Dixon Johnston]

Thanks for the input. All our gear protection and cases are Portabrace, some of them are 20 years old and still in use (even though they look like 80s faded jeans by now). I am a fan of Portabrace, and I wouldn’t have 2nd guessed the purchase if it wasn’t for the significant design flaw that doesnt accommodate for large size battery that I mentioned. Having something customized or modified is a good suggestion, thanks again.

Dixon Johnston
Creative services Director-WRIC

Dual 2.0 G5, 4G RAM
OSX 10.4.1, FCP 5.1, QT 7
AJA Io-Beta SX (SDI)
P2/Beta SX Aquisition, decks, card readers

[Dixon Johnston]

I know this is an old post, but heres how I solved this problem for future readers:

I too got an error code -600 a few times in launching FCP 5.1.4. Heres what I did, and now works fine.

1. Had to force shut down.
2. Repair disk permissions on the local drive (OSX 10.4)
3. Launched the Final Cut project, and still had problems-audio was in the files, the meters were moving but was not playing out the Kona card.
4. Ive had this problem on occasion, where audio will be distorted or not playing through the AJA Kona card-this usually works, but is probably not recommended by the AJA people:
bring up bars and tone, and loop it to play (I do this because I have to get to the back of the G5, and want something to be playing through) and I reseat the connector from the breakout box to the G5 while tone is playing. Its the big black cable, and my theory is the weight of the cable-even though its supported properly, over time sags and creates io problems. It works! I have not done this successfully when there is no signal passing through the io card, I can only do it when the signal/tone is playing. Maybe it resets the card, I dont know why exactly- but it works.

Dixon Johnston
Creative services Director-WRIC

Dual 2.0 G5, 4G RAM
OSX 10.4.1, FCP 5.1, QT 7
AJA Io-Beta SX (SDI)

[Dixon Johnston]

Thanks guys, for all your help. Thought Id let you know where I am with this.
I tried yet again, using the specs provided, and got no improved results. Not sure I really understand how to “trick it into upping the level”. The best end result was exporting via FCP QT conversion with compressor quality set to “best”, encoding set to multi-pass and “Automatic” Data Rate yielding a 6550kbs file. So thats what Ive uploaded, and we’ll see if anyone complains.

Here is another mystery Ive come up with. This particular 30 sec spot also had a cutdown 10 second version-where literally, the last 10 seconds was the product-no edits or alterations. I exported using FCP and the same EXACT settings described above. It yielded a 7238Kbs product-higher than the 30.

Not willing to let it go, I tried again through Compressor and it kills me that I can adjust a bitrate slider in the H264 Studio Pro presets but cannot do it in any of the interlaced SD 29.97 720×486 settings. (or at least I havent discovered a way to do it). I did try the Studio Pro preset, and as expected, got a 59.94 frame rate file at 720×480, average bit rate slider set to minimum 12Mbps. The result was 11.84 Mbps file, but was the wrong frame rate and aspect for my purposes-AND it took 3 HOURS to Transcode. Pressing on-I exported that file, to correct the frame rate and aspect, which got me a 5560Kbps file (I suppose because its half the fps). This is about the same as MOST of my earlier attempts.

Im giving up for now after 15 attempts, and will use it as ammo (whether justifiable or not) to get an Intel Mac. Is it possible all the varied results is actually CPU related?

I really appreciate all of your advice, and Im sure I’ll be looking to the cow as we transition to a P2 world. I will check back on this post to see if you guys have any more theories or solutions.

Thanks again.
Dixon

Dixon Johnston
Creative services Director-WRIC

Dual 2.0 G5, 4G RAM
OSX 10.4.1, FCP 5.1, QT 7
AJA Io-Beta SX (SDI)

[Dixon Johnston]

Daniel, So you’re saying that the file has been basically maxed out for the codec and it doesnt require any higher bitrate to maintain its quality? Which makes sense in a way because the video is graphic based-fairly simple text effects over some composited stills, whereas the 1st one I compressed this am that had a much higher bitrate-was all live action video.

If this is the case, do you think that the minimum 8Mbs requirements by the media outlets would actually be a problem or contested? As I understand it, if the bitrate is too low, when it runs off the servers for broadcast, the image can smear, blur, or jitter.

Craig, I hope to give you all the info I can to figure this out. Let me know what else I can provide to solve the problem. When you send though Fast Channel, how do you control the parameters in Compressor? I only know of this route (see bottom screen shot).
As you’ll see below, I got a slightly lower bitrate (5500kbs) than before (6500kbs).
I did the process again, so I could create these screen shots.

Export via FCP

Export via Compressor, inset is the QT Info, youll see that compressor estimated the bitrate at the 20000 MBS, but the QT result was 3640Mbs

Dixon Johnston
Creative services Director-WRIC

Dual 2.0 G5, 4G RAM
OSX 10.4.1, FCP 5.1, QT 7
AJA Io-Beta SX (SDI)

[Dixon Johnston]

My most recent attempts have been exporting through final cut’s Quicktime Conversion feature, where I dont see VBR vs CBR as an option. I would assume its CBR. I am not setting “prepare for internet streaming”. Does that help?

Dixon Johnston
Creative services Director-WRIC

Dual 2.0 G5, 4G RAM
OSX 10.4.1, FCP 5.1, QT 7
AJA Io-Beta SX (SDI)

[Dixon Johnston]

Thanks for the quick reply, but (previous post) “Ive tried ‘restrict to 15000kbs” as an experiment, but it is not helping my bitrate problem. ”

I just did it again to make sure, and set restrict WAY up to 200000kbs and its still exporting at 6500kbs.
Is there any other info I can provide to help track down the problem? Does keyframe rate matter?

Dixon Johnston
Creative services Director-WRIC

Dual 2.0 G5, 4G RAM
OSX 10.4.1, FCP 5.1, QT 7
AJA Io-Beta SX (SDI)

[Dixon Johnston]

Thank you! Problem solved
I couldn’t find the folder because it didn’t exist! Although I’ve reinstalled Motion 2 a few times, it never actually created the UI Layouts folder-weird! My solution, using your file path as a starting point was this:
I copied the folder from another Edit suite which had 2 saved custom window layouts, and put it in the right place on my machine-now everything is saving.

Dixon Johnston
Creative services Director-WRIC

Dual 2.0 G5, 4G RAM
OSX 10.4.1, FCP 5.1, QT 7
AJA Io-Beta SX (SDI)

[Dixon Johnston]

Thanks Gary for the quick response,
I am looking into how to revert the quicktime version (still searching-any ideas or links?). Do you think that would also explain (not included in original post) why Final cut opens when the AJA Io box is turned off? It opens so Im able to at least Media Manage and migrate current projects to another edit suite. Do you think I have to reinstall Final Cut again? Will that revert the version of quicktime to the version bundled in the installers?
Dixon

Dixon Johnston
Creative services Director-WRIC

Dual 2.0 G5, 4G RAM
OSX 10.4.1, FCP 5.1, QT 7
AJA Io-Beta SX (SDI)