[Don Greening]

You’re trying to make a freeze frame from a widescreen anamorphic SD codec which is inherently a 4:3 frame. It will come out squeezed. If you want to have a 1920×1080 square pixel image load your original HD clip into the viewer and choose: Export Using Quicktime Conversion. Choose Still Image from the list and export that.

You can also do the same thing in Quicktime Player.

– Don

[Don Greening]

If you end up having to uninstall Final Cut Studio there is a free app available to do the job. Personally, I’ve never needed to use it but here’s a link:

https://www.digitalrebellion.com/fcs_remover.htm

– Don

[Don Greening]

Highlight the clip you want to remove the effect from and choose “Remove Attributes” from the Edit menu. To remove a cross dissolve just highlight it and hit the delete key. I can’t remember if it’s important for both of the above but make sure you have the selection tool active otherwise you may not be able to select the cross dissolve to delete it.

– Don

[Don Greening]

Hi David,

I’m not sure if you want to stay in HD PAL or if you want to down convert to a standard definition version of your PAL project. If you’re making an SD version then might I suggest you use the Pro Res codec instead of 10 bit Uncompressed. Pro Res will look just fine and the file sizes will be a lot smaller compared to 10 bit Uncompressed. Pro Res is also far easier on your system to play back as well.

You say the picture is blurry. Are you looking at the unrendered playback, and if so, does the picture sharpen up and look fine when the play head is stopped? If it is, then Final Cut Pro is trying to give you smooth playback performance and is dropping the quality setting instead of dropping frames. Once you render your sequence final Cut Pro should play back your timeline at full quality.

– Don

[Don Greening]

I apologize for the mis-information. You can transfer files from the EX via firewire directly to your NLE, provided that the FW connection is enabled in the EX menu and that you’re only transferring files shot in HDV mode. To enable the EX firewire connection go to the “OTHERS” menu and set the i.LINK I/O to “Enable”.

– Don

[Don Greening]

[Rafael Amador] “What means that? That you can only use the FW to dub from the EX-1 to a HDV device?”

I’m glad you asked, because it made me re-read the owner’s manual again. It states that you can only use the FW connection to transfer HDV material to an HDV compatible device such as a camera or a deck. This means that you need to be shooting in SQ (HDV) mode otherwise it won’t work. HDV recording also works in reverse, because the manual states that the EX will record an HDV stream to the SxS Pro cards from a connected HDV device.

What I did forget about is that the EX can transfer an HDV stream (only) to a non-linear editor via FW. Then the manual get a little vague concerning the performance of FW transfer using an NLE:

“If the playback clip is short or the playback in point is near the end of the clip, the signal may be interrupted between the clip and the next clip. When you try to capture such a signal using the non-linear editing system a malfunction may occur, depending on the non-linear editing system in use.”

The manual goes on to talk about other issues with FW and NLE’s but what it boils down to is that FW is for HDV only.

– Don

[Don Greening]

[walter biscardi] “We’re going to be starting a new series with either the EX-1 or EX-3 and before we even start the edit, all material will be backed up to this format. “

Walter, just so you’re aware. the EX1/3 cameras all have their own unique serial number as part of each clip name, so determining which clips go together should be a lot easier to keep track of in post.

– Don

[Don Greening]

Yeah, I wouldn’t have a clue about the deck settings. One way to find out if it is the deck is if you were able to copy an entire BPAV folder from an SxS Pro card to your computer and then start the Transfer Tool, navigate to the BPAV folder and see if you can import a subclip from that. If you can then it’s something to do with the deck. If the deck contains separate BPAV folders previously transferred from cards try copying one of those to your hard drive and accessing that within the Transfer Tool.

– Don

[Don Greening]

[Anders Meisner] ” I have a firewire-cable connected to the camera but nothing happens”

The EX FW connection is for HDV only, for when you have another HDV compatible device such as a camera or deck hooked up to the EX. You cannot import footage to your computer using FW. Your computer will not see it.

– Don

[Don Greening]

Ronnie,

I just did a subclip test for you where I selected about 5 sec. of footage from a 58 minute clip right from the camera hooked up to my Mac Pro via USB. I selected my in and out points right in the Transfer Tool viewer window and then hit import. Worked just fine.

Maybe it’s a preference thing that’s checked or not checked but here is a rundown of how my Transfer Tool prefs are set up so you can compare.

Under General prefs:

Automatically add media – checked
Show offline media – checked
Audio channels – all checked

Under Cache prefs:

Cache size is set at 10%
Automatically fetch proxies – checked

Under Import prefs:

New folder for each source – checked
Overwrite existing files – not checked
Add source name – checked
Add clip title – checked
Add UMID – not checked
For subclips add in and out timecodes – checked
For subclips add index number – checked
Subclip handles – not checked
Only import monitored channels – not checked
Write Final Cut Pro XML file – checked
Uncheck subclips on import – not checked
Open imported files with – not checked

See what happens when you compare your prefs.

– Don