[Gary Hughes]

I have been considering switching to an uncompressed codec for my editing to get past this problem myself. I have asked for opinions here and got no help. I guess this is one of those questions thats been asked over and over since the early beginnings of fcp and everyone is tired of talking about it, although you can’t really find any help through searching the archives either.

Anyway, I can tell you that you will not get those two codecs onto the same sequence without rendering. FCP can only handle one codec on any one sequence, so you’re stuck with either an uncompressed sequence, which will tie up more hard drive space without improving the DV footage, yet it will give you better quality text, or you can work with the DV sequence and suffer the lesser quality text.

Thanks,
Gary

[Gary Hughes]

Cinematize works great for making QuickTime files from a DVD! It costs $69 and does a great job. I’m sure others work just as well, but a friend suggested this one and I tried it and it works great. I just had to use it for a project because the raw tape couldn’t get here in time and the client didn’t care if I used the compressed DVD video.

https://www.miraizon.com/products/products.html

Thanks,
Gary

[Gary Hughes]

You don’t have to have sympathy for me. That’s not what I’m asking for. (I think there’s another forum for that.) I remember the good-ole days too. I used to sell bagphones and install them into Mercedes. I also used to sell computers that required a 5-1/4″ before it would boot. Now, my phone is 4″ long and my computer doesn’t even have a floppy drive.

Thanks for the downgraded render quality tip, that’ll help. I should’ve thought of that, I was just concerned with the possibility of not having to render at all, till time to print to tape. (Guess I had blinders on.) However, I never mentioned going proprietary, or buying “boxes and cards”. I’ve had proprietary and I’m not interested again. I’m simply asking which is the better codec or workflow for my situation, or if there is even a better workflow that I’m not thinking about. I’m no newbie, just new to FCP. I’m about to start on an infomercial for Orange Glo and I just want to know that I’m working as efficiently as I can, before I start.

You never said anything about going uncompressed, unless that’s what you mean by proprietary. So, I ask again, will switching to uncompressed help me out or just take up more drive space? (again, I know uncompressed will not make my DV-Cam footage look any better, this is a workflow question, not a quality question.)

Thanks,
Gary

[Gary Hughes]

Just a guess here, shoot on the green screen, paint all exposed skin and hair flat black and have them wear flat black clothing, then use all white ipod type gear. Worst case, paint the ipod and headphones Chroma Key Blue from roscoe and key it seperate, but I bet the white will work if you can reduce or incorporate the highlights on the talent. Absolute worst case, you’ll have 3 distinct colors for seperate keys.

https://www.fxsupply.com/bn_catalog/bn_hair.html or google for Ben Nye or Theatrical Makeup for body and hair makeup.

I’ve wanted to try this, but havn’t had the chance to.

Thanks,
Gary

[Gary Hughes]

Not that this fixes your issue with capture now, I think I would invest in (or rent) a firestore or similar capture drive, then take it back to the system and dump it to my drive and import it. I’m sure others here will find a fix for your exact problem, but I don’t think I’d count on it working flawlessly during a shoot, having never tested it. Even if you get past this issue, what if something else creeps into the equation at the last second? You could be troubleshooting when you should be shooting, and if your like most people in this business, time is money, and troubleshooting time, during a shoot, is like throwing that money away.

Having said that, I can’t personally endorse the firestore or any other “live” capture drive, because I’ve not actually used one. I can, however, endorse the idea of having a sure thing at a shoot.

Also, maybe I’m wrong about this altogether. Maybe others are sucessfully doing exactly what you want to do. I’m just trying to be devil’s advocate here ’cause I know how expensive shoots can get, especially failed ones.

Thanks,
Gary

[Gary Hughes]

I’m not at my machine right now, and I’m fairly new to FCP also, but if my memory serves me well, right clicking on the clip (nest) and choosing “open in viewer”, (not sure about the wording) will treat it like other clips.

Another thing that will easily hang you up at first, if you need to go into a nest to edit it, fine, double click on it. BUT, if you need to re-use the nest in other sequences as well, it’s real easy to accidently get a copy of that nest that’s no longer related, meaning changing the nest in one sequence, will not change it in another, or even in the browser. This can be very handy, but it can also be a big hangup. There is a way for them to all stay related, but without being in front of my machine, I just can’t remember. Let me know if you want more info, and I’ll respond in front of my machine next time. If you’re not sure this is an issue for you, after applying your filter, open the nest from the browser, into the viewer (again by right clicking on it), and see if the filters are there or not.

Thanks,
Gary

[Gary Hughes]

Just a tip. I’ve had to mix quite a few photos and photoshop created graphics with real video on a project where white was the theme for all the product shots and graphics. I simply created a photoshop action that included only a “levels” adjustment. Then I used the automate function to batch the levels adjustment to entire folders of pics and graphics. I knew the whites were 255 and blacks were 0 on all the pics and graphics so I simply set the levels to max white (in my case I was matching 90 units so it was 229. In your case, you’ll want the full 100 units for max whiteness so you’ll use 235), and I also set the black to 16. 235RGB Max and 16RGB Min are broadcast safe for NTSC video.

Thanks,
Gary

[Gary Hughes]

Thanks. I just saw them and was curious. I like to do throrough cleanup after each project, and with this being my first real project in FCP, I’m still learning about file organization on the mac.

Thanks again,
Gary

[Gary Hughes]

Curiosity got the best of me. I made time tonight to check it out.

Walter is completely correct, but you can have your cake and eat it too. There is a way to have all occurances of your nest update together. If, and only if, you drag sequence1 FROM THE BROWSER into other sequences, they will all be instances (not copies) of that sequence from the browser. Then, if you need to edit sequence1, open it from the browser to edit it and all other occurances (instances) will update as well. Any other method I’ve tried works as Walter said.

To put it another way:
Create a copy of a sequence (for nesting) that is not related to the original by copying and pasting it into other locations. Another way is to open the sequence in the viewer and then edit it into one or more sequences as if it were a clip. These methods will result in individually editable sequences and they will no longer be related to the original. I HIGHLY SUGGEST RENAMING THESE TO DISTINGUISH THE DIFFERENCE.

Create an instance of a sequence (for nesting) that is related to the original by dragging all instances from the browser. Then when you edit the original sequence, all other instances will update.

BTW, I’m glad it works this way because if it didn’t, I would have permanently lost a valuable sequence last week before I figured this out. Luckily I had a copy that didn’t update and I was able to open it in the viewer and drag it to the browser to get a new copy of it there.

Thanks,
Gary

[Gary Hughes]

Happened to me too. After a couple of hours (of pulling out hair), I got past it, but I’m not at the system now and can’t remember how. I will try tomorrow to replay my steps and let you know.

Looks like we’re all going to have to invest in Rogain!

Thanks,
Gary