[George Tabbut]

Kevin I would like to thank you for your help in working thru the problems. I have a break in my schedule coming up and will devote my time to some additional troubleshooting to see if I can nail this down. For some strange and wonderful reason problems tend to show up when you have the least time to solve them. I’m fairly new to FCP (less than a year) and still learning its strengths and weaknesses and realize that operator error is a potential issue. May test some of the same footage run through a different NLE and see if that is a factor.

George Tabbut
Studio TMG

[George Tabbut]

my workflow is as follows. standard definition green screen footage is shot on P2 or directly on the Mac (aja kona) using the dvcpro50 codec. Edited in Final Cut and exported with Automatic Duck. Primary filter is Keylight, some layers have the BCC color correction filter. pretty simple stuff. problems show up even with all effects off.

tried taking just the video into a new comp with no effects – same problems persisted – but also noticed that my video level dropped by about 10 units (measured with Test Gear) just from turning the multiprocessor capability on. Also tested some non green screen footage with the same results.

tried bringing in the footage directly from the final cut capture scratch folder bypassing automatic duck – still the same problem.

exported my timeline from final cut using quicktime conversion with ProRes 422 HQ as the compressor and this made the problem stop. So is the dvcpro50 codec the smoking gun? It would be a kind of funky work around to have to export quicktime from final cut and then have to take that back apart in AE to separate the scenes. Am I missing something?

George Tabbut
Studio TMG

[George Tabbut]

Really appreciate the clear easy to follow instructions. Unfortunately I only had a minor improvement. I am beginning to wonder if I have mis-diagnosed the problem. With the multiprocessor preference enabled my issues are RAM previews where the video level randomly shifts during playback and the rendered output has a noticeable level shift usually within the first 30 frames of the rendered video. Turning multiprocessor off solves both issues but drastically slows down render performance.

My other thought was that I may have an issue with RAM but have experienced no problems with any other applications.

George Tabbut
Studio TMG

[George Tabbut]

Thanks, your information is much appreciated. Spoke with one of the two guys who sent me on this hunt over the weekend, told him about my search, and he still is adamant that the product is out there. The ball’s in his court we’ll stick with firewire out of the camera until he can show me the solution.

George Tabbut
Studio TMG

[George Tabbut]

Thanks for the reply. I’m aware of Panasonic’s options but what has been described is supposed to be much less expensive.

George Tabbut
Studio TMG

[George Tabbut]

the importer was the solution, the older version of AE needs the older importer. The video monitor issue in AE was corrected by changing the settings in System Preferences – installing v12 steps on those settings.

Thanks for the help.

[George Tabbut]

i’ve had the same thought but was hoping to avoid all of the uninstalling and reinstalling.