[Jan Joubert]

Hey,

well having read this and the article,
the mac I’m running is a 8x core MacPro, 6gb of 800Mhz Ram.
Final Cut only allocates 2.1gb of RAM to itself,
another .8gb is used by various apps,
and another 3.2gb approx is free according to activity monitor,

so… shouldn’t I be able to boost this up to over 2.5gb usage? or atleast a 2.5gb usage?
Moslty I don’t have playback issues, but sometimes i need to run smoothcam and such things in the background while jumping between editing various fcp projects…

not urgent but a response would be interesting,
thanks

building puzzles with timecodes.

[Jan Joubert]

Well if your figuring this stuff out as you go along like me a mine like this is bound to remove a limb or two now and then, but i’ve found some re attachment techniques:

the easiest if you have a VTR is just to select all the offline clips on that specific tape, deselect the ones in the first couple of minutes on the tape (look for the media start column), and batch capture,
(don’t click add when the option comes up)
then recapture those two minutes at the start of the tape using capture now and using the timecode start / stop indicators in the project window re log them using markers.

another easy way to do it (but it takes alot more machine time but much less of your time) is to recapture all those tapes using capture now from as early in the tape as possible,
then follow this procedure with each tape:
look at the offline footage, at what timecode did the first shot on the tape start and what TC did the last one end?
using those two TC’s create a new sequence with those properties,that is,
make it start on the start TC you’ve just found in the sequence settings dialogue, insert the captured footage into the sequence, remove the frames or add slug or w.e. to make up the difference so as to match the timecode, put the sequence out point at the ending timecode of the offline tape that you found, and export. the new exported file will have the timecode of the offline tape.
just reconnect your footage to that, FCP will say ‘media length different’, but just click continue it works fine.

😉

building puzzles with timecodes.

[Jan Joubert]

https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/8/955376#955394

building puzzles with timecodes.

[Jan Joubert]

https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/8/1017902#1017913

They say it pretty well,
I found some ways around it that im also putting in that post

building puzzles with timecodes.

[Jan Joubert]

regarding TC issues when capturing from sony v1u,
ive captured a LOT of tapes that were shot on a v1u using a sony hdv deck (can’t recall which), capturing into Adobe premiere pro 3.

this was a while back (and i’m now on FCP thank God) but I never had any issues like you guys mention with the v1u… maybe its just a question of hiring a VTR?

building puzzles with timecodes.

[Jan Joubert]

Howzit Paul,

mmm ok I’ll try it at 0:59:10:00 instead of 23:59:10:00 … that may be the reason

not questioning your experience mate just observing the reality
😉

thanks alot!

Caffeinecuttingcrunching, digging data pits and building puzzles with timecodes.

[Jan Joubert]

‘terminology / colloquialism’
when you say ‘edit near the programme media’ what is what you refer to a preroll (striped on tape) before your bars / counters?

I started / striped the tape from 23:59:10:00 , it clocks over to 00:00:00:00 at 24:00:00:00.

at this point I start a 2 minute bars / caption / counter / etc sequence with my edit starting at 00:02:00:00

are we on the same page here?

… or maybe do you mean that you only start striping timecode on the tape (even if its 23:59:10:00 or 00:59:10:00 or whatever with intention of starting at 00:00:00:00 or 01:00:00:00) after playing 45 seconds into the timecodeless new tape?

Caffeinecuttingcrunching, digging data pits and building puzzles with timecodes.

[Jan Joubert]

For those of you whom are interested I ‘tried everything and got to the bottom of’ this issue and this is what I found:

Shane’s method (which can also be done by setting preset TC on the deck and striping TC that way) still results in the final product on tape being out by 1 frame (which is fine).

Simple Video OUT can be used to output a frame accurate version of your cut onto tape, but only supports specific formats (it would not for example support 16:9 PAL). I could find no other APP for MAC that can do this. Simple VO does work on Leopard.

Sony Vegas (on PC) can output to tape frame accurately, tested it twice on different cuts on the DSR 25 without RS422 control. I also tried Premiere CS3 but this was out by far more than a few frames!

Another method for getting it frame accurate would be to play from the timeline with the preview on DV device swithced on in FCP and try to hit the spacebar / play button at just the right time, but most people wouldn’t succeed.

Conclusion:
1. I would love to hear the official excuse as to why FCP cannot output assembly to tape on a non RS422 controlled device frame accurately, the ‘its too cheap’ excuse is clearly not valid as both Simple Video Out and Sony Vegas do this job perfectly. That said I still love final cut better than any other NLE.
2. Only working alternatives is outputting through Sony Vegas or Simple Video Out.

Have a fantabulous day

Caffeinecuttingcrunching, digging data pits and building puzzles with timecodes.

[Jan Joubert]

ok for those interested here’s what I found

Shane’s method (which can also be done by setting preset TC on the deck as Raphael pointed out) still results in the final product on tape being out by 1 frame (which is fine).

Simple Video OUT can be used to output a frame accurate version of your cut onto tape, but only supports specific formats (it would not for example support 16:9 PAL). I could find no other APP for MAC that can do this. Simple VO does work on Leopard.

Sony Vegas (on PC) can output to tape frame accurately, tested it twice on different cuts on the DSR 25 without RS422 control. I also tried Premiere CS3 but this was out by far more than a few frames!

Another method for getting it frame accurate would be to play from the timeline with the preview on DV device swithced on in FCP and try to hit the spacebar / play button at just the right time, but most people wouldn’t succeed.

Conclusion:
1. I would love to hear the official excuse as to why FCP cannot output assembly to tape on a non RS422 controlled device frame accurately, the ‘its too cheap’ excuse is clearly not valid as both Simple Video Out and Sony Vegas do this job perfectly. That said I still love final cut.
2. Only working alternatives is outputting through Sony Vegas or Simple Video Out.

Have a lekker day

Caffeinecuttingcrunching, digging data pits and building puzzles with timecodes.

[Jan Joubert]

OK just an update, im not victorious yet but almost (for reasons you’d find peculiar)

ok it almost worked (both of your responses),
now it is out by 1 frame
I tried both your methods for pre striping TC onto a Tape, they work for striping TC (even on leopard),
but there is still a 1 frame difference between the timeline and the tape when sending the file through FCP ETT Assemble edit.
very small, I know, it’d be fine for broadcast, but I’m still trying to figure out why…

this is crazy,

but insert editing seems to work perfectly on the dsr25 on sony vegas / PC over firewire. That is, I’ve set an assemble edit to start at 00:00:00:00 (and record the program not bars/leader from 00:00:00:00 on) on a brand new S size DV tape at the start of the tape and the program is accurate on tape to the frame in reflection to the timeline. On several cuts. Tried it twice.
The DSR 25 was set to External TC which was sent via firewire

????

I guess the sony blokes incorporated something similar to SimpleVideo out in their software. I must say I didn’t think Vegas could beat FCP in any regard…
either that or the DSR25 isn’t as crap as everyone is saying. I mean talk about overcomplicating simple task (FCP), would you agree?

The final idea I have (other than exporting it to Vegas and doing it from there) is exporting the file with the right TC from SimpleVideoOut,
Oh and Raphael’s just posted another idea as I’m typing (thanks!) ,
both of these I will pursue saturday (I’m not on a strict deadline)

That said, thanks ALOT for helping me so far!!!
heres a beer on me
[img] https://stuffeducatedlatinoslike.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/beer.jpg [/img]

(out of curiosity that’s arisen since exploring this) Does anyone know if a cheap little consumer (non professional) miniDV camera is set to internal or external timecode?

Caffeinecuttingcrunching, digging data pits and building puzzles with timecodes.