[Jeff Carpenter]

Ok, here’s what works for me:

EDITING/PLAYBACK = Dial on DV, Switch on RECORD
LOGGING/CAPTURE = Dial on DV, Switch on PASSIVE

I hope that works for you too! I know that mine had its firewire board replaced before I got it, so hopefully that doesn’t affect this. Good luck.

[Jeff Carpenter]

You guessed right…the best way is to do it when you have a chance to erase all the media on the drive.

Use Disk Utility (APPLICATIONS>UTILITIES) and simply erase the disk. Open the extra options and select “ZERO ALL DATA.”

This will take every little bit on the drive and flip it to “0” so the entire drive is the same. You can’t get much more degragged than that!

I agree with the other posters that this probably isn’t something to worry about too much, but yeah, if I’m ever between two big jobs and I can clear the drive off I’ll do this every now and then, just to be safe.

[Jeff Carpenter]

Ha, yeah, it’s confussing. The switch that says “Passive” and two other settings and the litle turning knob to the left of it have to be set a certain way. Through trial and error I found the correct setting for capturing AND a different setting for editing/print-to-tape.

I made a sticker that tells me what to set it at and stuck it on my deck. Because of that I always just read it and can’t remember what the settings are! If no one else knows I will respond to this tonight when I get home, although it will be late.

So either wait until tomorrow morning to get my reply or you can start experimenting. I figured it out eventually but that’s the only way I figured it out. I could never find any documentation that spelled it out clearly.

[Jeff Carpenter]

Wow, I really started a conversation that’s way more than I need!

I hope everyone else learned what they needed from this…I learned that I only need a 3 foot extender cable. Thanks for the info, Walter, and good luck with your (much larger) cable project.

[Jeff Carpenter]

That might not be a bad idea. Even if it DOES fit on a disc, you’re certainly pushing it in terms of what iDVD can do. With DVD Studio Pro you can do more but there’s a bit of a learning curve.

You sound like you have Final Cut Pro but not DVD Studio Pro. Is that right?

You should know that becaause Apple is making the Studio Package the only way to buy Final Cut from now on they’re offering GREAT upgrade prices.

If you own one of the 4 programs in the studio package now is the cheapest time to upgrade to the whole studio suite, which will include DVD Studio Pro. You have to wait for February, but you can read about it now here:

https://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/topquestions.html

[Jeff Carpenter]

Maybe someday. Your best bet is to watch Microsoft for an announcement about a new version of Virtual PC for Intel Macs. It’s likely that that version would run much better than past versions have.

They say they’ll be doing it, but I expect it could take up to a year from now before you’re able to buy something like that.

The other thing to watch is FLip 4 Mac:
https://www.flip4mac.com

I don’t THINK any of their products do that yet, but you could certainly ask them about it and see if they’re planning on it anytime soon.

[Jeff Carpenter]

It MIGHT work now…I’m not sure. It didn’t used to go up to 2 hours but if you have version 5 or 6 I think it’s possible it will work.

You’ll have to go into the prefrencs before you start working and set the encoding to “Best Quality.”

I’m afraid you may just have to use a disc to test it. That might be the only way to really know for sure. I’d suggest not spending a lot of time on the menus for the test. Just add the video, burn a disc, and see if it works. If it does, go back and make it look the way you want it too.

I’m also not positve it will take DVCPROHD files. It might, but if it doesn’t you’ll want to export from Final Cut as an anamorphic DV file and then take that into iDVD.

[Jeff Carpenter]

Do you have your original OS X discs that you used before Tiger? I think you need to put that in and pick the ‘optional installs’ file on it. It’s possible it’s on another disc that came with your Mac, but check the original OS X disc first.

iLife only comes in two ways:
1) As an all new version in its own box ($79) each year or
2) It comes with a new Mac

It does not come with seperate, new versions of OS X. So when you bought Tiger it was not on that disc. I’m guessing you erased the drive and did a clean instal? That wiped it out.

But you should be able to find it on one of the discs that came with your Mac. (Either that or buy the new version that just came out.)

[Jeff Carpenter]

Does AE specify whether or not the project is using square or rectangular pixels?

You want it to be rectangular if it can. Let us know if that’s the problem or not.

[Jeff Carpenter]

I think you’re looking for something a little bit like this:

https://www.apple.com/finalcut/index.html

I consider the BIGGEST advantage of Final Cut Pro to be logging/batch capturing. But you can decide what’s most important to you. That page should help you figure it out.