[Jeff Carpenter]

Start here:

https://store.apple.com/Catalog/US/Images/routingpage.html

[Jeff Carpenter]

No, because Safari is free but iPhoto is not free.

All the iLife programs (iDVD, iMovie, iPhoto, Garage Band) come in one package for $79. Every OS X DVD has the current version of iLife on it, but when a new version comes out you have to go out and buy it.

So if you have Tiger you get iLife 5 on it. But someone who’s still using Panther has iLive 4 and they’re expected to buy iLife 5 for $79. So that’s why they wouldn’t make an iPhoto download.

[Jeff Carpenter]

I don’t know too much about brands…I tend to usually buy Western Digital or Maxtor drives and I’ve always been happy with them.

When I bought a SATA drive a few months ago the 2 largest sizes were 300 and 400 GB. I found that the 400 GB drives all had 8 MB caches and the 300 GB had a 16 MB cache. I don’t know how big a deal that is, really, but I decided to go with the 300 GB because of it.

I don’t know if that’s still the case today or not, but it’s worth looking up. Cache size is something they never tell you in the ads, you need to go to the manufacturer’s web site to find out.

Oh, and use the instructions on drive replacement in the Powermac manual. (The info is also available on Apple.com) Everything in the G5 case is designed to be easy to work with but that usually means it’s different than any other computer you’ve messed with. Once you have pictures of how to do it in front of you it goes a LOT faster then if you just try to figure it out on your own.

[Jeff Carpenter]

This is more of a DVDSP question. Ask it over in their room to get a more detailed answer.

The basic idea, though, is that there are a couple of places you could check. The DVDSP monitor may be set for 4×3 and needs to be changed. Or perhaps the video track or the disc itself need to be set as an anamorphic DVD.

I know how to find those things if I poke around for a little while, but I’m afraid I don’t know off the top of my head. At any rate, there’s nothing wrong with your video. ALL widescreen DVD video is squeezed when you take it in to DVDSP. That’s the correct way to do it. You just need to ask the DVDSP room how to stretch it properly.

[Jeff Carpenter]

You probably want to go to the bookstore and buy some kind of “HTML for Dummies” book. Something that’s simple and talks about web page design.

In addition to that you’ll probably want to buy something like Dreamweaver.
https://www.macromedia.com/software/dreamweaver/

You can program web pages with nothing more than a simple text editing program, but that’s going to be a LOT harder. With Dreamweaver you’ll be able do a lot more a lot faster. Look for tutorial books on that program while you’re buying the HTML book, it can help you jump in a lot quicker to try out some lessons from a book instead of simply readnig the manual.

And I DO suggest getting the HTML book even if you’re going to buy a program that helps you design it. Even though the program is doing a lot of the work for you it helps if you have some understanding of what, exactly, it’s doing for you.

[Jeff Carpenter]

I don’t think it matters if it’s on your system drive. It should probably be turned off on your media drives, however.

I don’t know of any way to turn it off without re-formatting. Before you do that, though, have you checked all the energy settings in the computer’s prefrences? Make sure that everything’s turned to stay on forever.

[Jeff Carpenter]

I think the real problem is that it’s not set up to be exported to anything. If I could log the tape as I go and then have Final Cut Pro suck up all that information over firewire from my deck and use it to create a batch-capture list then yes, I WOULD use that feature all the time!

But it doesn’t work that way. Perhaps you can do something with the Sony editing software, but as a Final Cut user it seems to me that anything I’d do on the chip would simply be useful when I’m watching the tape in my camera. Well, that’s not a good enough reason, so I’ve never used it.

[Jeff Carpenter]

It’s a computer chip in the tape that you can record information on. So, for example, with the right camera you could make “marks” as you record and return to those points later at the push of a button. The timecode and info you marked would be recorded in the chip. It probably saves other information too, but I don’t really know what.

The bottom line is, if you’re not upset that you’re missing those features then there’s no reason to buy the tapes with chips in them.

[Jeff Carpenter]

I have very little experience with OS9 programs, so don’t take this as the final word BUT…I think the deal with the G5s is that they cannot boot into OS9 directly. I’m nearly positive that the classic emulation mode still works in them, however, so they should be just fine for what you want to do even if you upgrade all the way to Tiger.

That’s what I thought, anyway, hopefully someone else with actual classic-mode experience can give you the final word on that.

[Jeff Carpenter]

It won’t be easy, but here’s what I’d do:

Drop a color correcting filter on the entire clip. Then, as you watch it, if you see a change occur place a razor cut right in the middle of the change. Then drop a disolve on that cut and make it long enough so that the dissolve starts when the change starts and ends when the change ends.

Then double click each clip and try to alter the settings so it looks the way you want it to. (You can adjust color AND midtone brightness in the same filter.)

This will by no means be precise, but it should help. Hopefully the change is not too great, this will be a lot easier if the changes you’re making are subtle ones. Also, if you have external video scopes they would be a great help. If not, the software versions in Final Cut might help a little bit.

As a side note, it sounds to me like your camera was in some kind of auto-white-balance mode that has nothing to do with the shutter. Any way to check and see if that’s what happened? What kind of camera was it?