[Jeff Carpenter]

Add the Crucial stick to it and see if they work together. If the computer starts having odd, unexplainable problems I’d take the original Apple RAM out at that point. But my guess is that you’ll be fine.

Mixing RAM brands can be risky, yes, but Crucial tends to do a really good job at testing everything they sell. If you bought RAM that they said will work with the iMac, chances are that it will work just fine with the RAM Apple put in there.

[Jeff Carpenter]

2 – Motion tab, anamorphic checkbox.

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So…un-check anamorphic and then change the aspect ratio to 33? (Or is it -33 maybe?) I think that’s what you’re saying and yes, I think that would do the trick.

[Jeff Carpenter]

I used a third party mouse like this once with those two extra buttons on the sides and I hated it. They push accidentally all the time and do things you don’t want.
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But are these actually buttons? Or is that part of the “squeeze” thing they’re talking about? ‘Cause if you have to press both of them at the same time I wouldn’t think you’d accidentally do it. But if they’re two buttons in ADDITION to the squeeze function…well that does sound confusing!

[Jeff Carpenter]

First off, your video card has more to do with Real Time effects than the RAM does. (Although RAM does help!) What kind of card do you have?

Second, make sure Final Cut is taking advantage of the RAM. In the FCP prefrences somewhere (sorry, can’t remember offhand and I’m not at my Mac) you’ll find a slider that lets Final Cut use more or less of the total computer RAM. With 2.5 GB you should be able to slide that all the way up to 100%. (I believe that will work out to 2 GB.) That leaves 512 KB free for the rest fo the system which should be just enough RAM, but you should probably leave other “big” programs (like Photoshop or Motion) closed when editing for the best performance.

And third, leave all the real time settings on “Dynamic.” That tells the computer to set the quality level at whatever it needs to for a particular shot and it changes as the timeline plays.

So let us know about the card. We can suggest a better one if the one you have is not so great. Spending between $300 and $600 will make a big difference in ‘Real Time’ if you’re currently working with a low-end card.

[Jeff Carpenter]

I have no idea if this will work, but here’s what I’d try first:

Select everything on your timeline (Apple-A)
Copy it (Apple-C)
Start a new, anamorphic project
Paste in it (Apple-V)

I don’t know if that will work out correctly, but if it does it would certainly be the easiest solution. Give it a try.

[Jeff Carpenter]

I’ve never heard of anyone upconverting from SD to HD. Wouldn’t that look like junk?
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It should be about the same as watching an old “Seinfeld” re-run on an HDTV set, which I imagine lots of people do. Anyone who owns an HD set must be used to watching lots of SD footage that’s blown up to fit their screen.

You’re right that being anamorphic takes a bit more away from it, but overall I’d imagine it will produce a look that people with HD sets are used to seeing at some point or another. There’s a lot of SD footage out there. Once everyone buys an HD set we’ll all be seeing this look a lot.

[Jeff Carpenter]

They changed today. Here’s what they are now.

https://www.apple.com/macmini/specs.html

Not much different. They come with more RAM now. I think the hard drives grew a little, although I’m not sure. (The iBooks changed in similar ways too.)

[Jeff Carpenter]

Good list, but #5 can be simplified.

You have: Hit (Option-Apple-M)

You can actually just hit “M” at that point and it will work. Or to put it another way, change #4 to “Hit “M” twice” and then erase #5.

[Jeff Carpenter]

It is not possible to change the video card. It’s not a normal card, it’s built into the motherboard, I think.

It IS expected that Apple will update the mini soon, actually, but I have no idea what that means. It could just mean more RAM and larger hard drives for the same price. Or it could mean something else. There’s no way to know.

[Jeff Carpenter]

You want to make a color matte (can be found in the menu that has the text generator), make it black in the controls, and then use motion control on it to shrink/move it.

To blur, copy the video and place a copy directly ABOVE the original on the timeline. Apply a blur filter to the top layer, and then drag a matte on top of it from the filters bin. Use the matte controls to crop that top layer video down so that the blurry part is just over the eyes or face. Then adjust the amount of blurriness and the opacity of the top layer until you get what you want.

OR, you could blur the face and THEN put a black box over it! That may be taking things a bit too far, though…