[Jeff Carpenter]

I use what Rob said too. There are just too many little things I end up doing at the sart of EVERY project such as making bins for music and graphics. Having a template means I never have to do that again.

But, I have one more suggestion. Once you have the template made, drag a copy onto the Dock. Files can live over in the section next to the trash can (but not with the other apps).

This gives me a way to start my Final Cut template right on the dock.

[Jeff Carpenter]

Find one of your documents and select it in the finder. Hit Command-i.

Select the ‘Open this Program with’ section and set it to open with Word and not the trial version. Click “Change All” and all the Word documents will take that setting.

This is a very common question I get and I think it’s pretty dumb that they can’t do something about this. I don’t know if this is Apple’s or Microsoft’s issue to fix, but either way it’s a pretty annoying issue for new Mac Office owners. Trial programs shouldn’t interfere with the ACTUAL program it’s trying to promote!

So no, it’s not just you.

[Jeff Carpenter]

In the system prefs click on USERS.

Make sure you have your account selected and select the ‘Startup Items’ button. It’s probably in there. You can either un-check Safari or just erase it from the list of items that auto-start.

[Jeff Carpenter]

Mark’s advice is all good, but if you don’t have the money you sometimes have to compromise. I’d suggest something like this in that case:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/366655-REG/Bogen_Manfrotto_503351MVCFK_351MVCF_Carbon_Fiber_Tripod.html

Now, that’s still a $1,200 tripod, so it’s not at all what you were asking for, but it would give you something that you can do very well with at a better price than top-of-the-line gear.

If you actually have to spend $100 then you don’t need our advice. Anything under $1,000 is going to be pretty much the same, quality wise. Just look for features you want and that’s how you make your choice.

[Jeff Carpenter]

The downsides:

1) Firewire 800 drives are the fastest external drive you can get.
2) No capture cards means firewire input of video only
3) No live monitoring of video other than over firewire
4) Video card not going to be good for Motion

That said, IF you’re sticking with DV or HDV and IF you’re not using Motion much, well they’re pretty neat machines that you can get a lot of work done with. They’re super-snappy while editing those formats.

I use one of the first Core 1 Duo Intel iMacs for editing and it works great. The thing is, though, that it’s sitting next to a Mac Pro station. I use the iMac for getting work done while the main computer is capturing/compressing/burning. So as a 2nd computer, it’s fantastic. None of the downsides apply to me because I have all that on my main system. I would highly suggest an iMac as a second system should you need one.

But as a primary system, well, it will do fine for a lot of things but it’s not ideal.

[Jeff Carpenter]

It still needs to be upgraded to 5.1 or higher. That’s the first Intel-compatible version.

The way you can tell for sure is to find the application itelf, select it, and hit command-i. If it says “Power PC” it needs to be upgraded. If it says “Universal” you’re ok.

(Note that this only applies to Apple’s “Pro” programs. Things like Word and Photoshop CS2 will say “Power PC” but they’ll work ok.)

[Jeff Carpenter]

You’re looking for this site, Erik.

http://www.barefeats.com

[Jeff Carpenter]

Sorry, I have no answers, but I’m going to add on to this problem.

I usually use a DV deck over firewire and I’ve never had a problem like this. However, I’ve been using a borrowed DVCPRO deck recently and capturing a lot of high school sports games with it (over firewire). So, usually 1-hour long captures at a time.

About every 3rd or 4th clip I capture, the audio comes in at something like 48.212 khz or 48.0282135 or something. It’s different every time and totally random as to which clip it will happen to.

The only solution I’ve found is to erase the clip and re-capture. Even though I’ve changed nothing, it usually works the 2nd time.

It’s totally inconsistent and you can fix it by changing nothing and just re-doing the work. This makes it almost impossible to track down the problem with experimentation.

Anyway, sorry for not having an answer either, but it’s not just you!

[Jeff Carpenter]

Obviously we’re probably all going to prefer Final Cut here. You’ve heard the reasons why, it seems, so there’s no point in repeating them all.

The one solid reason I can give you is the Final Cut Studio package as a whole. Look at the 6 programs it gets you and the price of $1,300. That’s a fantastic deal compared to your other similar options.

Obviously it doesn’t make sense to save money if you’re not happy with your choice, so still get what’s right for you. But if it’s honestly a tie in your mind I’d consider this factor a good tie-breaker.

[Jeff Carpenter]

Ok, here’s your answer! (That I just made up.)

HD has less to do with pixels than display size. If you put DVCPRO up on an IMAX screen it wouldn’t look quite so “HD” anymore, would it?

So you’ve got to look at this in a “pixels per inch” kind of way. Using some very hasty math I just determined that a 480p file on my 23″ screen (at a height of 5″) has roughly 3 times the pixel density than a HD picture on a 50″ 1280×1080 HDTV (at a height of about 30″).

So that online trailer should appear to be 3 times as sharp as a network HD show! If “3 times as sharp as HD” doesn’t count as HD I don’t know what does.

I dunno. Any good for a made-up answer?