Jeff Carpenter
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COW Coin
Forum Replies Created
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No, Matte. That’s AAC.
And for the record, there’s nothing protected about AAC files. They’re just a variation on MPEG-4 compression. It’s usually what H.264 online video files use as well. You are correct that the protected songs from the iTunes store are ALSO AAC files, but those are specifically listed as “Protected AAC” under file type.A file that is simply “AAC” is under none of those restrictions.
At any rate, I think that Zeliha is asking about transfering an Avid project into FCP. I can’t help you there, but there IS an Automatic Duck forum here on the COW. Have you tried there yet?
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I’ll be happy to share my experience but I have to warn you that I’m a firewire DV-only setup so my experience doesn’t mean much to a lot of folks around here!
I’ll be sure to mention any problems I come across, though!
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Have you done any editing? If it’s only just been captured you can start a new project and import all of the media from your scratch drive.
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Ceck your Address Book to see if the File menu contains the selection “Back Up Address” book. Depending on what version you have it may or may not be there. If it DOES, just do that. It will save a single file. Put that on a CD or load it onto a web server somewhere. Later, you select “Revert” in the new Address Book and select that file.
As for the rest…do you have an external drive (or iPod) that has at least 10 GB of space? What I do in these situations is to copy the main Library AND the library in my “Users” folder onto an external drive. (Be sure to clearly label which is which!) Then, after I re-instal I can hand pick through them and find the stuff I need. After a week or so I feel pretty safe that I’ve got everything and I erase the copies.
This takes the burden off of me to remember everything right now. If I think of something later, I can go get it.
You can get external 80 GB hard drives for $99 now, so even if you don’t have something I would suggest buying one. It will be very useful now and after this is done you can use the drive to periodically back up your library folders in case something happens to your laptop’s drive.
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I highly suggest using Shane’s advice in the future, but I really have my doubts about any software fix for this current problem. The fact that you get the same symptoms whether you’re using Final Cut or not is really not a good sign.
Do keep in mind that I’m not suggesting you simply RETURN it. You should sign up for a spot at the counter at the Apple store and simply let them look at it. In 20 minutes they can go through more tests than we could suggest here all day. I know it sounds like a drastic step but it really could be worth your time.
Once you find a store near you on the web site, click on it and find the “Make a Reservation” button. Sign up before you leave home!
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I don’t work with HD footage so I’ve never tried it myself, but it is my understanding that it is made to scale HD to DVD-specs…it’s something they plan on people doing.
I would suggest taking about 2 minutes of footage, placing it in a sequence and making a DVD out of it. Go all the way through with the creation of a disc and actually watch it on a stand-alone player hooked up to a TV.
That’s really the only way to be totally sure of what you’re getting. Best to try it now with a sample before you put too much work into it.
The only other thing I would watch out for is the settings in DVD Studio Pro. Make certain that the video track you put the video on is tagged as an anamorphic letterboxed track. It’s up to DVD SP to mark the DVD in such a way that the player stretches or squeezes it correctly.
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If I were you I’d get myself over to an Apple store:
If you have the time you could try wiping the drive and re-instaling everything…that MIGHT work. But honestly, with such a new system there’s a good chance it’s a hardware problem. Best to get it looked at right away and let them replace anything that’s out of order.
Did you buy it from Apple? Even without Applecare you’ll be fine this early in the game.
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Right in Final Cut’s menus go to EXPORT>COMPRESSOR. Then drag one of compressor’s preset compressions onto it. (You can compress the audio here at the same time if you like.) Depending on the length of your project you may want to try it once, see what file size you get, and then duplicate the preset you used and slightly alter it to give you the best possible setting that will still fit on the disc.
You can also export a reference file and then drag that into Compressor, but I usually just go the direct method.
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The edges of the photos? I would try going into the Motion tab and finding the “Crop” field. Just crop each edge by 1% and see if that clears it up.
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Do you have experience using Photoshop to convert RAW files? They’ll need to be color adjusted before you can open them. If you’re not up to speed on that I’d suggest just using the JPEGs your camera produced. The resolution of the photos is likely going to be much larger than the video frame which means they’ll all be shrunk down to fit. The shrinking will probably eliminate any quality difference between the RAW and JPEG files anyway, so I’d go with the JPEGs as they’re easier to deal with.
You don’t need to de-interlace them as the photos aren’t interlaced to begin with.
Try importing one of the photos right into Final Cut and see if you can manipulate it the way you want. If it’s too big to work with you’ll have to shrink them with another program before you import them, but hopefully you can just drop them into your project and start working with them right away. Do a test with one and see if you run into any problems. If not, that’s the way to go!