[Jeff Greenberg]

I edit on all three (four now.) I teach all four.

Each tool has it’s warts. Find something that is crucial for your workflow and you’ll know what tool to pick.

Best,

Jeff G

Apple Master Trainer | Avid Cert. Instructor DS/MC | Adobe Cert. Instructor
————
You should follow me (filmgeek) on twitter. I promise to be nice.
New- my book (with Richard Harrington and Robbie Carman)- An Editor’s Guide to Adobe Premiere Pro
Compressor Essentials from Lynda.com
(older but still good) Marquee, Media Composer (3.5) and Basic/Advanced Color DVDs (1.0) from Vasst.com
Contact me through my Website

[Jeff Greenberg]

Something is definitely wrong on your machine – those things work for the rest of use.

Could you try creating a new user and seeing if the problem exists there too? Also, you might try trashing the prefs (boy, does this sound like FCP7 troubleshooting.)

Best,

Jeff G

Apple Master Trainer | Avid Cert. Instructor DS/MC | Adobe Cert. Instructor
————
You should follow me (filmgeek) on twitter. I promise to be nice.
New- my book (with Richard Harrington and Robbie Carman)- An Editor’s Guide to Adobe Premiere Pro
Compressor Essentials from Lynda.com
(older but still good) Marquee, Media Composer (3.5) and Basic/Advanced Color DVDs (1.0) from Vasst.com
Contact me through my Website

[Jeff Greenberg]

It looks like the problem is your sequence – it’s an anamorphic HD sequence – 960×720. The pixels aren’t square and by switching them to square in compressor,you’re cutting off the sides. 😀

What you need to do is create a sequence that’s either prores or uncompressed at a full 720- 1280×720. Copy and paste your footage into that. That should fix it.

Best,

Jeff G

Apple Master Trainer | Avid Cert. Instructor DS/MC | Adobe Cert. Instructor
————
You should follow me (filmgeek) on twitter. I promise to be nice.
New- my book (with Richard Harrington and Robbie Carman)- An Editor’s Guide to Adobe Premiere Pro
Compressor Essentials from Lynda.com
(older but still good) Marquee, Media Composer (3.5) and Basic/Advanced Color DVDs (1.0) from Vasst.com
Contact me through my Website

[Jeff Greenberg]

Austin,

All DVDs are 720×480 (NTSC.)

You can build a 720p MPEG2 file, you can build a 720p m2v file – but a DVD is always 720×480 (yes, even widescreen/anamorphic).

Which brings us to the question: Why are you trying to build a 720p M2V file?

Best,

Jeff G

Apple Master Trainer | Avid Cert. Instructor DS/MC | Adobe Cert. Instructor
————
You should follow me (filmgeek) on twitter. I promise to be nice.
New- my book (with Richard Harrington and Robbie Carman)- An Editor’s Guide to Adobe Premiere Pro
Compressor Essentials from Lynda.com
(older but still good) Marquee, Media Composer (3.5) and Basic/Advanced Color DVDs (1.0) from Vasst.com
Contact me through my Website

[Jeff Greenberg]

Software wise? Both Episode and Squeeze do a decent job of frame rate and format conversion.

Hardware wise? A terenex or a snell and wilcox will do this too.

Also, if you have an HD deck, these things may be possible in RT.

Best,

Jeff G

Apple Master Trainer | Avid Cert. Instructor DS/MC | Adobe Cert. Instructor
————
You should follow me (filmgeek) on twitter. I promise to be nice.
New- my book (with Richard Harrington and Robbie Carman)- An Editor’s Guide to Adobe Premiere Pro
Compressor Essentials from Lynda.com
(older but still good) Marquee, Media Composer (3.5) and Basic/Advanced Color DVDs (1.0) from Vasst.com
Contact me through my Website

[Jeff Greenberg]

The academic version doesn’t ship with the third party software (Squeeze, BCC, etc). Beyond that? It’s the same.

Best,

Jeff G

Apple Master Trainer | Avid Cert. Instructor DS/MC | Adobe Cert. Instructor
————
You should follow me (filmgeek) on twitter. I promise to be nice.
New- my book (with Richard Harrington and Robbie Carman)- An Editor’s Guide to Adobe Premiere Pro
Compressor Essentials from Lynda.com
(older but still good) Marquee, Media Composer (3.5) and Basic/Advanced Color DVDs (1.0) from Vasst.com
Contact me through my Website

[Jeff Greenberg]

Lion specifically won’t make a pro tower any more ‘pro’.
A tower’s advantage is flexibility, more power/processors, cheaper/more/expandable video cards, the potential for more ram, the ability to have cheaper/faster access to more hard drives.

But lion itself? Nothing huge except possibly, being able to exploit that hardware better; but apple designs the OS so it’s useable on even a mini.

So, no, Lion doesn’t provide anything really specific beyond OS optimization/change.

And you can always get a Magic Pad for that desktop for the new stupid gestures.

Best,

Jeff G

Apple Master Trainer | Avid Cert. Instructor DS/MC | Adobe Cert. Instructor
————
You should follow me (filmgeek) on twitter. I promise to be nice.
New- my book (with Richard Harrington and Robbie Carman)- An Editor’s Guide to Adobe Premiere Pro
Compressor Essentials from Lynda.com
(older but still good) Marquee, Media Composer (3.5) and Basic/Advanced Color DVDs (1.0) from Vasst.com
Contact me through my Website

[Jeff Greenberg]

Nope – thats the only thing you can really do today. They also make a tri-head display.

Hopefully thunderbolt will reach it’s potential this year and open up a third screen.

Best,

Jeff G

Apple Master Trainer | Avid Cert. Instructor DS/MC | Adobe Cert. Instructor
————
You should follow me (filmgeek) on twitter. I promise to be nice.
New- my book (with Richard Harrington and Robbie Carman)- An Editor’s Guide to Adobe Premiere Pro
Compressor Essentials from Lynda.com
(older but still good) Marquee, Media Composer (3.5) and Basic/Advanced Color DVDs (1.0) from Vasst.com
Contact me through my Website

[Jeff Greenberg]

The real difference is about $300 between the models.
The 17″ has the express card slot; giving you today, access to esata and other fast connections, along with the ability for card readers (for p2) and external professional options like Matrox’s MXO.
The other advantage is that you have a high def display on the 17″.

That being said, it’s clear that within 6-8 months, thunderbolt will permit all sorts of accessibility, essentially providing a better port for the same uses as the express card slot. Expect that those hardware elements will be expensive at first. And an item I expect to see is an external PCIe chassis that connects via thunderbolt (truly duplicating the card slot) But most of the similar hardware isn’t cheap for the express card slot either.

Are you in the market for this sort of hardware? If you’re a professional, the $300 isn’t meaningfully different in price; if you can afford the external hardware we’re talking about; then you can afford the price difference between the two models.

To me, the questions you have to ask are:
How fast is Thunderbolt going to be adopted?
Do you need the larger HD screen on the 17″?
Is there any money you could make today with the express card slot?
Can you deal with lugging around the 17″ – and yes, the ‘slight’ weight and size difference becomes enormous.

Best,

Jeff G

Apple Master Trainer | Avid Cert. Instructor DS/MC | Adobe Cert. Instructor
————
You should follow me (filmgeek) on twitter. I promise to be nice.
New- my book (with Richard Harrington and Robbie Carman)- An Editor’s Guide to Adobe Premiere Pro
Compressor Essentials from Lynda.com
(older but still good) Marquee, Media Composer (3.5) and Basic/Advanced Color DVDs (1.0) from Vasst.com
Contact me through my Website

[Jeff Greenberg]

Unfortunately no. The only thing you can do is label a sequence (Right click in the browser) to colorize a tab.

Best,

Jeff G

Apple Master Trainer | Avid Cert. Instructor DS/MC | Adobe Cert. Instructor
————
You should follow me (filmgeek) on twitter. I promise to be nice.
New- my book (with Richard Harrington and Robbie Carman)- An Editor’s Guide to Adobe Premiere Pro
Compressor Essentials from Lynda.com
(older but still good) Marquee, Media Composer (3.5) and Basic/Advanced Color DVDs (1.0) from Vasst.com
Contact me through my Website