[John Pale]

Diane,

I can’t tell from your summary… why can’t you simply duplicate your timeline, then use the “Reconnect Media” command to link to the new clips with good audio?

Is the timecode different?

There may be ways to get around it, depending on your workflow for creating the new synced clips.

If this was covered already in an earlier thread, my apologies.

[John Pale]

If you can provide more info that would help, but…..

In FCP the footage should match the codec of your sequence, otherwise you will need to render it (do you see a colored line over your clip? What color?)

It’s not really advisable to create a custom sequence using the Avid codec (it won’t work well–it’s not a real time codec). You should convert you Avid files to something you can edit efficiently with using Compressor. Ideally this should match your FCP sequence settings precisely.

What codec do you intend to edit with in FCP? What Easy Setup are you currently using?

[John Pale]

as others have stated, there is no such thing as “acedemic” hardware. It’s totally possible to buy an Acedemic bundle with the Mojo. I don’t think Avid expects you to throw out the Mojo and buy an identical new one if you “graduate” to buying the regular non-acedemic software. If you were seeing a splash screen indicating Acedemic software, that would be cause for concern.

[John Pale]

You cant edit to tape using that deck and RS-422. It does not support it

From its user manual….

• The specifications are based on the RS-422A
interface, and editing-related functions do not work.
In this case, use it as a player.

You might want to try using Firewire, instead of the Kona/RS-422. It doesn’t say whether it works under firewire control, but its not likely to be accurate even if it does. Usually this means the deck has no flying erase heads, which are necessary for edit functions to be accurate.

[John Pale]

Hit the space bar instead….Quickview opens…its real neat. You can scrub through the track and more.

[John Pale]

Compressor and DVD SP use the same compression engine…however you have greater flexibility in settings.

In your case, I would not use the “best” preset in Compressor. This is a variable bit rate preset, which is not the best choice for short videos. It’s mainly to maximize quality on longer videos… Using a low bit rate on less complex scenes and a high bit rate on complex material. For a short video, you should make your own preset using CBR (constant bit rate) of 7. This will encode very fast and at the highest safe bit rate for DVD-R. you should encode your audio to AC3, as well, altering one of the existing presets by turning off “film Standard Compression”…select “none”….and set the dialog normalization to -31. The preset incorrectly is optimized for movie theater sound systems.

[John Pale]

Software needs to be re-written to make efficient use of multicore machines.

Considering its free, I don’t think you can expect a lot of resources to be devoted to the project.

[John Pale]

A few things are going on here.

1. In the Viewer, you are looking at it natively. In the Canvas, you are seeing it is converted to the codec your sequence is…in this case DV.

2. Unlimited/Dynamic Playback does not give you full quality. Change everything to Full Quality in the RT drop down menu. You may need to render (red line or bright green line) to play back at full quality.

3. Even if you are playing back at full quality, the Canvas does not necessarily show it at full quality unless at 100% magnification…you need to view on a video monitor to see what it really looks like.

4. The DV codec is poor, especially for graphics. You will see some degradation from the original. No way around that unless you work in a different format and do NOT master back to DV.

5. Quicktime player may still playback at draft quality. Make sure “high quality” is checked in the properties.

[John Pale]

The preview window does not play smoothly. Its compressing on the fly, so its processor intensive.

[Susan Benfatto] “It also says estimated file size 846.39 MB… do I believe that number… or will it grow into a 500000G file when it comes out on my desktop? “

Why don’t you do a test of a short segment to put your mind at ease?

You know some of us manage to do this all the time without having a nervous breakdown 🙂

All kidding aside… the software works when you do everything correctly. I don’t know why you were having huge files originally….even doing this directly in FCP (with its timecode filter) will not cause that. Your problems are most certainly pilot error. You need to sit down with the manuals for FCP and Compressor, play with the programs and really learn what to do.

[John Pale]

You clicked the white boxes at the bottom of the color picker, right?

Guess what…those are actually empty bins..they are for you to store custom colors by dragging from the rectangle at the top of the color picker.

Use the luminance slider, color wheel, color sliders, crayon box, or spectrum to create the color you want (including white).