[John Pale]

If you want to export with an Alpha Channel in the Animation Codec using Quicktime Conversion, you must make sure your clip is NOT rendered. If its rendered, the render file will be referenced, which is a composite..so you wont get the alpha channel.

[John Pale]

The only codec that supports an alpha channel is Animation, which would need a render to play in the timeline anyway. So you really wouldnt be saving any time.

[John Pale]

[Peterd] “I’m ending up with clips that have the correct media ins and outs for the video but audio media always starts at zero. “

Give your AIFF files a reel number and they will be treated like tape sources, and the timecode will be preserved.

You can also do what you are suggesting by loading it into the viewer and using the Modify/Timecode command.

[John Pale]

If your are looking for a decompose like feature… use the “Create Master Clips” command in the Tools menu. All the clips used in the sequence will show up in a folder in the browser…the offline ones will have a line through them.

[John Pale]

[sumfun] “I’m curious, why is VBR counter productive over 6Mbps?”

The point of Variable Bit Rate is to allow lower bit rates when the image is not complex. This is useful on long projects that need to fit on a 4.7GB DVD. If your video is short enough that you can do the whole project at a bit rate over 6, then its kind of pointless, and may even result in degrading some images, as your bit rate will go down in some spots.

VBR also works best when there is a wide spread between the min and max setting. If you are setting your VBR with a range of 6-7mbs, its kind of pointless. Setting the max to 8 is risky, because you will often have spikes that will choke DVD players and cause stuttering.

Maybe msacci can explain it better. He’s the man on DVD matters.

[John Pale]

[Countdown] “Does that make it a QT issue? “

I think its an intermittent quicktime bug with AE. I have seen it crop up a few times.
Cinema Tools seems to be the only way to fix it.

[John Pale]

David…two things…

Are you sure the tapes were recorded at 48k? If you capture 32k audio using the 48k preset, you may have sync issues.

Also…if you have a capture card with analog audio inputs, try capturing analog audio instead. Whatever sampling rate voodoo is going on should be eliminated that way.

[John Pale]

[msacci] “BTW, if you have any effects UNRENDER them before sending the timeline to compresso”

I don’t think that is necessary. If you use “Export to Compressor”, note the entire timeline “redlines”. None of your FCP renders are used…all effects are rendered directly to MPEG-2.
This is why the encoding time is many times longer using this method (especially on older computers).

[John Pale]

Open the problem clip in Cinema Tools. Then conform the clip to 29.97fps.
The conform is pretty instantaneous. It doesn’t actually do anything, as the clip is actually 29.97fps…it just repairs the incorrect frame rate flag that is tripping up Final Cut Pro.

This has worked for me on several occasions.

[John Pale]

Yes.
Convert the footage to one format.

You might want to look into the Nattress Standards Conversion plugin… http://www.nattress.com
Works beautifully.

You can also do it with Compressor, but it takes a very long time in comparison.