[Leigh Jewell]

I think that we need a little more info about the files. Open them up in Quicktime then select Window – Show Movie info. That will tell you what codec the movies are and what, if any, the audio is set at. From what I have read, the optimization is an audio thing. If you aren’t worried about the audio, if your friend rendered any with the files, then you should be set to go. If you are worried about the audio, try exporting them with a 48khz setting and see if that helps.

Or post back on what Quicktime’s info says and we can probably be of more help to you.

Leigh Thomas

[Leigh Jewell]

You could use a program like MPEG Streamclip (https://www.alfanet.it/squared5/mpegstreamclip.html) to rip the DVD. It would then make it DV footage which you could put into Final Cut and output.

Leigh

[Leigh Jewell]

Sorry to tell you, Clint, but it really doesn’t work that way. Yes,
you can just change all your settings to PAL and it will pretend to
be PAL video until you actually look at it.
PAL is only 25 frames per second, NTSC is 29.97. PAL is 625 lines,
NTSC is 525 lines. You HAVE to do a standards conversion. No if,
ands, or buts about it. It HAS to be done.
Now, if your original footage is 23.98, that is a different story.

Leigh Thomas
DVD Author/Graphic Artist
Matchframe Video

[Leigh Jewell]

Just a quick question….
Are you sure that they need to have it converted. Most PAL DVD players will also play NTSC discs as long as the regions are all enabled. It might be worth checking on before you go to all the trouble and added expense.

Leigh Thomas

[Leigh Jewell]

Your problem is that they changed the way that Final Cut captures and recognizes audio. In Final Cut Pro HD only “two-channel audio capture was supported to a single QuckTime audio track. Therefore, older versions of Final Cut Pro can only recognize media files captured with a single stereo pair audio track.” (Final Cut Pro Manual I – pg 254). Basically, FCP HD can’t recognize the 4 channels of audio. Did they capture them as 2 stereo pairs or as 4 mono channels?

There is really only one thing that you can do if you have to edit with FCP HD. Use Final Cut 5 or Quicktime to export each movie with a single stereo pair. Quicktime may take a little bit of work to get it to do it and I’m not really sure about all the steps that you would have to go through.

HTH.

Leigh Thomas

[Leigh Jewell]

It mostly depends on the Codec that you are using. Some codecs such as the uncompressed and dv codecs will allow timecode to be embedded.
The easiest way to do this is to put your video into a sequence then export that sequence. If the codec allows for embedded timecode, the timecode will be what the sequence was set for (ie. hour 1 in drop frame mode).
A quick check to see if the codec you are using will allow timecode is to set the sequence timeline to some weird number. Bring the exported movie back into FCP. If the movie shows the timecode at 1:00:00:00 and that isn’t the code your sequence started at, the codec doesn’t allow for an embedded timecode.

I hope this makes sense.

(You aren’t talking about a burned in window – ie. timecode burned into the picture, right? Just checking.)

Leigh Thomas

[Leigh Jewell]

I don’t know if this will help or not, but I found this on a forum where other people were having the same problem:

“One of my coworkers just had the same problem. he has qmaster 2.0 and compressor 2.0.

What we eventually figured out our problem to be was that qmaster didn’t even start up at start up. in the system log it showed it under a ‘disabled startup item’

looking in the apple info database i found this

https://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300962

down at the bottom it has now to enable a previously disabled startup item

_________________
I disabled a startup item, but now I want to use it

If you disabled a startup item but you’re now certain that it’s associated with a trusted application, you can install the application again. Or, if you’re an advanced user (and an administrator) who’s familiar with Terminal, you can use the following steps instead of reinstalling the application (we’re using “TrustedApp” as our example application; please substitute it with your trusted application’s name):

1. Open Terminal (in /Applications/Utilities).
2. Type the following line, then press Return:

cd /Library/StartupItems/TrustedApp.app/

3. Type the following line, then press Return:

sudo rm .disabled

4. From the Apple menu, choose Restart.
5. When you see the alert about the startup item you want to use, click Fix.
6. Click Restart in the second alert. After your computer restarts, the item should work as expected.
_________________________

the moral of the story is that a tiny invisible file called .disabled prevents qmaster from loading. delete that and it allowed us to get back to workin’
unfourtunately you can’t delete (or even see) that file without the terminal.”

HTH.

Leigh Thomas

[Leigh Jewell]

I just used this plugin for some footage. You do need to capture it with the DVCProHD at 59.94 but you can do this with through the Kona 2 card with their preset. Don’t use the Varicam preset, though. Check Aja’s website in the FAQ section (or where ever it is now on their new site). It goes into some good detail about what you need to do to capture the footage to use with the Frame Rate Converter.

Leigh Thomas

[Leigh Jewell]

Actually, it’s pretty easy.
From Illustrator… File – Export. Choose Photoshop as the format. You then get quite a few options, including keeping text editable and keeping the layers intact.

HTH.

Leigh Thomas

[Leigh Jewell]

I’m not sure if this will help as I’m not familiar with Encore and how it handles Photoshop files.
Video is only 72 dpi so there is nothing that you can do about that. Myriad Pro should be a good font to use… no serifs to cause problems. Don’t use any size under 18 pts.

I’m not sure from your post as to whether the fonts look good in Photoshop and bad in Encore or if the fonts look bad in both? If it looks bad in Photoshop and you have tried the different aliasing, I’m not sure what to tell you. It’s an OTF font, so you don’t have the post-script problem.
On the other hand, if it only looks bad in Encore, then it is probably because the text is being used as the overlay or subpicture (whichever one you want to call it). Overlays can only do 4 colors and there is no dithering, meaning text is going to be aliased or jagged. There are a few sortof workarounds but the main one would be to not use the text as the subpicture. Put the text in the background and use some other shape as an overlay.

HTH.

Leigh Thomas