[Matt Devino]

Thanks for the help guys.

FCP thinks the files are DVCPRO HD 720P60 at 23.98fps. So does quicktime. My sequence easy setup is DVCPRO HD 720P24. The file stutters in the viewer, and when I put it in my timeline it needs to render, then plays fine once it’s rendered. I think I should also mention that these files were exported from 2 different Final Cut systems. These files never had pulldown because they were shot 720PN24 on an HVX200, which means it doesn’t record any pulldown.

How I exported them was I set an In and Out on my timeline (720P24) when my edit was finished, then did File>Export>Quicktime Movie, and used the default settings which mirror what the timeline is setup as.

I’m thinking it might be a Final Cut 5 to 6 problem. Could somebody try and replicate this problem?

[Matt Devino]

I don’t think anyone would complain about Final Cut Studio eventually becomming one program. I would love it if it was as simple as having each program in a tab at the top of your screen, and when you click on, say the Motion tab, the app switches quickly to the Motion environment with your full sequence still intact in the timeline.

I definitly feel your pain about the round about nature of the Studio, after having spent some time on an Avid DS Nitris. Although I think I can pretty much do all of the same things the DS can with a beefed up system with a copy of Studio 2 and Shake for 1/4 of the price. I think Apple will eventually get there, but they will always market to the largest common denominator, unlike Avid who has always marketed from the top down.

Of course this is probably why Apple will continue to gain strength as the next generation of editors use Final Cut because it is much easier to get your hands on than an Avid with the same capabilites. I think you can see evidence of this already with Apple’s continual growth, and Avid’s laying off of employees and moving more into broadcast recently. Plus, what does Avid have left to offer the Feature Film market? There are 5 year old Avid systems that are still in use in cutting rooms because they have everything a feature editor could need. But I digress, and don’t get me wrong I’m not an Avid hater, I use it all the time. I’m just stating an observation.

[Matt Devino]

Hmmm, on Sapphire’s website they say the newest version, which I have, is Intel ready. That still doesn’t explain why the 3rd party plug-in option isn’t in the preferences window anymore. Any ideas?

[Matt Devino]

I had this same problem with my GL-2, it eventually got worse and worse until the zoom stopped altogether. It ended up being a bad zoom motor, which it turns out is a common problem with that camera. It’s too bad Canon still hasn’t put a real mechanical zoom ring on any of their cameras.

[Matt Devino]

Maybe it is, I’m running the same card.

[Matt Devino]

I might be wrong but I think you can remove the pulldown on ingest using the kona card… I think another option, altugh I may be wrong on this as well, is there are new easy setups in FCP6 for cinema tools 3:2 removal, I would assume this removes the pulldown on ingest. Either way you should end up with 23.98 NTSC material, then you can upres to 720P without worrying about interlaced vs progressive. Although it usually looks better to do the upres through hardware than in software.

[Matt Devino]

Thanks Noah,

Last night I went back and imported all the footage as image sequences and it worked fine. I still don’t understand why motion didn’t like the other files when Final Cut imported them perfectly. The files weren’t native SR footage, they had been been converted from HD 444 23.98 into both Animation codec and Targa codec and neither worked. Anybody else have any idea why this happened?

[Matt Devino]

So… I’ve discovered it’s an import problem. I tried a TGA quicktime as well as an Animation quicktime and both had the same problem. I made new projects, and imported the files and the duplicated frame problem occurs again and again. I even tried a 1080i project. Final Cut imports the files perfectly fine and playback is normal. I even made a Final Cut project that was set up for the animation codec, and did a “send to motion” from my timeline where the file played back fine, and when it got to motion the error occured again. Is anyone else seeing this happen? I’m going to try an image sequence which should work…

[Matt Devino]

So I now know why it looks jittery but not what is causing it. It is rending 2 frames normally, then skipping a frame, then duplicating a frame, and repeating. So the sequence of frames is like A-B-D-D-E-F-H-H etc… I don’t get it.

[Matt Devino]

I thought I should add more info after reading my post. I’ve been rendering with frame blending off, motion blur off, and field rendering off. Also When I exported a 24 frame sample from the middle of my comp using compressor the motion looked fine, but when I exported the entire thing (about 4 seconds) using compressor the problem was back. Thanks.
-Matt