[Matt Killmon]

In the interest of information: sure enough, upgrading that machine to Mavericks worked. I don’t know how or why a script that works when one drops a file directly on it, even on an older OS, doesn’t work when it’s called by Compressor, but FOR WHATEVER REASON…

So, to Mavericks we go!

[Matt Killmon]

I thought that might have something to do with it, but Compressor 4.1 jobs only show up in Share Monitor, whereas Compressor 3.5.3 jobs only show up in Batch Monitor, and the two never seem to cross-pollinate. So from that perspective, anyway, it seems as though the two pathways are totally separate.

I also tried importing the Compressor 3.5.3 settings into Compressor 4.1 on my system, but it eliminates the “Call AppleScript” functionality on a per-setting basis, so that got lost entirely. It instead relies on Automator workflows (or “Open with Applications”) via Destinations, which can only be applied at the source file level, not the setting level. Plus their “Open With Application” Destination (when you make a custom one) always reverts to “Default Application” from whatever I set every time I quit and restart Compressor 4.1. So clearly it has its own set of issues.

I’m making a backup of one of the other edit Macs’ boot volumes right now and I’m going to try upgrading to Mavericks to see if that makes any difference. I did notice that the AppleScript Editor and AppleScript versions on those machines were slightly lower than on my Mavericks machine, so maybe that’s the ultimate problem (even though all the AppleScript code I “borrowed” from other people’s examples on the Internet was clearly created before Mavericks).

[Matt Killmon]

Ooh, good idea. I wound up getting something that was “close enough”, but I’m going to go back and give this idea a shot, see if it works as I’d hope.

[Matt Killmon]

This is the biggest one for me: I have a Facilis Terrablock and briefly played with the FCPX 10.0.1 trial version. It wouldn’t work on any Multi-user Write volumes, only on Single-user Write ones. And that means that no two editors could have the same Project open to access all the same source media for different “events” at the same time. That’s a big lose for me. It seems like there’s a need for some sort of light “server” app that could administer the database-like structures of the Projects (with keyword collections and other clip metadata that’s not actually attached to clip files themselves) so that multiple people could access them at the same time.

In general it seems like FCPX is targeted towards islands of individual editors working on separate projects (or just single editors with direct-attached storage). I’d love to see FCPX expand to allow for more easy collaborative editing.

That said, I’m glad that important features are coming back. It seems that perhaps sometime in the next year, it’s possible that FCPX will have “grown up” enough to accommodate my needs. Until then, I’ll be sticking with the workflows I’ve gotten used to on 7. Unfortunately this means that I’ll be 18 months behind people who’ve been using FCPX from day one. I suppose I should consider buying a personal copy at home and futzing around with it in my off-hours to get familiar with the program.

EDIT: My unfamiliarity with FCPX is clear, as I’m not even using the correct terms (Projects/Events). Sigh!

[Matt Killmon]

The amount as in the “blur percentage?” Not sure, I’ll give it a shot. Adjusting aperture and focus distance don’t seem to make much of a difference though (the only directly DoF-related settings I was animating).

I have AE 5.5, didn’t mess with the highlight settings. As far as I’m aware I have the latest updates; Adobe Updater certainly seems to think so anyway.

Due to time constraints I ended up just rendering the video twice, once with DoF enabled on all cameras and once with it off, and then just went in and masked out the few times the mess showed up. I’ll keep playing, though, see if I can come up with a real solution.

[Matt Killmon]

They appear in both. If I RAM preview at half resolution, they are still there, just larger pixels obviously.

[Matt Killmon]

My first thought was OpenGL too, but this occurs even in best quality renders (which all have “Use Open GL Renderer” unchecked by default), not just in the Preview window (where, indeed, OpenGL IS on, at least during interactions). Tests I just ran indicate that the problem persists even with motion blur turned off (but DoF still on) during the quick camera moves.

I guess in a pinch I could render the problematic bits twice, once with DoF on and once with it off, and just go in and paint out the individual bad pixels, which would probably be good enough that no one would notice (especially once this video is compressed and put up on the web). But I’d rather not, if I can avoid it.

[Matt Killmon]

UPDATE: A quick test with creating a single-user write volume formatted as HFS+ was surprisingly more effective, however. I checked “copy media” and it didn’t, and it crashed during an import of a folder of media from another multi-user write volume. However, when I opened it again, the media from that folder had been imported to an event created on the single-user write volume (revealing in finder showed a folder full of links, not actual movie files), and I could scrub through all the media in the Event viewer. Dragging clips into a project worked as well.

So, good in that it’s possible to use with TerraBlock SAN volumes, bad in that one’s events and projects have to live on a single-user write volume. Seems like it cuts down on the potential for collaboration.

[Matt Killmon]

It’s a shame. I was hoping this would work with my Terrablock, but no dice. It lets me add the volume, and create events, but trying to import any footage results in a lot of disconnected clip icons (as though it cannot read the files it just tried to add), and it claims it can’t even find the event to move it to the trash. I’m wondering if they’ll expand the SAN capabilities to be more generic in future revisions or keep it locked to just XSan (which would be a shame).

[Matt Killmon]

Sure, it would be “easier,” but I already moved to HDMI capture a year ago and would like the option to release videos with surround sound so people with 5.1 setups can get the full experience. I’m more interested in simply knowing if this workflow requires (or would benefit) from a sync source.

Obviously if the prices are an issue for management I’ll simply use a home theater surround sound processor to decode the audio and capture analog audio through my audio interface and run the HDMI directly into the Kona LHi. I’ve never done Capture Now with two different device sources in FCP, but I guess we’d see how that worked.