[Matt Larson]

I use this software daily. It is MUCH better than FCP’s color correction in my opinion. I have the After Effect Only version so I do most of my color correction in AE now.

Having Photoshop style curves is great and I like having all the different scopes and controls all in one plugin. I’ll often use several tabs of correction to get one shot right.

All of that said, it’s not perfect: It’s not real time, you can only grade one frame at a time (as of version 1.5)

Not sure which version you downloaded, but they showed off Version 2 at NAB, so if that’s not out yet wait and get that. There are some big improvements. If you have any questions about it, go over to the Synthetic Ap forum here and post it. Very helpful and quick response.

[Matt Larson]

And then search for “MPEGStream Clip” to convert it into a quicktime for FCP

[Matt Larson]

download the Kona Control Panel from aja’s website–I think that has Proc Amp controls. You won’t be able to do it in FCP, but if you open up the Control Panel Application you can adjust video level, black, etc.

[Matt Larson]

Are your tracks as large as they can be? (Control+T adjusts the size)

Otherwise double click on your waveforms in the timeline to pop them into the viewer. Then you can grab the clip’s name tab (top left corner) and drag it out of the viewer into it’s own window and adjust the size from there.

[Matt Larson]

There is free software called MPEGStreamClip. Google it!

[Matt Larson]

I had this same problem a few weeks ago, unfortunately I can’t remember how I fixed it, but I’m guessing I unplugged the Io and plugged it back in after waiting a couple seconds. That seems to fix most Io issues for me.

[Matt Larson]

Are you going straight to Compressor from FCP? I was seeing a similar thing when I was using “Export to Compressor…” from FCP. Saving a Quicktime Reference movie to my desktop and dropping that file into the Compressor Application solved the issue for me.

If not, make sure your client monitor is set up for FCP color bars and then make an MPEG-2 with just bars. You can import an m2v file in Final Cut Pro and then apply a color correction so the bars match the ones you exported. That should really be a last resort though, hopefully you can find out where you are getting a color shift. What’s your workflow?

[Matt Larson]

Great, thanks

[Matt Larson]

For me, the best way is to make Anamorphic widescren comps in AE and then squish them into 4 x 3 clips just like your footage. Then I edit and create an Anamorphic master and create a letterbox from there (Anamorphic is higher res than letterbox).

So:
Import your clips into AE.
Open Interpert footage and change the Pixel Aspect to 1.2
Make a new comp that is 864×486 SQUARE PIXELS
Your computer monitor will give you a 16:9 image to work with and your broadcast monitor (with the 16:9 button pushed) will give you one too.
When you render out, in Output Module, check “Stretch” and change it to 720×486.
Then bring that into FCP or Avid or whatever and import it as Anamorphic video like your captured clips.

Once you finish your edit, export the entire sequence and bring it into AE and then you can lower the scale to make a letterboxed version like you said.

[Matt Larson]

You want to put your desktop into Firewire Target mode. Here’s some info: https://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58583