Michael Brown
3
COW Coins
Forum Replies Created
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What do you know, so I have. Thanks, Roland.
Michael Brown
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Hi Andy,
The heat is back on and I’m back at the drawing board. Thanks for your reply, here goes mine:
1st §: correct.
2nd § correct: playback in the canvas and viewer is smooth. Timeline appears to match.
3rd §: 2nd & 3rd options, i. e; Cinema Digital Desktop mode (MB Pro screen or external LCD (Fujitsu Siemens 19″) and/or external SD monitor via FW (via 2nd port on FW800 WD 1 Tera hard disk and FW400 to FW800 adapter). Well I’ll be damned. It works, even leaving mirroring on. I could swear I’ve been there and back a number of times, but yes, it runs smoothly on the canvas and the external SD monitor both! And now all of a sudden Digital Cinema Desktop works main and preview and even raw. I’m at a loss to understand why because all these settings are history to me – I’ve been through them and they are no different than my previous MB and FCP versions. Hence 2 theories:
a) I cleared up a lot of space on my external hard drive that was getting full (800 Gb out of 1000), now it’s less than 1/2 full; does that have anything to do with the playback issue? or…
b) with my past set-up, the order in which I turned on the DV camera for playing back on the SD tube and refreshing A/V device once had an effect on the camera being recognized or not. Now it doesn’t appear to. But is that a theory?
c) I was just plain doing something wrong and I don’t want to admit it or can’t remember and I need a youth cure 😉4th and last §: Thanks for all the clarification! I have an SD card slot, and I just had to buy the new MB Pro (I was happier with the previous all metal matte screen model but the logicboard burned out on me suddenly and I was in a hurry to replace it at a reasonable price), so I’m not going to invest just now, but I’ll come back to this thread when I do. For now every thing is working hunky dory again. If you find time to add your grain of salt to my 2/3 theories, I’ll be glad to hear from you. Till then,
MANY THANKS, WHAT A PRO!
Michael.
Michael Brown
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Hi Andy,
I had to take a break since my heating went down and they’re tearing the place up to replace it as well as the piping that goes through the chimney, all of this by sub degrees at night and consequently no heat 😉 and these are the last cold days to cut back the fruit trees so I’m having a hard time keeping up and on schedule.
To answer your questions:
The delivery requirements are streamable web release and a couple of Quicktimes that are good enough looking to be watched computer full screen on a DVD-Rom EPK for a rock trio. So I guess I didn’t need to upscale just to match DVD footage. But I wanted to stay in 1280 x 720 to match the HDV footage that was delivered as .MTS files, and also because one of the cam’s footage was delivered as ProRes422 decoded Quicktime. These may not be good reasons, but this is how I scaled my footage before importing it to FCP. I was also at a loss to understand what the hell the .MTS encoding was, and a lot of my footage came from that camera, a small consumer HDV camcorder that delivered a ‘decent’ picture, it could have been a Panasonic… I just happen to know that that footage was shot on the 1280 x 720 preset instead of the highest (I ignore what size that was) in order to save storage room on the camera’s limited cards. I did not succeed in getting this footage into FCP with MPEG Streamclip, hence I purchased the Wondershare Video Converter for 30 bucks or so, and I believe that Wondershare recommended the 1280×720 H.264 orginally. After Michael’s post I succeed in exporting to ProRes422 nonetheless. The other three cams are a mystery to me since I was not on the shoot and I just got 2 H.264 and 1 ProRes coded files on a stick. Then I wanted to combine H.264 SD 16:9 footage from 2 music videos in the program. These I had and I upscaled them to 1280×720 as well. I only went ProRes all the way (reexporting via QT) once I had Michael’s first reply that led to success in terms of playback smoothness.
Regarding full screen playback, once I moved my footage to ProRes, I also changed my Sequence Setting to 1280 x 720, Aspect Ratio HDTV 720p (16:9) (I have not tried HDTV 1080i 16:9, but that’s the only other option that would make any sense), Pixel Aspect Ration = Square, Field Dominance = none, Quicktime Video Settings / Compressor = ApleProRes422, Quality 100%, and I still can’t playback full screen.
I’m doin’ somethin’ wrong…
Hope to hear from you soon, thanks again,
Michael.Michael Brown
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Andy, I am literally in stitches. There is no LOL abbreviation to match that. You’re completely forgiven for the misunderstanding if you promise to have another look at my case. I’m dead serious, and no, I’m not an absolute beginner, but I am insomuch that I got very suddenly faced with a big leap from 4.5 HD to 7 and the whole HD and ProRes issues that I know little to nothing about. I had always worked in SD.
Some of the old threads you’ve discovered must date back to when I was running 4.5 on a 12″ Powerbook. Believe it or not, I produced a helluvalot of stuff from that little box that I gave away last year, and the damn thing is still running despite a crashed superdrive, bent casing with dents in it from tumbling down a flight of stairs and the whole works! I still kind of miss that machine that ran like hell for at least 5 years.
So now the old man is trying to catch up. Hence, my playback issue is serious, and if you want to waste a few lines on what I’d done all wrong here, it’s at least worth a beer to me if we ever get a chance (I’ll gladly make a full meal out of that, but you’d have to come to Hamburg, wherever you may be located (GB?). I can’t afford to fly you in just yet 😉
Michael Brown
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I don’t really get what you mean, Andy. Wanna explain ?
Michael Brown
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Hi Michael,
Thanks for that. Didi it, had to re-render a few of the files but all in all it was just legwork and it works!
Got an answer to my viewer issue (question b)) by any chance? That remains to be solved as I cannot find a setting anymore to playback in full screen, even if the DV camera that goes to the calibrated tube is disconnected.
Michael Brown
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Hi Michael,
Thanks for hinting on the similarity with the credit rolls! But do you use keyframes in the motion tabs to make up for jittery credit rolls, and if so, how? Or on the other hand, what is an “off” speed, and what is not? Something with figures or a golden rule one can go by or just by fooling around (till your head explodes)?
Michael Brown
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Excellent incentive! I sure I hope I don’t get moved myself 🙂
Michael Brown
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Hi Peter,
I followed this long thread with great interest, as I am confronted with a similar issue frequently, albeit in SD and still on FCP 4.5 (with a MBP 15″). Hence when I have specials to do like 3d animated text, I ask for help from someone with motion (as I am currently working on now). Nonetheless, I’m learning a lot from your thread regarding sequence compressor settings and will have a lot to ask as soon as I upgrade, but in the mean time, let me add some advice: I also do a lot of work intended for the web. I ALWAYS work on 2 screens (at least) the 2nd being a straightforward and inexpensive Siemens Fujitsu W-19 coming straight from the DVI port. I have my timeline and tools on the W-19 while editing and the canvas on the laptop, and then I switch layouts the other way around when working on the picture itself. This could give you a much better idea of what computers will be getting, but the guys are right of course that occasionally checking a QT is a truer reference. In fact, I always have a PVM linked through a player so I see both tube and LCD results at the same time, sometimes to create a compromise between the 2, otherwise to choose specifically for what end format I’m working for. How you can comfortably work on one screen (if I understand correctly) beats me. But thanks for the interesting information that I’ve learned from in turn. Hope my 2 cents was of any help.
Michael Brown
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You’re everything but alone. Just for the insight, and coming from a European angle (I live in Hamburg, Germany), I’ve been in the industry for over 30 years, have been 1st ADing since 15 years, and editing and directing (usually performance relays and clips) since almost 10 years. Believe it or not, I’ still working with FCP 4.5 HD (only on SD!), albeit with a recent MacBook Pro and FW800 HDs, and have been quite productive, usually doing low to no budget programs, occasionally decently paid ones. I’m slowly but surely getting there, making a name for myself by investing my time on projects with a potential future and that I believe in, and paying the rent by ADing features and TV films once or twice a year. If you want to do this and be creative, hang in there and be patient! If you’re talented and you have faith, your time will come. For my part, I will only upgrade when the job pays for it and the rent as well, and up to now I have succeeded in providing what was requested with the tools I have and a lot of imagination. All the best.
Michael Brown