Michael Gissing
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COW Coins
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DaVinci Coins
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Solve Coins
Forum Replies Created
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The other issue with monitoring is that some external monitors may have delay in playback. This is common with many plasmas and older LCDs.
During normal speed playback, the monitor may be delaying picture by more than a frame so that something correctly synced looks out in playback. As has also been mentioned, timing of picture and sound on playback always needs to be setup when using an external card.
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What is the original camera pixel aspect & frame rate?
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[Glenn Rogers] “For now, though..we are back in the saddle, hoping that that was nothing more than just a lover’s quarrel”
gee Glenn, I suspect you will find it difficult to stay in the saddle of any editing system if you are so easily unseated. Restarts, preference management and system management generally are just part of keeping the saddle oiled and supple.
The reason we sit the saddle is so others can fall into their armchairs and pay us for the rougher more exciting ride.
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Actually it sounds like a reference video issue. I use a Blackmagic card and without setting the reference to machines and cards correctly it will (like all capture cards) see a timecode break as the frames drift.
I use a DSR 1500 and can capture DV via SDI without any problems. The only advantage to doing this is if you can see an improvement in the hardware conversion to uncompressed versus FCP doing the transcode. Personally I can’t see any difference but it makes sense if you have a few DV shots in an uncompressed sequence and don’t want to mix codecs or render. Otherwise if it is all DV, then stay Dv until the end and then drop the final into an uncompressed to render the final grade & graphics.
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If you are only recording on two channels, then that’s all you need. Deleting unused tracks is going to save a lot of track space and work for your sound post people who would otherwise have to check those channels and discard them anyway.
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Check Rich Harrington’s excellent tutorial on using the limit effect function of FCP’s 3 Way CC as it will help if you want to desaturate just the blues.
There isn’t much chance of getting ‘normal’ skin and hair tone although Color will be a much better tool if you want to try. I agree with others than it is better to try to work on minimising the over saturation of the blue.
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Firstly standard def video on tape is 720 x 480 (NTSC) and 720 x 576 (PAL). Get your calculator out and you will find that is a 4:3 ratio. To get a 16:9 image to tape you have three choices – squeezed (usually called full height or anamorphic), centre punch (which crops the sides of the 16:9 image off) or letterbox (which adds the black bars top and bottom).
If you want a letterbox, then be aware that you are not using a lot of screen real estate and therefore resolution. Effectively you are creating a 720 x 405 signal inside your 720 x 480. The best way to deliver for broadcasters is full height. Both DVD’s and set top boxes allow the home user to set up their box to play correctly for their monitor, so it will create a 16:9 letterbox on a 4:3 TV or play full screen on a 16:9 monitor by stretching the squeezed image back into the correct aspect. This is a function of the TV.
If however you decide to supply a 4:3 letterbox, then approx 40% of a 16:9 monitor will have black bars (both top & bottom plus pillar boxing on the sides. If you want your 16:9 HD program to end up as a small image on a proper 16:9 monitor then go for the letterbox.
As this has been dealt with many times, I suggest you search the forum for the various formulas to create a letterbox in FCP. As for frame rates, I work in PAL (thankfully) but I understand NTSC DV is only available in 29.97, not true 24/ 23.976.
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I think the price of another external drive is peanuts compared to having your project tied up without working disk space and not being able to reliably get your final project off.
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Software like Carbon Copy Cloner can be used to make a clone drive from your original. The other option would be to use Media Manager to copy the project to another drive. I suggest you read the manual on using Media Manager. It isn’t perfect and there have been many issues with it not dealing with speed changed clips and freeze frames.
Unless you use Media Manager or make a cloned drive, FCP will require reconnecting which is a pain.
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A G4 with FCP 5 is going to struggle with this. It might be better to find someone with a more up to date Mac and FCP to do the conversion. However, you run the risk of quicktime backwards compatibility.
It would be a wise move to consider upgrading to FCP 6 although you may find the G4 is past its use by date. To keep up with these newer mp4 cameras you are being forced to chase later software and hardware I am afraid.
I don’t know that particular camera but if it has any analog outputs and you have a capture card (or via HDMI), you might be able to use the camera as a player and recapture in the codec that suits as an uncontrolled device.