[Mike Cumberworth]

I have a Dell Netbook Hackintosh I “built” just to experiment w/XCode, and because I thought it might be cheaper than getting a legit Mac.

It works ok, but the screen was horrendous, multi-touch didn’t work, some drivers didn’t work, it can barely run programs, it’s hit-or-miss if you’ll ruin it completely by applying updates, and after the additional expense/hassle to upgrade the RAM (disassembling the ENTIRE thing to install the whopping max of 2GB!), I’d saved about $100 over the cost of a brand-new Mac mini w/HDMI-out, up to 4x the RAM & a legit Intel processor. For another $200 or so I could’ve had a brand new MacBook Air that would run circles around the crappy plastic Netbook & look cooler doing it.

It was a fun experiment though & much like jailbreaking my iPhone I kinda enjoyed playing “hacker” for a bit … but I’m MUCH happier & more impressed w/the actual Macbook Pro I just got.

I’d say, if you want to build it for the experience/challenge of building it, then go for it & enjoy experimenting. But, if you just want it to save $$ & run OS X, it’s ultimately not worth it.

Besides, who knows how much longer the Mac Pros will be around, based on their latest shenanigans. Could be a good time to grab one before they’re gone like Final Cut! Buy RAM after-market though because in that regard for some reason Apple still seems to believe it’s 1998…

[Mike Cumberworth]

Hi Aaron,
I have a similar Canon VIXIA (HF100 I think – about 3yrs old).
When I first got it the MTS files were a HUGE pain & I could only play them in VLC or the bundled software (which I stupidly threw away).

After upgrading from Vista to Windows 7 (still 32-bit for now), MTS clips automatically play very well using the latest Windows Media Player, even directly off my SD card (which I don’t really recommend). My older XP desktop benefited somewhat from a new video card, but raw MTS playback still kinda sucks. Hardware limitation since it’s really the processors that have to de-compress the files.

For playback on a Mac, VLC works ok but insists on opening each new video at full HUGE 1080p, which has to be manually resized. You can allegedly convert to QuickTime format using iMovie, but the resulting files are massive & I haven’t tried.

After Effects & Premiere only supported MTS and MP4 files well from CS4 on – if you have CS3 you’d want to upgrade. CS5 (64-bit OS only!) handles MTS files very well & was designed for HD playback/editing. Haven’t crashed it yet, which I couldn’t say for CS4 (got in the habit of saving after EVERY change).

Your question actually got me to look into the 24P/60i pulldown issue, which I never really clearly understood or bothered with … There are “remove pulldown” or “Guess Pulldown” check boxes in both Premiere and After Effects when you import/interpret footage (AE allegedly works better). As I understand it, they will attempt to identify & remove the duplicate frames to properly de-interlace your 60i footage & turn it into “real” 24p.

I need to go home & try this myself, because I had a horrible time trying to convert my 1920×1080 “24P Mode” MTS files to a more workable alternative. After lots of experimentation w/Media Encoder, it seemed 720p MP4s @ 29.97 were the only thing that worked w/o stuttering – probably because I didn’t properly remove the pulldown! That little check box probably would’ve made all the difference…

YouTube converts all uploaded videos to 30FPS FLVs & MP4s anyway, so you don’t really need to worry about that. You’d just be re-compressing a compressed file for further loss of quality. I think the only necessary change is to ensure your renders/projects use “progressive (no fields)” frame settings, since they’ll be for computers & not broadcast.

Haven’t done 3D tracking, but knowing a bit of the concept I imagine it’d be easier to track a progressive shot than an interlaced one, and would suggest removing the pulldown first & using “progressive” settings in your project. Otherwise your tracking points would constantly jitter between interlaced fields or just disappear completely between frames, wouldn’t they?

Found this article w/a link to a Script for AE that might be useful:
https://www.coertvonk.com/technology/videoediting/24p-avchd-with-pp-cs5-2697

Going to try it out myself later on. Might have to revisit all the old files I converted! 🙂 Anyway, I hope that helps & isn’t just a bunch of rambling nonsense…
Good luck & thanks for inspiring me to investigate!

~ Mike

[Mike Cumberworth]

Hi Tim,
I’ll see about getting the updater run & will give the multiple-file approach a shot.

The only common thread w/the layers that sometimes show up is that there’s no space or underscore in the layer name. I’ll try renaming them all to use just a single “camel-case” word & see if that helps.

One of the layers that sometimes makes an appearance is in fact the most complex layer in the whole file, which is kind of surprising. The rest are single closed-path shapes w/gradient fills. …Though they ARE LivePaint groups too – wonder if that matters. Hmm…

In any case, thanks for the tips & reply! Hopefully something will work!

Cheers,
~ Mike

[Mike Cumberworth]

Have you rendered the project within Premiere (hit “Enter”) to see if that helps? Could just be a function of your computer being unable to keep up w/realtime playback, especially if it’s a large project.

If not that, maybe there’s a difference in project settings between Premiere & After Effects (different frame rates, progressive vs interlacing, etc) or how the AE footage is being interpreted in Premiere (right click -> Interpret Footage)?

If your computer is older, has limited RAM, or if it’s a big file, it still might have problems. Mine running CS3 on 32-bit Windows would choke on anything larger than 720×480 & often failed to render due to running out of available memory. Dynamic Link was pretty much out of the question (& I think it was generally problematic in CS3). Seems to run much better using CS5 w/64-bit Windows. Maybe time for an upgrade 🙂

Good luck!
~ Mike

[Mike Cumberworth]

Hi Todd,
Yes, as far as I know everything seems to be up to date – not CS5.5 though. Running Premiere 5.0.3 and AE 10.0.2.4. (Can’t run Updater manually to check due to IT policy…).

Replacing the file with an identical one stored elsewhere didn’t make a difference (thought maybe the path was too long, but I’m on 64-bit, so I didn’t think that mattered as much anymore…?).

I also tried importing another simpler AI file & it actually stays linked! So I guess it’s more a problem w/the specific AI file than with Premiere or Dynamic Link.

I looked again & it’s a 23MB file. I wouldn’t think that would be too much for programs designed to work w/HD video, but I suppose it is enough to choke it somehow. Can’t imagine that’s a common issue though – I’m sure people often use Illustrator files that are much more complex than mine. Oh well.

Thanks for the response.

~ Mike