[Pat Defilippo]

Thanks again, Dan and Jerry!

Jerry, that last minute tip of saving a copy of the sequence came in just as I was starting up the “Render All” with “Full” checked (thanks again!). It took about 26 minutes for the 23 minute, three-camera switched edit.

So, now I have the duplicate with a green bar across the top which frequently drops frames and the master with a blue bar across the top which, for the first five minutes anyway, has not dropped any frames.

I would say that back in the linear days when I used Multicam Mode on a Grass Valley or a CMX editor that it was pretty good, but no where near as flexible as FCP’s Multicam Mode. After doing this first one, there are some gotchas that I know to stay away from for next time (like changing an in-point after doing a couple of switches, which gives the aforementioned error message), but all in all I’m very happy with Multicam Mode. I was easily able to go back and add some split-screens using a second video channel, easily syncing to a different angle and keyframing the move.

Now I just have to find enough paying work to keep me busy!

Thanks again for your help, Dan and Jerry,
-Pat

G5 Quad 2.5 Desktop with 4GB Ram, 500GB HD & Fiber Card ~
30″ Cinema Display & 17″ Sony SVGA ~
Swift Data 200 Internal 1.6TB SATA II RAID 0 ~
AJA Io LA ~
Final Cut Studio ~
Sony UVW-1800 Beta-SP ~~~

P D Post Productions, Inc. ~
TV~DVD~VHS~CD~WEB
for Corporate Communications, Commercials, Infomercials, Television Programs, Family Occasions since 1983 ~
E-mail PD@PDPost.com ~
Website http://www.PDPost.com ~
Business/Cell Phone (847) 275-5671

[Pat Defilippo]

Thanks for the ideas and advice!

I’ve got to jump out of this project today for another one (an actual paying job!!!), but I should be back at it tomorrow. I’ll let you know how it ends up going.

Have a great day,
-Pat

[Pat Defilippo]

Hi Jerry and Dan,

Thanks for your help with this.

I did figure out why I was getting the “Content” error. When I had to re-sync (meaning that, at around the 5 minute mark, one of the three cameras was accidentially turned off and then back on a few seconds later) the cameras (which created a second Multiclip), I didn’t get a good match frame after making the Multiclip and learned this after about three camera switches. Good point, Jerry, about the inability to match frame because that might have helped me here. When I tried to adjust the one camera after making the three camera switches off of that second Multicam clip, that’s when I repeatedly got the error.

I finally put the second Multicam clip on a new track and extended the In Point back to the head of the first of the new cuts (of the three). THEN I re-synced the camera and re-entered Multicam editing mode, using the three cut points on the original video track as a guide as to when and where to cut (since I had already done them anyway). I think I got the error becuase I re-synced the shots AFTER making the three cuts becuase goomg bacl amd syncing it perfectly from the first cut got rid of that error.

The other issue, though, is the dropped frames that are still frequently happening. I am using the AJA Io LA 8-Bit Uncompressed codec and I have three camera angles. I’m running the latest and greatest versions of OS (10.4), QT and FCP (5.1.1). The only thing I can think to do at this point is to finish the 20-minute wedding multicam and then check everything in the Render All menu and let it render everything. Do you think that might clean out the black frames (which are also dropping audio)?

Thanks again,
-Pat

[Pat Defilippo]

Thank you JeremyG, Jeff Carpenter and dndobson!

Good point about what will be the final output! Usually, this client wants Beta-SP masters, but then again he usually only has Beta-SP source tapes! He’s never come in with mini-DV before. I’ll have to ask him right off the bat.

I might be able to borrow a DV/mini-DV deck which has component I/O, so I might be able to capture that way in order to get an even better video quality than the S-Video. If not, though, thanks for the tip on going in S-Video from the VX-2000 via Uncompressed instead of Firewire for a better output with graphics & etc. down the line.

I’ve never input mini-DV from the camera before, so thanks for the education!

Have a great weekend,
-Pat

[Pat Defilippo]

Good point, Todd! Just change the 45 minute default to 1. That will definitely work for me, too, especially given the scope of this unique retag situation.

Thanks very much,
-Pat

[Pat Defilippo]

Hi Tom,

Thanks for the tip – I will definitely do it that way! After selecting the multiple timelines in the browser, I would then just hold down OPTION R to get them all crunching, right?

The only problem with doing that for these specific 13 spots is that I needed to edit localization needs in a seperate PROJECT (the company I am doing this for specifically archives and restores per localization, so they need it edited this way). So, I have 13 Project duplicates on my hard drives. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to select the 13 timelines because they are between Projects, but I’ll give it a try.

What is nice about FCP is that the program, if you set it up to do so, will start up and then open up the timeline of all 13 Projects (or back to whatever you had open when you QUIT the program). What’s bad about FCP is that, evidentially, you can’t render all of the currently open timelines via OPTION APPLE R or something (which becomes an issue if you have several open Projects instead of just one).

Still, your tip is great and will definitely help on most single Projects with multiple timelines – thank you!

Thanks again,
-Pat

[Pat Defilippo]

Well, thanks to just about everyone that replied, I think we all just learned two things:

1) Chapter Markers that appear in the DVDSP Timeline from FCP appear to be un-clearable and are not overwritten by subsequent re-compressed clips that are brought into DVDSP. Sebas’s tip led to me start up a “new project” in DVDSP, which cleared the Chapter Markers. As soon as I brought in the re-compressed clip, all 55 (or so) of the Chapter Markers appeared.

2) RamenDemon suggested exporting from FCP to a QuickTime Movie instead of to Compressor (not as a self-contained movie). Then, take the resulting QuickTime movie into Compressor. Instead of taking nine hours via Export using Compressor AND tieing up FCP all the while, it took under three hours via Export using Quicktime to do the same thing AND it freed up FCP for additional editing.

So, thanks to you all – you helped me get rid of my snag. I learned a lot more about DVDSP today (it appears the snag had nothing to do with FCP) from you all and hopefully we’ll all benefit from this thread!

Have a good week,
-Pat

G5 Quad 2.5 Desktop with 4GB Ram, 500GB HD & Fiber Card ~
30″ Cinema Display & 17″ Sony SVGA ~
Swift Data 200 Internal 1.6TB SATA II RAID 0 ~
AJA Io LA ~
Final Cut Studio ~
Sony UVW-1800 Beta-SP ~~~

P D Post Productions, Inc. ~
TV~DVD~VHS~CD~WEB
for Corporate Communications, Commercials, Infomercials, Television Programs, Family Occasions since 1983 ~
E-mail PD@PDPost.com ~
Website http://www.PDPost.com ~
Business/Cell Phone (847) 275-5671

[Pat Defilippo]

Thanks, all!

What I’ve got are several JPEG files that are all around 600K, which normally wouldn’t be so bad but I have to zoom in at least 3X times on most if not all of them.

I’ll check out all of the tips that you gave and go from there – thanks again!
-Pat

G5 Quad 2.5 Desktop with 4GB Ram, 500GB HD & Fiber Card ~
30″ Cinema Display & 17″ Sony SVGA ~
Swift Data 200 Internal 1.6TB SATA II RAID 0 ~
AJA Io LA ~
Final Cut Studio ~
Sony UVW-1800 Beta-SP ~~~

P D Post Productions, Inc. ~
TV~DVD~VHS~CD~WEB
for Corporate Communications, Commercials, Infomercials, Television Programs, Family Occasions since 1983 ~
E-mail PD@PDPost.com ~
Website http://www.PDPost.com ~
Business/Cell Phone (847) 275-5671

[Pat Defilippo]

Hi guys,

Thanks again for your help with this!

Your help got me to the next level and I still had one more level to go. So, I re-posted the same question today and got the additional help needed to re-add the chapter markers right from within Quicktime Player. If you would like to see how to do this and how this question ended up, please click this Creative Cow link:

https://forums.creativecow.net/cgi-bin/new_read_post.cgi?forumid=8&postid=894048

You’ll probably need to read the entire link to see how it turned out.

Thanks again very much!
-Pat

G5 Quad 2.5 Desktop with 4GB Ram, 500GB HD & Fiber Card ~
30″ Cinema Display & 17″ Sony SVGA ~
Swift Data 200 Internal 1.6TB SATA II RAID 0 ~
AJA Io LA ~
Final Cut Studio ~
Sony UVW-1800 Beta-SP ~~~

P D Post Productions, Inc. ~
TV~DVD~VHS~CD~WEB
for Corporate Communications, Commercials, Infomercials, Television Programs, Family Occasions since 1983 ~
E-mail PD@PDPost.com ~
Website http://www.PDPost.com ~
Business/Cell Phone (847) 275-5671

[Pat Defilippo]

Jonathan – thank you very, very much!!!

That’s the winner! It took about an hour or two to go through all of the steps, but by-and-large the steps that you found and listed were exactly what I needed to make this work and not only get a small enough file to fit onto a DVD but even small enough to fit onto a CD! The final .mov, which consists of H.264 Video and .mp3 audio and the Text Track, is 577mb!!! I could have looked these instructions right in the eye and not known that this is exactly what I needed to do – you suggesting it was what made this work perfectly!

There were a few things that I figured out along the way that might be of further explanation and assistance to those who try this later:

1) You can name chapter markers by the same exact name and it will work in Quicktime for Mac, but when you test it in Quicktime for Windows, the second marker of the same name will jump back to the first marker of the same name in the Quicktime Movie timeline. What I did was put a “(2)” next to the second chapter marker of the same name and it now works perfectly in both Quicktime for Mac and Windows.

2) When you are “adding” the Chapter Marker Text Track in Quicktime Player, and you have the “Show Movie Properties” window open, even if your first inclination is to un-check the “Text Track” so that it is not visible over whatever your video is, you instead have to “hide” the actual text track layer by making it “Layer 0”. If you un-check the “Text Track”, you will not get the pull-down chapter marker menu in Quicktime (which defeats the whole purpose). So, you have to leave the “Text Track” checked but move the layer behind your video layer so that it is not seen and it will work perfectly.

That’s really all that I learned in addition to Jonathan’s notes. It appears to work perfectly now on both platforms.

Thanks again, Jonathan – I owe you big time!
-Pat

G5 Quad 2.5 Desktop with 4GB Ram, 500GB HD & Fiber Card ~
30″ Cinema Display & 17″ Sony SVGA ~
Swift Data 200 Internal 1.6TB SATA II RAID 0 ~
AJA Io LA ~
Final Cut Studio ~
Sony UVW-1800 Beta-SP ~~~

P D Post Productions, Inc. ~
TV~DVD~VHS~CD~WEB
for Corporate Communications, Commercials, Infomercials, Television Programs, Family Occasions since 1983 ~
E-mail PD@PDPost.com ~
Website http://www.PDPost.com ~
Business/Cell Phone (847) 275-5671