[Paul Dickin]

Hi
If you Search this forum you get replies like this one:
https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/20/858786

If you wish to use iDVD you have to use Compressor to make a PAL DV .mov (not a PAL MPEG-2 which you would need for DVD Studio Pro).

Then you change iDVD to PAl mode to make your DVD.

[Paul Dickin]

Hi
The trouble is that the camcorder manufacturers have moved on from Mini DV, to MPEG-2 DVD-R and hard drive cameras, or to AVCHD solid-state SD-card cameras.
Neither new format affords the ease of editing that Mini DV does.

The current Mini DV camcorders are regarded as low-end, and don’t have a full feature set for a serious user. That means buying an older better-spec model, if one can be found.

A Mic-in socket is pretty much essential for serious interview-type production.
iLink-In (or DV-in) is also essential for production that is going to end up on DVD (or tape) rather than the web.
S-Video or composite video-in is necessary for digitising older video recordings from VHS.

Ignore MicroMV, its a defunct MPEG-2 format.

[Paul Dickin]

[Zoe Elliott-Shircore] “Does this one have “Firewire in mode”? I’m still not sure I know what that means…. “
Hi
No it doesn’t. That means you can’t record your edit back to tape (for back-up or archiving).
It also means you can’t use the camera to show your edit on a proper TV – you can only view your editing on the computer screen.

Since standard definition video is interlaced, its only on an external TV or video monitor screen that you can actually see how the interlace is working – without an external monitor you are in effect editing ‘blind’ to interlace problems.

[Paul Dickin]

Hi
To quote myself from above:
[Paul Dickin] “The cheaper Sony DCR-HC51E doesn’t have the FW In mode, so can’t be used for monitoring during the edit. “
That applies to HC53E as well – a real limitation unless you plan to buy a DV deck as well.

[Paul Dickin]

Hi
Go for the last one – the Mini-DV Sony, which uses tape and is simplicity itself to use.
With FireWire In/Out you can view your FCP editing using the camera to pass the video out to a TV or video monitor.
The cheaper Sony DCR-HC51E doesn’t have the FW In mode, so can’t be used for monitoring during the edit.

If you have a MacBook Pro then you need at least FCP 5.1 (FCP 5.0 isn’t compatible), and this can be upgraded to 5.1.4 online using Software Update.
For simple DV editing an up-to-date version of QuickTime isn’t a problem once you have upgraded to FCP 5.1.4..

[Paul Dickin]

[Andy Mees] “certainly you can replicate some of this in the Finder, but not as quickly and as easily as you can in the Browser window.”
Hi
A Browser search in my project can take more than 20 seconds, and only throws up hits one at a time.
The Finder’s search of my media assets takes only a few seconds, typically less than 5, and throws up all the hits in a list.

The sooner Apple throws away the old FCP Browser, and gives us a proper Cocoa-based Asset Management utility similar in power to OS X’s Search facilities, and with access to full metadata display, the better…

So I maintain a matched set of media folders in the Finder and the Browser, because that the only way to work around FCP’s inefficiencies. 🙁

The fact that Media Manager can’t maintain the Browser’s folder structure in a Project Archive situation is a real pain.

[Paul Dickin]

[Keith Heard] “I haven’t given up on this yet. There has got to be a better explanation.
“
Hi
Try this – its a PAL document, but the explanation is applicable to an NTSC analogue situation:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/tvbranding/picturesize.shtml

[Paul Dickin]

[David Roth Weiss] “processing power and massive RAM can easily handle…”
Hi
Needs a project data ‘checksum’ in there somewhere as well I feel…
Otherwise we’ll forever be trashing preferences, or fishing out autosaved projects 🙁

[Paul Dickin]

[David Roth Weiss] “Adobe has figured out a way to use XML to keep track of things in an almost magical way.”
Hi
XML data structures seem to me to be sort of a ‘linear’ system, and that’s fine for the metadata in a linear entity, like a movie file.
It should be embeded in the media assets, fully transportable.

But what an NLE suite’s Project File structure should be is non-linear – obviously!! 😉
A robust non-linear random access database structure.

So far only Avid (and before that Fast) seem to have tried to nail that down – not sure whether the penny’s dropped with Adobe and Apple.

Anyway the more of this that gets deep-down integrated into Snow Leopard’s Core services – Core Dynamic Link – the better 🙂

[Paul Dickin]

[Martin Baker] “Paul, are you saying that this is what Adobe have under the hood of CS4 today? “
Hi
I’m no expert, and maybe my addition of 2 + 2 = 5 (4 + a whole load of hype), but in part that’s sort of the way it was explained to me by the Adobe guys at The Production Show when Premiere Pro CS3 for the Mac was first announced.

A much clearer explanation was given by someone here in a very long ‘advantages/disadvantages-of-Premiere Pro’ thread in the Discrete Edit*ors forum a year or so back, but I can’t link to it as that forum has gone poof, an ex-forum….