[Paul Dickin]

Hi
Is the J-30 is correctly switched via its menu #13 NTSC/PAL 525/625 setting?

[Paul Dickin]

Hi
There is a little routine to go through when this sort of thing happens – I switch between PAL and NTSC DV via FW from a DSR-11 and a J-30 regularly.

It is necessary to make sure that Mac OS X is corectly configured, which means checking that the DSR or J-30 is in the correct mode, powered up with FW lead connected, then booting up (or restarting) the Mac.
Then FCP can be opened, and Log and Capture should then behave correctly.
(If not use FCP Rescue to Trash preferences, switch everything off (decks as well) then retry).

CAUTION: Two different J030 decks fried the front FW port of a G5 Dual 2.5 and a G5 Dual 2.7 by being switched off (with their mains switch) whilst connected to the powered up Mac’s front FW port. So far this hasn’t happened to the rear FW port (or the hub in the Cinema Display 23″)…

[Paul Dickin]

Hi
Whilst Mac OS X has basic CD (and DVD) writing capabilities, the long-standing application-of-choice for this is Roxio’s Toast
http://www.roxio.com
If you make an ISO 9660 CD-ROM XA project with this you can either import sessions from another disc as you add new data, or add new sessions to an already-written CD.
From Toast 7’s Help file:
“Multi-session CDs: If you are making an ISO CD and would like to leave the disc “open” so you can record additional data sessions at a later time, click the Advanced tab and choose Write Session. You can now continue to add data to this CD until you have exceeded its capacity or you choose Write Disc to “close” it. You can append the sessions so they appear as a single icon on your Desktop. You cannot make multi-session DVDs.”

[Paul Dickin]

Hi
As with all of Apple’s web site, adding a /uk/ after the .com gives you the UK page (if one exists):
http://www.applecom/uk/universal/crossgrade

[Paul Dickin]

Hi
Start here:
http://www.apple.com/universal/crossgrade

[Paul Dickin]

[Pierre-Luc] ” where did you find it ?”
Hi
This is one of a (well respected) blank media supplier’s comments on the subject to the DVDoctor form:
https://forums.dvdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=268286&postcount=10

[Paul Dickin]

Hi
Have you created a 4-channel sequence – using the Duplicate option on the right Audio Output tab of User Preferences.
Then create a new sequence with this preset, and copy/paste all your 2-channel timeline video/audio contents into the new sequence.
Ctrl-click each audio track in the lefthand margin where the moveable a1 a2 markers reside, and assign each audio track to the approprate output channel.

When you Edit To Tape use the lower-right Audio Channel assignment icon to turn on All Channels for audio.
(This is with FCP 5.1.1, maybe the last command has changed slightly with 5.1.2).

[Paul Dickin]

Hi
My information is that at 6x burning or less (-1x) there is a continuous burn to DVD-R.
At 8x or faster there is a ‘gear change’ moment when the rotational speed changes and the burning laser has to be recalibrated.
Which is ‘a bad thing’ for un error-checked video…
Something like that 😉

[Paul Dickin]

Hi
I recently worked alongside an experienced ex-Avid (PC) editor beginning to use FCP, both cutting seperate episodes of an archive newsreel show covering a year’s worth pulled together into a 75min show. After about a fortnight I realised that that whilst I had eight hours of source clips arranged into a two hour assemble in a 10MB project, his similar project had grown to about 180MB!

He was creating a project with a long timeline and then taking fragmentary sections of each timeline into a new project as little chunks of nest. He was then discarding the original project – together with all the source clips which only existed in the original project’s bins.

After he’d done that about a dozen times, with nests of nests of nests…etc, his project ground to a halt at just under 200MB, and I took over his edit – starting my own new project from scratch….!

The moral of this sorry tale is – you can’t take ANY of the basics for granted.
With editors coming from Avid, Pinnacle Liquid or Premiere backgrounds there is huge potential for complete misunderstanding of proper Mac/FCP procedures…

To teach someone efficient editing procedures on a Mac with FCP you must ensure that the following is understood:
1. Mac file management, as all the clips essentially belong to the Finder, rather than the application as in much/most? Windows software.
2. Project amalgamation techniques – so that ALL the elements of your project are retained in the current main project, to prevent project bloat and slow-down.
3. To that I would add a considerable measure of caution – I was a film editor in the 60-70s, then started NLE with Premiere v3 in 1993, and both activites in their different ways required a cautious (=methodical) approach, otherwise chaos would ensue…
With FCP break huge timelines up, and spread assets (and render files) over disk sub-systems that are appropriately matched with the real-time preview/playout requirement of your project.
Cheers.

[Paul Dickin]

Hi
The Z1s they sell in Europe have an NTSC/PAL menu setting, and have to be shut-down/restarted to bring this into effect – just like a J-30 DigiBeta player. That to will give analogue playback of either standard in either setting, but nor properly out of its SDI or FW ports.