[Raju Bhai]

thanks I appreciate that! Now after i download the latest codecs, then what do i do? Do i use the codecs to convert the media into QT files?
Do i still have to open the souce media files in Avid and export them as QT files but this time using the latest codecs?

[Raju Bhai]

what is that? I have final cut Pro installed but only today am I going to purchase Avid Xpress Pro and install it. However, if i can get the clips to play in Final Cut then I won’t need to purchase Avid and that would be better, I can just edit the media in Final Cut instead. So far i’ve been working on my friend’s computer on Avid Xpress Pro and now i want to take the media (just the media, not the project file or sequnces) and edit it for a different project on my compter with Final Cut Pro.

[Raju Bhai]

thanks, i will try that this evening! I suppose it doesn’t matter which computer i designate as the external drive, I should still be able to copy files from either computer to the other one, right?

[Raju Bhai]

Thanks but I couldn’t figure it out. When I goto connect server, I chose “smb://SharedDocs”, but I wasn’t sure if that was the right thing to choose. And then one computer said error, can’t connect and the other computer just kept loading saying “connecting” but was taking too long as if it couldn’t connect so I cancelled it. too complicated. I don’t know why these powerbooks don’t explain anything about how to do this in the Help Menu. It should’ve been very simple.
Anyway, I accomplished the task by borrowing a firewire drive and copying the files to that and then copying from the firewire drive back to the other computer. Thought I could do it without using an external firewire drive or burning a CD but I guess not.
thanks anyway

[Raju Bhai]

wow! I had no idea that one must erase the media drive often. Is this because of continual fragmentation caused by using it as the drive to edit on? For a drive just used as a storage device or backup for a clone, then would you still want to erase it from time to time, or probably not?

How often is it advisable to erase the media drive?

I also heard that if you fill a drive it performs slower, so it’s better to leave alot of empty room. I have a 250 gig drive and I would say i’ve filled it to about half capacity.

[Raju Bhai]

actually, i don’t have a “G-raid”, i have the regular “g-drive.” But even then there is no point in partitioning, right? I’m NOT using it as a secondary startup disk. Rather, I am using it just as storage, Scratch Disk for FCP editing, and clone image of laptop drive. I can put these all in separate folders and organize/manage it without partitioning.

[Raju Bhai]

OK, first I de-interlace. Do I do this by selecting all the clips in the timeline and applying the de-interlace filter to them from the Effects Tab?

What does the de-interlace do?

[Raju Bhai]

when u say 2 systems on 2 hard disks, do u mean just the source data and project files for FCP 4.5 should be on a separate disk from FCP5 or that the actual application programs need to be on separate disks? I’m guessing that u mean it’s OK to have FCP 4.5 and FCP5 on the same internal hard disk but that just the project files and all data relating to them need to be separated on different disks.
please clarify
thanks

[Raju Bhai]

hi Graeme!

I checked and I do have Cinema Tools 2.2. I made a regular QT PAL export of my 3 minute project (which I suspect is the best option in terms of quality export when the source footage is in mini-DV). So now do i import it in Cinema Tools? And how do I perform the conversion to NTSC from there?

[Raju Bhai]

Thanks Graeme, the first option you gave seems simple enough! Let me see if i got this right. Basically, I create an NTSC sequence and drop the PAL movie into it. It shows that it needs to be rendered because the PAL video is in an NTSC timeline. Then I render the sequence, and it is this rendering that converts the PAL to NTSC, right?

As for the second option, I would like to try that out since the quality you say will be better. But I didn’t quite follow what you were saying. After I export the PAL movie, where do I de-interlace it? Isn’t it already 25fps? Where do I find cinema tools? Is that a separate software program that I need to get?

Another question: After I perform the first option of just rendering the PAL movie in an NTSC timeline, is it better to export as a Final Cut Pro (Quicktime) movie or using Compressor and exporting it as an MPEG-2? My goal here is getting best possible quality, not the fastest encoding.

Thanks again in advance!