[Ralph Chaney]

I’ll give it a try, Stuart. I know someone who’s got Episode.

The things is, the stutter occurs with a simple Export Movie within Final Cut, to a self-contained movie. Could Episode become the engine that FCP uses to create these files and possibly do a better job?

Stuart, I would be very curious to know if you get these same results – I wouldn’t be surprised.
Use the project I have linked to above or create your own simple project. Create a moving rectangle, cross or whatever, out of mattes generated with FCP, and export to a self-contained movie. Then replay it 6 times. I think this might be a universal problem.

It would be good to know if others on this forum get the same results.

Thanks,
R

-> Ralph

[Ralph Chaney]

Thanks to both of you.

Jeremy, yes, the plan is to go with progressive h.264 for the HD files on the disk. Yes, progressive is a must.

Matt, thanks for bringing up display refresh rate versus video frame rate. It must be something all of us run into if we want people to see our HD footage easily (without jumps). Not very many of our viewers have the gear to see HD on monitors so, practically speaking, we’re left with whatever monitors (and graphics cards, etc.) can provide.

Do you know what the bigger producers do, to get around this problem? When I watch feature film dvd’s on my computer I don’t not get the “stutter” artifact we see in the sample. Apparently it CAN be done. It would be good to know how to do it, for all of us.

Who do you think would know this kind of thing?

If you look at one of the output files you will see the actual artifact and know if it’s “tearing” or “jumps” or what. I’d like to know what you think.

-> Ralph

[Ralph Chaney]

This is a real mystery.

Frame rate is 29.97, rendering is at 100%.

The thing is… this problem occurs without even involving Compressor, or Video sources, or anything beyond a simple timeline, elements generated by FCP, and exporting as a Self-contained movie. It’s FCP at it’s simplest, most stripped-down..

How about giving this a look? Maybe try it yourself. Here is a simple project you can open to see how it functions. I’ve tried it on other systems nearby and we all get the same stutter problem. At least 1 out of 4 replays, we see the stutters.

Here is a download, 17 MB that has:
Simple FCP project;
Exported clips, in ProRes and DV;
Screenshots of my settings, for ProRes and DV.

https://rcpt.yousendit.com/868541957/6eb3a12586741a61d79b364c72715c5a

Thank.

-Ralph

-> Ralph

[Ralph Chaney]

Christopher,

I’ll probably go this direction at this point. Price is certainly driving the decision.

Do you have any experience with the 4-bay enclosures? I like that they have 2 fans.
Any experience or observations about heat levels in the case, or the drives themselves?

Thanks very much!

-Ralph

-> Ralph

[Ralph Chaney]

David,

What a great looking piece of equipment. It’s beyond my scope right now, I think. I edit at ProRes standard and don’t need the impressive throughput the CalDigits provide. I’m working from a Mac 2.66ghz Dual Core. I would be good to see multi-layered sequences real time, but I think I need to up the ante on my Mac first. So I think I’ll be on hold for something like this.

…unless this level of throughput would eliminate long rendering times. But I usually output to computer files, not to tape, so the renders would probably still have to take place?

It would be great to restructure my studio and workflow, given the budget and supporting projects.

Perhaps when I get into the Red-esque bitrates I’ll be going this way.

Thanks for pointing out the road.

-R.

-> Ralph

[Ralph Chaney]

Thank you, David. I’ll give it a read. Eager to learn about the differences between consumer and pro enclosures. It’s

There’s this odd balance between buying professional gear and consumer stuff. Sometimes it doesn’t matter, as in DV versus HDV tape. Even if there was a measurable advantage to HDV tape, the loss of one shot due to (extremely rare) dropout is minor. But lots of captured footage feeding a must-be-done-by-6pm edit session is another story.

-R.

-> Ralph

[Ralph Chaney]

I’m not familiar with the lighting power of the Frezzi versus the Lite Panel Pro, but… Anytime you can shed gear that constricts you the better. This is true for quick documentary shooting as well as other physical activities like sports. In surfing and skiing, come Springtime when you can shed the extra layers of neoprene or down, suddenly the whole feel of moving and the quality of activity elevates. Same with shooting. Unless the Frezz outdoes the LPP by good measure, and since you’ve got the budget, why not?

-> Ralph

[Ralph Chaney]

In your opinion, could a skilled stitcher add gussets and other layers of fabric to make it stronger and acceptable? Someone like a backpack repair person or ?

-R.

-> Ralph

[Ralph Chaney]

Does Chimera make a quick set up softbox?

-R.

-> Ralph

[Ralph Chaney]

Thanks, Mark. More than a fan, you’re part of the appendix to whatever Manuals they may include. Your ways of working with the gear and noting points of weakness are a great help.

And Dennis, not sure what Lowell’s overall negatives are… from my experience they could use a little more beef. The Rifa’s provide time, which is is often the most valuable “piece of equipment” on the set.

I think Rifa is the only quick setup softbox being sold…? I wonder if there are others.

-R.

-> Ralph