[Randall M]

Yep- I’m there Jeremy. I have been in that tab from the get-go. I keep toggling back and forth between the non-controllable device and AJA io RS-422. It blinks in the L&C (log and capture) window but still no deck control. I’m starting to suspicion the RS-422 cable or the Firewire cable- but they are both brand new dawg-gonnit.

I was reading in the Io manual about Firewire conflicts during capture/playback. I have a caldigit firewire 800 drive plugged into the G4 laptop right alongside the FW400 cable that is communicating to the Io box. I’ve already captured from the BetaSP deck to the Caldigit Firewire 800 drive earlier today. If I had simply not recorded that scratch narration straight to disc, but it just doesn’t make any sense why it’s not giving me machine control now. Worst case scenario is that I have to capture on the fly. UG.

If you can think of anything else- please let me know. I already have a email sent to AJA support.

[Randall M]

Jeremy,

Thanks for responding. I have indeed gone back and chosen easy set up. Did NTSC US SMPTE 8 bit uncompressed as well as NTSC US Betacam 8 bit. Nada. Except this time I don’t get the warning “Can’t initialize video deck.” It just opens the Log and Capture window and says “no communication” where my machine control buttons are normally.

Randall

[Randall M]

Borjis,

regarding deleting the original render files, are you just going to the render folder and trashing everything?

Thanks,
Randall

[Randall M]

“Still photos will not appear in any EDL. EDL’s only understand 1 video layer and only sources that originate from tapes.”

John, I’m not sure I follow you here. I used several still photos in an hour-long doc this past January within FCP 4.5, then used Automatic Duck to transfer the EDL to an Avid Symphony. I used up to 9 video layers at times with graphics and stills that were simply in a folder on my hard drive. I later dumped those off to CD, took them to post which the online editor then loaded into their drives that the Avid accessed and reconnected to the clips in the timeline. In fact I remember the stills were all connected before the batch capture was complete.

With all respect I must add that I cut my teeth in NLEs on Avid dating back to the nubus days, but have spent the last several years growing with FCP. I currently teach both systems to students, but would much rather work in FCP than Avid. Another humble opinion. To each his own I suppose.

Randall

[Randall M]

I saw your thread earlier and read all the responses. It seems folks are pointing you toward plug in filters. Not sure because I don’t work with the ones they named.

Here is something you can try while staying within the FCP timeline and just applying simple filters like gamma correction and gaussian blur.

Practice this on a clip. Hold down your option key and click on a clip to drag it to another video track just above the original, then release the option key and let go of the clip. This should duplicate the clip. Now- throw a gaussian blur on the bottom clip, consider whacking it out a bit to see a real impact. On your top clip bring down the opacity level to 30 or 40 percent. Now drag that top clip about 10 to 20 frames out of sync with the bottom clip. You could drop a gamma correction filter on one of the clips to kind of blow it out a light.

I’ve used this on a music video and then worked with keyframes on those individual clips to lessen or intensify the effect at different points in time. In my view this creates a kind of dreamy state, especially if you want to start playing with the speed of the clips (control click on the clip and chose “speed” in the subtext menu).

Then there are several stock filters you could apply- fisheye comes to mind, that might enhance the above technique.

I think I physically experienced this effect sometime in the 80s. (laughs)

Hope this is helpful.
Randall

[Randall M]

Thanks Chuck for your feedback as well. Yeah I checked the battery position, and it’s correct. I have had the mac plugged in to a surge protector that does have consistent power throughput- even after turned off- on a couple of outlets. The motherboard battery life very well could have been affected by these outlets.

This evening I tried booting up while holding down apple/option and the O & F keys to reset the firmware, but after accepting the command to reset all, the machine simply gave up powering the ADC connected apple cinema display, as well as the USB keyboard/mouse.

I’m becoming more convinced this is a logic board failure. What a mess.

Debating on buying a duplicate machine to rob parts from or just taking the plunge on a Mac Pro.

[Randall M]

Thanks for replying. I haven’t gone back yet to the original G4 install disk but will try that today. I’ve tried Panther 10.3 and Diskwarrior for osx, as well as tech tool platinum cds but they get about 15 seconds into their process and simply kill the machine.

I did remember the last thing I installed about a week ago was a new 3.6V motherboard battery- which by the way I was having to replace about every 6 months.

I have priced a new mac pro and will go that route if needed, but I’d just like to solve this head scratcher first.

Thanks again for your suggestion.

Randall

[Randall M]

Ernie, Thanks for your input and the link. I just had a power hit tonight and lost a little time-intensive work. Time to upgrade my APC unit to a 1400.

[Randall M]

Well, I can’t say I am that impressed with the demo from their website. I’m sure even with purchasing the extra flip4 mac thingy that Sorenson Squeeze would be a better choice for us- coming from the quality of cleaner.

Randall

[Randall M]

Marcelo,

Thanks for replying. Yes I have tried version 3.0, but was without documentation and the GUI (interface) was very scant, at least on the mac version. I believe it had the capability of mov, swf, fla, and mp4. I would imagine 4.2 for mac would be quite an improvement. I saw mention of the necessity to purchase something called flip4mac just to do windows media. Why couldn’t they integrate this item I wonder?

Thank you for hosting this forum.
Randall