[Rich Rubasch]

I do this all the time. I absolutely use Windows media 9 for full screen video playback and I use the Windows Media encoder to encode it. I usually make it 640 x 480 from and uncompressed AVI clip and deinterlace it. Interlacing looks very bad on a comuter screen or projector.

I keep it around 2000 mbps. Also, although someone suggested a poster frame, I find I get a better transition in and out of the clip if I fade from and to black beginning and end. Stick with that.

As for versions, I use 2003 on the PC and if they use PPT 2002 or 2003 everything should work fine. If they are using 2000 some of the fades you might use might be cuts. They will have to have Windows Media 9 player on their PC to playback the movie. Do NOT settle for WMV ver 8. So your requirements would be PPT 2002 or greater and Windows Media Player 9. If you only have Windows media clips playing full screen and no other embedded external files you can use the 2003 PPT player and everything should still work, and if it does, then they only would need the WMV player 9.

Use windows media for full screen (and even smaller clips on a slde) playback of video.

Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media

[Rich Rubasch]

Did you delete the FCP prefs? Might still be expecting the old card. Maybe try deleting multiple prefs to see if you can get the error to go away.

Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media

[Rich Rubasch]

So Keith is another one who is not seeing batch jobs in the Batch window. I’ve had this issue since 2.0 and FCP 5.0 and it’s killing me…seems like it might still be a problem with the newer upgrades still.

Keith, how long has this batch problem been gong on?

And David, thanks for the tips this weekend…nice tip on the Hitachi drives. glad to hear Compressor might be living up to the compressor we all wish it would be…

Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media

[Rich Rubasch]

What are you encoding? Are you using Ref clips or self contained? Are the clips on the Lacie and are you creating the MPEG-2 back to the Lacie? Did you try sending the MPEG-2 to the internal drive? Did you delete the Compressor prefs (most likely you did). Is it a preset you are using to encode or have you created a new setting? CBR or VBR?

Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media

[Rich Rubasch]

Also 15 frames per second might help. But in general i too find that many FLV’s I play back off the web just seem to jerk along. I don’t like it. user penetration be damned, i am reluctant to use it on our site for demos because of the iffy playback.

Is “iffy” really a word? If so, it describes FLV’s for me…

Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media

[Rich Rubasch]

Right…With an uncompressed AVI you will be able to match exactly the color or pattern of your PPT background if it is part of the movie. I was able to loop some type along the bottom over a complex background and with the AVI you couldn’t see the seam. Not possible with WMV. Also the WMV loads differently on the slide and looks like you put video over the top, whereas AVI looks more integrated.

If that is what you are looking for, go with the AVI.

Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media

[Rich Rubasch]

For these odd size movies, use AVI. I also prefer the uncompressed AVI as long as your host PC has enough power to play it. But in the size you are making, it should handle it.

Out of After Effects (if that is where you created the loop) you can do a file-Export and choose AVI. This will allow the non-standard frame size and you can play with different compressors…but I prefer not compressing.

You can also export it out of Quicktime player and play with compression there as well.

Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media

[Rich Rubasch]

Hey Normco….Zaxwerks is my 3D plug of choice…pretty easy to learn, but get ready for long renders!

Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media

[Rich Rubasch]

Sorry to ask, but do they realize that putting the footage on DV tapes provide two very valuable things…it gives both of you timecode accuracy, so if you say tape 36 at 36:01:53:28 they can find that exact frame at their place. Also having everything on DV tape is better than MPEG-2 but saves a bunch of burning clips (with no timecode and no way to redigitize later accurately). Not to mention that the time to copy the clips to the hard drive will be pretty slow. And then there is the question of how you break up the clips to be put on the DVD’s…by scene? By duration? If you have a 15 minute clip on the DVD and you only want a 5 second shot later you have to bring in the entire 15 minute shot. On tape you can simply shuttle to where you want it and grab only what you need.

You should be the proactive one here to guide them away from making a lot more headaches down the road. Digital tape, in this case, mini-DV is the most accurate archival format to transfer your svhs source tapes to.

IMO.

Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media

[Rich Rubasch]

I’d say anything filemaker is a winner…love that app. don’t have experience with Studio Manager, but if it’s for filemaker it is cross platform so that’s a plus.

For our small shop we use Entourage’s calendar and project manager…we’re small, however. It’s part of the Office 2004 package.

Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media