[Rob Grauert]

In your capture presets, see if DV NTSC 48KHz Advanced 2:3:3:2 Pulldown works better for you.

Robert J. Grauert, Jr.

[Rob Grauert]

I would go with 1080p because I’ve been told it’s much easier to turn progressive video into interlaced video as opposed to turning interlaced video into progressive video.

Robert J. Grauert, Jr.

[Rob Grauert]

Is the camcorder connected and set to playback mode before you launch FCP? If so, try going to View>Refresh A/V devices. If that doesn’t work, try going to Final Cut Pro>Audio/Video Settings and make sure your Device Control Preset corresponds to the video you are trying to capture.

Robert J. Grauert, Jr.

[Rob Grauert]

1.25 GB will be enough to do what you want to do. I would upgrade to that amount if you have the money. RAM isn’t to expensive anymore these days. I suggest purchasing from http://www.otherworldcomputing.com. I use it and it works great. It’s affordable and, it is Mac certified.

Here is how you figure out what kind of RAM you want:
Go to the Apple in the upper left hand corner of your screen Apple>About This Mac. It will bring up a dialogue box showing you the spec of your computer. Included is the amount of RAM you have and what kind.

Robert J. Grauert, Jr.

[Rob Grauert]

wow. sounds like it was your lucky day. I think I would do some research on the NVIDIA card and decide which one is better.

Then I would sell the left-over card. Or, just keep it. I’m guessing it supports 2 monitors. With the NVIDIA and ATI, you could have 4 monitors…if for some reason you needed that many.

Robert J. Grauert, Jr.

[Rob Grauert]

Oops, I seems to have repeated the same things you said, Ryan. Sorry, I must have still been typing when you posted.

Robert J. Grauert, Jr.

[Rob Grauert]

To help us answer your questions, you’ll need to fill us in on some more info:
How much RAM do you currently have?
What type of video do you plan on editing, for example, what format?

I’ll make some assumptions:
If you are editing SD from miniDV tapes, I think your computer will work fine. 2GB of RAM should work smoothly.

If you start trying to do things in After Effects and/or Motion, your computer may become a bit sluggish with only 2GB of RAM.

An external drive is a great idea because you don’t want to load video to your main hard drive in your computer. If that drive crashes, you could lose all your work. I’d suggest purchasing a 500GB LaCie drive. I have one that has been problem-free since I purchased it in ’05 and I just bought second a few weeks ago.

Robert J. Grauert, Jr.

[Rob Grauert]

If you edit and he lays it off to tape, maybe a simple work-around for this problem is to just send him a .mov file of your timeline. Of course, export as the codec that corresponds to your timeline.

Robert J. Grauert, Jr.

[Rob Grauert]

What is meant when someone says, “I am working with Native HDV and rendering with ProPres 422.” Do they mean they render to ProRess422 when they’re done with their project?

Robert J. Grauert, Jr.

[Rob Grauert]

make a new sequence. drop the original sequence into the new sequence (it should look like one big clip). Then right click>open in viewer.

Robert J. Grauert, Jr.