[Rocky Robinson]

MX-Light works perfectly…But you’re right, it is a PC app, with a not very pretty PC interface on it (no offense to the creator. Streaming isn’t a pretty task).
The only way you’re going to get the iMac to stream with the ATEM is by running windows in bootcamp, or via something like vmware or parallels (which I have been told works…but I haven’t verified it myself.)
Unfortunately, my solution was to lug a PC around to do streaming.

That said, it may be worth getting an I/O device that Wirecast can see…Cheaper than having to acquire a PC.

[Rocky Robinson]

I actually like the FCPX interface, but I’ve found that Adobe CC just works better than FCPX on my old machine. MacPro 3,1 with Nvidia Gforce 8800, and an AJA card. Maybe a new graphics card would make a huge performance difference? Can’t afford to answer that question right now.

So, for me, FCPX was too sluggish all around. And even with some time in it, just feels clumsy for a lot of things. And the project management is a big negative. I mean trying to load everything at once, or make me go hide things, it’s just a strange way to work, and a little bit annoying. If I was working one project at a time, it wouldn’t be a big deal…But it’s not they way I work at my job.

Oh, and the Restoring Window Layout thing was such a huge show stopper for me…Bit hard 3 times for that, so the last time I got around it I finished all my FCPX projects and have been in Adobe since.

I really do need a new machine…Neither program seems as smooth as FCP 7 did. But the CC’s got better audio, better integration with Photoshop, I like Media Encoder over Compressor. Tracks and Bins, though I didn’t find FCPX’s new way of orginizing that offputting, I’m not an organization freak, so it really requires some extra head wrapping around….Not so with Adobe CC.

Multicam in FCPX is da bomb, though. And you can’t beat the price.

[Rocky Robinson]

I too have a MacPro 3,1 w/ an 8800 GT. With a Kona LHe +, and a CalDigit HDPRO array.
I’ve found FCP X too sluggish to use. 10.0.4 was better, but still, compared to FCP 7, it’s night and day différence in how un-useable and sluggish it is. 7 is snappy. X is like using new software on a machine that wasn’t designed for pro-video.
I cut from SD DV, and DVCPRO-HD.

I think the tower’s just too old as far as X is concerned. I mean if FCP7 can play crystal clear, no-frame dropping HD video, why can’t X?

Anybody have any thoughts on how to make this machine more useable with X? As much as people complain about X, it’s got some things going for it. And price-wise it’s a great deal.

[Rocky Robinson]

We’ve had a Drobo Pro hooked in via iSCSI on our MacPro since December. Awesome storage capability. No so much as an edit drive. I use it to make space available on our CalDigit HDPro for real editing, and as an archive device.
So far, so good. We’re dealing with DV and DVCPRO-HD compression mostly.

I have used it to put small files (Like archived spots and IDs), on the timeline, and haven’t seen any out of ordinary hiccups yet. But when I used it once as a device to render to, there was a huge speed difference (slower). But it still worked.

So here it’s used as designed, as a backup/arhcive drive.
My only complaint is that I’d rather it cost half as much.

[Rocky Robinson]

I shoot with a Firestore drive. I like it a lot. The only times I have problems with it is when the firewire cable gets yanked..Doesn’t happen all the time, but it has happened once in a while. I also run P2 cards as a backup, but the trick is to remember to not run out of space on the cards if you have less storage in P2 cards than the Firestore drive holds. Then, with P2, you have to think about offloading and archiving while on-shoot – the realm of the DITs.

The P2 cards are bigger now. Honestly, if I had access to two 64GB cards, it would cover most the shoots I do, and I’d consider changing workflows. I do like having the Firestore recording in Quicktime format on the fly, you can just drag and drop the files right to the FCP timeline, vs P2 importing. If the P2 cameras/cards could do this (record .movs), I’d change in a heartbeat.

But, you’ve got 4 cams going at once? If 2 64GB cards per cam will cover the shoot, and you can afford it, do that. There is extra hassle of the Firestore in making sure it has power and a solid firewire connection. Mutiply by 4, and throw in the wildcards…There IS less to go wrong with P2, lack of moving parts and cables and such. But there’s also the workflow in post factor too. Depends on how you want to work.

[Rocky Robinson]

I’ll agree that the Log and Transfer function is nice…It’s just that most shoots I’m do bring back more footage than I have the P2 cards to store for, so Quicktime’s the way for me. I did try the Make Ref movie function once, and it worked ok. I’ve had a couple of bad (non fs-100) experiences in the past working when FCP was set to render Quicktimes with reference files, when I really needed the full files…So I tend to shy away from the ref files.
Anyway, good luck!
-Rocky

[Rocky Robinson]

Well, if you’re using P2 as designed, and have enough cards and the right size cards, and all the P2 accessories to hook into the mac, staying P2 is great.
But, we’re cheap over here. I’ve got an HVX200 with a 16 gb card and 32 gb card, and an FS-100. Shooting 1080i60 eats the cards up pretty fast for the shoots I do. I don’t have time to off load the P2 cards and re-format when I fill them, and I don’t have an assistant/intern to do it. So I’m all FS-100 when I fill the P2 cards. If the drive fails I’m screwed for everything not on the cards, but that’s a risk I’m living with at the moment.
Once I get done with my shoot, I have to get all of the footage on RAID drive, and then into FCP. Logging is done by someone else with a proxy file I generate, but I have to keep all of the video on the drive. While copying the p2 data and “Logging and Transferring” via FCP is a cute and organized way to do it, it’s also an extra step, and it generates more files. I’m much happier just using the Quicktime files made by the FS-100, and I can edit right off the FS-100 via firewire if I have to, with no “Logging and Transferring” that you’d need to do if you’re all P2.
That’s the way I’m doing it. Like with all other ways there’s probably at least 3 other ways to go about it.
That all said, I’d love to get some more 64gb P2 cards. And I’d love it if they’d half/quarter in cost. Or maybe a Firestore that’s SSD and also has firewire 800/eSata. While I’m dreaming a free upgrade from the HVX200 to the HVX300 would be nice too.

[Rocky Robinson]

Before, I would just copy the Quicktime files to the a local hard drive, and throw all of the files onto a sequence timeline. And copy and paste clips from that timeline to the one I’m editing on. That works pretty well, until you try to work with other editors who’ve never worked with files from a Firestore before.

The workflow I try to get into now is to come back after a shoot:

Hook up the Firestore to the Mac
Open up final cut
Import the files off the Firestore.
Throw them on the timeline
Render the timeline as a completely new quicktime to one of the local mac drives.
Use that file as the source file from now on.
So far, this has been working well for me.

I must make sure that the Firestore’s actually rolling each time I start the camera, sometimes that firewire cable gets bumped/yanked/knocked loose from the camera. You’ll usually notice this happening after the shot you needed gets missed. But hopefully you’re still recording to P2 card at the same time, just in case. That’s if you haven’t recorded beyond the P2 cards capacity.

[Rocky Robinson]

Oh yeah AC3 it’s just the way to go for 5.1 for dvd. I tried 5.1 wav too, with same result.

Right now I’ve been trying this workaround where I break the audio tracks up into 10 track segments, and render them out as 5.1 wavs. And that seemed to work, as long as I break up the movie into half-lengths…for some reason the whole thing gave an error message about not being able to fit or something.

There were some individual tracks that showed the same original problem of rendering forever and ever but not having any CPU% in the task manager. On one batch of the 10 tracks, some tracks had no actual audio on certain tracks for that half of the movie. When I deleted those tracks, it rendered just fine. So I think something may’ve been corrupted.

I’m now currently rendering the 5.1 wavs pasted back in sync with the video, and, so far, it’s apparently working.
This should get me my first version onto DVD, but if I have to go and make changes to the mix, which is usually the case, I’ll have to either repeat this all again, or figure out a different workaround.

I think on the next movie I’ll go back to my original method of cutting scenes in their own .veg, and rendering them out to intermediate .avis. And then bringing them into a master .veg file for the big mix.

Or, maybe I should try cutting the actual scene .vegs in surround, and render intermediate .avis with the audio as separate 5.1wavs? Does .AVI do 5.1 surround too? Hmm..
There’s just so many ways you can do something.
Anyone have a favorite way of working in the 5.1 world?