[Ron James]

I don’t trust FCP’s TC burn anymore. I’ve seen it repeat values, which it should never ever do. This can result in a bungled edit.

Make sure you use slugs anywhere you don’t have video in the TL. Even though I did this, the TC would repeat in some of the slugs (with the TCR filter on a Nest, btw). This happened four times throughout a 44 minute show, so we ended up, in effect, losing four frames by the end of the show (which weren’t really lost, but the TC was four frames short of what it should’ve been by the end – does that make sense?).

It must be related to the slugs, but if you don’t have slugs, the TC burn will disappear over areas without video (at least, it did with me).

I’ve also seen it “read” TC that didn’t even exist. It just seemed to start at some random value and take it from there. ???

Anyone else seen anything like this? I haven’t had time to try and fiddle with it since. I’m scared to use it now, though.

Some extra info: this was a TC burn that I exported as a self-contained FCP movie from the TL so I could dub it whenever needed. I would’ve been better off, maybe, to just play it using RT. So many variables, so little time…

G5 Dual 2.7 GHz
2 GB RAM
OS 10.4.6
FCP 5.0.4
QT 7.0.4

[Ron James]

Great, thanks a lot for the info, Danny. I’m going to check my past DVD’s as soon as I get a chance. I certainly don’t like the idea of colours changing this drastically. I probably assumed in the past that any shift was due to the projector or consumer monitor being used at the time. I’ll be paying closer attention now.

G5 Dual 2.7 GHz
2 GB RAM
OS 10.4.6
FCP 5.0.4
QT 7.0.4

[Ron James]

Thanks.

And, just out of curiousity, how did you go about capturing/monitoring your results? Is the colour shift obvious on a standalone DVD player also (as opposed to the Apple DVD Player)?

G5 Dual 2.7 GHz
2 GB RAM
OS 10.4.6
FCP 5.0.4
QT 7.0.4

[Ron James]

Danny, does this happen with both 1-pass and 2-pass encoding? Reason I ask is b/c I use 1-pass to bypass the 2-pass artifacting bug and I haven’t noticed any shift in gamma or colour (I’ll have to check some stuff I’ve done) and I *usually* have a decent eye for such things.

G5 Dual 2.7 GHz
2 GB RAM
OS 10.4.6
FCP 5.0.4
QT 7.0.4

[Ron James]

Thanks, Brian.

G5 Dual 2.7 GHz
2 GB RAM
OS 10.4.6
FCP 5.0.4
QT 7.0.4

[Ron James]

[walter biscardi] “If anything, 5.1 is slower to open projects than 5.0.4. We’re just cutting 22 minute HD episodic television and it can take well over 2 minutes just to load a project.”

Walter, are these project files that were created fresh in 5.1, or files that were originally 5.0.4?

G5 Dual 2.7 GHz
2 GB RAM
OS 10.4.6
FCP 5.0.4
QT 7.0.4

[Ron James]

I worked with someone who had purchased FCP 1.0 and the 3.0 Upgrade and was wondering if I knew anyone who wanted to buy it. Is there an upgrade for the full studio from this configuration, though? If so, I’ll tell him to put it up on eBay.

G5 Dual 2.7 GHz
2 GB RAM
OS 10.4.6
FCP 5.0.4
QT 7.0.4

[Ron James]

D’oh!

G5 Dual 2.7 GHz
2 GB RAM
OS 10.4.6
FCP 5.0.4
QT 7.0.4

[Ron James]

I think you can just buy a LaCie lightscribe burner. Not sure that just any burner can be used. Usually they’re labelled as Lightscribe burners.

Actually, the labels don’t look too bad if you use a picture with a lot of detail and contrast. Not the best looking, but way better than handwritten. I find some inkjet labels can look pretty cheesy. It’s really about knowing your limitations and being creative, just like anything. Best thing about Lightscribe is you don’t have to wait 24 hours for each one to dry. When it’s done, it’s done.

The downside is that the discs are expensive and hard to find. But worst of all, the Mac version of the software is really lousy. I’ve seen the windoze version and it’s got a LOT more features and control than the Mac version. It’s clunky and unreliable, from my experience, despite what LaCie will try and tell you (that it’s solid and any quits or crashes are usually due to OS problems – yeah, sure).

You can find pictures of sample discs on the internet, from real users, if you’re interested in seeing how one looks. I’d probably go with inkjet, if I had a choice, FWIW. Cheaper media and the option to use colour.

HTH

G5 Dual 2.7 GHz
2 GB RAM
OS 10.4.6
FCP 5.0.4
QT 7.0.4

[Ron James]

Ah, that makes sense.

G5 Dual 2.7 GHz
2 GB RAM
OS 10.4.6
FCP 5.0.4
QT 7.0.4