[Rory Newman]

I’ve got a 2017 iMac (27″ top spec) and am using CC 2018. I usually use JBL Pebbles speakers, but I just switched to headphones as the volume was too low. Playing a clip from the timeline just now, I realised that the mac volume control wasn’t changing the headphone volume level.

I went to Youtube and played a clip and the mac vol control worked.

I checked the JBL pebbles (USB speakers) and same result. No vol control on Premiere, but worked on Youtube.

I then switched to internal iMac speakers and that DID work with CC.

Any idea why this should be the case?

Many thanks.

RN

[Rory Newman]

Hang on. I was thinking of switching back to Premier after having to use FCP when my wife was at college. I’d assumed it would be like FCP where I have an external monitor just showing the video, whether in the library or timeline, to play the clip or the film or to scrub one or the other. Is this not possible?

Two quick questions:

Is it true that you can scroll through a small thumbnail of the clip in the library without having to open it in the browser?

And in terms if AVCHD, would you suggest playing this natively, rewrapping it (but keeping the small file size until you export the while thing) or transferring into Pro Res 422?

Oh, and can you open FCP7 projects in it?

Many thanks.

[Rory Newman]

Cheers, mate. Gutted you had those problems.

What format were the clips you imported in? I take it it was the clips you brought in that wouldn’t play properly?

I mean, when you’ve brought the stuff over and you’ve got a clip in the library, when you play it from there, not from the timelines, did it still have the bars on?

Oh, and what is Prem CC? Is it different to the one in CS6? Can you get it on a monthly subscription? I don’t fancy paying out if these problems can happen. I’d deffo want to try it first.

I just wish they’d made a 64-bit FCP. (Not this FCPX nonsense.) It’s media types that kept Apple alive during the ’90s, but since they made loads of cash out of music and phones they don’t care about us any more.

My wife spent 5 years at the LCC ending with an MA in documentary film, and loads of her friends from the BA at least had a skill as an FCP editor when looking for work. We’re much older than these mates who went straight from school so we’re not in the same career position. But they spend 3-4 years learning how to edit FCP7, and then just after they leave, it gets dumped and the whole industry moves to PP.

Some of them really got screwed, esp when you think how much those outside Europe paid in fees and living in London.

Thanks for all the help, mate. Really appreciated.

[Rory Newman]

The cost of Mac vs PC is a joke.

But we also use a MBP for editing. That’s what she takes with her to India, so we need both machines the same. And given I’ve also got a MBA, it would be silly to change all 3.

And all the people she knows use Macs. She needs to be able to just take a HDD round there.

But I do know what you mean. The insurance has paid me almost £3,700 and I could get a mental PC for that money But I haven’t used a PC since Win7 about 5 years ago. I’ve forgotten everything, and would have to replace all the software I’ve got on my macs from backup.

I’m also doing an MA and would hate to have to get to grips with a new OS and lose things like dictation and my mouse and keyboard shortcuts.

But you are right. If I had a PC, I could get a 4 bay raid array and put in 2x2tig SSDs for now, with another SSD in the machine, have the same processor, 2 x 4k screens, etc, all for the money I’ll be spending on the mac. It is gutting.

Thanks for the help, mate. It’s really appreciated.

[Rory Newman]

Thanks for helping, mate. Really appreciated.

3. I don’t know what this mercury engine is, I’m afraid. I’ll be getting the top of the range iMac (not iMac pro) which says it has an 8gig graphics card. Radeon 580 or something. I know nothing about graphics cards – we just do simple documentaries in 1080p, and that has worked fine in the 2011 iMac with just a 1 or 2 gig card. And on our MBPs, the first one was 2008.

3a. Will that iMac card be good enough?
3b. Do you know anything about rewrapping? I read that I can rewrap the AVCHD into a .mov file without changing the file size.
3c. When I export into PR422, would it look the same as if I’d edited the film on FCP7 using footage log and transferred into PR422?
3d. Does rewrapping make a difference to what specs I need?
3e. So for Ram, I’d definitely need more than 16gig. (The machine comes with 8gig – I’ll add the extra myself.} So I should take out those 2x4gigs it comes with and put in 2x16gigs for now and then see if I need another 32gig? Or will I definitely need 64gig, so I have to bite the bullet and couh up £650 for 64gig now?

5. If I do get that iMac and put in 32 or 64gig of ram*, would that mean I was good to go, or would it still need to reduce playback quality? I only use 1080p and there’s no effects other than subtitles or quick fades.

{*Mad to think my first editing system just had 2x18gig of SCSI drives striped into raid. Cost a fortune, two grand for those drives.}

8. What are proxies?

9. What does the ram get used for? FCP7 was insane that you could only use 2.5gig for the project as the other 1.5gig (out of the 4gig 32-bit limit) got used for something else by the software.

10. Cheers for the raid advice. I was only gonna try to use the external 1tigga SSD cos they are sending my internal one from the old machine back to me. If I was using AVCHD or rewrapped with same file size that would be fine.
We just use 2tigga external HDDs usually. Fine for 1080p in FCP (in PR422 normal.) Made a 45 minute film shown at the Royal Geographical Society on one of those without problems. And we need it all on a portable drive so she can show her producer how it’s going andplay and edit it out in India.
But if it ever goes beyond that, I’d have to think of getting a raid bay.

I saw a 2tig SSD for about £420 the other day. I could think about that, it would just be nice if I could get a few quid for the 1tig one. Bit like it would be nice if I could sell the 8gig of ram in the Mac before buying new ram.

But thank you so much for taking the time to help. I’m unbelieveably grateful.

[Rory Newman]

Cheers, mate.

I do appreciate the warning. But the old iMac’s dead and the insurance have coughed up, so I was gonna get the top of the range iMac (not iMac pro) with a 1tb SSD inside as that’s fine for me.

They’re sending back the SSD inside the dead one (it was the screen that died) so I’ll put that in a caddy and if it works, then cool.

We used to edit on Premier before we ad to switch to FCP for my wife’s course almost a decade ago, and we just do simple documentaries. In all honesty, other than the machine’s specs and the bins and sub-bins in the library, we could still easily make the sort of stuff we do on the first system I had back in the late ’90s, Speed Razor.

But as we’ve made the short explanatory pitch film and a short trailer, we’ll just be continuing with a blank canvas. My wife’s in India getting more footage as we speak.

And with the footage (converted into Pro Res) backed up on two external HDDs and having FCP7 on two macs means that if we don’t like PP, we can just stop paying the subscription and go back to FCP7.

If I do go for it, I’ll obviously put all the stuff again on it’s own PP external drive.

But that’s why I liked the idea of editing in AVCHD (or rewrapped) cos then I could have over 100hrs on the SSD external.

I read something earlier about rewrapping the AVCHD in a .mov. It says that it doesn’t change the file size, which would be perfect.

1. Do you know anything about this rewrapping?
2. Does it need more ram, cpu, gpu than native AVCHD?
3. How much ram would you suggest? {I’ll have an i7 4.2ghz that boosts to 4.5ghz, a GPU with 8gig of vram, an internal SSD and hopefully an external, too.}
4. But am I right in thinking that when I finished a project (either native or rewrapped) can then export it in PR422, and the finished film would look the same as if I’d edited the the thing in PR422 in FCP?

Oh, and why does AVCHD need more ram than PR422?

Thank you so much for taking the time to try and help me. It really is appreciated.

[Rory Newman]

Hi,

Could you help, please? We’ve been editing in FCP7 for almost a decade, and are half way through a project we’ve been working on for a few years. But as we’re getting a new mac, I wondered if you could give me some advice on any of the following you know the answer to:

1. Can I play FCP project files in PP?
2. Will my Prores 422 work?
3. Is it true that you can edit AVCHD in PP?
4. And that you will just uncompress it at the end when you export it?
5. Would I be able to mix this mid project? i.e. use my Prores 422 stuff now and just add AVCHD clips into the same timeline. And then just get it all sorted out on export.
6. Though as I’ll be starting a new edit from scratch, I could just bring in all my AVCHD stuff into the library, and go from there.
7. If you do have to convert from AVCHD to a usable format for editing, what would you recommend?
8. And how large are these files, if AVCHD is 8GB/hr and PR422 is about 50GB/hr?
9. How much ram would you suggest? (As I say, we’ve been using 32-bit FCP7.) I’ll have a graphics card with 8gb Vram, but it’s all just simple 1080p AVCHD. No 3d. Almost no fx – just subtitles and the odd fade.

I mean, if I get 32gb (or even 64gb) will this all be used? Would it just keep the whole film in the ram (assuming it wasn’t that long)? And would this be a noticeable benefit?

(My internal drive is SSD, but have been using normal HDDs for the external drives with the video files on. But I will have a 1TB ssd as an external with any luck. That would be able to hold all my AVCHD files, but perhaps not all my stuff that’s been converted into PR422.)

If you can help with any of these questions, I’d be so, so grateful.

Many thanks.

[Rory Newman]

Hi chaps.

Want to encode a film in MPEG4 to give to the subjects for use with a portable DVD player (on a usb stick.)

Never used MPEG4 or a portable dvd player before. But one I looked at on the web said it accepted MPEG4 at SD. So I’m compressing my 1920×1080 Apple Pro Res 422 into MPEG4 custom 16:9 frame size 640×360 pixel aspect 1.

Is this right?

Basically, we’re gonna buy our subjects a portable DVD player so they can see themselves. (Burned a couple of SD disks too, but want to give them an unscratchable stick as well.)

Obviously would like it in the best quality, but needs to be played by the player.

Do you think this is the right frame size for MPEG4 SD? (Or would a player accept a 720 or even 1080 frame size if it’s MPEG4?)

Help much appreciated as my partner’s flying out today and will see them in a couple of days.

Thanks in advance.

[Rory Newman]

There’s an easy solution if I’ve got you right.

We had the same problem and L+T sometimes says “folder error” even when we haven’t done anything.

Use Toast Titanium (we use 10, but later {and maybe former} versions will also work, I believe).

Got to convert, drag in your clips, go to settings in bottom left – the wheel icon, choose quicktime movie in device.

Then in settings go to custom,

Click video and choose the version of pro res 422 you want.

Here’s a step by step guide webpage that didn’t exist when we had this problem 3 years ago, you lucky so’an’so.

https://blogs.lsa.umich.edu/issmediacenter/2011/12/02/converting-mts-files-in-toast/

good luck.

NB, doesn’t have to be an MTS file, can be anything.

[Rory Newman]

I’ve got a new iMac and an old MBP which doesn’t have an express card port.

This is what I was considering:

Getting the Lacie Thunderbolt to eSata hub, which allows 2 x eSata ins, and has 2 thunderbolt outs for daisy chaining/display port etc.

You can get Verbatim 2TB drives (£85) that have both eSata and USB 2.0 connectors. This would mean I’d get eSata speed editing on the new iMac but could still plug into old USB 2 Macs like my MBP, my mates’ the colleges’ etc.

Any thoughts?

Lacie say that as each eSata port can take up to 3 Gb/s, you can have 2 drives and if both are running then that’s 6 Gb/s theoretical max.

So if I bought 2 drives, could I stripe them together to create one Raid 0 drive and have superfast read/write speeds?

If I then took these drives and plugged them into an old mac via 2 USB 2.0 ports, would they show up as one Raid O drive and thus give me faster speeds?

Help appreciated.

27″ iMac 3.4ghz i7 16GB Ram