[Ryan Mast]

I created my own billing system with PHP & MySQL with DreamWeaver, so I can clock in from my cell phone, check totals, and create & email invoices from anywhere, and clients can keep track of costs. It’s really not pretty enough to release publicly, but it works for me right now. (Maybe I’ll make that a summer project, to finally finish and polish it.) That, and a combination of just printing & saving invoices with Pages. I also have a template for Work For Hire jobs and for basic video conversion that I just carry with me and fill out by hand.

Yes. Get QuickBooks. Even if you use the cheapo New User Edition that shipped with your Mac, it makes taxes so much easier.

[Ryan Mast]

No problem, glad it works for you! Next time I’m over in that area of the world, I’ll take you up on the pizza offer. 🙂

[Ryan Mast]

Ah, don’t worry, it’s just a bug with an easy workaround. You don’t have to export the SmoothCammed clips. After you apply the transition, drag the playhead over the clip, open the clip, and turn the SmoothCam filter off and on again.

Close as I can figure, what happens is, it takes the motion analysis data, and offsets it from the original in point to the new in point, set by adding a transition. So initially, if you have a clip whose in point is 01:22;25, and you add a 1-second transition centered on the edit, then the in point is now 01:22;10.

It’s just that when you adjust the in point by adding a transition, SmoothCam doesn’t quite catch up with the timing. It’s still on, it’s still working, it’s just 15 frames off (or whatever, depending on the length of the transition).

This also happens if you use the Slide tool after applying SmoothCam. I really want to find a creative way to abuse this bug sometime…

Hope that helps. Just turn SmoothCam off and on again.

[Ryan Mast]

That looks pretty slick. Does it work well? Any field-testing on stability?

[Ryan Mast]

Believe me, he tried, and it didn’t work — which is why I came here. The QuickTime HDV codec is not included with any normal installs of QuickTime on Mac or PC — only with Final Cut Pro.

For future reference for anyone else reading this thread…

We converted it to MPEG-2 with Compressor, keeping the original framerate and size, and that seemed to work okay. We only needed the video from the files, not audio, though. YMMV.

[Ryan Mast]

Oh man, guys… before you take stuff to the dump, seriously see if there’s some young student that could use some gear to play and learn with. I got started because of pros who would give me their old stuff — or let me work for stuff — when they were done with it. Even though it’s not fast enough for current software, or doesn’t fit in your workflow, I’m sure you can find some ambitious kid in your area that would absolutely love to learn on a real Avid, or Final Cut Pro… even if it is old.

[Ryan Mast]

How secure is the media key? Is that just a metadata setting, or does that actually encrypt the media? Can that be bypassed by stripping the video/audio stream out of the container with something that uses its own QuickTime decoder, like VLC or ffmpeg?

[Ryan Mast]

You can encrypt files in a disk image with Disk Utility, but I think that’ll only work with MacOS. Here’s an Apple walkthrough:
https://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107333

[Ryan Mast]

I’m going to assume he’s referring to a church CCLI license (ccli.com).

A church (or event) CCLI license permits the license holder to perform or project lyrics of any song in their library, and make a video or audio recording of the performance of the song…

But it doesn’t cover previously existing recordings, sorry.

So, perhaps you can have someone in the church record a cover of a song in the CCLI library, and use that in the video to project in their service or event — do you think that’d be covered?

Here’s what CCLI says they will and will not let you do…
https://www.ccli.com/usa/WhatWeOffer/WhatYouCanDo.aspx

[Ryan Mast]

Open the clip in the Viewer, and select Effects -> Audio Filters -> Final Cut Pro-> 3 Band Equalizer. Adjust the Low Gain, Mid Gain, and High Gain sliders to taste — those are your bass, mids, and treble controls. That’s probably your quickest and easiest fix…

If you’ve got a good ear and good speakers, the AUGraphicEQ filter under the Apple submenu in Audio Filters will give you much more precise control. You might want to use a combination of both; get a rough EQ with the 3 Band and then use the graphic EQ to tweak certain frequencies that the camera accentuates and do a finer cleaning.

Soundtrack Pro has more tools for audio removal. Here are some good tutorials:
https://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/soundtrack_pro_new_spencer.html
https://www.geniusdv.com/weblog/archives/reducing_background_noise_in_soundtrack_pro.php

Hope that helps!