[Sascha Engel]

Got it. Thanx, John. I wasn’t aware of that. I thought that he was talking about a 4 to 3 ratio.
Yes, in this case my suggestion of letterboxing is not relevant.

Cheers for the upgrade!

Sascha

[Sascha Engel]

Hi Rene,

I am totally on Rafael’s Comment on this one!!!
I own a MBP 17inch and it works like a charm. Even edited RED footage on it.
With a good 4GB RAM you are good to go.
Anything else might work, but the faster you are getting in editing, the more frustrating it is, if your system cannot keep up with your finger 😉
Invest a bit more now, it will pay off later.
Beside that, a HD Screen is a nice extra when you work with HD material. You can really watch what you got.

Sascha

[Sascha Engel]

Could be many things: start from scratch:

Shut down Computer, connect your DV Device – start up again – after you opened press “Check A/V Devices” in FCP.
Open the Log & Capture window (Command “8”) -> in there make sure that under the Capture Settings Tab -> you are set to FireWire PAL (if you are in PAL land).

Does it recognize your device then?

Sascha

[Sascha Engel]

Now, correct me if I am wrong, but if you stretch out a 4:3 image, don’t you get distortion.
If that is so, wouldn’t Letterboxing be the better option?

Sascha

[Sascha Engel]

Yes, you got yourself into a mess, but not as bad as the BP oil accident – so don’t worry.
If I were you, I would get them onto the same format, so you can work with them in the same timeline, without facing render issues and problems with Mulitclip editing.
Take the 16:9 footage, put it into a new sequence – meaning 4:3 – so it will be letterboxed (which you at the end of the editing also will have to do with the 4:3 footage to visually equalize both).
Set also all the other properties in the Timeline Settings to the same than your 16:9 footage, then Export Quicktime, re-import this movie.
Now, if you drop both of them in a new Timeline, they should just play fine, also in the Mulitclip mode.

Let me know if it helped.

Sascha

[Sascha Engel]

I would really like to help you, but I do not understand the questions – I think.
As I am working with both, FCP and AE – also jumping between both apps, I might have some advice.
Can you specify your question.
Why you constantly color correct? Don’t you wanna finish your OffLine editing first, before going into Online work?

Greetings,

Sascha

[Sascha Engel]

Hi Rafael,

you are sure about the number of the Dell, I cannot find anything when I google it?

Thanx.

Sascha

[Sascha Engel]

How do export to h.264? Directly from FCP or with Compressor?
Try once this: First export your project like that: File -> Export -> Quicktime Movie (in original TimeLine Settings). Then take the rendered project and put it again on a TimeLine. This time Export -> use Compressor -> Choose the H.264 Settings in Compressor.

Does it work then?

Sascha

[Sascha Engel]

Mmmm, the force is strong in your machine – I wish I had a beast like that – it should run like Ben Johnson.
There’s so many reason for a system slow down – here’s a list of things you can try – in that order.
Let me know, if anything worked.

1.) Make sure you have no doc, files and folder on the Desktop – slows down the system

2.) Download the application “Applejack” – then restart your computer, pressing Command + “s” and then type “applejack auto reboot” – it will check all your extensions, hierachies and clears out caches.

3.) Do you have your internal disk partitioned in different disks? Best is this: 1 Disk for all application and system 2 Disk for all data and files 3 A small partition to make it the SWAP file disk (allocating virtual memory for the system). If the SWAP file is on a seperate partition, it speeds up the business.

Did anything help, let me know.

Sascha

[Sascha Engel]

Thanx a lot Jeremy! Any info how this Aja and the MAtrox compare to each other?
I read a lot of good thing about the Matrox.

Sascha