[Timothy Eng]

Hi Guys,

thanks for all your input. I had a look at studio suite 8 and agree it looks good, although I believe it would be a bit of overkill for us at the moment.

Essentially we were just looking at a piece of software that at a glance lists all open projects, possibly list any required action underneath the listed project (e.g. add chapter menu points at time xxx and xyx) and a basic scheduler that has some sort of alert function. So for example If a client gives us feedback and we need to perform some minor re-editing it would be great to schedule that in on a specific day and time (let’s say wednesday at 10:00am for example) and then have an alert come up at that time to let us know it has been scheduled.

Essentially we don’t really need to have much more functionality than this. Using something like iCal or entourage is an option certainly, but are probably just that little bit short of the mark. I thought there might be something else like some kind of widget that does this a little better.

Once again guys I really appreciate all the help.

Kind regards,

Timothy Eng

Timothy Eng
Progressive Video

[Timothy Eng]

Thanks for you input guys. I’m glad to hear nobody seems to have any huge issues with bootcamp. Losing the dvd drive hardware would probably present a bit of an issue (after all how am I going to install ultra if I can’t read the disc?) but as long as it doesn’t after the final cut pro apps I’m happy to proceed.

Kind regards to all for their input.

Timothy Eng
Progressive Video

Timothy Eng
Progressive Video

[Timothy Eng]

Hi Guys thanks for your help.

I will try a few different keyers and see what they yield. David I tried your idea and it made quite a difference. A 11 sec clip took a bout a minute yet a 60 sec clip took nearly 50 times that.

I actually already have after effects with keylight, so I may use that to composite shots first and then edit second. I wasn’t really wanting to do that because it is the complete opposite of my usual workflow but I guess it must be considered as an option (Especially considering the $200-600 I’d spend on a keying option for FCP could be used for other purposes).

Once again thanks everyone for your help. This site is such a valuable tool for our industry.

Timothy Eng

Progressive Video

Timothy Eng
Progressive Video

[Timothy Eng]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for your advice. I have gone and ordered some Mackie Tapco S5 speakers which I will use with an existing 12 channel audio mixer that I already have (One I purchased for event recording).

Adam makes a very good point about using an audio meter for correct levels. I guess I am going to have to do a bit more research on it to make sure I’m not going to incur the wrath of the broadcasters.

By the way very funny Rory, Broome. I’m still chuckling about that one. Talk about going from isolated to positively marooned!

Tim.

Timothy Eng
Progressive Video

[Timothy Eng]

Hi Guys,

Thanks all for their input. Well after spending two weeks trying to render a simple 2 camera shoot I have had enough of Premiere. I finally found a fix for the problem, but unfortunately these problems always seem to occur every now and then.

I’m sure most would agree that as soon as you start having these issues it really hammers your creative process and will evenetually make the edit process tedious and draining.

I guess I’ve had too many crashes, software bugs and “workarounds” to stay with Premiere. I can hear everyone out these yelling “Welcome to video editing buddy”, but I really think I am needing a new start. So after speaking to several pro video sellers here in Oz, I have decided to go the final cut solution. The thing that has really sold me on Final Cut was a friend inviting me to his edit suite and having a play on his 18 month old system. FC worked the whole day without a single glitch. An experience which has maybe happened once or twice in the past few years with Premiere!

The good news is, after ringing Adobe I found out I can upgrade my CS3 production suite across to the Mac platform for only $25 (to cover postage and DVD printing costs). While I was frustrated with Premiere and even Encore every now and again, I have never had any issue with Photoshop or After Effects. Being able to keep them in my workflow is critical so I am now really looking forward to the new system.

Although I have to agree that you can’t beat Adobe for integration, the Apple apps seem to have a surprising amount of integration as well. And seeing that the dynamic link was always a RAM hungry, system crashing beast, I can live with importing to and from the Apple apps and Photoshop and After Effects.

Even after seeing the Adrenaline systems from Avid I still have to say that I am very happy with FC Studio. It’s a bit of a shame that almost nobody around here deals in Media 100 as I would have really liked to look at their solutions, but “Such is Life”.

Once again thank you everyone for all your input.

Timothy Eng
Progressive Video

[Timothy Eng]

Hi guys,

I also forgot to ask about learning resources. Whilst I know there is a mountain of tutorials and forums etc for Premiere and Final Cut, I was wondering what kind of learning resources there was for Avid and Media 100 systems and what their individual learning curves were?

I have a lot of experience in Premiere and consider myself quite proficient with it. On the few occasions I have used alternative software (such as Final Cut and Edius) I have found it easy enough to edit with, albeit a bit slow on my behalf. However, the finer things such as color correction, multicam editing, compositing video with alpha channels and outputing to tape or rendering video files were a bit more work to get going.

Tim.

P.S. I welcome everybody’s two cents on this one.

Timothy Eng
Progressive Video

[Timothy Eng]

Thanks for your inpur Vince.

I definitely agree with your thoughts on buying quality gear and avoiding the cheaper options. Most of the places I have looked into so far are recommending the High End HP workstations recommended by Adobe. Off the top of my head the HP XW8400 and 8600 I think.

A lot of them also deal with the AJA and decklink cards and have recommended them if I ever need HD-SDI connections. Given that the P2 cards would seem to negate the need for this, I can only really think that these products would benefit me in regards to hooking up professional monitoring devices. Does anyone else have any ideas. I’ve heard the Motu V3HD is designed with the DVC Pro HD footage in mind, but can’t really see the benefits of it considering Premiere handles the footage natively now.

Does anyone else have any thoughts?

Timothy Eng
Progressive Video

[Timothy Eng]

Thanks for your imput Steve,

But surely there must be another fix for the solution than to get 15K RPM system drives. Last time I read the specs on Premiere I can’t remember reading the need for it.

And I’d be really surprised if everyone out there without 15K RPM or even 10K RPM drives was having the same problem.

[Timothy Eng]

Hi guys,

Thanks all for your help. Adding a blur or the flicker removal does improve the quality however there is still a tiny hint of it there with the really fine detail. But it is starting to get a tad too blurry for my liking. Maybe I’m being a little bit over zealous here.

I was thinking it may be a work flow issue and I am attempting to use graphics with too fine detail. What are your thoughts and own workflow methods on creating graphics with finer detail? Is there some dos and don’ts that anyone thinks will help?

Thanks,

Timothy Eng.

Timothy Eng
Progressive Video

[Timothy Eng]

Hi guys thanks for all of your help. I really appreciate it.

I don’t have a problem with any of my captured video footage, just stills and any graphics I generate in other adobe apps; so I imagine that when you are talking about my field settings Jeff you are reffering to the export settings. I always render to lower field first if I use the export > movie command or the Adobe media encoder. Was there any other settings I need to make sure I get right?

As far as desaturating the image and adjusting the levels to 235… Well I ran a levels filter on a section that had the problem and set everything to a max output value of 235 with no luck. So it looks like I will have to continue and search for the fix.

But surely there are other ways of fixing the problem without resorting to big chunky graphics with little detail.

Out of curiosity, do other people have this problem when they are using stills and graphics? (the problem is far worse with stills that zoom and pan than with graphics) Maybe it is a workflow issue? Which ways do you guys incorporate your stills and graphics into projects?

Timothy Eng
Progressive Video