[Todd Gillespie]

Elise,

I’ve found the HDV capture to be very flaky…

Trash prefs! Reboot.

Choose the default for HDV capture.

You said you were able to capture using that cable? Trying a different cable is a good idea, just to test. I usually use the 6pin Firewire cable for digitizing, so trying a different port might be a good test.

Trying playing the tape back from the camera and seeing if FCP see’s the footage (not using FCP to playback). Make sure you see the footage from the camera before you try to digitize.

Good Luck,
Todd

Todd at UCSB
Television Production

[Todd Gillespie]

Matt,

You’re awesome. Everything helped. Project file worked, so I could see what you did. So did the Illustrator file.

You were correct about the compression as well. As soon as I unchecked it, everything worked-sorry for such a basic goof.

Great support, viva Zaxwerks!

Todd

Todd at UCSB
Television Production

[Todd Gillespie]

Hi Matt,

I don’t have Animator, so I don’t think I have the capability to ‘draw’ an object?

My biggest issue is I can’t get Zaxwerks to accept ANYTHING I’ve created in Illustrator? “no usable vector paths”

I’ve outline, stroke, etc, but nothing will import from Illustrator!

So either the magic formula for importing from Illustrator or pointing me to a project that created a dome would be fabulous.

FWIW, I’ve had NO problem creating Illustrator files in the past, only difference now is I’m on a PC and with the newest Invig and CS6.

Thanks
Todd

Todd at UCSB
Television Production

[Todd Gillespie]

Shane’s correct. Forgot to mention, I use Nattress.

Which is why the ‘nest’ sequence option is a good idea if you have that plug-in. Then you can just apply it to the entire sequence in one stroke.

todd

Todd at UCSB
Television Production

[Todd Gillespie]

Hmmm. No, that’s not really the way to ‘convert’ your sequence.

Easiest would be to drop your original sequence NEST it into a PAL sequence-then adjust. Although if you don’t need to change anything in the sequence, you’re probably better making a ProRes copy of the sequence, then use Compressor to do the pull-down and HD-SD conversion.

Good Luck,
Todd

Todd at UCSB
Television Production

[Todd Gillespie]

Either render a movie or nest a sequence. Then make a new sequence and reserve the timing. Only way i can think. But the movement will also be in reserve. May not be what you want.

Todd at UCSB
Television Production

[Todd Gillespie]

Hi Peter,

All good questions. Sorry, sometimes I assume it’s a ‘given’ that it’s all correct.

Yes, footage is matching sequence settings AVCHD format and same frame rate (23.976). Footage is from a Sony NEX FS100. So it shoots AVCHD with a .mts extension.
Again, not sure footage is an issue since it will playback correctly when the resolution is matching.

I have a monster HP, Z820 4 quad core 3Ghz. 32 gigs of RAM. A GTech GSpeed esPro SAS. So the hardware is fast enough.

Todd

Todd at UCSB
Television Production

[Todd Gillespie]

It’s all about compression. You can wiki video compression and learn a lot about the different format and compression scales that go along with the different codecs.

Short answer, MPEG 2 is very compressed. Actually about half of the frames of the video don’t exist for MPEG. The frames get reconstructed when it’s playback. This is very good when you’re trying to fit video onto a DVD, but very bad when you’re trying to edit. ProRes is a very high quality codec, so it tries to retain as much info as possible to make the video look better.

When we render out to ProRes, we’re averaging about a GB per minute, so it eats up a lot of storage space. It’s best to leave the video in ProRes until you’re ready to export for DVD, Blu-Ray, or Web, then you can compress back to a smaller file.

Good Luck,
Todd

Todd at UCSB
Television Production

[Todd Gillespie]

Most of the time when this occurs, it’s an issue with the original digitizing. Slow drives, full drives, or using the system while digitizing. Unfortunately once it’s captured wrong there’s no way to get the file to sync. You have to recapture . No redigitizing re-encoding will fix it.
Good luck
Todd

Todd at UCSB
Television Production

[Todd Gillespie]

If I’m understanding correctly, when you drag it into your bin choose ‘Make Subclip’, then you can rename and it won’t change the master clip name.

Good Luck,

Todd at UCSB
Television Production