[Tom Adams]

Jerry,

thanks…that’s what I thought…so, I guess my question was more general…:

WHY doesn’t FCP support mp3 editing. Haven’t a whole bunch of other editors found this to be an annoying little missing feature?

it just seems logical that it should support editing mp3s. thanks for the reply…

Regards,

Tom Adams – Director/Owner
Reelife Documentary Productions
“cool digital video stuff…not boring or dumb”
info@reelifeproductions.com http://www.reelifeproductions.com
Williamsburg, MA, USA

1.4Ghz DP mirrordoor G4
OS10.4.3, FCP 5.0.3
Panasonic DVX100a & EZ1

[Tom Adams]

nope. i definitely was recording because the last three minutes of the footage is still there at approx. 45 minutes…so there is a gap of approx. 25 minutes of footage that was recorded but is not there now… kinda’ like the nixon tapes…

i’m going to continue testing on various minidv decks to see if i can get tape properly aligned on heads… that’s really the only thing i can think of…since there were no magnets in the vacinity… thnks for your input…

anyone else??

Regards,

Tom Adams – Director/Owner
Reelife Documentary Productions
“cool digital video stuff…not boring or dumb”
info@reelifeproductions.com http://www.reelifeproductions.com
Williamsburg, MA, USA

1.4Ghz DP mirrordoor G4
OS10.4.3, FCP 5.0.3
Panasonic DVX100a & EZ1

[Tom Adams]

yep. as i mentioned in post…i tried head cleaning tap first thing. i did more tests today in different decks. i also tried recording over the beginning first 5 seconds or so…just to see if it would record…and it did just fine today…but still i have 20 minutes of footage that I can’t see and has no timecode but for whatever reason the footage coms back after about 20 minutes and is fine…

anyyone else ever have this happen? i’ve never had it happen in 15 year of shooting. it’s killin’ me, trying to figure it out before client finds out…because i’m unable to complete project!

anyone- other tips or hints about recovering the lost footage?. thanks for your replies.

Regards,

Tom Adams – Director/Owner
Reelife Documentary Productions
“cool digital video stuff…not boring or dumb”
info@reelifeproductions.com http://www.reelifeproductions.com
Williamsburg, MA, USA

1.4Ghz DP mirrordoor G4
OS10.4.3, FCP 5.0.3
Panasonic DVX100a & EZ1

[Tom Adams]

david, thanks for the reply. i manually cued the tape and made extra sure that there would be no break in timecode…(there was plenty of extra footage at end of the 18min)…

and like i mentioned…i definitely searched through the whole tape…and it is weird because even though i recorded for a full 20 minutes…there’s a 15 minute gap with no timecode and then ONLY the LAST 3 minutes shows up…

it’s almost as though it was erased or a magnet was involved….

now i’m wondering if there is a data loss company that could solve the problem…

Regards,

Tom Adams – Director/Owner
Reelife Documentary Productions
“cool digital video stuff…not boring or dumb”
info@reelifeproductions.com http://www.reelifeproductions.com
Williamsburg, MA, USA

1.4Ghz DP mirrordoor G4
OS10.4.3, FCP 5.0.3
Panasonic DVX100a & EZ1

[Tom Adams]

david and others,

i ‘m hoping your simialr problem with tape compatibility may shed some light on my big problem…(i also posted this as a separate post but not sure if you’ll see it)…trying to cover all my bases before i pull out (the rest) of my hair:
—————-
ok, i’m pulling my hair out here…

a few weeks ago, i recorded 18 minutes of footage (sp mode) on my dvx100a on a panasonic dvm63 tape. yesterday, i put that same tape back in my dvx100a, made sure that i recorded over the last few seconds of existing footage (to avoid a break in timecode). I recorded approximately another 20 minutes of footage.

Today, when i tried to review the footage… I put the tape in my dvx100a, rewound tape to the 18 minute starting point of that new footage and there was NOTHING: timecode stopped at old footage and just a blue screen.

So, I immediately got out head cleaner…same problem. I ffwd through the whole tape and when I get to approx. 40 minutes…there’s the last few shots i took…. so… for some unknown reason, i’m missing about 20 minutes of really, really important footage and then the broll, exterior footage shows up.

important additional info: last night, I first tried to view the tape on an old external minidv deck (sony gvd300) that has recently had trouble “reading” the new panasonic tapes… i FFWD and Rewound the tapes in that machine)

I’m fearing that when i did that ffwd and rewinding in that external deck, it somehow screwed with the data that was on the tape and it’s lost for good??!!

HELP?! is there any tips for making this footage reappear! the footage is for client that is expecting a finished project in 2 weeks! argh!

Regards,

Tom Adams – Director/Owner
Reelife Documentary Productions
“cool digital video stuff…not boring or dumb”
info@reelifeproductions.com http://www.reelifeproductions.com
Williamsburg, MA, USA

1.4Ghz DP mirrordoor G4
OS10.4.3, FCP 5.0.3
Panasonic DVX100a & EZ1

[Tom Adams]

kevin,

very good then. thanks for the detailed reply and better explanation and use of photoshop, etc. much apprciated…and thanks for your professionalism and best of luck to you too.

Regards,

Tom Adams – Director/Owner
Reelife Documentary Productions
“cool digital video stuff…not boring or dumb”
info@reelifeproductions.com http://www.reelifeproductions.com
Williamsburg, MA, USA

1.4Ghz DP mirrordoor G4
OS10.4.3, FCP 5.0.3
Panasonic DVX100a & EZ1

[Tom Adams]

Kevin,

thanks for the replies but i think you could use a few tips on choosing your words of advice and not assuming anything. Many people wrongly assume the skill level of the people they’re replying to.

By stating “Many people (wrongly) don’t use a monitor, nor do they pay special attention to the RT Pop Up menu nor the Sequence>Render bars – both of which are crucial to image quality for rendered fx” ..it sounds as if you’re implying that I was one of those people. I wasn’t. I read the manual. I watch the DVDs. I tested things first. I did research online. I did a search in this forum. It’s not helpful to anyone ffor you to assume anything…
(and by the way, with over ten years of editing under my belt, I wouldn’t exactly call myself a veteran, but I’m not a novice either.)

3oo dpi is NOT way overkill. This documentary that I’m working on calls for a lot of very tight close ups on historic faces and imagery, zooms, pans, pull-outs..etc. Almost every shot is a still image that needed to be scanned at a high resolution. …not sure what you mean when you say ” If you need to scale the image up, just make sure the frame size can handle it.” as far as advice goes,…that’s not very helpful because it’s very general, vague and not clear.

If I scanned everything in at 72dpi the whole project would look like crap and I would look like I don’t know what I’m doing.

Again, I appreciate all sources of assistance, I just don’t appreciate it when people assume things in a highly specialized (not to mention such a fantastic) forum like Creative Cow.

now that that’s off my chest…I hope you ‘re not offended…just needed to voice my thoughts. Thanks and take care.

Regards,

Tom Adams – Director/Owner
Reelife Documentary Productions
“cool digital video stuff…not boring or dumb”
info@reelifeproductions.com http://www.reelifeproductions.com
Williamsburg, MA, USA

1.4Ghz DP mirrordoor G4
OS10.4.3, FCP 5.0.3
Panasonic DVX100a & EZ1

[Tom Adams]

ok, boys and girls,..looks like the problem is solved…

…apparently, since I just recently installed Tiger, my apple software updater (set to weekly) hadn’t checked to see if there were any updates available…

BUT

the automatic system software update just popped up (dated 10/31/05) and it had a bunch of pro app fixes (including fcp5)…I downloaded, restarted and my problem with jittery shadows was gone…presto.

I highly suggest that anyone else who has been having these problems with “the shakes”…make sure they have the latest Tiger version installed (10.4.3). Hopefully, it’ll be that simple for anyone else.

go figure.

Regards,

Tom Adams – Director/Owner
Reelife Documentary Productions
“cool digital video stuff…not boring or dumb”
info@reelifeproductions.com http://www.reelifeproductions.com
Williamsburg, MA, USA

1.4Ghz DP mirrordoor G4
OS10.4.3, FCP 5.0.3
Panasonic DVX100a & EZ1

[Tom Adams]

celeste,

…apparently, since I just recently installed Tiger, my apple software updater (set to weekly) hadn’t checked to see if there were any updates available…

BUT

the system software update just popped up (dated 10/31/05) and it had a bunch of pro app fixes (including fcp5)…I downloaded, restarted and my problem with jittery shadows was gone…presto.

I highly suggest that anyone else who has been having these problems with “the shakes”…make sure they have the latest Tiger version installed (10.4.3). Hopefully, it’ll be that simple for anyone else.

Regards,

Tom Adams – Director/Owner
Reelife Documentary Productions
“cool digital video stuff…not boring or dumb”
info@reelifeproductions.com http://www.reelifeproductions.com
Williamsburg, MA, USA

1.4Ghz DP mirrordoor G4
OS10.4.3, FCP 5.0.3
Panasonic DVX100a & EZ1

[Tom Adams]

Kevin,

Ok, I did some more testing and playing around…and the answer to all of your questions is YES…still really crappy shakey images.

here’s the scenario: one large still (300dpi scanned) image has been cropped & edges feathered over another image. I applied a shadow and rendered with all of your suggested settings and still completely unacceptable jittery shadow. I think this is a bug… it’s driving me crazy, can’t figure out.

would it help to change the sequence settings>video processing tab to “always render in RGB”. I would do this as part of the test, but when I tried, it changed the status of my render and I’d have to re-render this very effects-heavy 40 minute program…it said it would take over 5 hours to render.

Regards,

Tom Adams – Director/Owner
Reelife Documentary Productions
“cool digital video stuff…not boring or dumb”
info@reelifeproductions.com http://www.reelifeproductions.com
Williamsburg, MA, USA

1.4Ghz DP mirrordoor G4
OS10.4.3, FCP 5.0.3
Panasonic DVX100a & EZ1