[Tom Brooks]

I also do 720p graphics as 1280×720, square pixels. So why did Adobe come up with the idea that a DVCProHD anamorphic format was necessary in Photoshop? Why follow the anamorphic shenanigans of an anamorphic video recording format when you can go straight to the ultimate square pixel format of the final output?

[Tom Brooks]

I switched to Leopard not too long ago. Everything had become very stable with Tiger, so I hated to change in some ways, but the time had come. My system is considerably more crash prone now. I have a sense that thumbnails are slow to populate the timeline and that it happens repeatedly. Before, I didn’t notice it much. Is there something new about thumbs in 6.0.4 or under Leopard in particular? The new system had thumbs on the system hard drive. I switched them to my RAID and things got somewhat better. The only thing I leave on the system drive (besides the project file itself) is autosave vault.
-Tom

Final Cut Pro 6.0.4, Mac OS-X 10.5.5, Quicktime 7.5, Adobe Prod Prem CS3, G5 Quad 2.5, Kona-LHe V6, 8.5GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce 7800-GT 256MB, G-RAID 2x1TB FW800, 6TB RAID-5 (Enhance E8-ML, Highpoint 2322), Panasonic HVX-200P P2.

[Tom Brooks]

I’d try the simple stuff first, trying to lighten up the load by turning off things like waveforms and thumbnails. Possibly reset the scratch disk for those items. Next might be to suspect your stills. Are they all RGB mode, not CMYK? Then, look to disk issues, such as too-full drives or directory structure problems (use DiskWarrior). Then try a process of elimination to isolate clips or render files that might be causing the crashes. Is it random throughout the sequence? I’m relatively new to FCP trouble shooting, so I hope you get some answers from more experienced hands at it.

Final Cut Pro 6.0.4, Mac OS-X 10.5.5, Quicktime 7.5, Adobe Prod Prem CS3, G5 Quad 2.5, Kona-LHe V6, 8.5GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce 7800-GT 256MB, G-RAID 2x1TB FW800, 6TB RAID-5 (Enhance E8-ML, Highpoint 2322), Panasonic HVX-200P P2.

[Tom Brooks]

I got my free upgrade. They were pretty amazing about it.

[Tom Brooks]

I think it’s always been that way. Seems like it differs from the Avid I used to use more often. Yep, they make a lot of it in the manual. Vol-II, P. 99.

Final Cut Pro 6.0.4, Mac OS-X 10.5.5, Quicktime 7.5, Adobe Prod Prem CS3, G5 Quad 2.5, Kona-LHe V6, 8.5GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce 7800-GT 256MB, G-RAID 2x1TB FW800, 6TB RAID-5 (Enhance E8-ML, Highpoint 2322), Panasonic HVX-200P P2.

[Tom Brooks]

H.264 is one of the best codecs for web video and you can get the data rate you want with any number of encoders, including Compressor. The main setting you might be missing is the limit data rate setting.

At 150kbps, your 640×360 will not look great. It will be soft, blocky at times, and fine details will be lost. That data rate is about a quarter of what YouTube uses now. The video will look much cleaner at 320×180. That’s just the reality of current compression technology.

The reason your PC friends can’t play the H.264 is that they either don’t have Quicktime 7 or they don’t have Quicktime at all. If you need more universal PC compatibility, Windows Media is your best, cheapest solution. You need Flip4Mac plug-in to make WMV in Compressor. You will use 2-pass VBR for best results. Your version of Flip4Mac needs to support that.

Ben Waggoner has good compression advice. Look for his blog and book. Look at the Compression Techniques forum on the Cow.

Final Cut Pro 6.0.4, Mac OS-X 10.5.5, Quicktime 7.5, Adobe Prod Prem CS3, G5 Quad 2.5, Kona-LHe V6, 8.5GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce 7800-GT 256MB, G-RAID 2x1TB FW800, 6TB RAID-5 (Enhance E8-ML, Highpoint 2322), Panasonic HVX-200P P2.

[Tom Brooks]

I would pose this question on the AE forum because in scenario 1 your film is good but your AE is bad. That’s the preferred place to be. You can always make AE credits match the film transfer. My guess would be that the film transfer is 29.97 with pulldown and you’re trying to insert AE credits at 23.976.

[Tom Brooks]

The best description of Unlimited RT is in the manual. Unlimited RT allows you to play stuff at a lower quality in real time. You can also output to tape at lower quality if you so desire. But if you want to output at full quality, no, there is no difference in what needs to be rendered whether you choose Safe RT or Unlimited RT.

Final Cut tells you with the color coded status bar over the timeline whether your sequence will play and at what quality. If it’s dark gray, dark green or green it will play at full quality without additional render. If it’s any other color, it will require a render in order to play at full quality. Choosing Unlimited RT and adjusting the settings allows you to play those pieces at LOWER quality in real time. Frames may be dropped and/or video quality reduced.

Again, to get full quality on output, you’ll need to render the parts that are anything other than dark gray, dark green or green. To be reasonably sure you’re rendering everything that needs it, set your sequence for Safe RT. That will force a render on everything that needs it based on processor power. It still does not guarantee you won’t drop frames due to a slow media disk.

FCP Manual Chapter 28 and 29 cover the topic well.

[Tom Brooks]

My system started not crashing, but putting up an error message on renders. Intermittently. Using DiskWarrior on my RAID fixed it. Do not do this unless you have assurance from the RAID manufacturer that it’s OK. DiskWarrior straightened out errors in the OS-X directory structure of the RAID volume and cured the render error. I had only a suggestion that it was OK from the Highpoint folks. So I made sure my backup was in place before running DW.

Final Cut Pro 6.0.4, Mac OS-X 10.4.11, Quicktime 7.5, After Effects 6.5 Pro, G5 Quad 2.5, Kona-LHe V5.1, 4.5GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce 7800-GT 256MB, G-RAID 2x1TB FW800, 6TB RAID-5 (Enhance E8-ML, Highpoint 2322), Panasonic HVX-200P P2.

[Tom Brooks]

Never having used a FC Express system, I can only give general advice. See the post below about iMac and FC. The system meets minimum requirements and seems fine except a bit shy on the RAM. I’d go for 4GB in this day and age. Even though FCE can’t use it, other apps you might use can and multiple apps soak up a lot of RAM. The other problem is pointed out by the other iMac post–the iMac can only have one FireWire bus and there can be speed and conflict problems when a camera and an external hard drive is connected. Relying only on the system hard drive for storage is asking for trouble in any edit system. Your only advantage is that FCExpress is a lighter weight program and written specifically for lower end systems.

In total, the system is minimal. It might work OK for limited projects, but you might run into frustrations. Maybe a low end Mac Pro with a similar graphics card and hard drive would be better. This would give you options for storage other than the system drive–at least a second internal SATA drive. Monitoring is also an issue. Your minimal system would rely on monitoring via FireWire through your camcorder to a TV. So, rethink the whole system: capture, storage, monitoring, delivery. Compare a Mac Pro option–even a used one–and see where you stand.

Final Cut Pro 6.0.4, Mac OS-X 10.4.11, Quicktime 7.5, After Effects 6.5 Pro, G5 Quad 2.5, Kona-LHe V5.1, 4.5GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce 7800-GT 256MB, G-RAID 2x1TB FW800, 6TB RAID-5 (Enhance E8-ML, Highpoint 2322), Panasonic HVX-200P P2.