[Tom Matthies]

How do I obtain legal levels?
CC filter & a Tektronix 1740A scope.
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

Thanks for the info!
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

In the past I’ve used a selective color correction filter (Eureka!) to “pick” the green color and increase the chroma content(saturation) of the shot just at the particular backing color. Before using the selectice CC, I will do a normal CC to get the levels in the ballpark. Usually a combination of normal CC and selective CC will do the trick. I also use DVMatte for chroma keying an it does a pretty good job.
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

I did exactly the same thing for a training video a few months ago and it looked pretty realistic. It’s funny. Editing in the digital world and the cloent still wants to see rewinding tape. I also added the sound in reverse to the clip as well.
All I did for the tape effect was capture a blacked Betacam tape while in fast shuttle. I luma keyed this over the video which was in fast reverse as well.
It looked realistic and allowed match frame edits from the formerly still framed shot going into the rewind effect.
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

Actually, I know about the J-K-L keys. What I’m looking to do is scroll the entire timeline from the keyboard. I can do it by mousing the oblong shaped control just under the timeline or by clicking on the adjacent arrows. I’m looking for a way to do it without having to use the mouse, using only the keyboard. With a very long timeline, there is limited resolution for scrolling to a particular clip without zooming in and out constantly.
I wonder if the new Mighty Mouse can do this? Or control the zoom on the timeline? That would be nice…but I would still have to take my hands off of the keyboard to use the mouse. I’m looking for Power Edit techniques here!! More POWER!! (thanks Tim Allen) 🙂
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

Many Firewire DVD recorders, while working prefectly with a camcorder, don’t work trying to go out Firewire directly from the computer. I recently bought a DVD burner with the same work flow in mind. While it works great with my small camcorder, it won’t recognize the FW output from the computer directly. The computer’s output actually crashed and locks up the DVD burner. I’ve tried it with two different burners with FW inputs. Neither would work. Try before you buy.
Although not a clean as FW, I’m using the S-video output from AJA La (by way of a S-video DA) to feed the DVD burner. Audio goes out thru a Beringer mixer. The quality looks very good.
I’ve nearly got all of my clients trained to accept DVD approval copies now. My goal for ’05 is to try to eliminate VHS check dubs. And DVD burner is so easy to use and looks so much better than VHS. The blank DVDs are actually cheaper than blank VHS tapes as well. I haven’t needed to turn on the VHS rack for a while now. Yay!
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

In the mean time, go to your audo save vault and try to pull up an older version of your project.
I had the same thing happen to me. It seems to be corrupting the project or at least the sequences.
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

That would do it. The tape might have been “blacked” with who knows what? You might have control track & time code but questionable video on that tape. Re black it if you can.
Tom

BTW, which tab gets punched out on the cleaning tape?

[Tom Matthies]

Yep. That’s how our manual says to do it as well.
It refers to running the tape for only 5 seconds and then ejecting it. If yours won’t work with the automatic method, you might just try putting the cleaning tape in the machine and hitting the “play” button as the casette is still being loaded. This way, the tape won’t load up and sit there with the scanner running against it for any more time than is necessary. Eject after 5 seconds.
Also (obvious pause here) make sure your cleaning tape isn’t at it’s end and still has some tape left in the cassette.
What kind of noise are you seeing/hearing? Are your channel indicator LED’s all showing green as well as the audio/video channel status indicators in the display menu?
I’ve found that when the heads start to wear, the audio is the first to have problems resulting is weird pops and squeals.
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

I’m doing a series of training videos right now. Lots of VO with B-roll. I always need nat sound on the B-roll. It would be nice to be able to add a dissolve to both the video & the audio at the same time…like I can with our brand “A” editors. Oh well…
But I wouldn’t want to go back to the “other” editor for anything. 🙂
I’ll live with it.
Tom