[Tom Matthies]

Are you editing at DV resolution? Titles will look a bit fuzzy after rendering although, with the right graphics, the quality can be pretty good. If possible edit at a higher quality setting, DVC50 or 8-bit uncompressed will look better and not be too taxing on your storage. It also depends on your typefaces and size. Serif or highly detailed typefaces will go soft pretty quickly. Obviously, tiny type will fall apart as well. If you’ve repositioned the type/graphic, it’s usually good to position it vertically on an even scan line, not a fractonal value. Sometimes just nudging it up/down a pixel can solve, or at least minimize the problem. Avoid scaling your graphics if possible. Compising them, more or less in place, will give you the best results. Also, highly saturated colors will fuzz out more than clean white or black characters. Gradients aren’t usually too much of a problem, but again, highly staurated colors, especially with text overlaying them, can have problems. Stick to a “good” format to save and import your graphics. I usually use .PSD, .PNG, .tiff,. or .pict with good results. Try to avoid j-pegs or bmp’s when possible, expecially ones using higher compressions. If you have PhotoShop CS, use one of the preset templates for DV video and avoid the conversion necessary to import into a video program.
Just a few thoughts…
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

Ah, yes. “ludicrous speed”
I’m laughing at my mental vision of Dark Helmet right now.
Haven’t seen that movie in years.
Thanks for the chuckle, Walter.
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

I’m still running a dual 1Ghz MDD G4. Upgrading to ANY G5 model would be a big improvment. 🙂
I’m watching…
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

A year and a half on my Io. About 5 months on the La.
Never had one single problem.
…Well, a bit of an sudio sync problem right at the beginning, but with some excellent tech support (thanks Rudy) and a firmware revision, all has been good for a long time.
I run two firewire cards (FW400&FW800) for my drives and let the Aja have the computer’s built-in Firewire bus.
Works like a charm and the video quality is great.
For SD, they’re keepers.
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

Yippie Skippie! Just what I’ve been waiting for.
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

It’s likely that your Hi-8 tape doesn’t have time code. FCP is waiting to get code before going into capture.
Try dubbing it to a DV tape is possible and capture from there.
Or go to the “Non controlable drvice” mode and put FCP into capture and hit play in the deck.
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

Just for kicks, you can at least try the image stabilizing filter right in Final Cut. It’s found under the Video tab in the filters folder.
Worth a try anyhow…
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

Sure. Just drag it onto the other monitor (I’m assuming the left monitor if you have it set up like most editors) and use the sizing corner at the lower right corner of the timeline, pull it out and make it as long as you’d like. It’s really as simple as that. Nothing special at all.
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

I cut on both final Cut and Avid Sympnonys on a daily basis. I got on the Avid bandwagon way back in 1990 with some of the first in my market. I use both, but I now I actually prefer FCP over the Avid for most projects. I’ve found that it’s just the opposite of the above post. I’m much faster and get much more done on FCP in a given time frame. I agree that Avid’s trimming and media manager are superior (right now) as is it’s color corrector, but for everyday, nuts & bolts projects, FCP is my preferred platform now. Not to mention the ease of compositing and keyframing effects on FCP. The Avid EFX mode is just clunky, limiting and outdated.I also agree with the above post about the Nitris. It’s user interface is VERY FCP like and much easier and faster when moving things around the timeline Coincidence? I wonder. . I actually liked what I saw but really big $$$ for the system.
A few years ago, I had to fight with managment to get an FCP system into an all Avid house. Really fight. They just wouldn’t take it seriously at all. It was just a toy to them. Now it’s been two years and I doubt we’ll ever see a new Avid system here again. We’ll be adding at least one more Final Cut system in the next few months for HD editing, and, I’m guessing, another one after that as we decommission our last remaining linear suite. (we just haven’t had the heart to do it yet)
Anyhow, I’ve managed to prove my point that the platform/software combination is a very cost effective alternitive to Avid. We still have an few old school holdouts that just will never take FCP seriously, but they will give us a reason to keep the Symphonys going, and keep paying that damned yearly service fee for each system. I could almost buy a new FCP system each year for what that’s costing us.
We’ll see what FCP5 brings. I already have my copy on order. 🙂
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

I capture from Digibeta every day through an AJA Io, uncompressed. It just works.
I had one of the Symphony editors (of which I am one as well…I just prefer Final Cut now) comment to me last week how good a piece of video looked. We were double teaming a bigger project we and edited half in the Avid and half in FCP. I dumped my segments to Digibeta. He then captured them into the Symphony to assemble our clips onto a common timeline for output. We edited with the same source material. His was captured 1 to 1 and I captured my clips 8-bit, uncompressed. He thought the stuff I edited looked much better than the clips on his Avid. Both were captured via SDI. I had to agree.
I finished my segments way faster than he did his. The comment above about modes being “always on” is so true. It’s so easy to quickly make changes to the timeline. Fast, fast,fast!
I totally agree that it’s almost painful to go back into one of the Symphony rooms and edit anymore. Way too “clunky” I think was the comment.
OK, I’m biased, I’ll admit, but I don’t think that image quality is between the two systems is an issue at all anymore.
My 2