[Tom Matthies]

I still use my old G5 and a couple of Ciprico RAIDS as a kind of off-line storage. I have all of my machines networked through a Gigibit router. I have a PC running ProCoder software and I use the G5 as a Source/Target for the PC. I dump files from the MacPro to the G5 and then use the PC/Procoder to do compression while I continue to work on the MacPro. I usually need to export files in a streaming video format that only Procoder will encode to. I can do all of this off-line and not tie up the other machines. The Gigibit connections really speed things up.

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[Tom Matthies]

Was the crawl graphic in an HD format? In other words, what was the size/type of the graphic used to make the crawl?
Tom

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[Tom Matthies]

Because many other applications, notably Adobe, Sony and Avid have made some pretty substantial advances in their editing software these past few years to answer the demands of professionals. There are still a lot of what seem to basic issues that still need to be addressed by Apple and FCP.
Tom

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[Tom Matthies]

Also make sure that you are running your camera with the automatic gain TURNED OFF. If your cameras aren’t getting enough light they could be bringing the gain up to compensate for the low light. Running the gain up past normal will give you a very grainy/noisy picture.
Good lens. Good chips. Lots of light = Good video. (at least technically)

I shoot a cooking show and I use three Sony AVCHD hard drive cameras for “Grill Cams”-(In addition to 3 Broadcast quality cameras).I shoot at 1080i even though the show is in SD. The larger frame on the 1080i cameras gives me the ability to pan and scan within the SD frame. The quality is actually quite good when the frame is reduced down to SD. There is plenty of recording time on the camera hard drives as well. I capture it to Apple ProRes 1080i thru the HDMI ports on the cameras using a Kona LHi card. It works pretty well. Might want to borrow one and give it a try.
Tom

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[Tom Matthies]

Also under User Preferences>Editing, uncheck the “Always scale clips to sequence size”. Re-import the clips. That should cause the clips to not be scaled up when they are added to the timeline.
Tom

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[Tom Matthies]

I’ve had good luck with Firmtek enclosures.
I too have clients with their own drives for archiving.I’ve started using this handy little dock from Other World Computing. It has FW400/800 eSATA and USB connections. Drop in a bare drive and you’re off and running. I usually edit using one of the RAID’s and after the project is finished, I use Media Manager to copy all of the assets to the archive drive. Pretty simple and it works.

https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/NewerTech/Voyager/Hard_Drive_Dock

†om

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[Tom Matthies]

Did you render the effect?
tom

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[Tom Matthies]

No problems being the “Old Guy”
I’m fortunate in that I like to learn and I learn easily. My wife kids me because any time anything new comes into the house the first thing I do is grab the manual and read it cover to cover. I too came up thru the ranks of floor crew, film editor, ENG editor, Production Editor/Shooter, Convergence, ACE, Grass Valley CMX Omni, Avid, Final Cut and ???. Add to that all the other software, After Effects, Motion and so on. One of the biggest differences in my editing and some kid’s is that when I do a cut or an effect I know WHY I’m doing it. Not just because I can do it. There are a LOT of basics that just aren’t being taught anymore. I came up through film shooting and editing. Because if this I can PLAN a project better than most. Back in the old days, you had no choice but to plan it out. Few clients would fork over the cash to have you just go out and shoot with a film camera the way you would put out a fire with a hose. Just spray it! I don’t think so. There is just no substitute for knowing the basics. And it doesn’t hurt to know a lot of the advanced stuff as well. Plus 30 years of learning how to work with clients won’t ever hurt you either. One of the most difficult things I’m finding is working with younger producers who are still pretty clueless when it comes to…well, just about anything. Patience is something learned and not forgotten.

I’m 54 and still learning new things everyday and enjoying every bit of it. Bring it on!
Tom

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[Tom Matthies]

I use them all the time. The trick is to not try to import the files directly. I simply capture the footage using the HDMI output into my Kona LHi card. I capture as ProRes 1920×1080 and it actually looks pretty good. I use three small cameras as POV cameras on a show we do. They aren’t main cameras but do provide some pretty good footage in a small package where the larger cameras wouldn’t fit. I use GZ-HD7U 3-chip hard drive cameras.
Tom

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[Tom Matthies]

Yep, the file they sent is starting at 00:00:00:00.
Oddly, the file that works starts a minute and thirteen in.

They have sent numerous version of this file the last few days and nothing except the test file they sent works. Every single new file will hang the system. I sent the file to another editor I know that is running FCP7 and it seemed to work on his system. He doesn’t have a CC decoder, but at least it didn’t hang his system.I’ve tried all the usual. Trashing preferences, repairing permissions, etc. Even ran Disk Warrior on the boot drive. Nothing seems to make any difference. The old file works and the new one won’t. It works in DVDSP as well. Probably some “Got-Cha” involved here…
Tom

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