[Tommyg]

Thanks to all those who took the time to offer their wisdoms….

Yeah, i remember doing a watch folder sequential-frames rendering in after effects… it worked well, and was satisfying somehow to get all those idles machines ganged together to get the task done.

It’s a shame this is not more effortless. I will keep trying, and do a H264 experiment, once i get the machines to cluster. and only then! oughhhh

[Tommyg]

Cool, thanks for the response…I’ll have a look at that guide and see if i can get it to wok. Did you have two separate licenses for each machine? I’m suspecting that my cluster is not working as a result of both being with same serial. Anyone able to shed light on this factor?

[Tommyg]

a very good idea is to get a “rat’s arse” speaker. The smaller, nastier the better. Plunder an old cassette deck or some such, and send your signal/monitoring to this. You can then assess the “lowest common denominator”. Pro mastering has a lot to do with this – “making it sound good on someone’s cheap car stereo” I used to have a little wooden box with a range of 4 of these cheapies, which i could toggle between. The first was a 4 inch, then a smaller, until the PC-internal speaker 2incher. If you can hear the dialogue in that thing, then you’ve done well. Also beware too much/too low bass. And these little guys help show this. compression is your friend

[Tommyg]

Howzit Bru

You should not run FCP 5 while still on Panther. Only Tiger… But i should have come with your dual 2.7…

[Tommyg]

I’ll be watching NAB from the other side of the planet. Thank you for your patient responses. Tommy

dual G5 2.0
FCP 4.5
OSX 10.3.4
1.5Gb RAM
QT 6.5.1
MedeaRaid 250GB
AJA LA

[Tommyg]

1 – A vari-speed that works in a user friendly logical manner. Ive been so embarrassed when a client asked me to have a clip go from 100% down to 40%, and easing into that change, and then to stick with 40% rate. Maybe i should read the manual, but i couldn’t get it done, let alone tweak it. See After effects time remap.

2 – Media manager that is trustworthy. And doesn’t screw up speed effects. (already been said)

3- Pasting of clips in the timeline, must obey the “targetting black box” the FIRST time I paste, not the SECOND try!

4 – Don’t “prepare video for display” for 40min, with no option to cancel, even though rendering only took 15 min.

5 – make nice EDLs

6 – Allow me to open my OMFs (audio) or is it avid licencing?

7 – Ever seen anyone use the “frame advancer wheels” on the viewer and canvas? not me

8 – Black n Code tape prep that allows me (on DV/ DVCam) via firwire to stripe MY DEFINED timcode. This might be a deck issue.

9 – another vote for scopes that are active during playback/record. Audio Level meters too. TC window, run while rec, and edit to tape.

10 – “Render timeline and edit to tape at this TC, and try 10 times if frame drops or some such error. All with no user interaction” This is not lazy. Sometimes I’ll have a long viewing with client, and tweak-a-thon. Then they say “great, love it” Then I’d like to go home and have my cold supper. Waiting for a render, then editing to tape and dropping a frame, seems like nursemaiding. Just do it, and try again if you fail.

11 – When using a PSD, I “open in editor” to change something on my layers. Then the layer is a bit bigger when i save it. This makes FCP do funny things. Does not acknoledge the bigger pix dimentions of the layer.

12 High precicion rendering should be available for portions of the timeline (eg heavy composites with graphic elements) Highlight Leave the funky ol DV footage to do it’s thing in ordinary precision

Furthermore I LOVE FCP!