[Trevor Asquerthian]

It is an avid ‘issue’ that is a trade off between how useful it is to edit with waveforms and what a PITA it is to have them redraw.

Two tips:

1. Have 2 different timeline settings to toggle them on and off – if you use workspaces and ‘link workspaces by names’ then you can keyboard the waveforms on and off. Personally I use control-period to stop the waveform drawing and have toggle waveforms on a keyboard shortcut (shift-period, of course). Never could get into workspaces, but I do still have the two timeline settings to get me back to normality once in a while.

2. Make the 2nd track of each stereo pair the smallest size it can be vertically in the timeline. This saves half the drawing, but is unusable if you also use rubberbanding in the timeline.

Definitely a win for FCP in this area, although you can’t do individual track vertical resize, nor can you increase/decrease waveform scale within a track.

HTH

Trevor

[Trevor Asquerthian]

Tom, Ben,

How does the EVS file exchange with FCP work for you in the real world? What length clips are you moving around? Is it feasible to be editing 20 minute clips from multiple machines on the network (say main and 5 isos) on FCP? Currently we handle them across the network using a local XT hooked up to a linear editor, editing to tape, and thus have access to all record trains.

Last time I looked the transfer time from EVS to xFile was about 5x real time (nb 5x quicker than RT) – but I never really had a chance to see the transfer time out to FCP.

This speed was affected by how busy the rest of the network was. As we were only using it as nearline storage (and not a conduit to FCP) then that wasn’t really an issue. Well not until there weren’t enough hours in the day to transfer all the clips we had made 😉

[Trevor Asquerthian]

catdv http://www.catdv.com will analyse a file and give a log depending on scene changes… they have a demo available i believe…. should do what you are looking for

[Trevor Asquerthian]

[Bill Portune] “I’ve also found that lengthening my preroll time to 5:00 instead of 3:00 has improved accuracy/consistency.
“

any chance of a consistency score out of 20 attempts?

[Trevor Asquerthian]

[Bill Portune] “Q
My shows are long-form (55 min) so can’t really stop and check for accuracy.
Does anyone have a tip for more accurate edit-to-tape? “

I can give you a method for checking, before you have laid down 65 minutes…

make a note of the timecode your first cut is at (that is the first cut AFTER the vtr is in record)

take the burn in output of your vtr and stick it in a vhs (or better) machine…

set it recording then do your ETT…

whilst ETT is running roll back the vhs and see what timecode your first cut is at….

repeat as necessary

HTH

If anyone wants to test the accuracy of their ETT then do the above test – only leave the VHS running as you do multiple ETTs (i.e. restart the ETT after the cut you are using as the sync guide) – do report back… 20/20 would indicate a locked down system.

[Trevor Asquerthian]

As it was explained to me QT has an inbuilt inaccuracy in that it does not start at an exact offset from when it receives the play command, so your video card will put the movie at a frame edge, but the frame edge may be +/- a frame from where you really want it to be.

It was also explained that QT have an API to help rectify this, but most card manufacturers have yet to implement it.

I am interested in any cards that have had this implemented (AVSync I believe it is) because I’d like to test them for a different application.

Of course this may all be hogwash as the boards should be full of FCP editors complaining of ETT being off by a frame – but then maybe they don’t check! I guess the machine control would be right, so if your deck is going into record at 10.00.00.00 you are only going to see a problem if the playback is delayed, not if it is advanced. And then you’d only see it if you checked!

Trevor

[Trevor Asquerthian]

you might want to have a look at picture ready (if you need to access whilst recording) or virtual vtr (if you just want to record stuff in) from http://www.gallery.co.uk. They are tools to record files on the Mac.

I’ve only tested vvtr – and then with a decklink and not with an IO – but they may be what you are looking for.

I would say your workflow would be… put the VVTR into record – it will record TC into the QT movie (or should anyway). I’m not sure if you can enter a tape number into VVTR, but you can import the clips into FCP and modify them there – the TC (presumably TOD) should be good as it should be embedded in the QT.

As long as you have video tape back ups that correspond to those timecodes (i.e. stop and start your clips when you stop and start your tape recordings) then you should be able to reconform if necessary.

I do this on the Avid regularly – not that the avid is 100% frame accurate when reconforming anyway.

HTH

Trevor