Walter Biscardi
Forum Replies Created
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Jerry Hofmann’s book is outstanding. I’m pretty sure there’s a link to it in the Dairy store. You can also find it on Amazon, just type in his name as a search.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Creative Genius, Biscardi Creative Media
https://www.biscardicreative.comNow in Production, “The Rough Cut,” https://www.theroughcutmovie.com
“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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[Sean Davison] “Secondly is the AJ-HD1200A out yet and can any one tell me about their experiences.”
Sure, it’s been out almost a year. I got mine around December and it’s a great little workhorse. One caveat, you CANNOT do any type of insert editing with the deck. Assemble edit only and ONLY with Firewire control. RS-422 control is disabled when editing to tape. Image quality is outstanding and I got my deck fully loaded with both the firewire and HD-SDI options.
During captures there is a bug in the deck where FCP will see phantom “timecode breaks” whether you’re capturing via Firewire or using RS-422 control, especially if you do large Batch Captures. I have my preferences set to stop capture if a TC break is detected. Then I simply re-start the batch where it left off.
As for data rates, pretty much any Firewire drive will work as the footage runs with just a bit more data rate than standard DV. Single Firewire 800 drives run really well with it as I’ve edited with my LaCie Big Disk Extremes, the G-RAID’s and my Medea FCR2X Fibrechanel. Obviously, the more speed, the more realtime.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Creative Genius, Biscardi Creative Media
https://www.biscardicreative.comNow in Production, “The Rough Cut,” https://www.theroughcutmovie.com
“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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[NORMCO] “I have been told that 80mbps would be a comfortable bandwidth “
Not a whole lot of bandwith if you plan to edit with filters, transitions, etc….. You’ll be doing a lot of rendering with 10 bit material.
[NORMCO] “What would be the best way to go? What card do I buy? What drives do I buy. I’m not a techie and not comfortable building my own raid. “
If you purchase an AJA Io, you don’t need a card, it will do uncompressed via Firewire. For a cheap 10bit SD card, I love the Aurora PipePro.
Since you don’t have much money, then you’re looking at FW800 or SATA for your drive. I have no experience with SATA yet, but I do run both the LaCie Big Disk Extreme and the G-RAID 500 and 800 drive units. All of them will playback and edit 10bit uncompressed, but pretty much just a single stream. You will be rendering every single effect. You can get better performance by purchasing two of these units and striping them together, then you’ll get some realtime performance.
SCSI, I’d highly recommend the Medea RTR and RTRX series, but those are probably out of your price range as would be Fibrechannel. My Medea FCR2X gets over 325mb/sec so I get a lot of realtime, even with 10bit.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Creative Genius, Biscardi Creative Media
https://www.biscardicreative.comNow in Production, “The Rough Cut,” https://www.theroughcutmovie.com
“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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what harddrives are you using and how are they connected to the Mac? Dropped frames are almost always a throughput issue with the drives.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Creative Genius, Biscardi Creative Media
https://www.biscardicreative.comNow in Production, “The Rough Cut,” https://www.theroughcutmovie.com
“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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[Laszlo] “I don’t know about the FCP 5 (that may or may not come out tomorrow 🙂 but I thought HDCam is not supported natively in FCP. “
FCP has cut natively with HDCAM for pretty much since it came out. I used to cut HDCAM with my CineWave system two years ago. Just use your 1080i Easy Setups and start editing. Kona 2 comes with a slew of easy setups, choose the one that best suits your needs.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Creative Genius, Biscardi Creative Media
https://www.biscardicreative.comNow in Production, “The Rough Cut,” https://www.theroughcutmovie.com
“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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[ducer] “Hello everyone. well this is my second post . im having a lot of trouble with sound in live type im getting no audio from my video and it’s running very slowly can anyone help me Please”
Pretty hard to help someone when we don’t know your computer / system setup. Take the time to fill out your Profile. Livetype blazes here on my system.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Creative Genius, Biscardi Creative Media
https://www.biscardicreative.comNow in Production, “The Rough Cut,” https://www.theroughcutmovie.com
“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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Your HDV is 1080i already so that should be ok. For the DV, purhase the Kona 2 and upconvert it on the way in to 1080i. The K2 does a fantastic job of both upconverting SD and downconverting HD.
Also, use the Kona 2 to capture the HDCAM material to DV for a lower resolution.
FCP does cut with HDCAM material natively, you just need a capture card to support it.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Creative Genius, Biscardi Creative Media
https://www.biscardicreative.comNow in Production, “The Rough Cut,” https://www.theroughcutmovie.com
“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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[chris lambert] “installed Tiger, “the world’s most advanced operating system” and now all my programs act crazy. fun. is there anyway to uninstall Tiger? doubt it, that would be too easy. I guess I have to upgrade to all new software – how convenient for Apple. amazing how there OWN software is so incompatible. For the past five years it’s been the same story, upgrade to this, then that doesn’t work, so you have to buy this, then you upgrade Quicktime and all hell breaks lose and you have to upgrade everything. “
So why are you still running a Mac? Go buy a PC and some other software. I just checked the Apple website again and I don’t see the command, “You MUST BUY Tiger now and you MUST run it or else.” Upgrades are optional and you chose to install it. I choose to run Tiger on my laptop and client internet G4 in my company for the time being until FCP 5 comes out. FCP 4.5 is running great on OS 10.3.8 so why upgrade right now since FCP 5 is so close to being released.
Now back to your upgrade…..Did you erase your drive and completely start over by first installing Tiger, then your apps? That is the preferred way of installing any new operating system on a Mac, especially when running Pro Apps. Everytime I move from one OS to another, I clone my System Drive, then wipe it clean and start over. Install the OS, run any updates, then install my software, one app at a time and completely update that app and test it before installing the next app. Generally takes me 2 – 3 days to completely upgrade my system from one OS to another.
Did you do this or simply upgrade your OS? I’m betting you just did the upgrade. That’s a 50/50 chance of working correctly. As noted in this very thread, some folks are running just fine on Tiger. You’re not, so wipe your drive clean and start all over.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Creative Genius, Biscardi Creative Media
https://www.biscardicreative.comNow in Production, “The Rough Cut,” https://www.theroughcutmovie.com
“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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[Joey Korenman] “Are there any other products that can accomplish the same thing as the IO, with the same ins and outs, that cost any less? I’m just asking because my boss will ask me this tomorrow, so if the answer is “just buy the IO, it’s worth it” then let me know. “
I know Laird makes the Inertia, but if you know you want to add the Kona 2 at some point, you’re best off going with the Io because they’re completely compatible with each other.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Creative Genius, Biscardi Creative Media
https://www.biscardicreative.comNow in Production, “The Rough Cut,” https://www.theroughcutmovie.com
“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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[Justin Pepple] “Lack of full Photoshop integration
Some PSD files I create do not import correctly with strange alpha channel behaivor occasionally. In Premier Pro, I could import any PSD no matter what attributes and it worked great. FCP I am finding has trouble with certain PSD files. Also, manytimes FCP won’t play the PSD files in realtime nor display them in the canvas until I render all.”FCP has an issue with odd frame sizes at the moment. Keep all frame sizes even numbers, no odd numbers. For example 720×486 instead of 720×485.
[Justin Pepple] “Transition Limitations
Photoshop items are often limited as to what transitions can be linked to other media. For example if I want to transition from one PSD to another video clip, I’ve noticed oftentimes FCP won’t allow it. Or transitioning audio from MP3 to Movie Clip Audio (Wav or Aiff)–I can’t seem to do this. “There are no limits on transitions. If you can’t place a transition, then you are missing “head” or “tail” on your video or audio clip. You cannot place a transition if there is no media available in the clip to make the transition. FCP will either not place the transition or place a 1 frame transition.
[Justin Pepple] “Timeline Limitations
I’ve noticed many items have duration limitations on the timeline. For instance any stills or text generators, I have great difficulty scaling past a certain limit. Most of the time FCP prevents me from stretching stills beyond 12 seconds. Sometimes, I can’t stretch files at all. (I’m just talking about still PSD’s, JPEG’s, etc. I have also noticed that marquees or scrolling text generators seem to limit the duration to a maximum of 2 minutes. In Premier, it was unlimited”If your photoshop files have layers, then the files come into FCP as a Comp. That Comp will be the same length as the Still Duration, which is sounds like is set to 12 seconds on your system. If you want to lengthen that still, you first need to lengthen the the Photoshop Comp first, then you can lengthen that on the timeline.
Single layer Photoshop files show up as a single graphic so you can lengthen that out to about 1:30 at a time.
[Justin Pepple] “No built-in Titler “
There’s multiple Titlers built into FCP. It wouldn’t be a very good NLE if there was no title tool. The tool of choice is Text 3D which features everything you’re asking for. Look it up in the manual and you’ll find it’s a Boris product and it’s outstanding. Use LiveType for even more functionality. FCP uses TrueType fonts.
[Justin Pepple] ”
No Audio Normalizer
Premier has this great Audio normalizer to help set audio levels…I can’t seem to find one in FCP.”Audio Filters > Compressor. Again, read the manual on how to use this tool effectively.
[Justin Pepple] “Final Cut Pro however, when I do the same thing gives me a blank screen that says “Needs Render”. I wish FCP would atleast give me a low-res preview as I don’t always have time to wait for it to render. Could this have anything to do with my specific system? “
Yep, faster system equals more realtime. For instance, my systems are G5 Dual 2.0’s and I have one system that runs a 2TB Fibrechannel array at 325mb/sec+ and another system that runs Firewire 800 drives. The Fibrechannel runs rings around the FW 800 drives because they’re so much faster. FCP 5 will introduce dynamic realtime which will provide the same low-res preview as you describe in Premiere.
[Justin Pepple] “Importing Limitations
I can’t import Illustrator files, nor MP3, nor AAC files. I have tried MP3’s, but they firstly won’t playback in realtime in sequences, and secondly when I export I get clicks and pops in the audio. I have tried AAC files which don’t seem to import at all (silence). “AAC does not work in FCP to protect against piracy and from illegal use of music from the iTunes store. MP3’s do not work in realtime because the files are generally 44.1khz and FCP uses 48khz audio. Either render the audio file in FCP, export it and bring it back in or use Quicktime Pro to export the audio and then bring that into FCP.
[Justin Pepple] “I often make changes to files that I have imported to FCP, such as PSD files. Everytime I make changes to the files, FCP thinks they are missing, and makes me re-link them. Very tedious sometimes to go in and re-link all the files.”
That’s how FCP works, if the date modified is changed on the file, then FCP sees the file as off-line, simply allow it to re-link the file. Use the External Editors tool and set still images to Photoshop. Then when you make the changes, FCP will automatically update the PSD file, though sometimes it doesn’t work as well as it should.
Use the Help tool within FCP. Much of what you’re asking here is covered in great detail in the manual. When running FCP, simply click on the “Help” menu at the top and then type in a search term. I use that all the time and it’s quite quick. In particular, look up how Nests and Nesting works in FCP. Essentially all photoshop files with layers are Nests so knowing how a Nest works will take you a long way in working with the Photoshop files.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Creative Genius, Biscardi Creative Media
https://www.biscardicreative.comNow in Production, “The Rough Cut,” https://www.theroughcutmovie.com
“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters