Fcp4 (Final Cut Pro 4)

[Christian]

Hi All

Is anyone out there running FCP4 on a PAL project
successfully.

I would be very ineterested to hear of your experiences.

I'm also interested to hear what your impression of new features are, and how you may be using them i.e.Compression,Livetipe, Soundtrack. And what bugs etc you have found.

Christian

[Greg]

Originally posted by Christian
Hi All

Is anyone out there running FCP4 on a PAL project
successfully.

I have transfered a Pal project from FCP3 (OS9) to FCP4 and it all seems to work OK, note it is a min-Dv project. If you after bug information about FCP4, then the discussion forum about FCP4 on www.2-pop.com is a good starting point.

[
I would be very ineterested to hear of your experiences.

I'm also interested to hear what your impression of new features are, and how you may be using them i.e.Compression,Livetipe, Soundtrack. And what bugs etc you have found.

Christian [/B]

Soundtrack, is very easy to use, the main problem I see is the amount of time required to get familiar with the range of sound loops available. Searching for a particular mood is difficult, as they are not organised in mood type catergories. If you have a lot, I mean a lot of time, soundtrack could offer a lot of possibilites.

Compressor seems to have problems, mine keeps crashing, apparently their is an update, but currently you can only get the update by having your Mac connected to the internet and use live update. I believe that a download version should be available shortly.


I think that maybe the screeneditors forum could possibly have FCP & AVID and various editing forums, it could help lift the Screeneditors profile.
Greg

[Matthew]

if you think that there is enough potential for separate FCP, Avid forums etc, sure, we can do that. I just didn't want to crowd this website with a lot of empty forums from the outset.

So, keep using this forum for technical stuff, if I get a few more threads here on a similar theme I'll move them over into a new forum!

Would you think our own Screeneditors forums would/could offer something that the others such as 2-pop wouldn't? Lets face it, there are dozens of other technical websites.

Your comments are welcome!

[Greg]

Originally posted by Matthew
if you think that there is enough potential for separate FCP, Avid forums etc, sure, we can do that. I just didn't want to crowd this website with a lot of empty forums from the outset.


Agreed, a website with a lot of empty forums is not attractive . I guess we need to explore the needs of ASE members, along with the aims of the ASE.


So, keep using this forum for technical stuff, if I get a few more threads here on a similar theme I'll move them over into a new forum!

Would you think our own Screeneditors forums would/could offer something that the others such as 2-pop wouldn't? Lets face it, there are dozens of other technical websites. [/B]

Good question, very good question!
I will think about it...



Your comments are welcome! [/B]

[rachelw]

My experience w/FCP4 was a project started in FCP3...it was a smooth transition, but I found interesting was that (among all the coolio things FCP 4 does) it keeps your renders if you copy and paste into other timelines. As I sometimes use copy and paste to force certain issues regarding corruption of render files, or whatever else, I got around this new neato feature by telling the new timeline it was a different aspect ratio, then changing it back. I found that the system ran pretty well, but when it gives up it gives up with gusto. I think it needs a little more attention to system filing (media and project paths should be constantly monitored) as even the slightest hiccup can cause a reversion to default settings. Some problems printing to tape, but I suspect this had to do with hardware rather than software - but just out of curiosity has anyone else had a difficult time spitting out 52 minutes of finsihed program to DigiBeta? Due to the DV setup we had to use a bridge, which was tempermental. I blame the bridge, but I am curious to know if anyone else has had any headaches over longform media playout.

[Christian]

Rachel

A good trick I learnt playing out long form is to collpse your spools or sequence into a nested sequence. This seemed to improve the reliabilty of long form to 100%.

C

[rachelw]

I'll keep that in mind - thanks for the info :-)

R

[GavMeister]

Rachel,

some other things you may consider to improve (or in my case solve) output reliability issues are:

1) In the energy saver section of Mac system prefs switch the "put HD to sleep when can" checkbox off (and system to sleep to "never").
2) Make sure that no wondows (Viewer and Canvas) are overlapping or odd aspect ratios (this can cuase sync problems over time)
3) nest and render any composited (or speed altered) sequences / clips
4) and turn off the "Autosave" feature in FCP prefs and finally,
5) set the Number of audio tracks in the FCP prefs to 2, and render the audio of the master sequence that you are trying to output.

These steps worked for me on a Duel GB G4, 1.5 GB RAM, running FCP 4.0.1, OS 10.2.6, QT 6.3

Hope this helps,

Gavin

[Rumour]

I use both FCP 2 and FCP 4 on two different systems and while I love some of the fancy do-dads that come with FCP4, FCP2 is still far and away the more efficient and stable system.

In fact, I am struggling to keep my producer from upgrading the FCP2 system because it's so reliable - pumping out 2 x half hour TV programs a week running almost every day for the past two years.

My own system is FCP4.1 on OSX.2.6, and I just find it a bit ... "spongy" is the only word I can come up with. There are problems with little things like slow motion effects that cause crashes, and it just is not as clean feeling as FCP2.

Soundtrack rocks - you dont need to be a musician to get quick, royalty free background music that equals most production music cds I have ever had access to, and you can import your video to watch as you score so you can hit important points exactly.

Livetype is also a major improvement on the previous titler alternatives - takes a little while to figure out and is fairly limited in the fine control area, but still a useful and impressive tool for the price.

And to add to Gavin's comments above, I find it really helps to mixdown the audio of your entire project before editing to tape - since we started doing this our skipped frame problems have dissapeared and the prep time for each export has been dramatically reduced.

HTH

Rumour

[NickM]

Hey, there Rumour.

I know what you mean by that "Spongy" feel.
I reckon a lot of it is attributable to OSX itself.
But you should try Panther. It's a lot more responsive.
Windows almost pop right open, without too much of that anoying animated drop down effect.
It's almost like OS9!

Slo mo is something that I doubt will be fixed till FCP5 comes out, though.

I guess if your rocking with FCP2, then that's great.
I really use the extra features of the Media Manager in FCP3, and I love the keyboard mapping in 4.
The colour corecting alone is worth the upgrade, though, even if you just go to 3
I know all these things ad time, and i dont imagine you have much of that if you're doing an hour a week!

I'm curious: what sort of show are you doing?

Cheers,
Nick

[Rumour]

Hey Nick

I am actually doing a demo for some channel seven guys next week for the Mac shop on a dual g5 2 gig running panther - so Im looking forward to seeing if it is as good as OS9 like you say!

I do use FCP4 - and I do love all the features - its just that for the client with the FCP2 I don't think he should risk an upgrade that makes his system less stable when he doesn't really need the features.

For that client I am offlining and onlining a motoring/lifestyle program for channel Ten Perth - we have just recently taken on another editor to cover the other show which varies depending on the slots available but the last few weeks have been an end of year motorsport wrap special, a short doco on the history of the Fremantle Motor Museum, and two lifestyle/health programs.

So none of it is high end in its colour correction/media manager needs, really - and I do most of the fancy schmancy stuff it needs on my own system and carry it in on a firewire drive.

One thing I do prefer about four over two is the keyframing. Much smoother and easier to manipulate.

And I also forgot to add that I hate the new way of importing music into FCP - it was so much more elegant in 2 - not a two step process involving other programs.

Um. Its kind of nice to find someone to talk to about these things. Its a bit isolated over here and most people at parties really aren't into the geek speek. No idea why ;)

cheers :)
Rumour

[seanus]

Hey guys. With the amount of response Final Cut Pro gets I think a FCP forum here would be a great idea.

[Rumour]

Well I tested the FCP 4 on Panther and I have to agree with Nick - it is almost as good as on OS9!

Overall it's a much tighter and cleaner product - I'm not sure if this was because of the machine or the OS, probably both, I guess. I ran it on a G5 dual 2 gig with 1.5 gig of RAM. I also ran it straight out of the box - just installed everything and began demonstrating, with almost no tweaking required to get editing immediatly.

I had ten layers of vision at 50% opacity and 12 lines of audio playing simultaneously without the need to render .. pretty nice.

The only thing I found was that the mouse occasionally got a bit sticky - maybe the autosave was working? Has anyone else had the mouse problem?It also crashed once, although it loaded again immediatly and there was no hangover problem for it.

I am pretty tempted to upgrade. What are other people's impressions of FCP4 on OSX.3?

Also (I know I go on, sorry) has anyone had the chance to look at one of those new AJA IO boxes yet? The price seems amazing for uncompressed SDI import and machine control - does it do what it says it can?

And I'd love a FCP forum (obviously).

OK. I'll shut up now :)

Rumour

[diablo]

This seems to be the spot to ask FCP4 questions, so her is mine.
i am new to FCP, my experience is MC and Express pro. I am running FCP on a ibook and so far it seems to be running ok. I am having trouble importing quicktimes, the image is fine its just that i cannot get audio. Any ideas? Also can you capture via usb or only fire wire. Sorry if these are very simple questions.
thanks

[NickM]

just a guess...
the qt file is a muxed file.
audio is "muxed" in with the video.

get youself the freeware app "bbDeMuxer".

separates audio and video into 2 files.

or try exporting audio from file via qt pro.

bring into fcp as 2 files. yuo could export and re-marry if yu really wanted.

its fw for capture, not usb, im afraid.

cheers,
nm

[Jude]

What are you using that would need a USB port to import video? Is there an S-Video option on the unit?

[diablo]

Will take a look at the suggestions for QT
Well im looking at getting a new dv camera, and alot of the have USB instead of f/w.
Well that answres the question, i need a cam with f?w
no s vid on my ibook.
The thing is i moved up to sunshinecoast from melb, i had access to avid MC and Dv cams etc in melb, now im up in the sun im getting a little kit together to do my thing with. FCP was the cheapest option for me to go with but i ama novice with it (mind you so far i am getting my head around it fairly easily)
just out of interest where would you suggest i get the freewhere from?
thanx

[NickM]

try cnet or version tracker..

heres a google link;

http://www.google.com.au/search?q=bbdemux&ie=ISO-8859-1&hl=en&meta=

[diablo]

thanx works a treat!

[diablo]

ok it seperates the audio and video but final cut still wont import the audio file? any ideas

[Jude]

Is it a mpeg2 diablo? FCP requires you to download a plugin to deal with mpeg2s - free if you are a registered owner.

[diablo]

will take alook at this, yes they are mpeg2s..

[NickM]

any more info?
any warning or alert notices?

did you export audio as an aiff?
are there options for that in bbDemuxer?
aiff file at 16bit 48k is the best bet for fcp.

good luck,
nm

[diablo]

no options really in the bbDemuxer that i can see, not sure what you mean by exporting audio, dont i need to import it in first?
Also any ideas how i get dvd footage into final cut? i have some of my work on dvd and am in the process of making a new show reel. i can copy the dvd onto my hard drive but im not sure how to import it into the final cut pro program? I cannot patch into my system via a dvd deck due to using an ibook without an interface for rca. Any ideas would be appreciated.
thanks.
also the warning/ alert message just states that it is not a reconised file.

[NickM]

"not sure what you mean by exporting audio"

from the orig qt file, or from the sound file you got ftom bbDemux.

3 apps to help get dvd into fcp:
1. DVDxDV US$25. get it via lafcpug store www.lafcpug.org
2. Cinematize
3. MPEG Streamclip. italian freeware
http://www.alfanet.it/squared5/mpegstreamclip.html.

good luck,
nm

[diablo]

oh ok will double check.
thanks for the links. i am slowly getting my head around this program. i am glad i have this forum to ask questions.
thanks.

[ChrisW]

Hey there - I'm learning FCP4. It seems great but have had trouble with logging clips. When I enter the in and out points for the clip and then hit Log Clip to put it in a bin, the timecodes change!! Very frustrating! Has anyone else had this issue? What am I doing wrong??

Thanks,
Chris

[NickM]

you might be logging offline.
i thought that was fixed, but maybe i just heard it was GOING to be fixed.

so for now, the fix is to log semi-offline.
power up your deck or camera, and put a tape in it.
you dont have to log that tape, just have any old tape sitting in the deck or camera, and then the numbers should hold.

if you cant do that (no deck or cam, just logging from notes) then you'll need to use a spread sheet app like excel.
set up a bin in FCP with the columns you want/need.
export that empty bin as a batch list.
open in Excel, and enter your logging info.
when done, import back into FCP.

hope that helps,
nick

ps:
FWIW, jude and i are both moderators at lafcpug, the LA FCP User's Group, where you can get lots of help from many kind folk.
www.lafcpug.org

[Daz]

Just when I was tempted to give FCP another go...

[ChrisW]

Thanks Nick, I'll give that a go. Yesterday I found another forum (at www.creativecow.net - great site) where someone was having the same problems with timecodes changing - whether she was offline or online, so I'll try it out!
Which version was this bug supposed to be fixed in? I am running 4.0.1...

Cheers,
Chris

[NickM]

"Which version was this bug supposed to be fixed in? I am running 4.0.1.."

cant remember, Chris, sorry
if you're just starting your project, i'd say update to 4.5.
if you are in the middle of it, update to 4.1.1
4.5 deals with media in a different way to earlier versions.
it's probably not much of a big deal. the 4 captured media might make projects take a bit longer to open. i'm just being cautious.
FWIW, you cant open a 4.5 project in 4.0~4.11

nick

[ChrisW]

Thanks for your help, Nick! I'll get the update and see how I go....

Cheers

Chris