Final Cut Noob question

Hi all,
New to Final Cut after sending my Avid packing. I won't miss it. I used Media 100 and Premier for years back in the 90's, so the Final Cut interface feels very familar. The one question I have is, can you turn off the video that displays over most of the screen during capture. This stuttering video drives me nuts and It covers most of the timeline and canvas. The capture display shows a set of color bars and says video disabled during this. I'm sure that you can display the video in this screen during capture by setting the video display settings, but between reading the manual and turning to my computer, my mind seems to be dropping a few frames. Can anyone lead me in the right direction. Thanks!

Nope, I'm afraid you will have to put up with that stuttering silent video .......... it can't be turned off - or the sound turned on.
The fact that it is covering part of the FCE interface should not matter as it is very inadviseable to attempt to use your computer whilst it is capturing.
If you don't like it, stick a plant pot in front of the monitor.

Similar Messages

A few final cut pro questions...

hey i was wondering if final cut pro 5.0 is compatible on leopard. if not is it compatible on mac OS X 10.4.9? and is final cut express 4 better then final cut pro HD(4.5). or should i buy final cut pro HD(4.5) and forget about FCE 4. leave your opinion about FCE 4 and FCP HD and if you know tell me about FCP 5.0 and leopard.

5.0 is not compatible with intel machines... 5.1 was the first version that did, and is no longer available, and wasn't free either. You need to upgrade to Studio 2 to run FCP on your machine.
FCP 4.5 (HD) also won't run on an intel mac...
FCE 4 will run on an intel Mac, however FCP HD is a ton more robust than FCE anything.
FCE might be all you need though. Depends on what you want to do... So what might that be? What format do you intend to edit? What sort of work is it etc... If you're a working professional, then there's no question FCS 2 is where you should be looking.
Jerry

Canon EOS 7-D/Workflow Final cut Pro questions.

Today i just upgraded my final cut pro from 5 to the latest 7.0.3, and im having trouble viewing my clips.
First off, im very confused.
http://www.usa.canon.com/dlc/controller?act=GetArticleAct&articleID=3249
i read this entire article and still cant view my clip in the timeline. Here's what im doing.
I plugged in my card into a card reader,
next i opened final cut pro, and i opened up log and transfer.
my clips are all there, and i can preview them all.
Step 3 is what confuses me.
3. In the Import Preferences window, select 'Canon DSLR' as your Source, and then select the Transcode to format of your choice (such as ProRes 422).
when i open up my settings/preferences in the log/transfer settings i cant seem to find "canon dslr, or how to make it my "source".
instead, i see AVCHD PLugin, P2 PLug in, MPEG2 Consumer Cameras, and Canon E1. i selected the Obvious Canon E1 (because thats the plug in you download) and when i added it to the queue it finished and i am still unable to see it in the right window. There's audio but the screen is white.
So the burning questions i have..
What am i doing wrong?
What do you use for your easy format or custom format?

First don't use Final Cut to import directly from the card. Use Disc Utility to make a new image of the card from your card reader onto a hard drive. Make a back up copy of this by dragging it to another drive if possible. Now if anything goes wrong you are secure. Open one of these disk images and log and transfer from them with FCP.
You do this by opening log and transfer window. Use the top left button in the window to point to the files. On the other side of the left pane at the top open preferences, select the Canon E1 but then double click the little arrows which should open another window and offer a selection of versions of ProRes, choose Apple ProRes or ProRes LT, anything higher is overkill. Select the files you want and add them to the import queue. They should start importing automatically. You should be able to see files appearing in logging bin progressively. Whilst the import is happening do not touch anything else in FCP, allow the whole import to finish before playing with them.

Exporting to Final Cut Studio questions.

Hi Everyone.
Sorry for the rookie question. I have been searching for answers and found a few things about exporting but have a few question I was hoping someone could answer.
I have created a project in LiveType. It's 10seconds long. 720x480, square pixels, progressive. Final output will be on QT. The video is heavy on effects and takes about 2-3 minutes to render.
Which file do I use in FCPro? The LiveType file or the QT file that LiveType Renders? I was using the actual LiveType file that way if I have any changes I can go back... change it in LiveType and then it updates in FinalCut. However... that requires a lot of rendering time in FinalCut. Is that the proper process of importing and exporting between the two?
Also... I have the LiveType file exactly how I want it. I thought FinalCut might have an easier time using a QT file from LiveType. However, when I render from LiveType the .MOV file is 350megs... that seems kind of large to me for 10 seconds. When I import it into FinalCut I still have to render it, which takes forever and then if I add a transition it has to render that as well. My settings are the same for in Final Cut as they are in LiveType. I was hoping for a faster process. Why does FCPro have to render my .mov file if it's already 720x480, progressive, 30fps... all setting are identical?
Thanks in advance. Feel like I'm really close to understanding all that is going on... just looking for a little bit more guidance.

Hi Doug thanks for the reply.
I'm going to be showing this using QT that's why I want square pixels. It's never going to be shown on a TV screen. It's going to be projected using a projector to a screen. I like the look of a more rectangular image.
I'll stick with the .ipr workflow. Thanks for the advice.
I have another question. When I render my LiveType animation does it render it uncompressed? Is that why the .mov file it creates is so big? At a duration of 10 second the .mov file is about 350MB. When I import it into FinalCut it takes forever to render and work with... so does the .ipr file.
Is there anything I can do to speed up this process?
When LiveType finishes rendering my animation I created it opens the rendered .mov file for playback. I ended up saving it from this position using the .264 compression. Which took the .mov file down to 7megs and final cut is able to handle it much better. Is this OK?
Thanks again.

Final Cut Noob

Hi, I want to use Final Cut Pro for a video project I am working on , but I have no knowledge of it whatsoever. First I wanted to start off with a title, like you see at the beggining of many movies. How would I make a black backround and text in the front? Also for video format, which format should I put my clips in so that they run smoothly on FCP? kthx!

Hmmm ... it would be impossible to teach you how to use this software on a user's forum. This forum is more for addressing specific problems NOT covered in the manuals and/or help files.
I'd heartily recommend starting with the tutorials that came with FCP - work with them until you understand the basics. Also a quick read of the manuals/help files is in order. You can also get a ton of information from any number of websites that offer specialized tutorials and articles. For starters, try http://www.kenstone.net/cgi/discussions/general.cgi Peruse through the various article categories at the top of the page.
As for your specific question about titles, I'd recommend using the Boris Title 3D generator plugin that came bundled with FCP - it will produce much cleaner text than FCP's built-in text generator.
-DH

Why does my 4:3 miniDV video keep getting captured as 16:9? (Vidi/Final Cut Pro question)

This is partially related to Final Cut Studio, although not necessarily. I've been trying to back up dozens of my miniDV tapes on to my harddrive for several months now, racing against the clock as their video quality starts to degrade. Since Final Cut Pro started giving me problems with the timecode breaks, I started using a capture program called Vidi instead (v0.4.7) Everything was capturing well, considering, until just last week where several of my tapes, which were shot in 4:3, would capture as 16:9. That is, the video files were clearly stretched to a 16:9 aspect ratio and appeared distorted. Today I tried to go back to Final Cut (v6.0.6) to capture it the old way, and, lo and behold, the video was once again being stretched to 16:9.
A few things:
- I'm about as sure as I can be that these tapes were shot in 4:3. I've watched them several times on my TV and they are played back in 4:3, with the black bars on the left and right.
- I had actually captured video previously from one of these tapes a few years back and it recorded as a 4:3 video file, just as it should.
- I definitely have "4:3" checked off in Vidi when I capture the video. What's even more infuriating, is that BOTH Vidi and Final Cut show the video playing in its 4:3 aspect ration during apture. It's only when I check the captured file that it's been stretched to 16:9
- A tape I shot in 2008 captured perfectly with Vidi today - in it's 4:3 format. That seems to imply that it's not a software setting issue.
I'm starting to lose my mind with this, especially since I haven't found a single reference to this problem anywhere else. All I want is to get the raw DV data off of these tapes to work with at a future date, and I'd like it to be exactly as it was originally shot, not distorted. Maybe some bit of code on these tapes got messed up over time, resulting in capture software to think it was shot in 16:9? These tapes aren't anywhere near my oldest ones - they're from 2010 and 2011. Is there something obvious I'm missing when I capture these videos? If there's no other solution, is it possible to squeeze them back to 4:3? It might not look as good as if were captured in it's native format, but I'm out of ideas.

Not sure if it makes any difference for archiving purposes, but dv files (dv streams) are not generally recommended for use in fcp. .mov with the dv codec is how fcp captures SD video via firewire. Someone a few months ago claimed that .dv was fine with fcp, but I seem to remember that audio will always need to be rendered and since I always use fcp for capture of DV material, it's not an issue for me.
You can use compressor to both convert to .mov with the dv codec and reset the anamorphic flag. Not sure if there will be any loss of quality, so it might be worth testing this. Perhaps someone with more knowledge will speak up regarding this or alternative methods of converting .dv to .mov
What problems are you having capturing from within fcp? Shouldn't be a problem. I find that setting the easy setup correctly is crucial for successful capturing. Even if all the individual elements that seem to compose the easy set up are correct, there can still be problems. Perhaps you might want to start a new thread regarding your capture problems and we can see if we can solve the problem.

Final Cut Pro question

i want to make high def. blu ray dvd's in dvd studio pro or iDVD. you can only do that in final cut pro share and that is too cheap/easy. example: adobe cs5 is compatible to make blu ray high def. dvd's on encore. i believe that there can be a resolution to this problem. i need to work more professional for my business. i dont want to change from this software, for i worked adobe premiere cs2 and it was not good. i found final cut pro a lot better. now, i find better cs5.
thank you for giving up your time to read my post and i hope someone can help me out with this problem or something can fix this.

What are your export settings when you export the text? You could be uneccessarily adding compression to the image when you don't need it. Also, the computer display is never the best place to get an accurate view of your video. Try watching it on a monitor or TV, and see if the problem persists.
And yes, direct export to mpeg2 (m2v and aiff) is fine. To burn a data CD use a program like Roxio Toast or Tiger's own built in DVD burning software.

What does modified file mean? and other Final Cut Library questions...

1.After updating to Libraries and the newest version of Final Cut X some of my media including multi cam clips and regualr clips show the red "modified media" screen. How do I get rid of this and get it back to the original media? Do I relink project files??
2. Before I updated to Libraries I was running all my media as proxy. Now that I have updated, I have to run it as optimized or origional or a red "Missing Proxy" screen appear. How can I go back to using proxy media?
3. Before I updated to the Libraries and the newest version of Final Cut X I would store my raw footage on external harddrive 1 and I would create all my projects under harddrive 2. I was told that its much better to do it this way because it puts less strain on external harddrives. Is this true? Also, if I choose to keep doing it this way, how would I do this with the new Libraries set up?
4-Whats the best way to backup Libraries on multiple harddrives in case a harddrive fails? I used to be able to back up just the projects but now when I try to back up a Library it's too many gigs.
Any advice would be great.

I upgraded to 10.0.1 in the middle of a complex multicam (6 Sony XDCam 422 HD @ 50 MB/Sec) with many effect/title/transitions w/o any issues - so I keep wondering -- what's happening with others?
Yes, relink to original (if needed) transcode more proxies/optimised (if needed). Inside of your libraries (control click in finder) you should be able to see all that is there in the package contents - but don't alter anything in the Finder.
Since I upgraded, I routinely generate masters ofo my daily Projects in PorRes and copy to my Lacie Raid. I copy the new (daily) library(s) to the Lacie then delete the ones from the previous day (this Takes time as I secure delete) - i update the Final Cut Pro Backups folder to the lacie every day. Once a week I use Carbon Copy Cloner to backup whatever has changed (and archive what is unique to the b/u drive) via a USB 3 drive.
The Libraies are getting huge but I prefer working off my internal Flash storage because it is so fast. I never used to do that - I preached putting "scrtach" on a drive seperate from OS but now my internal is so big and fast & since it is PCIe Flash & doesn't write like platters- I'm in love with the speed of renders and exports. I work from it.
That is what I do & haven't had a hiccup. Theonly surprise is that System Pal has twice shown me that I was down to only a few megs of ram (from 16 gigs). So I watch that.
Good luck

PC to Final Cut Pro Questions

Hi,
I am a long time PC user and recently purchased a MacBook Pro and love it. It has a dual core 2.5 processor and 4 gigs of ram. I am thinking of getting FCP and was wondering a few things about it. How is the rendering time? How does it handle HDV files? Is there a lot rendering with HDV files? How are the filters, especially does it have an old movie filter? How is the slow motion? Can you create a .m2v file from the timeline to import in to Adobe Encore to create a Blu-Ray disc for HD delivery? When you purchase a copy of FCP, how many machines can you put it on?
Thank you,
Dwayne Gitter

Try not to over use the effects that came with Final Cut that much, there are some good but be carefull and not over use them, I told you this based on my own experiences haha and also if you make something musical there´s the cool multiclip that works like a swither on TV, I just found it and I love it.
I was working also with a PC editing with Sony Vegas and I can tell you that even that is faster and manage sound a little better, well you have soundtrack so it doesn´t matter, you will notice the improvement of using Final Cut. At least I did it, it was like cutting with a rounded not sharp enough sissors and then changging to a sharp, finness sissors.
Ok, you get the point, hehe, The thing is that yes, you should buy Final Cut but don´t relay that much on the effects. Try to do everthing while filming or videotapping not becuse they are bad but becuse it looks better.

First time Final Cut beginner question- how to get the timeline back?

The first time I opened Final Cut on my own, I accidentally closed the timeline box. How do I get it back?
~Krista

Hmm...that's strange. Try this: From the FCE menu bar, select Window>Arrange>Standard
If that doesn't do the trick, your FCE Preferences may have gotten corrupted. Trash them exactly as described here:
http://fcpbook.com/Misc1.html

Final Cut Express Question

Hello;
I want to upgrade my Final Cut express v.2 to v.4 but I cannot find my main disk. I have the serial number but I was wondering, if I get the upgrade disk to go to v.4, do I need my disk for v.2 or do I just need the serial number?
Thanks

You only need the serial number.
When installing on the upgrade disc you wil be notified that it's an upgraqde and will be prompted for a full version serial number.
Enter the numbers, the full version then the upgade numbers, and away you go.
Al

HDV 25p Final Cut Workflow Question

Hello,
After reading a lot of material I'm trying to come to some conclusion about which workflow to use, to balance between: the lower spec system I've got, getting fine graphic elements, being able to take the project through Color, and to end with an HD(V) master project file.
It would be great if others with experience with these issues could comment on the workflow I'm proposing.
I'm running an iMac with the latest Final Cut Studio programs and one 500GB firewire drive for video and render files.
Workflow:
1 - Camera aquisition is with Canon's HV20 - HDV 25p
2 - Capture over firewire to a 25p HDV sequence
3 - Edit in HDV (with the Render Codec as ProRes 422 - in User Preferences)
4 - Add any Motion files, Titles, LiveType or whatever else needs to go in the timeline
5 - When complete, duplicate the sequence and change the settings in the new sequence to ProRes 422
6 - Render Timeline as full ProRes 422
7 - Export to Color, render Color files out and place in a new ProRes 422 timeline
8 - Export self-contained Quicktime with current settings as the Master
Comments please. I'm no expert, but I'm trying to settle on a decent workflow.
If I'm right, this should make one conversion from HDV to ProRes 422 before going through Color (while also taking advantage of ProRes for the rendering of all the Motion graphics and Title clips). Then one further render coming out of Color.
It seems pretty clean and not to extanious for my system, although I'm still working on the theory.
Any workflow experts, please advise!
Thanks,
Matt
Yoga Maya Films - http://www.yogamayafilms.com
The Film Producer's Podcast - http://www.yogamayafilms.com/podcast

No one?
The main part I'm wondering about is:
HDV timeline, but render settings to ProRes and then moving the whole thing to render out as a ProRes file (possibly going through Color at that point - and if so, coming back to a ProRes timeline and doing a self-contained Quicktime export).
I basically said it all in the first post. If someone's tried it, or has a better work flow for HDV it would be great to hear.
Matt

Reinstalling Final Cut Studio question

It looks like we will have to reinstall Final Cut Studio 2 and the operating system (Leopard) on one of our iMacs. We have the serial numbers and know which goes to each machine, but the DVD disk sets were all stored together and not marked. Does it matter if we use the wrong set of DVDs?

is there a way to import DV from the canon xl1 in to FCPX?? I have a firewire cable to the mac but still no feed from camera. sorry to but in your convo by the way. i really need some help.

Ram and Final Cut Pro Questions...

Ok, so I have a 2.66 Mac Pro with 2GB of RAM. I am now starting to work with HD content, so I just got 2 more GB of RAM from OWC. But I've been reading that I should probably have more than 4GB of RAM to work with HD content. I have the ATI card on the Mac Pro btw.
I just want peoples' opinion on this. Is 4GB enough? If not, I get confused about the Ram's performance on the Mac Pro. Don't I have to get to 8GB of Ram in order to get the RAM to act quickly? I'm not sure how all that works, but I just remember reading on here ram should be doubled for its bandwidth to reach max potential. Does that mean 6GB of RAM will be fine? Or does it have to be 2, 4, 8, 16 GB of RAM for it to be the fastest it can be? Does it slow it down if I use 6GB of RAM?
I can probably afford 2 more GB of RAM, but I don't want to put 6 in my system if it actually slows it down. Thanks for your help!

Well, the system came with 4 X 512MB of Ram, so I'm
getting 2 x 1GB of Ram in the mail. That'll give me
6 DIMMS. I could've sworn that I had to match DIMMS
top to bottom for it to work. But you're saying to
put 4 DIMMS to fill up the top tray and then just
place the remaining 2 DIMMS on the bottom tray? Am I
understanding that correctly?
Yes. Each riser board has two pairs of slots, numbered 0 through 3. You MUST match 0 and 1 with the same type and size of RAM if you fill those slots on a board, and you MUST match 2 and 3. Otherwise, you can put whatever pairs you want on whatever boards.
Performance-wise, though, you get the best results by:
1) Filling both RAM boards' 0 and 1 slots with the same size and type of RAM. Same with 2 and 3 on both boards.
2) Placing dual rank (usually 1GB or higher capacity) RAM in 0 and 1 on both boards, as those are the slots that are usually hit first, and dual rank RAM is faster.
If you can afford it, you might consider getting an additional 2x1GB pair of the same brand you already have. Then, you could put those 4 modules in the 0 and 1 slots on each board and the 512 modules in 2 and 3. This will put your faster dual-rank RAM in the lower numbered slots, and will make sure that module sizes are matched across boards, which will maximize performance.
Also, I tend to have a lot of software open when I
edit. Soundtrack, Motion, Livetype, FCP, soon CS3
and other random software is usually open when I edit
(like iChat and Mail). Will 4GB still be enough you
think? I didn't mention all that in my first post,
so I apologize.
If you're running all of that, you might well find that extra RAM is helpful, particularly if you're processing in the background. Even if not, switching between applications will be smoother and faster with more RAM. This is another good reason to think about getting another 2x1GB pair.
Also, this whole Ram bandwidth thing has me confused.
If I do end up getting 6GB of Ram (4 x 1GB and 4 X
512MB)does that slow down my Ram? Does the fact
that I have 2 different types of DIMMS slow down my
Ram? It's all so confusing
A tiny little bit that you may not notice, and no.
Right now you have 4x512MB in your 0 and 1 slots. This is pretty optimal for a setup of 512 MB modules, because having the same type of RAM paired across boards in the same numbered slots increases your memory performance.
If you add 2x1GB in the 2 and 3 slots on one board, your existing memory (the original 4x512MB modules) will still be able to transfer data at just as high a rate as before. The 2x1GB modules in 2 and 3 will be slower because they're not paired with another 2x1GB pair on the other board, but that will only affect accesses to the data stored in those modules, which the system will tend to use last.
What will slow down somewhat is that each request the CPU makes to transfer data from your existing 4x512MB RAM will take a bit longer to start because you have put modules in the 2 and 3 slots on one of the boards. Once it gets going, the transfer will happen at just as high a rate, but the setup time is longer by a small amount.
Chances are, the performance improvement you'll see with the extra RAM running all those apps will totally overwhelm any such slowdown. Note that I don't know of anyone who's benchmarked a real impact of that, all the discussions I've seen about such a slowdown are just theory.
However: those 1 GB modules in 2 and 3 will operate at a slower rate than they could because you don't have another 1 GB pair on the other board matched up with them. That's why I suggested getting a 2nd pair of 1 GB modules for the other board.
Finally, if you do get 4x1GB, swapping those 1 GB modules into the 0 and 1 slots will ensure that they get used first, and since most 1GB modules are substantially faster than the 512 MB modules, you'll want that for best performance. However, unless you get a couple of additional 1 GB modules to fill out the set of four, I would not recommend swapping the 512 MB modules into different slots. The fact that you have a matched set of 4x512 in slots 0 and 1 is a big speed benefit if you don't get a matched 4x1GB set for your expansion.
I hope that I haven't confused the situation...
-- Mark
4-core 3 GHz Mac Pro w/ 4.5 TB HDD and 10 GB RAM, 17 Macbook Pro 2.16 GHz

Does CS4 not handle HDV at all? (Final Cut convert question)

Hi
We've just started using CS4 PPro on a new Quad core machine, upgrading from FCP on a Mac for video editing. I've spent all day trying to capture and edit footage from a two camera shoot using Sony HVR1s but keep getting out of sync footage.
The footage was recorded in 1080i HDV and looks fine on the camera monitor all the way through (35 mins). Strangely the footage captured also looks fine in the PPro MPEGs created when viewed in Windows Media Player.
However, when viewing in both the source and programe windows in PPro the audio and video for the footage is way out of sync. Am I missing something obvious here? Does it need to be rendered to resync?
I've scoured these forums, tried using HDVsplit, etc but cannot seem to reliably edit the HDV footage with this software? Please help, I've wasted a day trying to get my head round this and can't believe we've spent $1000s on something which doesn't seem to work!

First, work through all of the steps here http://ppro.wikia.com/wiki/Troubleshooting
If your problem isn't fixed after you follow all of the steps, report back with the DETAILS asked for in the questions at the end of that link

Final Cut Noob question

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