Interfacing Video Camera to Mac Pro for Final Cut Express HD Use

I have a lot of Video8 tapes that were made on my Sony DCR-TRV310 that I want to move to my Mac Pro and edit with Final Cut Express HD. The Sony camera only has the three (R,Y,W) output ports and my Mac Pro only has firewire input ports. Does anyone know of a cord solution or do I have to use an additional interface. Thanks

Hello,
Unfortunately there is no "cable solution" You will need an external interface. Something along the lines of an external tv tuner. Elgato Systems makes a few, i've had great success with the Hauppage WinTV PVR USB2 Tuner. This cost me about 150$ Canadian and is compatible with Mac's after a software download from the manufacturer's website.

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Best hard drive performance on mac pro for final cut express

This week I'll be setting up a basic 4 core mac pro with 16 gb ram and 2 internal- 2tb WD Caviar Black drives. I'm wondering what would give me the best performance for running final cut express, and I'm considering setting up software raid 0 or using one drive for boot and one for scratch. Or should I set up software raid 0 with boot and scratch partitions? Or other suggestions? Thanks.

My recommendations -
With 2 drives in your Mac Pro, use *one disk for OS X and all of your apps;* the *second disk for data* (including your FCE scratch disk location). Partition each drive as a *single partition,* which will maximize performance over time.
In addition, you should invest in at least 1 external drive to use for backup purposes; if you don't, the day will come when you wish you had.
I strongly recommend AGAINST doing software RAID. Certainly not for your situation with only 2 drives, one of which will be your system HD; but also because hardware RAID is faster, more reliable, and does not require CPU resources to run.
Your internal SATA drives will provide plenty of performance for most video editing needs. You also have the ability to put 4 drives in your Mac Pro, in which case you can utilize the extra drives to provide additional performance if/when you get into serious multi-multi track video compositing.

Mac Pro for Final Cut Studio -- The Buying Guide

I am starting to think about upgrading my "old" Power Mac G5 Quad system to a Mac Pro system. As you might expect, this raises several issues.
What I do: I edit DV and HDV on FCS2. My specs are below. I am looking for the best speed (especially for rendering), stability and video quality I can afford (between $5,000 and $6,000).
Question 1: Is it true that Snow Leopard and FCP 7 are about a year away? If so, please assume for the following questions that I would be working with the full complement of FCS2 applications on the Leopard OS. (How worth waiting for do you think these are?)
Question 2: Without directing me to the various benchmark and testing sites (which I’ve already looked at), can you suggest the actual performance differences I would see (again, using the whole range of FCS2 apps) in the following:
Two 2.26GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon processors
Two 2.66GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon processors
Question 3: I have heard that (with the exception of Compressor) FCS can only use a maximum of 4GB of RAM, and that the 6GB that the Mac Pro ships with are already more than it can use. Is this true? Is it true that Snow Leopard would allow FCS to make greater use of more RAM? And would this show up in the programs’ performance?
Question 4: To get the best video performance with my various FCS2 applications, is there a significant quality improvement in moving up from the NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 512MB to one of the other video cards? How would I notice a difference in the quality?
Question 5: Are there any other purchasing considerations I should think about when configuring a new Mac Pro?
Thanks a lot.
Giraut

Well, well, well, you make me think more about my last upgrade of an ATI Radeon 2600 to the latest ATI Radeon HD 4870!
I was looking on the Final Cut Pro thread to find one answer and look what I found, your questions!
Since yesterday night I was seeking the Apple Support threads just for fun and I now have doubts.
I am a Mac Pro (earlier 2008) owner. I upgraded it to 4 x 1.5 Tb Seagate hard drives and 10G of RAM from OWC (Other Word Computing). First let me tell you NOT to buy from Apple Store for your hard drive and/or memory upgrade. They are totally out of price list. I got my Mac Pro first with one 500 Gb Seagate drive. Then I added 2 x 500 Gb hard drives from Apple. I payed them 199,00 $ each
Last September, I upgraded the drive bays with 4 x 1.5 Tb from OWC. I paid them 229.00 $ each!
199,00 $ for 500 Gb or 229,00 $ for 1.5 Tb (that"s 3 times 500 Gb) which one would you take? And we are talking about two models from Seagate running at 7200 RPM, with 32 Mb of buffer.
I mean... What is that?!!?
And the memory! Don't even think about it.
I got first 4GB Matched Set (2 x 2GB) for 147,99 $ in September from OWC and my second order was 4GB Matched Set (2 x 2GB) for 132,79 $ in October.
I payed a total of 280,78 $ for 8GB of RAM while the price for this upgrade on Apple Store woul have cost me 1998,00 $
*+Source Apple Store :+*
*+Apple Memory Module 4GB 800MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM ECC 2x2GB $999.00+*
Multiply that by 2!
Now how much memory would you need?
I am not a Final Cut Pro user, but I use Final Cut Express a lot, with animation QuickTime movies exported from my Astronomy software Starry Night Pro Plus.
Yesterday I posted this into a thread to answer a user :
+Every morning I have my preferred applications started: Mail, Safari, iTune, Aperture and Final Cut Express. I just did a test for you. I started Mail, Safari, Aperture, Final Cut Express, Starry Night Pro Plus (OpenGL Astronomy Software), Terminal, Quicktime, TextEdit and NeoOffice.+
+With all these apps running, I still have 6.48G of Free RAM out from the 10G installed!+
+It's when I start hungry applications like VMWare Fusion running Windows XP, or Quicktime with a lot of movies opened that I could see the memory level going low!+
+Your bottle neck in video editing will probably be the video card, after the disk speed. Be sure to use 7200 RPM disk and eSATA for your video plans if possible. Firewire 800 will works fine on external drive but it could giggle. I had an ATI Radeon HD 2600 that I recently upgraded to an ATI Radeon HD 4870. the drivers aren't ready yet from Apple. We are all waiting for the next OS X release 10.5.7 for the drivers! For now, I am running on Beta drivers.+
+It's hard to say by now if I have better performance into Final Cut Express because the movie I was working on was an animation movie using plans exported from Starry Night Pro Plus via Quicktime and "animation" codec without any compression. As soon as I make a modification, I still have to render the output for smooth playing.+
Now, after some test with Starry Night Pro Plus this morning, I can safety say that Starry Night Pro Plus with Open GL does use my video card extra speed and that my experience navigating into the Universe is much better and smooth.
But honestly, even if I have to admit that I am using the Beta drivers for the HD 4870, I must say that I have very big doubt that Final Cut Express does use the extra power of the HD 4870 compare to the HD 2600!
In fact, I am searching the support thread for this answer.
Does anyone can say if Final Cut Express or Final Cut Pro does make use of the extra hardware feature of the ATI Radeon HD 4870 or not?

How I Install Final Cut Pro 6 on my Mac Pro with Final Cut Express 3?

Any recomendations with the data, previous edits etc?

I think he's asking about problems one might expect when installing both Final Cut Pro and Final Cut Express on the same computer. I assume he's also asking if he'll be able to move files from FCE to FCP without problem. And maybe move them back?
That's my guess.
Ross Hunter
Orange, VA

Video cameras no longer connecting to Final Cut Express

I have two video cameras (Sony TRV-25 and Sony HDV-A1U) which are no longer connecting to Final Cut Express through the firewire (4-pin to 800). I get the "unable to initialize" message. What's weird is that they were working fine just last month.
I'm on a relative new iMac, running 10.6, FCE 4.
I've double and triple-checked the settings on the cameras (i.e., HDV and iLink output settings), and I've selected the appropriate settings in Easy Setup in FCE (1060i60 for the HDV, NTSC-DV for the TRV).
I also reset video devices under the View menu.
Just for kicks, I tried connecting the TRV-25 to my old Mac. I had no problems at all. [The old Mac won't work with the HDV camera, so I didn't bother trying that.]
There are no other firewire devices connected to the Mac. There is an external drive that I use for capturing the video files that is attached through one of the USB ports.
I went and bought another firewire cable just to make sure, but got the same results.
For what it's worth, I also could not get the cameras to be recognized in iMovie.
Is there anything else I should try?
Thanks!

When I looked in System Profiler and click on the firewire line, it just said something about maximum speed 800 MB per second or whatever. Should it actually have the camera listed there? Is that the right way to check?
The firewire is 4-pin (iLink) to 800, and there are no other devices connected.

New Mac Pro and Final Cut Express HD

Ive just taken delivery of a new Mac Pro 2.8ghz quad core with ATI Radeon HD 2600. I've tried to open Final Cut Express HD and am getting an error message
' This software requires certain hardware or software which is missing -
AGP graphics card"
I've tried re-installing but no luck, any ideas ?
Thanks

Hi(Bonjour)!
You can use keyframe on filters from version 3.5 and later. And the new FCE HD 4.0 (who doesn't includes soundtrack nor the complete content of livetype library) includes newer filters and supports AVCHD.
Michel Boissonneault
Message was edited by: Michel Boissonneault

How do I add a title to a video clip w/ LiveType 2 and Final Cut Express 4

I have Final Cut Express 4 & LiveType 2.1.4, I'm not sure how to add titles or test to a video clip, and the tutorials for Final Cut Express 4 don't say how to get started in LiveType. How do I simply add text? The tutorials say how to add effects to the text they just don't say how to add it to the clip or how to get the clip into LiveType.

Well, you don't actually _add text_ to a video clip, you _create a text clip_ and add that clip to your timeline, either adjacent to an existing clip or on the next higher track if you want to layer the text with an existing video clip.
The very simplest way to add text is to use one of the *text generators* built into FCE. Lower Third, Text, Scrolling Text, etc. allow you to create various text clips and give you basic controls over fonts, positioning, size, color, etc. You can find the text generators in the Effects tab in the FCE Browser.
LiveType is a separate and more sophisticated application that enables you to do all sorts of things with text (much more than can be done with the FCE text generators). The basic process is - create your title in a LiveType project. Save the LiveType project. Then in FCE, import the LiveType project; from there, you can treat it just the same as any other clip.

Which Sony Video Camera's will work with Final Cut

Hi,
I'm getting *Final Cut* and can get +Sony Video Camera's+ at a discount, but like to know which +Sony Video Camera's+ will work with *Final Cut* or should most work without any problems?
Thanks,
Sal

You got to do better than that.
Any idea on the TYPE of sony video camera's available to you? They make quite a few.
I'd stay away from anything with a DVD in it... also HDV can be tricky too... but not undoable.
What are you looking for?
CaptM

My HD died on my iMac. I replaced it and lost everything that was on it. I found my source disks from my original purchase for Final Cut Express HD 3.5. I now have Maverick ISO and it will not let me load my software so I can continue my film work. ???

My HD died on my iMac. I replaced it and lost everything that was on it. I found my source disks from my original purchase for Final Cut Express HD 3.5. I now have Maverick ISO and it will not let me load my software so I can continue my film work. How do I get it too recover it without paying for it again since I paid for it already and have projects in progress that need to be completed?

1) Partition your hard drive or add an external drive and install Snow Leopard (with the Optional Rosetta) into it and then you can dual-boot (System Preferences:Startup Disk) into Snow Leopard and run FCE 3.5 there.
2) Use one of the following methods to install FCE 3.5 into Mavericks:
a) Pacifist: http://www.charlessoft.com/
b) Jeremy Johnstone's Terminal method: http://www.jeremyjohnstone.com/blog/2012-03-11-installing-final-cut-pro-studio-2 -0-on-mac-os-x-10-7-lion.html
Reports on this forum seem to confirm that Final Cut Studio 2 will continue to operate in Mavericks once it is functionally installed, albeit some plug-ins may fail to function. FCE 3.5 is the same generation as FCS2, and presumably will continue to operate in Mavericks, as well.

Is the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS worth the money for Final Cut Express?

Hi,
I'm considering a new iMac 24, but not sure if the speedier on is worth the money.
Currently I use a MacBook Pro 2.2 for Final Cut Express with a 23" cinema (mostly DV, some HD) and that works okay, but won't play back in real time when I composit video.
Anybody know if the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS will help in that area?
Thanks,
KC

The speedier video card is great for 3D stuff, but it won't matter a wink for Final Cut Express, which barely makes use of the video card.
Keep in mind that Final Cut is using the CPU, not video card, to perform the editing, decoding, and encoding of the video. The only time the video card comes into play is during playback of the video, and any of the video options available for iMacs will handle that just fine.
When you composite video, the hard-disk throughput will start to come into play. The dinky 5400 RPM disk in your laptop will adversely affect the performance of that.

I'm trying to make "Stop motion videos" in Final Cut EXPRESS by using 100's of still photos and setting them to music. They are coming out blurry if viewed larger than 4x6 in size

I'm trying to make "Stop motion videos" in Final Cut EXPRESS by using 100's of still photos and setting them to music. They are coming out blurry if viewed larger than 4x6 in size.
I don't understand why this is happening.

Quick follow up, since I was on my phone earlier and am back to a real keyboard.
To access Easy Setup, hit Control Q.
If you click on the blue discosure triangles, a dropdown menu with about a dozen different presets will be displayed. Select the one you want, (Here, I've selected 720P.)
Whatever you select for a preset will not be applied until you make a new sequence. (I don't like to have sequences with different properties in the same project so I prefer to make a new project if I change the Easy Setup.)
Because photo aspect ratios are different than video, I typically put a solid generator of some compatible color on the first track (v1) and put my photos on the track above (v2). Looks better, IMO, than black bars. There are other creative ways to display them. And of course, you could scale them up to fill the frame…but then you probably would have to re-position them.
Good luck.
Russ

Final Cut Pro to Final Cut Express -- Format issues?

Hi,
I'm shooting a project on a Panasonic HVX-200A, and my cameraman is going to import the footage to his Final Cut Pro station. He's then going to transfer the FCP footage and data over to an external hard drive, which I am going to use to edit the film using Final Cut Express.
Will there be any formatting issues if I bring the data from Final Cut Pro to Final Cut Express?
Thanks!!
Sameer Ketkar

Clip files can be easily imported into FCE if they are QuickTime DV-NTSC/DV-PAL or Apple Intermediate Codec (720p30, 1080i50/60). If they are other formats/codecs they should be converted to DV or AIC before importing into FCE.
FCPro project files cannot be imported into FCExpress.
I'd suggest a trial run before committing the project to this workflow.

Xacti HD and Final Cut Express -- It used to work great! How do I go back?

I have a Sanyo Xacti HD700. It gives me 1280x720 MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 files, which my Mac just loves. I used to be able to quickly edit the clips together in Final Cut Express, export using complementary QuickTime settings (specifically, those recommended by Vimeo for HD playback), and get beautiful MP4 files, relatively quickly.
Then, one day, a friend needed me to edit a quick video using a DV camcorder. It was confusing as heck getting the footage into FCE, and not particularly elegant getting it out. But, the project was done overnight, I washed my hands of it, and wanted to get back to making beautiful MP4 files again, relatively quickly.
Except I can't! Now, for one, encoding takes hours. Hours! My source videos and export videos are very similar, yet I sit and watch as the estimate for completion actually goes up for an hour before slowly coming back down.
And frankly, that would be fine, except now my exported videos are the wrong size. They include letterboxes, and the video itself is squished, stretched. So I wait four times as long for a ghastly video. The best I could do is use the Quicktime export settings to "crop off" the letterboxing, but there's still some black bars and it's just not the same.
Here's how my videos used to look:
http://vimeo.com/1067235
Here's how an exported video looks now:
http://vimeo.com/1655414?pg=embed&sec=1655414
What happened? Out of the box, everything worked perfectly. Now, tainted with actual tape, Final Cut Express seems like it's running my videos through six extra wringers and giving me clips worse than I'd get just cut-and-paste editing the Xacti files in QuickTime Pro!
I Googled my brains out, and all I've learned is, if I had Final Cut Pro, "Project Settings" would have all the switches I need. Well, I don't have FCP, just FCE.
Somewhere, something was set that I want to unset. Can anyone help? Do I have to delete every trace of FCE and just reinstall?
Mahalo for any advice!

It sounds like you didn't change the settings after you made the DV video. Did you switch it back to 1280x720 and make a new sequence in that format? Check item properties for the sequence you edited. What does it say? Also check item properties for any media you captured since working in DV.

Can't use Final Cut Express Export Using Quick Time Conversion with iDVD.

I am using iDVD 08v 7.0.4 and until 3 days ago I could import and create iDVD's using Final Cut Express export using Quick Time Conversion. There was an update that downloaded for iDVD. Since then, I can only use Final Cut Express Exports that is a self contained Quick Time Movie.
I have never had this kind of apple and apple problem. I am disappointed that I'm having apple issues like this.

Are you on latest 10.5.x release and latest FCE updates? Your info line says 10.5.1 and you didn't list FCE version. Not saying that will fix problem, but might help. You also might want to explain how you did your Quicktime conversion.

Burning Final Cut Express Project using Toast

How do I burn a Final Cut Express project using Toast? When I export a quicktime movie, even when it is "Self-Contained" and burn it in toast I only get sound with no picture. When I export it as a .mov I am assuming that will work, but it is taking 3 hours to export a 45 min video. Is there any other way or is iDVD my only option?

The OS version I am using 10.4.10 which should show on my profile. My computer is a PowerPC G5 Dual 2 GHz with 3 GB RAM. The version of FCE is HD 3.5 and the version of Quicktime I beleive is 7.2. When I export I use Quicktime movie. I tried it with the self contained box checked and without and both did the same thing. I only got sound. When I export using Quicktime Conversion that's what takes over 3 hours. What is the difference by the way? It plays fine in Quicktime player and works fine with iDVD. I have burned quicktime files and WMF before with toast and it has worked fine. It's only when I export them from Final Cut Express that it doesn't work. I have also exported from iMovie as a full quality dv and it has worked.

Interfacing Video Camera to Mac Pro for Final Cut Express HD Use

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