Quality of view in FCP

Thank god for people like Andrew Balis!
http://www.kenstone.net/fcphomepage/rendering_qualitybalis.html
and thank god for sites like kenstone.net!
And, for crying out loud, someone at Apple please put this kind of stuff in the manuals.
bogiesan

I've been waiting for something like this to give my students. Thanks for pointing it out bogiesan. And special thanks to Andrew Balis for putting it together for us.

Similar Messages

Create Quality Management view for a Material in background mode

I want to know if there is a way to create a Quality Management View (Quality Management tab) on Material Master (material already extended to plant ) in background mode.
The requirement is to add inspection setup data for a material extended to a particular plant in background. I tried using 'BAPI_MATINSPCTRL_SAVEREPLICA' to add the data and it works perfect as required. Now the problem is this BAPI is creating the inspection setup data only for the material which has QM tab in MM02 for e.g. I manually created the inspection setup for a Material from MM01 and then deleted it , now the BAPI works fine for this material because when I created an inspection setup from MM01 it created the QM tab and after i deleted the entry the tab was still there with no entry in inspection setup.
I want to create inspection setup for a material which does not have QM tab.
I have to create everything is background mode. BDC is one option which I am list interested in.
Thank you for helping in advance.

Thank you for looking into my issue. I have to do the inspection setup in background without using any front end transaction.

Thumbnail view crashing FCP -- Kona3 the problem?

For larger projects, running bins in thumbnail view crashes FCP.
Most of the time, I'm editing 6 to 8 min. stories for a news magazine format show. We shoot on Sony XDCAM, so usually 2 or 3 disks per project (roughly 44 mins of HD viddy per disk, with anywhere from 20 to 120 individual clips on the disk).
However, for our documentaries (either 26 mins or 56mins) we shoot between 30 to 45 disks full of content. When importing the disks into FCP7, we use a bin per disc, translating into an average of 80 clips per bin. Whenever a project is this big, I can only open 3 or so bins in thumbnail view. After that, the system crashes. Even if I only keep one bin open at a time, by that fourth bin, the system crashes.
We are using a KONA3 card configuration.
Anyone else seen this?

PROBLEM IDENTIFIED (NOT SOLVED):
I've had this problem with thumbnail images crashing FCP after opening bins for over a year now and when going back using footage from old projects it happens more frequently. I can open 2-4 bins before it will crash FCP completely.
TROUBLESHOOTING IN THE PAST:
- Dumped Prefs
- Re-installed FCP
- Formatted & Re-installed EVERYTHING (OSX included)
- Increased thumbnail cache size
- Created new projects & bins, etc.
CONCLUSION:
None of the above troubleshooting strategies worked. Increasing the thumbnail cache size may appear to work a little but problem persists with little improvement.
HOW I IDENTIFIED THE PROBLEM:
Only recently have I been working with other formats aside from XDCAM. I've recently incorporated more ProRes files into my most recent project of T2i footage from the Canon DSLR camera. If I open a bin and display thumbnails of the ProRes video clips everything works without a problem. Loading thumbnail bins with the raw .mp4 files also works fine. Only loading XDCAM files will cause FCP to crash. The problem has nothing to do with the Kona card. If you read the posts carefully here and elsewhere you will see the common denominator is the XDCAM encoded video files being displayed as thumbnail icons.
I am using XDCAM EX files at 1080p 30fps. To further isolate this problem as something having to do with the XDCAM files, another user posted on another thread:
*"I am having similar issues with two separate projects. The only commonality between them is XDCam.*
*To possibly isolate it I reinstalled FCP on one system, and installed latest Blackmagic driver on the the same. Both systems are up to date visa vi OS, FCP, and QT.*
*Both still crash with the same regularity as described here."*
Apple, this problem has persisted for more than two years and is a major problem. Just search the forums including this one. Any further upgrades of Final Cut Studio or OS X are worthless until this problem is fixed. A brand new body and interior won't fix a car with a broken engine. Please help!! Please solve this issue with the XDCAM footage in FCP!
If anyone has any solutions or work arounds please notify me. I need it!
[email protected]
/\/\ichael
Message was edited by: MichaelRev1412
Message was edited by: MichaelRev1412

Inferior quality when viewing a built DVD in on a computer

I've seen a few postings with similar problems but have yet to find any good solutions. I'm creating a DVD and many of my client's clients will be viewing it on computers instead of NTSC monitors.
No matter how high I set the encoding bitrate in DVDSP (they say to never go above 8Mpbs - and that's pushing it), the menu screens and text in particular look really crappy when viewed on a computer. I've tried having the text be part of the background instead of a separate graphic, as well as using the text feature in DVDSP. I've run NTSC color filters in Photoshop and the font I'm using is thick and sans serif; but no matter what I do, once the DVD project is built and viewed via the Apple DVD Player (or any player on the computer) it just looks too compressed and not good. I've saved my menu graphics from Photoshop in a variety of formats (ended up using TIFFs), and tried a variety of text colors.
Unchecking "Deinterlace" in the Apple DVD Player makes it look a little better when viewing, but there's no way to automatically force a users computer to change this default setting, so no real help there.
Even further, if I export one of the files as an m2v in a separate app like QuickTime or Compressor and view it in QuickTime, it doesn't look nearly as bad as after DVDSP builds the project and does its encoding. I've tried 2 pass VBR, 1 pass, etc. Pretty much every possible setting/preference.
There has to be some way to improve the quality of still menus and text so that it looks decent on a computer monitor as well as on a TV when building a project with DVDSP.
Does anyone have any tips or suggestions?
Thanks!

Thanks for following up Chris - I apologize for any lack of detail in my posting.
Yes, I am mostly talking about quality concerns with menus though this is not specified in the title of the post. I understand that there is always loss in general quality when compressing as mpeg2, but to be more specific than before, text quality in the menus looks too artifacted around the edges. My client has described it as being "not sharp" and/or blurry.
I have used the proper resolution for the stills in Photoshop, and have experimented with using both 720x480 and 720x534. The problem is not with highlights, as the selected/activated states are separate elements from the text itself (rectangles that appear below the text).
In terms of viewing, I'm aware that scaling up to full screen will degrade the quality. It certainly looks better when viewed at normal size but it would still be nice to be able to control the compression on the still menus so that everything didn't appear as artifacted.
The eye is more forgiving when watching video because of the movement, but on the still menus the loss of quality is much more apparent.
Perhaps (as suggested) encoding the m2vs in Compressor first and then bringing them into DVDSP would yield better results than having the built-in encoder do the job (though my understanding was that it is essentially the same encoder).
My reference to viewing the m2vs in QuickTime was simply to point out the difference in apparent quality when viewing the m2v before DVDSP builds the project - when looking at the m2v in QuickTime the quality appears much better than when you view the DVD project in the Apple DVD Player after the project is built (even though DVDSP is using the same m2v). My concern/question with that issue is just to wonder if DVDSP does some kind of extra compression/encoding on an m2v when it builds the project, and if this can be controlled.
Thanks again for your comments and suggestions.

Quality Management View in MM01

Hi all,
While extending material from one plant to another , how to capture Quality Management View .
Ravi

Hi Ravi,
Check this link, this might help you.
Re: Quality Management
http://www.sap-img.com/sap-qm.htm
Regards,
Chandra Sekhar

Quality Check view foreign key

Headstart Ruleframe Designer6i
Running utility quality check view definition
Report states that complete property for _CG foreign key must be set to "NO" to keep from being generated in DB. However if foreign key is used in formmodule error CDG-3436 is raised : " Invalid Linkage ". I'm I correct in assuming that Complete property has to be set to "YES" and Validation property to "CLIENT" to avoid the errors?

You are correct. I will log this as a bug in the quality check report.
Thanks,
Lauri

I have a HD video clip (MPEG 4), able to watch in VLC in my Mac-book-pro, but not in Quicktime player and FCP X - just seen as full green. Help please to view in FCP X by changing the format or what ever thats required.

I have a HD video clip (MPEG 4), able to watch in VLC in my Mac-book-pro, but not in Quicktime player and FCP X - just seen as full green. Help please to view in FCP X by changing the format or what ever thats required. Thank you.

Thanks for your reply. This video was recorded by my own professional camera, Sony PMW EX 3, two years back. But I am neither a professional cameraman nor an editor. I am just like a beginner in both. I didnt have space in my storage device, so I just copied all my clips, thinking I can edit it latter, without recompressing or editing or whatever I should have done it at that point of time. Now I need to edit it and use it in my profession. I am very upset. Please help me in going step by step to get it in FCP X for editing. Also I would like to know, do I need to buy the Compressor 4 for any reason. I dont mind in buying, if you think it is going to be useful for some reason. Thank you very much in anticipation for any kind of proper guidance.

IMovie capture quality better than anything FCP can offer for consumer DV?

As a newbie to FCP, I have not found Capture, sequence, and export settings that is equal to or better than what iMovie 08 can create. Prior to this, I've been using iMovie 08 which is extremely user friendly. Just plug in the fire wire connections and it auto detects only one setting for DV. I am not sure what format it captures in but it does a good job. When I export out of iMovie 08 I use "using Quicktime" and choose the Uncompressed 8-bit NTSC method. The result is a decent, non-interlaced looking .mov file.
The first time I tried to capture with FCP I chose the easy setup, where I would capture in the NTSC DV, sequence would be NTSC DV and export using the current settings in quicktime. The result was an interlaced and lowered quality vid.
I have also tried the following combinations with no success with quality comparisons w/ iMovie 08:
capt: NTSC dv, seq: NTSC DV, progressive exp: Uncompressed 8-bit
capt: Uncompressed 8-bit, seq: Uncompressed 8-Bit exp: Uncompressed 8-bit
This last one came close, but still iMovie 08 was better.
My assumption is that FCP would contain the settings to duplicate or even out perform iMovie's export quality for consumer video dv. I viewed iMovie as little brother and FCP as big brother. Shouldn't FCP produce equal to or better quality than iMovie 08? And what are the settings for this?
Thanks

Thank you for clearing up my confusion. How is my export from iMovie 08, using "Uncompressed 8-bit" coming out progressive (I see no interlaced, odd/even scan lines)? Is this export dropping lines/information? If so, uncompressed is not an appropriate name for the export.
I understand what you are saying about "getting quality back" on export. My initial question was comparing the quality of an iMovie 08 export vs. FCP export and having the problem of a lowered output from the FCP export.
If anyone has the time, would they try a short experiment:
1. From your DV source, camera or deck connect to your computer
Capture a short clip via iMovie 08 a short clip in standard 4:3.
Export using Quicktime, Uncompressed 8-bit setting
2. From your DV source, camera or deck, connect to your computer.
Capture the same short clip to FCP using Easy set up for NTSC DV. Export with current settings.
3. Compare the two.

Viewer in FCP 5 Skipping Frames

Hey everyone,
This is really annyoing. Everytime I try to watch something in the viewer it goes really slow/skips a lot of frames. I tried puting the playback quality on Safe RT and reduced the playback to low. That did nothing. Is there anyway to fix this so I won't have to scrub anything in the viewer?

I have the same problem, when scrubbing my footage with jkl method I notice skipped frames. My footage is DV-PAL, 3,6 Mb/s. It always worked well with FCP 4.5 and Panther. Now I've installed Tiger and FCP 5.0 (studio pack - updated) and the issue comes over. My G5 is a brand new dual 2,7, 2 Gb RAM, 2x250 Gb sata. The disks are empty, the application is on the system's one and the footage on the other. Does anybody noticed the same issue ?
What should I do ?
Thanks.

AVCCAM Viewer and FCP 6

I just found out that I can use AVCCAM viewer to pull out files from SDHC cards to desktop but problem I could not import to FCP. How?

yes, I use AVCHD. I do use log and transfer on FCP. I notice that log and transfer took forever because I use high quality. I want to get the files from the card and leave desktop and take care of FCP later. Filming on the site and log and transfer will take time. I am concerning. I saw other guy who using SxS that has transfer software, he just pull the files without using FCP and leave on desktop. Files has quicktimes I think that it is cool and fast. I hope that AVCHD has some kind of software that can do same as SxS card.

Proper viewing on FCP

What is the proper viewing that should be set on FCP. When I am acutally looking at what I edit on the timeline. SHould I have it on Fit Window, 100 % etc.
Thanks

Fit to Window.
If you want to see exactly what your footage looks like, you need an external monitor:
Shane's Stock Answer #8: External Monitor Viewing
If you are working with DV, this is simple. First connect your computer to a camera or deck via firewire, Then connect the camera/deck to your TV/Monitor via RCA or S-Video.
Then start up your camera and tv, then open fcp.
Go to the View Menu, choose > External video > all frames
VIEW>Video playback should be Apple firewire NTSC (If you are using an NTSC set)
VIEW>Audio playback should be Audio follows Video
Techinially, this should send synched video to your TV
If for some reason you can't view your timeline on your external monitor, there are a few things to try:
1) Make sure that the camera/deck is connected and powered on BEFORE you open FCP.
2) In the Final Cut Pro menu select AUDIO/VIDEO Preferences and make sure your signal is being sent out thru Firewire DV.
3) Go to the menu and select VIEW>EXTERNAL>ALL FRAMES.
4) Click in the % box above the image and select FIT TO WINDOW.
5) Go to VIEW->refresh A/V devices
6) Make sure the Log & Capture window is closed
If you want it to play in both the canvas and the external monitor you need to go to the FINAL CUT PRO menu and select AUDIO/VIDIO settings and make sure MIRROR ON DESKTOP is selected under the PLAYBACK OUTPUT section.
If you are working with HDV footage, FCP 6 allows you to view this via firewire, but ONLY as downconverted DV. It won't look the best, but you can see it. To do this,
If you need to view any format other than DV at full resolution, then you need to look into capture cards. Several standard definition and high definition models are available from www.aja.com and www.decklink.com. With these options you'll need a proper monitor to view full broadcast colors, but all models allow for realtime standard definition downconvert, allowing you to view HD on an SD monitor.
The Matrox MXO is another option that is output only, but allows you to view your footage on an Apple Cinema Display at full broadcast quality.
Shane

Poor image quality when viewing PDFs in Digital Editions

I recently bought a digital copy of a book in the .acsm file format. The site I bought it from recommended using Digital Editions. I am on a mac, OS X 10.6.3. When viewing this book, there are various screen shots that are essentially illegible in the single or double page format. If I use the zoom feature they become more legible but still of low quality. At first I thought it was the ebook I bought but I think it's Digital Editions, actually. As a test I opened a plain 'ol PDF in Preview that had some screenshots in it - and those looked good. Viewing the same PDF in Digital Editions though, the images were again of low quality.
Digital Editions doesn't seem to have preferences (like most OS X apps) that might allow me to tweak this. Is there something that can be changed in terms of settings to make the images clearer?
Also, as an aside, Digital Editions on the Mac seems to have some delay when I try to copy things from the text. I have to hold the command + c keys longer than I would otherwise in order to get the highlighted text to be copied.

In iTunes with you iPod connected select the Photos tab and check *Include full-resolution photos* and re-sync.

How to keep quality of stills in FCP?

Hi guys
I´m a cameraman not an editor and have a few questions for you.
I have a project coming up where we will do the whole film as a series of stills.
The stills will be shot using a Canon digital SLR camera, then imported to FC
Now, is it a way to import these stills and work with them, make an edit and be able to export the final film either to HD tape or 35mm print with out the stills loosing quality?
I guess it might be a way to work with proxy copies of the stills, then when the edit is finished, somehow replace them with the originals?
Could I even do this in FCE, or is Pro needed?
Any input is welcomed

make an edit and be able to export the final film either to HD tape or 35mm print with out the stills loosing quality?< </div>
The whole thing?
I'd use After Effects at 4k resolution and work closely with your transfer house's engineers BEFORE you start the project. Get their specs and work backwards from there.
FCP could be where you assemble the project's movies form other applications but your moves and effects should be composited in software designed for the job. FCP's motion editing interface is impossibly lame and the rendering capabilities are inappropriately coarse for hi-rez motion graphics.
FCP will handle the editorial and assembly/output tasks easily and can be used with low to medium rez proxies for rough editing. Substituting out your proxies for your high res images and high rez movies can be tricky in FCP so build lots of time into your schedule to get it right.
BTW, there's nothing new about these production techniques. I don't know where else you're looking but there are hundreds, maybe thousands, of blogs and production reports on rostrum camera production technique, including stuff by that Kent Burned guy.
bogiesan

Image quality in Viewer vs Full Screen

I've seen lots of discussions about this in earlier version (pre 1.5x), but they seem to be backward from what I'm seeing. I have an extremely noticable difference in image quality in the viewer vs full screen. At first, I just thought my images weren't any good. Then, I brought the same raw files up in Photoshop and they were pretty good. I looked in Aperture in Full Screen mode, and it was close or equivalent to Photoshop.
Is anybody else seeing the image be downright bad (looks horribly out of focus) in the viewer but good in full screen? I'm not talking about the thumbnails.
I'm using an iMac G5 20". I know that my video card is probably underpowered for this, but that should only affect speed (which is mostly tolerable).
iMac G5 20 Mac OS X (10.4.7)

I think I read in the manual that Aperture uses a different type of on-screen sharpening for windowed, full screen, and show master. Probably trying to speed it up in windowed by using a cheaper method.
They all should look the same when viewed at 100%.
And for what it's worth, I think Aperture does a lot better job than most programs when viewed at odd sizes. I don't have much to compare it to, but iPhoto and Adobe Elements look awful in comparison.

Very Poor Image Quality In Viewer, JPEG Artifacts

I upgraded to Aperture 3 some time ago, and purchased a new Mac Pro specifically for this application. I am an amature/ sometime professional photographer and I have been using Aperture since Version 1. This weekend I finally had some time to sit down with Aperture 3 for some serious work with my scanned film images. These are large TIF masters scanned in with my Nikon CoolScan 9000. Some are medium format black & white Tri-X Pan images, others are 35mm, also black & white Tri-X Pan. Everything scanned in on the Nikon is at the maximum resolution for the master, on the theory that I can always bump it down later if that's necessary.
I am noticing vastly lower image quality in the viewer then with Aperture 2. Specifically, I am seeing massive JPEG artifacts in the viewer image then I have ever seen before. The images also render darker in the viewer then before. These artifacts do not appear when I export my images (say as JPEGS for posting to a web page), or when I print them. The quality of the exported and print images seem just fine and the exported JPEGS are completely free of the artifacts I am seeing in the viewer.
I have tried rebuilding the previews several times, experimenting with different quality settings. I have experimented with different proof profile settings. My printer is an Epson Stylus Photo R1800 and I have tried various paper settings for it as well as other proof profile settings such as the Adobe and Apple RGB settings and the generic grey profiles. Every time I change a setting I have forced a rebuild of the previews to no detectable effect. Nothing I do seems to have any effect whatsoever on the image quality in the viewer which remains relentlessly the same as it always was.
This poor viewer image quality is making it very difficult to work in Aperture 3. I suspect there is a setting somewhere like an easter egg in this new Aperture I haven't found yet but it is becoming very frustraiting and I could use a pointer because, again, nothing I have tried has changed the image quality in the viewer in any way I can detect and the photos look perfectly awful there...darker and loaded with JPEG artifacts. Things export and print just fine, but I need to see what I am going to get in the viewer or I can't do my work.

I interpret this as ... Eventually you should be looking at the Master with the Version changes applied. I'm assuming at this point, you aren't looking at the Preview. Since you don't need Previews to view and edit your images.
Yeah...that's sort of what I gleaned from that text. I was experimenting with the preview settings because I couldn't see any other way to fix the problem. What I'm hearing now is that the problem has no fix. If you scan in black & white film negatives (or anything else that's monochrome I suppose) with the color space set as gray scale you are asking for trouble. The sense I get from the text Gomez Addams referred me to is the behavior in that case is unpredictable, and furthermore film photographers aren't the customer base Apple is trying to cultivate with this product.
Aperture is designed to work with images from digital cameras which use an RGB color space...
Okay...fine. I have several digital cameras I occasionally use for professional work and I am here to tell you Aperture is an absolute blessing for that work. I do shoots every now and then for a local community newspaper and I would not want to live without this product. I remember back when I was a teenager in the 70s being up all night in the darkroom to get an assignment I'd had to cover right before deadline, and then go to my day job the next morning without any sleep. This is much better. And even with the personal art photography it is good to be able to just scan things in and make adjustments in the computer. You can do so much more. I would not want to go back.
But I reckon I need to find something I can rely on for my film work, or at least my black & white film work because as I read this Apple is not supporting film photography with this product and black & white film photography in particular and some of us still use film. No...scanning in my Tri-X negatives in the CoolScan as color produces weird results and anyway Photoshop and GIMP for goodness sakes seem to handle grayscale files just fine. Plus, I've already got thousands of those negatives scanned, I am not rescanning all that in RGB just to satisfy Aperture. The color slide film scans don't seem to be a problem, but that's now. I think I'm being told not to count on That always being the case either.
Aperture is designed to work with images from digital cameras...
Okay...fine...film is old technology after all, Nikon isn't even making their film scanners anymore...check the prices on the few still new-in-the-box ones left out there. My CoolScan 9000 is selling for twice on the second-hand market what I paid for it new and new it wasn't cheap. And yet it's not economically viable for Nikon to continue making them. Film is dying. But I still like working with film and film cameras and I reckon I'll keep doing that until I can't get any more of it and my stash of Tri-X Pan bulk rolls runs out.
Thank you all very much for your help. I think I see what I need to do now.

Quality of view in FCP

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