HD For Indies

Apple has updated a number of their Knowledge Base documents on Final Cut Pro and video related stuff. New Goodies:

Final Cut Pro 5: Issues with setting an initial Scratch Disk - nice details, nothing magical going on here.

Final Cut Pro 5: Tips for using devices that handle both HDV and DV

OK, this one's a big enough deal I'm going to summarize:

-don't use "Auto" when capturing, explicitly specify whether DV, HDV, 4:3, 16:9, etc.
-quit FCP before setting up for a new session so you can start "clean", and don't fire up FCP until HDV device is on, tape loaded, and configured
-quit FCP before changing modes (DV/HDV) - apparently, There Are Issues if you don't
-and of course, avoid recording DV and HDV on the same tape, or recording 50i and 60i on the same tape (if using a Z1U, for instance)

More details in the article, but very sound advice!

Final Cut Pro: Assemble Editing with a Panasonic D5

If you're trying to master using Edit to Tape in FCP, there are clearly some "woopsies" involved. If you're not recording at the in point, having your In points occur a few frames early, or getting duped frames at In point, this is something that isn't quite perfectamundo with a Panasonic D5 deck. Read for workarounds and fixes. My takeaway on this is that D5 doesn't quite do right. And since D5 users represent about 0.005% or something like that of FCP users, I wouldn't expect the FCP team to be leaping over themselves to be fixing it pronto the way they would for a DV issue, for instance.

Cinema Tools and Final Cut Pro: Limit file size for reverse telecine - apparently, if doing reverse telecine to remove 3:2 pulldown, files larger than 2.5 GB can create problems. They suggest splitting large files or recapturing to end up with clips smaller than about 2.5 GB. Well, HELL! If it were 2.5 TB I could understand that limitation. But 2.5GB is only about a minute and a half of 10 bit 4:2:2 NTSC video. Harrumph! That blows. (Or should I say blowzors in dork-o-matic leet-speak?)

Shake 4: Using Convert and Adaptive retiming with the existing field workflow

OK, here's one for the Advanced Class - if you know what you're doing in Shake (and that's NO SMALL ASSUMPTION) - here's some tips on retiming clips and dealing with fields, 3:2 pulldown removal, retiming, etc. A lot of boils down to "this stuff be slow, why don't you pre-bake it and save yourself a lot of time?"