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In forum [http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6928965&#6928965], Christopher Landy said (March 2008): “I have a multicam/multiclip dance performance project which I have completed editing and want to grade in Color. I collapsed the multiclips (per user’s manual) before sending to Color.  I completed the grade, but when I sent it back to FCP6, I received a warning that the in/out points had changed and may effect the sequence and clips, so, I canceled the send. … Apparently Color and Multiclips don’t mix. Had to color correct the old fashioned way.”

“Final Cut 6 (with an update) will recognize XDCAM footage more or less in it’s native format. You import the footage using the Sony Transfer software and it merely puts a QuickTime “wrapper” around the XDCAM footage. It’s still Long GOP like HDV but a better codec. You can render it into discrete frame codec as you say but it is not entirely necessary. I sometimes do and often don’t. I do a final render out in a full frame/intraframe file and then send it to compressor to munch it into whatever final form I need it in.” [http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/sony-xdcam-ex-cinealta/144941-new-avid-release-could-revolution-xdcam.html]

Denoising: We’re talking video here (not audio), with twinkling speckles, e.g. due to low exposure or high gain hence a poor signal to noise ratio.   There aren’t any video denoisers built in to FCP, but plugins exist, both free and commercial.  There is some discussion of these at DvInfo forum [www.dvinfo.net/conf/non-linear-editing-mac/137219-de-noise-plug-fcp.html#post1151393].  The best one I have found so far, at the cost of money and rendering intensity, is Neat Video,  available for most of the major NLE’s, including FCP.

•  The “Too Much Too Soon” (TMTS) filter package [http://www.toolfarm.com/plugins/index.php/Too_Much_Too_Soon_Free_FXScrips] includes a denoiser.  And it is free.
  • Didn’t remove much noise for me, despite setting it to max denoising.
• Joe’s Filters (filter package), commercial, includes a Smart Denoiser.  
  • This worked reasonably well.  It removed most othe dynamic (twinkling) noise but left static pixel variations, presumably associated with pixel variation in the camera’s sensor which as a result were more obvious.  The result was like looking at a clean moving image through a dirt-patchy glass.
  • It was found to be best placed after the levels&colors adjustments, i.e. at the bottom of the filter chain.
• Neat Video [www.neatvideo.com], the best denoiser I have ever been able to find on Windows, is now available for FCP on Mac.
  • Tried the FCP version.  Totally outclasses the ones so far seen.  At the cost of money and (intensive) rendering time.  Well worth it though if you need the highest quality.
  • There is a free demo download but it is crippled to only affects a central rectangle of the image.  So don’t judge it by what happens at the margins region, rather use it as a basis for comparing the denoised central bit.
• CHV - the Repair filter collection, including a denoiser, at [http://www.chv-plugins.com/cms/Fx-Script/Repair-collection/NoiseReduction.php]
  • (I have not yet tried this)

This is now a usable system.

However, for education and possible flexibility, I next intend to identify benchmark tests for both Mac and Windows, run them as-is on standard disks, GRAID and ProAVIO RAID, attempt install MacDrive (via workaround to dodge RAID driver compatibility issues), retest, also try other cross-filesystem tools. Also, for the ProAVIO NTFS partition, want to identify a reliable filesystem synchronizer. ABSynch comes to mind but I have not used it before.

The result was exactly as intended, an MBR partitioning system containing an HFS+ partition and an NTFS partition. Mac OS X was able to read the contents of both partitions. Windows (BootCamp XP) was able to read and write to the NTFS partition.

Now the question is: Can I non-destructively convert the RAID’s partitioning system from GPT to MBR? Non destructively here means I don’t have to wipe the disk (through reformatting etc) and recover the data from backup. The answer is YES! The Mac-based iPartition app does exactly that.

iPartition 3.1.1 (154) did it fine, taking around 6 or 7 hours.

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OK so I have partitions for HFS+ and NTFS but still no extra disk (drive letter) shows up.  XP’s Disk Management tool does list the disk device but allows no operations on it - menu commands are greyed-out.  The tool displays the partitioning system as GPT, which may be a clue:  I think XP is unable to handle GPT-based partitions, only MBR ones.

WinClone worked fine once the BootCamp system disk size had been reduced from 250 GB to 30GB and de-fragged. (more…)

Backed-up to my new RAID1 USB drive:

• Backed-up Mac volume to “Macintosh HD 2009-04-21.dmg”. Presumably I did this via Disk Utility from bootable CD.
• Tried backing-up XP volume by using WinClone. Normally a smooth process but this time I ran into difficulties.

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The “separate partitions” workaround should be simple to try and will provide a basis for a baseline speed test against which to compare the other workarounds.  iPartition can be run not only from its own bootable CD but also from Mac OS. Only under the latter can it see the RAID. Before doing anything though, back-up the system disks, Mac and Win (BootCamp-XP).