In forum [http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=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.”
Archive for the ‘Blogroll’ Category
MultiClips don’t work with Apple Color (allegedly, as of March 2008)
Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009XDCAM EX usage in Final Cut – An experienced user’s explanation, confirmation and tips
Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009“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]
Final Cut Effects for Video Denoising
Sunday, May 31st, 2009Denoising: 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)
Plan the next steps
Sunday, April 26th, 2009This 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.
Success: Both Mac and Windows can now use the RAID !
Sunday, April 26th, 2009The 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.
Convert GPT to MBR (non-destructively via iPartition)
Sunday, April 26th, 2009Now 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.
NTFS partition not visible to XP – because it’s GPT
Saturday, April 25th, 2009OK 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 OK After Windows Pruned
Saturday, April 25th, 2009WinClone worked fine once the BootCamp system disk size had been reduced from 250 GB to 30GB and de-fragged. (more…)
Back-up the System Volumes
Friday, April 24th, 2009Backed-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.
How to Partition the RAID
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009The “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).
Workarounds
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009Regardless of which product is to blame, what work-arounds are there?
- Split the RAID into separate partitions for Windows and for Mac filesystems.
- Alternative RAID card e.g. by Promise Technology.
- Convert the filesystem itself between Windows and Mac formats, by using iPartition (which I already have).
Mac: HFS+ accessibility to BootCamp-XP
Tuesday, April 21st, 2009OK so the RAID itself is now accessible to Windows (BootCamp-XP) but since it is formatted as HFS+ the filesystem does not mount as a Windows disk. Reseller helped investigate this further.At first, attempted use of MacDrive 7. a product that (as I understand it) lets Windows apps see HFS+ filesystems (e.g. disks). However after installation, windows kept booting then BSOD then rebooting etc… Exited by forcing a safe boot then uninstalling MacDrive. A query to MacDrive suppliers confirmed it was not compatible with the RR driver: (more…)
DV->AviSynth->VFAPI Problem solved: DV Codec & RGB24
Monday, April 13th, 2009Had an AviSynth script which used to work OK on my old PC but not on my new one.
The first problem was that AviSynth’s AVISource command failed to find a codec for the DV (AVI) file I was trying to read. DirectShowSource worked OK but AVISource didn’t, implying that there was no VFW codec for DV functioning on the new PC. Indeed, the new machine had no DV Codec installed – because there isn’t one as default in XP. When I installed the MainConcept’s DV Codec then the problem went away.
Next issue was when I put the AviSynth scipt thru VFAPI, it produced an audio-only stream. Indeed in retrospect when I had dragged the file to VFAPI the video options had been greyed-out. Same script worked OK on the old PC. GSpot revealed that it worked on the old PC because that PC included an “RGB Color Space Convertor” DLL, namely LMVRGBxf.DLL. This turned out to be part of Nero, which was indeed installed on the old PC but not the new. Begs the question of whether such a file should ideally be on a PC and if so what are the choices? Regardless, taking note of the “colour space convertor” description, guessed (correctly) that all I had to do was alter the end of the AviSynth script to use ConvertToRGB24 instead of ConvertToRGB32.
With those two fixes, VFAPI processed both video and audio aspects of the DV file and consequently the resulting *_vfapi.avi file was now fully (video and audio) playable in both Media Player and Sony Vegas.