Archive for the ‘Setup’ Category
Saturday, September 1st, 2012
When I start-up any application, I like to understand at least the main side-effects it’s having on my system. In the case of Adobe’s primary video-editing apps, Premiere and After Effects, my experience (on Windows 7) is that they save intermediate preview-renders to the system volume. This causes me the following concerns:
- System Volume may serve poorly as a media drive.
- Larry Jordan, at least in the recent past, advises against using the system drive for media read/write. On the upside, such drives may have high-bandwidth to the system, but on the downside, the system can interrupt their use with highest priority, whuch may (I guess) pose a risk to smooth playback (though I am aware that buffering may possibly reduce this risk, I haven’t done or seen any such calculations). Cache files are indeed media files that are written and read.
- On the other hand, an informed representative of a well-known UK supplier of video editing laptops advised me that in his experience, most users of laptops with only a single internal drive (as system drive) do use that drive in this way (for portability).
- System drive can become “clogged up”
- System drive can become clogged-up by many or large video files of which that the user is only partially aware, their creation having happened implicitly during their use of the NLE etc. Like temporary files only worse!
- Ultimately the system drive can even become full, making the operating system itself sluggish or even less stable (and video playback less smooth.
- Backup of a system drive that includes media files will typically require significantly greater archive space and will take significantly greater time (than a clean system).
- Migrate-ability is reduced
- I like the idea of a video project being a free-floating data-object. That is, it should not be tied to any particular instance of a data storage volume, let alone a particular computer (system). It should be possible for all files relevant to a project to be stored on any volume, migrated to any other volume, plugged into any computer having appropriate installed applications, and everything to work the same way as when the project was on its original volume being edited on the original system. That includes not only the source media files etc. but also the intermediate rendered files.
So what do the Adobe editing applications provide to enable my preferred working arrangement?
- Premiere:
- [Edit > Preferences > Media]
- This defines the location of the folder [Media Cache Files], which contains pseudorandomly-named files. Example Files:
- [929_4372_01-125eeda9-ba0d-a8ea-4418-3480000001f0.ims]
- [Rendered – 68721ea9-25e9-4f56-8430-4ca10101ace7-04602910-cd54-1a45-a5d7-557b000001f2.ims]
- Default location: [c:\Users\…\AppData\roaming\Adobe\Common]
- [Yes] Save Media Cache files next to originals when possible
- e.g. for my XDCAM-EX files, inside a CLIPR folder (which contains the EX’s “essence” (.mp4) files, in this case [929_4491_01.MP4]), appeared the following files:
- 929_4491_01.MP4 48000.cfa (9.2 MB)
- Unknown, but the “48000” and the “a” on the end of “cfa” are suggestive of audio.
- 929_4491_01.MP4 48000.pek (37KB)
- Simply the peaks (waveform graphics data) file for the audio component of the essence-file.
- Experience:
- I clicked the [Browse] button and selected an area on my external media drive (a GRaid Mini) as: [H:\_App_Specific\Adobe].
- Consequently, at my specified location the following folder appeared: [Media Cache Files]
- Media Cache Database
- Note:
- When Premiere Pro imports video and audio in some formats, it processes and caches versions of these items that it can readily access when generating previews. Imported audio files are each conformed to a new .cfa file, and MPEG files are indexed to a new .mpgindex file. The media cache greatly improves performance for previews, because the video and audio items do not need to be reprocessed for each preview.
- When you first import a file, you may experience a delay while the media is being processed and cached.
A database retains links to each of the cached media files. This media cache database is shared with Adobe Media Encoder, After Effects, Premiere Pro, Encore, and Soundbooth, so each of these applications can each read from and write to the same set of cached media files.
- Location: [c:\Users\…\AppData\roaming\Adobe\Common]
- [Browse]
- If you change the location of the database from within any of these applications, the location is updated for the other applications, too.
- Each application can use its own cache folder, but the same database keeps track of them.
- Example Experience:
- I clicked the [Browse] button and selected an area on my external media drive (a GRaid Mini) as: [H:\_App_Specific\Adobe].
- In response, a prompt came up saying “Move the existing media cache database to the new location, or delete it (Buttons: [Move] [Delete] [Cancel] ).
- I clicked [Move]
- Consequently, at my specified location the following folder appeared: [Media Cache]
- Purging
- [Clean]
- This removes “orphan” cache files.
- To remove conformed and indexed files from the cache and to remove their entries from the database, click [Clean]. This command only removes files associated with footage items for which the source file is no longer available.
- Important: Before clicking the [Clean] button, make sure that any storage devices that contain your currently used source media are connected to your computer.
- [Yes] Write XMP ID To Files On Import
- Check this box to write ID information into XMP metadata fields.
- e.g. hence [929_4491_01M01.XMP] sidecar-file (containing XMP metadata) got written into the CLIPR folder containing its associated media file, here an XDCAM-EX essence file, [929_4491_01.MP4].
- [Yes] Enable Clip And XMP Metadata Linking Check this box to link clip metadata to XMP metadata, so that changing one changes the other.
- Intermediate-Preview Render Files
- None of the above measures affect where intermediate/preview files get rendered to…
- I proved this (in Windows 7) by deliberately causing a render then searching on “Huge” (>16MB) files created “Today”
- Rendered files location was:[C:\Users\…\Documents\Adobe\Premiere Pro\5.5\Adobe Premiere Pro Preview Files\Untitled3.PRV]
- A brief Google revealed several articles where the (sadly now obsolete) solution was a setting under [Edit > Preferences > Scratch Disks]
- Eventually discovered that in CS5.5 these settings now resided in: [Project > Project Settings > Scratch Disks]
- Here, all settings (affecting Capture and Preview) were set to [Same as Project]
- As it happened, my project location was [C:\Users\David\Documents\Adobe\Premiere Pro\5.5].
- Experiment with a different project location:
- Save As: [H:\_Media\_Projects\MyProject\030 Projects\Adobe\Experiments]
-
- The file [Expt A v001.prproj] appeared in it, but that was all.
- Save a Copy: [H:\_Media\_Projects\MyProject\030 Projects\Adobe\Experiments]
- The file [Expt A v001 Copy.prproj] appeared there, but that was all.
- (The file open within Premiere remained as the original, not the copy)
- After a while, the project file was joined by: [Adobe Premiere Pro Auto-Save]
- Experiment to migrate the Preview-Render files:
- In Windows Explorer, I created a folder named [Adobe Premiere Pro Preview Files]
- Into that folder, from the similarly-named folder on the system volume, I dragged the existing folder [Untitled3.PRV]
- Experiment: Premiere “knows” when render-files have gone, and prompts for their possible new location.
- I deleted the project-specific render-files folder on the (external) project-drive.
- I re-rendered, resulting in a fresh such folder, re-populated.
- In Premiere, I Closed the project
- Then in Windows I renamed the project-specific render-files folder, then back in Premiere I re-opened the project.
- Premiere prompted with Browser titled: “Where is the File ‘Rendered – 5ac…..228.mpeg’?”
- I selected the stated file in its newly-renamed folder, Premiere then found all the others there.
- Result: the timeline render-region went green (i.e. “probably playable”).
- Experiment: Once render-files are regarded as “gone”, they cannot be restored.
- I closed the project, ensuring I did not save changes (such as the new location of the render files), then re-opened it.
- As in the previous experiment (since I did not save changes), the render files folder could not be found.
- Premiere thus prompted with Browser titled: “Where is the File ‘Rendered – 5ac…..228.mpeg’?”
- This time however I simply used the [Skip All] option.
- Closed the project.
- Renamed the rendered-files folder back to its original name.
- In Premiere, re-opened the project.
- The timeline region remained red, indication no render-files were associated.
- Experiment: Tidy migration of a project to a new location.
- Warnig: in the case of doing a Copy (which is Windows’ default drag operation between different volumes), take care to ensure the Project (file) is not simply referencing the original preview files at the old location…
- Drag both Project and its folders (including render-file folder) to a new location (e.g. on a new disk).
- If name and relative location of folder are unchanged (as they ought to be, in good practice) then the files will be automatically detected and used, not even a user-prompt.
- Just be sure though that the project isn’t simply referencing the render-files in their original location, if they are still present there. Premiere is “lazy” in this respect.
- Experiment: The relative location of the Rendered Files folder does matter (relative to the project file).
- Tried putting the render files in a non-standard location.
- The “Locate/Browse” prompt appeared
- I located the file
- All at first appeared well, and the corresponding section of the timeline went green
- However, the “Composer” window simply displayed “Media Pending”. That never went away.
- Experiment:
- When migrating, also need to move (or copy):
- The Media Cache directories
- Actually I’m not so sure about this. I tried exiting Premiere, renaming these directories and opening Premiere. It created and repopulated the same directories in their original location, which in my case was an external drive.
- The Source Media files
- http://forums.adobe.com/thread/784220?tstart=0
- I suggest marking each external with the drive letter that the user assigns to it, say Z:\. Then, whenever Z:\ is plugged in, it will always be seen as Z:\. This way, the NLE can keep up with where the Assets are located, starting with the drive letter.
- If one is migrating Projects between computers, they will repeat this exact process in the OS of each computer.
- Note: when doing the migration, ALL Assets, Scratch Disks, and the Project file, MUST be included on that external
Work Procedure for Migrate-ability:
- By associating cache and XMP files with the media (or its essence), Adobe projects are migratable. However adding such files into the BPAV/CLIPR folder structure is considered by some applications to be an adulteration of that structure, requiring their deletion. However, such deletion on an as-needed basis is not too onerous – given it is easy to do and in any case this situaion should rarely arise in practice.
- When using different disks, remember to re-define (in Preferences) the location of cache files etc.
- One work-around would be to -re-set the cache location before opening any individual project.
- Might be hard to remember to do when opening a project from within the NLE, easier to remember when double-clicking a project file in Windows Explorer.still
- I’m not 100% sure what to do about these…
- As noted earlier:
- When doing the migration, ALL Assets (Sources), Scratch Disks (Renders), and the Project file, MUST be included on that external.
- I note that this says nothing about Cache Files etc. …
Posted in Adobe, After Effects, consolidate, file mgt, NLE, Premiere, render, Setup, video, Video Computer Technology | No Comments »
Friday, January 13th, 2012
Following-on from my earlier post, Mobile Video Editing Hardware: Thoughts, Ideas & Dreams, where I considered an eventual migration from my laptop to a luggable PC, my thoughts veered (possibly having spotted cash-icebergs among them) towards an alternative solution:
- Use the laptop for lightweight editing & compositing.
- Use the desktop as a number-crunching RADI-attached server.
The two could be linked by:
- Remote access / remote sessions (some of which via smartphone)
- DropBox, e.g. have an active folder where I can drop Adobe Premiere XML and have it processed remotely by Adobe apps installed there.
Some links:
- http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/01/11/virtualisation_at_home_part_2/
- (There’s no equivalent “_part_1” page. I guess it’s just “Part 2” of that guy’s story).
- DIY virtual machines: Rigging up at home, by Trevor Pott, 11th January 2012 14:33 GMT
- Personal Virtual Machine (PVM) (in use) for about seven years with retail boxed version of Windows XP.
- VM has been moved from virtualization platform to virtualization platform over the years … the most recent incarnation … inside Hyper-V.
- …nothing beats Windows Server 2008 R2. It comes with a top-notch virtualisation platform (Hyper-V), and added RemoteFX support with Service Pack 1. You can still use the desktop operating system for all your HTPC needs, and a single Server 2008 R2 Standard license allows you to run both a host copy and a single virtual instance of Server 2008 R2.
- In my case, the host instance does little more than play movies on the projector via VLC. The virtual instance of Server runs my Plex media server, and aggregates my many storage devices into a single share using DFS.
- Shuttle Inc (Taiwan)
Posted in Adobe, building, collaboration, DropBox, Encoding, file mgt, gigabit, Mac, MacBook Pro, near-line, network, Networking, offline, Premiere, RAID, remote access, Setup, Video Computer Technology, XML | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 10th, 2012
Want a mobile “suitcase” editing system, something more (and more expandable) than a laptop but not too expensive. Primarily to be used for Adobe CS5.5 for media enhancement / editing / compositing etc.
Nearest I found was NextDimension’s range around $7000 I think (but just guesswork – could be way off – would need to get a quote). That would (if true) be around £4500 at current rates. Plus import… NextDimension call such machines “flextops” (Maybe they coined the term? Google searches on it mostly come up with them.)
Apart from the (mil/broadcast-lite but me-heavy) price, it might possibly be undesirably heavy to lug around much. If so (just guessing, not assuming), it would make more sense to go for a modular quick-setup system. So, starting to “think different” in this direction:
- Standard tower, capable of taking new CUDA etc. graphics cards etc. as they emerge, but no need for more than say a couple of disks, maybe if SSD could even get away with just a single disk? (For system and media – inadvisable for traditional disks of course, what about for SSD’s? I have much to learn about SSD’s though).
- “Laptop-Lite” to talk to it. With robust shuttered-stereoscopic HD monitor.
- Gigabit network to NAS fast storage (SSD and/or RAID ?).
Maybe in that case it would be far more logical/affordable to use an existing laptop as a client working together with a luggable tower server, sufficiently light and robust for frequent dis/re -connection and travel. And remote access of course (no heavy data to be exchanged, assume that’s already sync’d). And some means to easily swap/sync applications and projects (data) between laptop and tower, giving the option to use just the (old) laptop on its own if needed. All such options are handy for the travelling dude (working on train, social visits etc.) who also occasionally has to do heavy processing. Then would just need a protective suitcase for the tower, plus another one for a decent monitor for grading etc.
I certainly won’t be spending anything just yet, but it’s good to have at least some kind of “radar”.
(more…)
Posted in Adobe, Avid, backup, building, collaboration, Encoding, file mgt, gigabit, GPU, graphic card, MacBook Pro, near-line, network, Networking, offline, Premiere, ProRes, QuickTime, RAID, remote access, Setup, Uncategorized, Video Computer Technology | 1 Comment »
Thursday, October 27th, 2011
This is a problem I encountered some time ago, when I was running Boot Camp v3.1 on my MacBook Pro. Since then I upgraded to v3.2. I know there’s a v3.3 around but before upgrading I thought it worthwhile to see whether v3.2 had fixed that problem (especially since I couldn’t rule out the possibility of v3.3 reintroducing it). Only one thing to do: prevaricate test.
- Copy file from GRaid Mini (GRm) to Desktop:
- 2GB fine
- 12GB appears ok initially but then fails (to zero b/s transfer rate, then the Grm device “no longer exists”, at least until reboot)
- Reverse: 2GB fails (same way) almost immediately.
OK not good thus far…
Next tried an alternative approach: run W7 as a Virtual Machine on Mac Os via Parallel. I have Parallels v6. Forum search revealed that there is no FW support in either v6 or v7, though the developers seem interested in knowing why people want it.
- 2GB GRm to W7 Desktop: ok
- The reverse: ok.
Had to stop there due to other work – and a very full W7 disk.
The next workaround to consider is attaching a NAS. Ethernet bandwidths can be 1Gbps, hence more than FW800’s 0.8 Gbps, though I wonder if there could be any issues of lag / latency in this approach. I’ll do some research and put up another post about this idea.
Posted in building, file mgt, FireWire, gigabit, MacBook Pro, Networking, Parallels, Setup, storage, test, Uncategorized, Video Computer Technology | No Comments »
Thursday, October 27th, 2011
I attended, working on one of the camera units. Had a great time, learnt lots, at all sorts of levels. Even how to make good use of the Movie Slate application on my iPhone! Link: http://www.fstopacademy.com/
Posted in 10-bit depth, camera technique, codec, collaboration, Encoding, enhance, FCP7, file mgt, film, filters, Final Cut, folder structures, Formats, gamma, grading, iPhone, lens, levels, lighting, logging, moviemaking, MovieSlate, Mpeg StreamClip, Music, ProRes, recording, render, self-organization, Setup, Sony EX XDCAM, Sony F3, Sony FS100, SteadiCam, storage, storyboard, transcode, tutorials, wide-angle, workflow, XDCAM EX, XML | No Comments »
Monday, May 23rd, 2011
Here, I set up a home network. <<Actually this happened about a year ago but only just publishing it now>>. Already I have a small bunch of machines (of various ages) linked either physically (ethernet cable) or wirelessly (WiFi) to a WiFi router-modem onto ADSL. Currently these machines simply use that arrangeent for their own individual internet access. What I want to do is enable some resource-sharing, in particular onto a WiFi hub to be connected to a printer and a hard disk, but also to allow (temporary) access between machines for occasional ad hoc file transfers.
- First, ensure all PCs have easily identifiable names and belong to the same Workgroup (the typical method is to leave this at default i.e. “WORKGROUP” but note that XP’s Network Wizard defaults instead to “MSHOME”).
- For XP:
- From [http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Add-a-device-or-computer-to-a-network]
- Log on to the computer as an administrator.
- Click Start, right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
- Click the Computer Name tab, and then click Change.
- If the workgroup name is not WORKGROUP, change the name to WORKGROUP, and then click OK. Otherwise, click Cancel to close the Computer Name Changes dialog box.
- If you have to change the workgroup name, you will be prompted to restart your computer.
- Next, established whether TCP/IP communication was working OK:
- Gathered a small bunch of computers together for testing.
- From CMD, obtain IP numbers of each computer.
- From each computer, try pinging each of the others.
- Initially had some problems here:
- None of the Windows computers were pingable from any other computer, but that the non-work Windows computers could ping the MacBook Pro.
- The work Windows computer was unable to ping anything.
- On the other hand, they could all ping certain external internet sites e.g. www.grc.com. Some others, such as CNN, reject pings (as possible attacks).
- The problem was in the Firewalls.
- Initially tried the crude solution of disabling the software firewalls.
- Still protected by router firewall. A grc.com test showed all was still well.
- Nevertheless, looked for a more finely-tuned solution…
- Old Compaq: Disabled Windows Firewall. Now it was pingable. Re-Enabled Windows Firewall. It was still pingable. Maybe I succeede in unblocking something?
- Newer desktop with Kapersky: [Firewall > Filtration System > Zones > Settings]
- Now the pings worked OK.
- On PCs, in Windows Explorer, check out My Network Places to see if the other machine showed up.
- Desktop: My Network Places > SharedDocs on OldCompaq
- OldCompaq: My Network Places > Entire Network > Microsoft Windows Network > Workgroup
- It could see itself and the other machine.
- However the other machine required a password. What password?
- Solution: re-run the Network Wizard on the Desktop, this time (unlike before), enable File & Printer Sharing. Now it worked fine.
- Also the PCs were visible on a Mac.
- Now to make the Mac share to the PCs:
- Enable Windows Sharing on macintosh.
- http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-6127492.html
- Finally, looking at Windows 7 as a Virtual Machine under Parallels 5 on a Mac:
- Its default WorkGroup name is WORKGROUP, hence it sees the other machines OK. And it can access their shared folders. But those machines cannot see its files. Solving this problem does not seem so trivial, so I will work on it later and post its solution separately.
Posted in Networking, Setup, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Thursday, December 23rd, 2010
Which modes of Cineform are appropriate under which circumstances:
- Paraphrased from [http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?MessageID=742985&Replies=3, as of 2010-12-23]
- NeoScene and NeoHD uses can select 4:2:2 in any quality.
- High quality is for finished material (e.g. to be output to DVD/BluRay) but if further grading is a possibility then use Filmscan 1
- Neo4K and Neo3D users also get 4:4:4 and 4:4:4:4 support.
- Requesting these modes with (other variants of the software?) will result in a watermark.
- For extensive post, filmscan and 4:4:4 is probably a benefit.
- 4:4:4:4 requires lots of power and raid arrays.
- The uncompressed mode should generally be avoided – it is only intended for camera acquisition to save battery power.
Cineform is a codec for digital intermediates. When used in appropriate ways, it offers visually lossless compression/decompression. Some quality reduction does occur but only to a degree that is not important to (or even noticeable by) most people’s eyes, even after several rounds of compression/recompression. In contrast, delivery formats such as DV, DVD, XDCAM-EX are suitable only for a single round of compression/decompression, and even then are lossy (lose quality) to a degree that many people can notice, especially when playback is paused at a single frame.
Posted in Cineform, codec, grading, Setup, Sony Vegas | 1 Comment »
Thursday, December 9th, 2010
In Windows XP, wanted a folder right-click menu option to bring up a MSDOS command shell. This proved very simple to add, and gave the further benefit of the text-based (command-line) user interface (TUI?) retaining customisations (e.g. green text). The steps were (for Windows XP):
- Windows Explorer: Tools > Folder Options.
- Select the File Types tab.
- Go to NONE / Folder.
- Select the entry labeled Folder
- Press Advanced button.
- Select New
- In the action block type “Command Prompt” (without the quotes).
- In the app block type “cmd.exe” (without the quotes).
- Save and exit Folder Options.
(more…)
Posted in Setup, tidy, util, Windows | No Comments »
Monday, August 30th, 2010
Great article:
- http://marvelsfilm.wordpress.com/2010/04/24/all-new-sony-ex1-picture-profile-for-cinematic-look/
- “(These are) picture-settings that are tailored to my personal taste, with post-processing in mind. Ive been able to use shots right out of the camera without the need for CC, but it does ask for contrast adjustment to taste.”
- “…the matrix corrections in the first profile are to compensate for the green hue the IR filter casts, even after taken a white balance. I use the fluorescent light matrix, simply because it does exactly two things to the picture (and in measurements) that this specific camera demands; it remove the green Sony hue and it is the lowest-noise matrix. It shifts the colour balance towards red/magenta, removing the green hues and preventing your cast from looking terminally ill.”
- “I use Cine 1 gamma almost exclusively because its clearly the most lownoise gamma. I sometimes use Cine 4 indoors with low / existing light. …adjust Gamma on a per-scene basis.”
Posted in filters, gamma, Setup, Sony EX XDCAM, XDCAM EX | No Comments »
Sunday, August 29th, 2010
To change the shortcuts on a the N95 8GB Active Standby screen:
- [Menu key] > Main menu > Tools > Settings > General > Personalisation > Standby mode > Active standby apps.
- You are now presented with a list of seven Shortcut options, representing each of the shortcut icons on the Active Standby display. A box next to the shortcut indicates which function or application it currently represents.
- They are listed Shortcut 1 to Shortcut 7, with Shortcut 1 the icon on the left of the active standby display, and the others running from left to right across, with Shortcut 7 the icon on the far right of the display.
- Select the Shortcut you want to change (e.g. the Shortcut 7 Camera icon),
- A list of options appears onscreen – although you get a view of only six at a time (Figure 12). Scroll through the list until you find the shortcut you want to add to replace the existing icon. Highlight the application required and press the [OK] softkey. You are taken back to the Active Standby apps. menu. The box next to the modified Shortcut option has the required new application name.
- If you have finished making changes, press the red Call End key to return to the standby screen.
Based on the article “How to customise shortcuts on the Nokia N95 8GB” at http://www.knowyourmobile.com/nokia/nokian958gb/nokian958gbuserguides/8391/how_to_customise_shortcuts_on_the_nokia_n95_8gb.html as of 2010-08-29.
Posted in Nokia N95, Setup | No Comments »
Saturday, August 7th, 2010
Here are the steps that worked for me:
As it happened, this whole process was a distraction. I was trying to get a BootCamp-W7 Virtual Machine (VM) in Parallels working – it would boot OK in BootCamp but not Parallels. It was a matter of identifying the problem by excluding other possibilities, as much as hoping for this to be the fix. However I record the process I went through, here, for posterity.
Posted in Boot Camp, Mac, MacBook Pro, Parallels, Setup, Windows, Windows 7 | No Comments »
Sunday, May 16th, 2010
Can use Wester Digital’s MyBook drive on a network featuring multiple OSs, such as Mac OS as well as Windows, provided one does not install MioNet (bundled with the drive). My instincts were right then (I did not install it).
In my case, the drive is formatted as NTFS, on a Mac it simply appears automatically in Finder then Mac OS is able to read it (Mac OS is able to read NTFS). In retrospect, maybe would have been better to format it as HFS+ since then Windows could use MacDrive to not only read but write to it. Meanwhile on Windows I found it necessary to run the “Discover” application bundled with MyBook, which configures the network drive mapping (to a drive letter).
Posted in file mgt, Mac, MacDrive, microsoft, network, Networking, Setup, storage, Windows | No Comments »
Thursday, January 7th, 2010
Need to establish a better home network, e.g. so Parallels on my Mac can see my Windows laptop, so it can suck the XP out of it. Also want shared printer etc. (I have a node for that). Just a question of setting it all up…
Posted in linux, Mac, Networking, Parallels, Setup, Windows | No Comments »
Thursday, January 7th, 2010
After having installed FCS3 (feat.FCS7) and its XDCAM Transfer plugin, I did an Apple Software Update. As expected, this detected an available update for “Pro Applications”. Among those updates listed was one for Soundtrack Pro, described as “Fixes issue with installer”. What does that mean? I already installed it. Should I uninstall and reinstall it ? I’ll do nothing until I find out for sure.
After that update , there were no further updates.
Posted in Final Cut, Setup | No Comments »
Thursday, January 7th, 2010
The XDCAM Transfer plugin allows FCP to easily ingest footage in the format generated by XDCAM-EX cameras such as the EX3. Unlike FCP6, where it was also advised to load a “FAM Driver” (as a separate plugin), this is not appropriate for FCP7 (explained below)
From the ReadMe phase of the ‘Install XDCAM Transfer’ installer dialog:
XDCAM FAM driver and tool.
Mount Professional Discs in XDCAM devices connected by FAM (i.LINK) in the Finder.
Note: The XDCAM FAM driver and tool are not compatible with Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard and are not installed.
XDCAM Transfer main application.
Preview clips from XDCAM and import your selected material as QuickTime movies. XDCAM Transfer supports the PDW-U1 XDCAM Drive unit and Professional Memory Cards recorded with the PMW-EX1 camcorder.
Sony XDCAM Import and Export plug-ins for Final Cut Pro.
Initiate transfers from XDCAM directly into a Final Cut Pro project and render your Final Cut Pro sequence directly onto a connected XDCAM disc.
Final Cut Pro XDCAM presets.
Configure your sequence and export settings to be compatible with XDCAM. The XDCAM HD422 presets replace those installed by Final Cut Pro 6.0.3.
XDCAM Transfer User Guide.
Found in the Documentation folder of this disk image and also available from the Help menu of the XDCAM Transfer application after installing the software.
Posted in Final Cut, Setup, Snow Leopard, Sony EX XDCAM, XDCAM EX | No Comments »
Thursday, January 7th, 2010
As a first experiment (with how well or not FCS3 would run), I installed the upgrade to a new machine.
Groundless concerns:
- There is no hassle over installing it on a second machine. The license allows it and there is no Deactivation etc required. Only if both machines are on the same network will it complain.
- It was not necessary for the target machine to have the previous version of FCS installed.
The update physical form was a cardboard box measuring about (by eye) 5x5x1.5 inches. Its main contents were 7 data-DVDs, a nice concise booklet and some formal documentation, one of which had the serial number printed (twice). Installing the system took a few hours.
The main installation disk additionallycontained electronic documentation. I copied it to :
- Boris Calligraphy User guide
- Exploring Final Cut Pro 7
- Same as the booklet that came in the box.
It also contained “Extras”, as follows:
- AppleQmasterNode.mpkg
- Allows a computer to act as a node in a render-farm, in support of Compressor. If you are unsure which role each computer will play in your network, just install the Apple Qmaster software on each computer in your network. You can sort out the details later. [http://documentation.apple.com/en/appleqmaster/distributedprocessingsetupguide/index.html#chapter=2%26section=2%26tasks=true]
- I started its installer but it asked whether I wanted to let this computer be used as a rendering node. I had already been asked that question when loading the main FCS3. So maybe it was loaded already. Decided that FCS was probably best left alone in this respect, so I aborted the install.
- CORRECT: While following QMaster tutorial [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTrxEAPGY5Y] I checked existing System Preferences for QMaster and they were already there, it was already enabled for sharing.
- In contrast, when I checked the same for my older machine running FCP6, its QMaster was not enabled for sharing. Of course I fixed that immediately.
-
- BUT in both cases (both machines) the options were greyed-out.
- For the newly-installed FCP7 machine, Options for selected service (Compressor) said “Selected Service On (2 instances). Sounds like it’s using both cores OK.
- For the older FCP6 machine, it said “Selected service On (1 instance)”. But its an 8-core machine. So maybe something is not quite right…
- Then again it might be a “feature” of no significance, just run a render and check Activity Monitor to see if all cores are being used [http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=7315551]. The discussion (like some others) also suggests not using all the cores available.
- DVX-100 Audio Sync Tool
- DVX-100 is a camcorder by Panasonic. Broadly EX3-like and film-ish e.g. 24P)
- I don’t need this, so I won’t install it.
- Head Leaders for Cinema Tools
- Countdown etc.
- A number of prebuilt QuickTime clips have been included to use as head leader in your edited sequences. Using these head leader clips is preferable to selecting the “Start with 8 seconds of leader” checkbox in the Export Film Lists dialog because these clips also contain Picture Start, countdown, and an audio pop at the 2-second mark. [‘Head Leaders Read Me’ file]
- I guess they’re intended to be copied somewhere (?). I put them at […/Documents/Final Cut/FCS 07]
- Spotlight Importer
- Spotlight importers should be provided by all applications that support custom document formats. A Spotlight importer parses your document format for relevant information and assigning that information to the appropriate metadata keys. [http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/DOCUMENTATION/Carbon/Conceptual/MDImporters/Concepts/WritingAnImp.html]
- In other words, it allows Spotlight to search withinapplication-specific files.
- But when I tried installing it, it said “The domain/default pair of (com.apple.dock, loc) does not exist”. Don’t know what it means but it sounds broken… Either way, I can’t install it, so must abandon it.
- Template Intro Movies for DVD Studio Pro
- Blocks, corporate, mosaic, stripes, smoke…
- I guess they’re intended to be copied somewhere (?). I put them at […/Documents/Final Cut/FCS 07]
Posted in activation, Compressor, Final Cut, Mac, Setup, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Monday, January 4th, 2010
Further config items:
- Safe-Boot (hold shift-key down when booting)
- Create a “Default Everything” account.
- Disable bluetooth (is enabled by default) and also disable its Discoverable property.
- RightClick on the bluetooth icon at Mac’s top-right “system tray”
- Which graphic card (GPU) is in use? According to “About This Mac”, it is the lower-powered 9400M instead of the higher-powered 9600GT (both are NVIDIA GeForce). How do I change it to the higher-powered one?
Posted in GPU, Mac, Setup | No Comments »