June 28th, 2009
Problem: laptop ethernet connection to broadband via router didn’t work, but connection via WiFi (to another router) did work. The “didn’t work” behaviour expressed itself in the form of:
- Took ages “acquiring network address” (ultimately failed)
- Error message: “Limited Or No Connectivity”.
- Attempted use, e.g. web browser access to Google, failed.
The solution, from http://compnetworking.about.com/od/windowsnetworking/ht/limited-connect.htm:
- ” 3) Check your network card to make sure its configured correctly and working properly. Many times setting the network card to 10Mbps/Full Duplex will solve this issue. To do this, open Control Panel, System, Device Manager. Go to the properties of the Network card, click on the Advanced tab and find the Link Speed and Duplex section. Change it from Auto Detect to 10Mbps/Full Duplex.”
Posted in Networking, Windows | No Comments »
June 22nd, 2009
Automatic
Discovered at: http://prepshootpost.blogspot.com/search?q=
The Levelator is a freeware application (for various OS) that automatically evens out multiple audio sources:
“It’s software that runs on Windows, OS X (universal binary), or Linux (Ubuntu) that adjusts the audio levels within your podcast or other audio file for variations from one speaker to the next, for example. It’s not a compressor, normalizer or limiter although it contains all three. It’s much more than those tools, and it’s much simpler to use. The UI is dirt-simple: Drag-and-drop any WAV or AIFF file onto The Leveler’s application window, and a few moments later you’ll find a new version which just sounds better.”
“So how do we calculate levels and process audio for The Levelator? We first isolate segments that are silent and remove them from the calculations. We define silence as audio segments which have no subsegments of 50 ms or more where the RMS is greater than -44.0dB. We then compute the RMS value of the remaining segments and normalize them to our target RMS level of -18.0dB.
The above is actually a drastic simplification of The Levelator’s processing, which takes into account a number of subtleties when dealing with certain real-world sources. For example, the silence threshold of -44.0dB is not reasonable if the audio before normalization is already very quiet. The -44.0dB value is therefore used only after the overall RMS is first normalized to near that target. This requires an iterative calculation. The Levelator processes an entire audio file, not a continuous stream, so we have the advantage of infinite lookahead and the ability to make multiple passes over the data in large and small chunks.”
Posted in Mac, Video Computer Technology, Windows | No Comments »
June 22nd, 2009
Mac/FCP add-on to automatically synchronize multicam clips based on their audio content.
Discovered in article at: http://prepshootpost.blogspot.com/search?q=
The article says: “…PluralEyes … syncs up multi camera footage without use of timecode. It’s in beta and you can download and try it out yourself. (In the article author’s tests) it worked on about two out of every three clip pairs. When it worked, it was perfect, effortlessly lining up and then converting clips into a multicam clip in the browser.”
Video: http://www.singularsoftware.com/autosync/
”
System Requirements:
- OS X 10.4.11 or later
- Final Cut Pro 5.1.4 or later
- PluralEyes analyzes the audio content, so all clips to be synced need to have an audio track.
Posted in Final Cut, Mac, Video Computer Technology | No Comments »
June 9th, 2009
Once captured, the next problems are backup and archive. Here is one man’s solution:
- We capture to a 2TB drive and edit from it as well. Then once it starts to get full, we use Retrospect Backup software to move files from the 2TB drive to smaller removable drives. Retrospect keeps track of the drives and once they fill up, you can just add another one. The main reason we do it this way is that Retrospect keeps track of all the data so that it’s very easy to find and restore projects. You can view them by the date you saved them or you can simply do a search…even for individual files. Plus, because they are firewire 800 drives, the restore process is very quick (at least it is right now with standard def DV footage….HD footage will take up more space)
- [http://promaxsystems.blogspot.com/2008/01/promaxs-xdcam-ex-workflow-video.html]
- It also has other useful info e.g. the transfer rates experienced in practice.
Posted in Mac, Sony EX XDCAM, Video Computer Technology | No Comments »
June 9th, 2009
Forum thread on how to ingest EX footage into FCP (via ShotPut and XDCAM Transfer).
It includes a cool screencast video tutorial by Matt Davis:
The point of doing it his way is that it makes thinks more foolproof than the more basic “just load it in” approach and does so in a fashion that is semi-automated.
Posted in Final Cut, Sony EX XDCAM, Video Computer Technology | No Comments »
June 5th, 2009
Mac OS and Windows machines can now interact over a shared network.
The link below mainly covers:
- Connecting to Active Directory with Directory Utility
- Using Entourage with Exchange
- Communicating via Messenger and OCS
- Bridging the platforms with virtualization
[http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2008.12.interacting.aspx]
Posted in Mac, Windows | No Comments »
June 5th, 2009
“To get work from Mac to PC, don’t use HTF, use an NTFS formatted drive running NTFS-3G for Mac OS X [http://macntfs-3g.blogspot.com] on the Mac. Then the files will transfer without issue. “.
This advice was found on the CineForm thread at DvInfo.net [http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/cineform-software-showcase/146485-workflow-problem-switching-footage-pc-mac.html]
NTFS-3G is a read/write NTFS driver for several operating systems including Mac OS X.
System requirements:
- * Mac OS X 10.4/10.5, running on an Intel or PowerPC computer.
- * MacFUSE 2.0.2/2.0.3 or later installed.
The package has been tested with Mac OS X 10.4.11/Intel and Mac OS X 10.5.6/Intel.
[http://macntfs-3g.blogspot.com]
Credentials/Claims [http://www.ntfs-3g.org]:
- The NTFS-3G driver is a freely and commercially available and supported read/write NTFS driver for Linux, Mac OS X, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenSolaris, QNX, Haiku, and other operating systems. It provides safe and fast handling of the Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 and Windows 7 file systems.
- NTFS-3G develops, quality tests and supports a trustable, feature rich and high performance solution for hardware platforms and operating systems whose users need to reliably interoperate with NTFS.
- The driver is used by millions of computers, consumer electronics devices for reliable data exchange, and referenced in over 35 computer books.
Posted in Mac, Uncategorized | No Comments »
June 5th, 2009
According to a CreativeCow thread [http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/223/9886], with the right updates art least, it is possible to pass both XDCAM EX native files and ProRes derived from them into Color.
Now I am well-confused, because:
- I had the impression that Color would only accept Sequences, not Files.
- That impression came from info quoted in an earlier post.
- As I understand it, ProRes is part ofQuickTime:
Being fully-engrossed on PC-based projects, I am unable to verify any of these
Posted in Final Cut, Mac, Sony EX XDCAM, Uncategorized | No Comments »
June 5th, 2009
According to CineForm NEO HD FAQ [http://techblog.cineform.com/?cat=69] as of 2009-05-05:
“Color does NOT support QuickTime codecs. Instead, Color only allows
certain codecs that have been compiled into the code to be used. Apple
is aware of this limitation, but they havent been to quick to solve
the problem.”
Whaaaaat!?!?! If so then that’s astonishing(-ly uncool).
On the Mac, Cineform uses the QuickTime wrapper, hence:
“CineForm files currently do NOT work in Apples Color application.”
Posted in Cineform, Uncategorized, Video Computer Technology | No Comments »
June 3rd, 2009
[http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8516605�]:
<<<
Posted: Nov 24, 2008 1:57 PM
- Problem:
- I have FCP Studio w/ Color loaded, as well as Soundtrack and Motion, however when I right click on the clip and choose the “send” to option Color is not part of the drop down menu where Motion and Soundtrack both are.
- Solution:
- Only Sequences can be sent to Color, not individual clips
- You can either send the whole sequence to Color or create a new sequence (command+N) copy and paste your desired clip/s and send that new sequence by either control/right clicking the new sequence in the browser>send to> Color or go to File send to>Color.
- You can still send your highlighted clip to Color and the application will open keeping your clip highlighted but the rest of the sequence will show up too.
- Please note that communication between FCP and Color is handled thanks to XML transfer.
>>>
Posted in Final Cut, Uncategorized | No Comments »
June 3rd, 2009
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.”
Posted in Blogroll, Final Cut | No Comments »
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]
Posted in Blogroll, Final Cut, Sony EX XDCAM, Video Computer Technology | No Comments »
May 31st, 2009
I like to have a feel for bandwidths – roughly how big these things are and why. Especially when I start running out of storage space and having to purchase additional disk drives etc… Also I like to get a handle on how adequate my RAID will be for capturing uncompressed HD. Google-search & calculations:
- In the case of HD-SDI (1080i50), bitrate is around 1.5 Gbps [http://www.filmmakermagazine.com/fall2006/line_items/hdmi.php]
- In our case we have 720p50, but that apparently has about the same uncompressed bandwidth as 1080i50, namely 1.5Gbps [http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?showtopic=9100]
- My system has a RocketRaid+ProAVIO RAID5 arrangement. I have not yet tested its uncompressed capture ability (I havea BlackMagic card), but it (if I’ve calculated it right), it looks like it should handle it easily.
- RocketRaid themselves report tests [http://www.highpoint-tech.com/PDF/RR2522/RR2522_Performance_Report.pdf] involving an AJA capture card and a RAID5 array (as is mine) giving read and write speeds at about 400MBps (=3.2Gbps, because B i.e. Bytes = 8*b = Bits).
- If I understand this right, my system has a capture bandwidth twice that an uncompressed HD signal. Plenty of headroom then.
- ProRes’s 123 Mbps is not far off the “100Mbps” figure often mentioned in relation to the Convergent Design flash memory recorder, at which level the recording, compressed (as is ProRes) in a variant of MPEG2, is regarded as almost indistinguishable from uncompressed.
Posted in Mac, Uncategorized, Video Computer Technology | No Comments »
May 31st, 2009
Suppose you added an effect to the timeline and as a result it shows a red “Unrendered” (or “Needs Rendering”) line above it. You press Command-R (say) and rendering happens and now you can play it in real-time. But what exactly is this rendering? What format is it in and where does it go, i.e. what file(s) in what folder(s) ?
- The rendered file appears in a project-specific subfolder of the Rendering folder of FCP’s Scratch area. In my case I defined the latter to be on the RAID.
- Location was: [RAID_ProAVIO/App-Specific/Final_Cut/ FCP_Scratch/Render Files/Voda 2009 Estab 001/]
- Example file name is: “Sequence 1-WP1-00000001“
- The coding format is ProRes 422 – Standard, not High Quality (which would be overkill). This is good news!
- VideoSpec displays its FourCC code to be “apcn”
- The rendered file’s bitrate, according to VideoSpec, is an average of 123Mbps, around four times that of the HDCAM EX high-quality mode (35Mbps). Nevertheless a great reduction on the uncompressed bitrate (around 1.5 Gbps) and broadly comparable to Convergent Design’s 100Mbps, judged by some to be virtually indistinguishable from uncompressed quality. So it bodes well.
Posted in Final Cut, Mac, Uncategorized, Video Computer Technology | No Comments »
May 31st, 2009
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)
Posted in Blogroll, Final Cut, Uncategorized, Video Computer Technology | No Comments »
May 31st, 2009
Basic effects from my point of view are color curves, color correction and denoising. Indeed the test footage I had was in dire need of all these enhancements. Here, I began seeking how to do a simple levels adjustment, hoping to move on afterwards to S-Curves as in Sony Vegas. However even for simple levels adjustment the process in FCP turned out not to be as simple as I hoped… Probably the best solution was FCP’s 3-Way Color Corrector. Had high hopes for using Apple Color (the application, not a fruit-specific effect) but for some reason FCP’s “Send to Color” option was greyed-out.
To begin with, here are some handy tips:
- FCP: FCP > User Preferences: Undo Levels -> 99, Recent Clips -> 20 (max poss)
- Playing the Unrendered: Some kinds of effects cause a red line to appear above the affected part of the timeline, meaning essentially that the effect is so heavy on CPU that it can’t be played in real-time and must first be rendered (e.g. hit Command-R), then the red line disappears and it plays smoothly. For me, such renders typically take a minute or two – boring and frustrating when all you want to do is experiment with settings etc. There is however an alternative: Alt-P for “force rendered playback”. Not so smooth but far less boring. Reference: [http://forums.dvdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=42108]
Now the actual Effects experiments:
Posted in Final Cut, Mac, Uncategorized, Video Computer Technology | No Comments »
May 31st, 2009
Following advice passed on from Sony (by Obi Lidobe/Ejukene), I installed latest Mac versions of Sony XDCAM support software [from www.sonybiz.net/EX under Tools/Downloads], namely:
- Final Cut Pro XDCAM Transfer v2.9.0
- Clipbrowser v2.5
- SxS Device Driver
- XDCAM EX Log&Transfer Utility v1.0
- This set of items presumably constitutes the “separate plug‑in from Sony … required to enable (the XDCAM EX) features”.
Tried using FCP to see if the new XDCAM EX features are now available:
- FCP: FCP >Easy Setup: The nearest obvious template was “XDCAM HD”. But does that cover “XDCAM EX” or only their older optical disk based XDCAM ?
- FCP: File > Import > Sony XDCAM Transfer
- Transfer: required setup of cache folders etc. Default was on personal area of Mac HD. Chose instead to put it on my RAID: [/App-Specific/Sony XDCAM Transfer], with subfolders /Cache, /Import, /Export Scratch. Can change these later on under [Sony XDCAM Transfer > Settings]
- Transfer: File > Add Sources. Can select multiple files. Can access NTFS-captured files in original Sony (BPAV) folder structure. Automatically queues job to build thumbnails (only does that, doesn’t convert the files to anything yet).
- Transfer: Thumbnails appear. Can multi-select them.
- Do [Transfer: (Files) > (RtClk) > Import]. This generates equivalent QuickTime (“.mov”) files to the Import folder you specified earlier under Settings. QUESTION: Does one have to define such settings individually for each project? How best to organize their location? The size of this equivalent file is almost identical to that of the original “.mp4” file (in the EX’s BPAV folder). Presumably it is the same codec (data), just re-wrapped. QUESTION: Would it be better to import them to ProRes (since this – unlike the XDCAM EX format – is a non-GoP format)?
- Incidentally, the [Transfer: (File) > (RtClk) > Export Clips to Folder] option generates equivalent “.mxf” files, again broadly the same size, prompting for the destination folder. QUESTION: Is this intended for foreign NLE’s such as Avid or Vegas rather than FCP? Is it “export” in the sense of “from FCP to outside world”?
- As a result of the [Transfer: …Import] operation, “.mov” files exist in the Import folder (as defined in Settings) and also they are listed in FCP’s Browser (top-left pane).
- FCP: Drag one of these files to Timeline. Prompts: “Not the same format – change?”. Say YES. So I guess my doubts about the appropriateness of the HDCAM HD template were justified. QUESTION: What format is it now then?
- FCP: (Sequence) > (RtClk) > Properties: 50fps, 1280×720, Compresor = (XDCAM EX 720p50 (35 Mb/s VBR) ). QUESTION: Does that imply that when the Sequence is rendered (as in getting rid of the “Needs Rendering” red line), it is rendered to this same format? QUESTION: To reduce generational losses (in this highly compressed format), would I be better off setting this to be ProRes, and if so then what format? Presumably if the original clips had been imported to ProRes, I would have been automatically prompted for that Sequence setting when I dragged those imports onto the Timeline (from FCP Browser).
- Also presumably the ProRes approach would benefit external (to the FCS system) workflows e.g. enhancement in VirtualDub (via the Windows read-only version of the ProRes codec, just a “Dec”oder). In that scenario, the external Windows app would have to write to some other broadly equivalent format such as Cineform. Is there a Cineform decoder for Mac? If I had it, would the [FCP: File > Import] or some other way be able to import (convert to FCP-friendly format) that format? Not just a case of re-wrapping but re-compression. Would I have to use Compressor in principle – and is it capable of it in practice?
Posted in Final Cut, Mac, Sony EX XDCAM, Uncategorized, Video Computer Technology | No Comments »
May 31st, 2009
- Googled for any well-known solution to the lack of 720p50 support. An article from Nov 2007 at the Aulich & ADamski website [http://www.aulich-adamski.de/en/perm/720p50-capturing-editing-in-final-cut-pro] said that the previous (to then) lack of 50p support in FCP had been addressed in updates (at that time) to Final Cut Pro, Motion, DVD Studio Pro, Color, Cinema Tools, Soundtrack Pro and QuickTime Pro.
- At [www.apple.com/support/releasenotes/en/Final_Cut_Pro_6.0_rn] the Release Notes of Final Cut indicated that XDCAM EX support had been added in FCP version 6.0.2. This support included for XDCAM EX 720p50 VBR as per my footage.
- Notes also said: “Important: A separate plug‑in from Sony is required to enable these features”. But no actual link etc. was stated…
- Notes also said: “Once you ingest your XDCAM EX footage to QuickTime media files on your scratch disk, you can simply choose the XDCAM EX Easy Setup that corresponds to your footage and edit as you would with any other native format in Final Cut Pro”. So at least now I know my footage should be ingested to QuickTime not MXF.
- Notes also said, re “50p Support”: “Along with support for a number of recent 50p video formats, Final Cut Pro 6.0.2 includes support for 50 fps timecode in all timecode fields and project properties. A new 50 @ 25 timecode format has been added for deck support and EDL compatibility with 50 fps formats. Note: Motion, Color, and Soundtrack Pro now support 50p footage as well.
- Notes also said, re “Updating Motion and Motion Templates”:Final Cut Pro 6.0.2 master templates require Motion version 3.0.2 or later. By upgrading to Motion version 3.0.2 or later, you take advantage of important fixes and improvements made in the Motion application and templates.”
- I checked the version of my installed Motion and it was indeed 3.0.2.
- Setting up an FCP project (though not specifically XDCAM EX): article at [http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/project_setup_fcp6_balis.html]
- Organizing FCP project disks/folders/files in a tidy fashion: article at http://www.larryjordan.biz/articles/lj_archive.html
- How to render for a DVD [http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1991874&tstart=0]: “Make sure you sequence is rendered and then export a Quicktime using current settings with compression markers and do not make it self-contained (assuming you compressing on the same machine). In Compressor pick a DVD setting that works for you delivery.”
Posted in Final Cut, Mac, Sony EX XDCAM, Uncategorized, Video Computer Technology | No Comments »
May 31st, 2009
Initial Stumbles
- Shot footage on an EX3 suitable for DVD and web. Following advice of “gurus” such as Alister Chapman, shot it in 720p50 mode. Having done so, wanted to get it into Final Cut for editing etc.
- Initially, used ClipBrowser (v2.0) to ingest the footage. Didn’t know if I should do it the same way I did on Windows for Sony Vegas, that is by generating a “.mxf” file or by generating a “.mov” file. Tried both. These are containers, not codecs. The “.mxf” file is Material Exchange Format while “.mov” is QuickTime.
- Wanted to know more about the contents e.g. the codecs used and their settings. To get this, used VideoSpec – a video analyzer broadly like GSpot on Windows)
- MXF contents: FourCC “mpg2” (MPEG-2), Bitrate 35000 kbps, fps 50, 1280×720, PAR 1:1, DAR: 16:9, Chroma subsampling format YUV420p.
- MOV contents: FourCC “xdva” (XDCAM), Bitrate 34900 kbps, fps 50, 1280×720, PAR 1:1, DAR 16:9, Chroma YUV420p.
- In FCP, tried to find a standard setting suitable for this, but nothing matched. In particular there were 60p formats but not 50p formats – frustrating. Instead made a “best guess” at the most closely matching format and customized it. I think I ended up with format “HDV 720p50” but was concerned that HDV may have different standards (e.g. number and aspect ratio of pixels) to that of my EX XDCAM footage.
Posted in Final Cut, Mac, Sony EX XDCAM, Video Computer Technology | No Comments »
April 26th, 2009
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.
Posted in Blogroll, Mac, Uncategorized, Video Computer Technology | No Comments »
April 26th, 2009
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.
Posted in Blogroll, Mac, Uncategorized, Video Computer Technology | No Comments »
April 26th, 2009
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.
Read the rest of this entry »
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April 25th, 2009
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.
Posted in Blogroll, Mac, Video Computer Technology | No Comments »
April 25th, 2009
Used iPartition (3.1.0, 153) to split the existing RAID into separate volumes for the existing HFS+ volume and additionally an NTFS volume, the latter for use by the BootCamp-XP system. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Mac, Uncategorized, Video Computer Technology | No Comments »
April 25th, 2009
WinClone worked fine once the BootCamp system disk size had been reduced from 250 GB to 30GB and de-fragged. Read the rest of this entry »
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April 24th, 2009
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.
Read the rest of this entry »
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April 22nd, 2009
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).
Posted in Blogroll, Mac, Uncategorized, Video Computer Technology | No Comments »
April 22nd, 2009
Regardless 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).
Read the rest of this entry »
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April 21st, 2009
OK 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: Read the rest of this entry »
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April 21st, 2009
Tues 2009-04-21 visited reseller (PV) to get RAID made accessible to Windows (BootCamp-XP) as well as Mac.RR card flashed to disable its BIOS. I think I was told that this mod was needed because the RAID config (BIOS) assumes keyboard present, but it’s a USB keyboard and Mac boot order hasn’t enabled USB at that stage. Also got a new driver (.dmg) file for the RR. As a result, RAID (ProAVIO) now visible in XP Disk Manager.
Posted in Uncategorized, Video Computer Technology | No Comments »
April 13th, 2009
Had 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.
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