Blog Archives

For people pushing pixels (or waveforms) Thunderbolt is a high-speed, data storage birthday present.

I am advocating LTO-5 tape drives for archive and backup of our Final Cut Pro media. However, I still have not gotten this unit to work on my MacPro.

Ben Balser writes on editing H.264 video natively in Final Cut Pro.

The best practice – and the most reliable – is to transfer the ENTIRE contents of the SXS card to its own individual folder on your hard disk.

One of our subscribers discovered one of the big differences between capturing in tape-mode, where you can combine multiple shots into one long clip, and tapeless, where each shot is stand-alone. In this article we examine how to avoid that problem.

I am not a fan of Capture Now, however, for some formats Capture Now is the best option. I like the workflow one subscriber suggests in this article.

Growing out of a topic originally posted on our Facebook page, this article serves as a summary of our subscribers’ biggest challenges with the industry’s reliance on tapeless video.

In response to a subscriber’s question regarding the “blurry and aliased” look of his clips, Larry suggests that the problem may lie in the monitor settings.

In successfully working with tapeless media, I’ve developed an easy-to-implement workflow that will help prevent problems in your own projects.

Final Cut supports over 52 different video codecs, and this gets close to a hundred when you add a third-party capture card. How to do you choose which to use? This article explains what you need to know to select the best codec for your video.

Larry explains the somewhat intensive process of shooting digital video for use with FCP.

What’s the best video format for archiving materials? This is an easy question to ask, but a hard question to answer. Also, what’s the best way to preserve 1″ and 2″ master video tapes — especially since those machines are increasingly hard to find? This article gets you started in the right direction.

Dean Schweinler writes in to ask if he needs an AJA or a BlackMagic capture card to edit HDV. This article explains three options for capture.

XDCAM is generating a lot of interest for its high-def quality and small size. This discussion began with a question about using it for archiving – which spawned a lot of additonal thoughts.

You’ll find that you can retouch images directly in Photoshop. You will need Photoshop Extended CS3 or CS4. In fact, I created a video tutorial that shows you how.

Data Robotics makes a family of RAID products that can be very useful in a video capture and editing environment. This is a review of their latest unit – the Drobo S – which directly attaches to the computer via FireWire. I find these units to be especially useful on set when shooting tapeless media.

Editing is all about storage. Successful editing requires storage that is big enough and fast enough to keep up with your work. One company that specializes in meeting the needs of video editors is Dulce Systems. Here’s a look at the new RAID, the Pro Q.

When you are working with tapeless media during production, and recording to cards, the basic workflow is to copy the card to your hard disk then ERASE THE CARD! (Sorry, I come from a tape background and that word “erase” is just plain scary…) So, it makes sense that when copying the card to your hard disk you take every precaution to do so safely. Here’s a review of a product that can help: Imagine Products’ Shotput Pro.

Technical Guru Graeme Nattress presents a lucid, and illustrated, explanation of why colors in DV, Betacam, and DVD are handled differently. If you do any kind of color work, you need to read this article.

Confused about all the options available in Sequence Settings? Well, this article can help. It may not explain ALL the different choices, but it will help you focus on the ones that are the most important.

In this article a subscriber brings Larry a question regarding the benefits of shooting on a HD camera for video that will be transferred to the web and Larry offers an explanation as well as an alternative.

Larry explains in this article why a subscriber is having difficulty with a video transfer from his Sony hard disk recording unit (HVR DR60).

Audio that slowly drifts out of sync is often due to a mismatch between the sample rate at which you shot the video and the sample rate at which you captured the audio.

Most of the time, we edit using the final image quality from our cameras. But, in the case of HD-CAM SR, that may not be possible, as those video files are HUGE! In this article, a reader asks how to use EDLs when trying to capture tapeless media. Depending upon how the off-line, low-resolution images were created, this story has either a happy, or very sad, ending. You can read the options here.

Here’s a simple technique that creates a very interesting effect using one of the ugliest generated texts in Final Cut.

In this article Larry advises a subscriber who downloaded a beta version of Soundbooth and believes there may have been an error in his workflow.

An editor, Gene Thomas, faced a problem with a timecode break when a pair of clips he was recording stopped capturing in the middle. In this article we take a look at timecodes, how multiclip reads them, how to manually change them, and other fun stuff.

In this answer to a newsletter reader’s question, we look at the process of transcoding (converting) video from one format to another. We specifically talk about what is the right format to transcode into.

Telestream Pipeline is a capture and output device that is unique in the features it provides Final Cut editors — specifically, its ability to share decks over a network and allowing an editor to start editing a clip before the capture is complete. In this detailed review, we show you how it works, and examine its strengths and weaknesses.

Transcoding is the process of converting video (and/or audio) from one format into another. Generally, compression is done for final delivery, while transcoding is done from one editing format to another editing format. In any case, when should you transcode? This article explains the three options and provides suggestions on which one you should pick.

Whenever you trash or delete Final Cut preference files, FCP will reset back to NTSC DV 48kHz audio. This reset happens whenever your preferences get trashed. I don’t think Final Cut inherently thinks NTSC, but that when things reset, FCP resets to its default settings which is NTSC.

Normally, audio is monitored off your deck or camera. However, if you need to listen to the audio during capture, Final Cut turns it off by default. This short tip shows you how to turn it on.

In order to create a multiclip in Final Cut Pro, all the clips in it MUST match for codec, frame rate, and image size. They must also contain continuous, uninterrupted timecode.

As you move into editing HD footage, you will quickly discover that there are many, many, MANY different HD formats. This article describes what you can do when you are forced to work with more than one HD format in a project.

In this article, learn how you can capture two simultaneous, real-time video feeds into one computer and get them ready for editing.

The debatable “nightmare” of offline editing is discussed, with Larry strongly recommending the creation of DVCPROHD 23.98 fps masters to keep the frame rate and image size constant and greatly simplify the final on-line edit.

Understanding the Media Manager is critical to successfully recapturing media, whether for creating the highest quality final master, or for resurrecting an old project. But the Media Manager is not that intuitive. This article walks you through what you need to know for successfully recapturing your project.

Over the last four months I’ve had a long email chat about video formats and the best ways to convert between them. If you are moving files from NTSC to PAL or back, and trying to integrate HD material, this article covers what you need to know.

If there was one “magic format” we would all be shooting in it. Unfortunately, as many of us are discovering as we move to HD, the world is a highly incompatible place.

Lots has been written about the benefits – or lack thereof – in shooting 24 fps video. Here’s a quick look at a complex subject.

Final Cut Pro is, most often, used for editing after the recording is complete. However, there are some situations where you need to record live and edit as soon as you can. This article talks about that and provides options to consider. There’s also some relevant reader feedback.

Tony asked an interesting question: what’s the difference between RED and DSLR cameras for shooting video. Good question. So I asked two experts: Philip Hodgetts and Noah Kadner. This article provides their answers.

Nothing is more critical than making sure your reel numbers (or names) are correct before capturing video. This explains how to fix them when you forget.

Sometimes, especially when merging clips, you get more audio tracks in a Final Cut Pro timeline than you want. This article describes a couple of different ways you can get rid of them.

In this article I discuss the criteria I use in judging which camera to buy, as well as factors that may not be that critical in making the decision.

Video is hard enough to understand. Throw in fields, frames, field order, and interlacing and it’s enough to make you cry. In this article, I explain what you need to know to successfully navigate around the land mines.

Flip cameras, and other inexpensive devices, capture footage in a variety of unusual formats. This article explains what you need to know to work with it inside Final Cut Pro.

The world of HD is awash in incompatible formats. Worse, it has eight different frame rates. And selecting the wrong frame rate in After Effects can make your video uneditable in Final Cut Pro. This article explains what you need to know.

How do you capture the screens from a game. There are a number of screen capture utilities on the market. This article explains which works best on the Mac for capturing a game.

As we gear up for the 2010 NAB Show – where the Digital Production Buzz is the Official Podcast of the event – I thought you’d be interested in the gear we are using and how we are using it. Next month, I’ll report on what we did.