Super 8 Computer Editing Help
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Super 8 Computer Editing Help
Hi, I just got an Apple G5, with Final Cut Express. I installed it and when I tried to open it it said error certain hardware or software is not available Required: 384 Megs of Ram. I beleive my G5 meets all the requirements. Has anyone come across this problem before? And a bit off topic, has anyone imported miniDV to their computer before? I'm planning to do that with a Super 8 film I've transferred to miniDV. When I tried importing to test it out my 7 minutes of video was taking up a lot of space and I know it wouldn't fir on 4.7 Gig DVD. I'm guessing I should compress the video, but how can I do this?
Regards,
Ernie
Regards,
Ernie
maybe...
it might be silly but...
is your G5 one of the new iMacs? if so, did you buy an expansion? By default it only has 256 Mb ram :evil: ... and that could be the problem...
about the compression: you will have to render the movie before, this will "apply" the compression (you choose) amongst other things... in a "raw" format, video tends to be large
hope it helped
is your G5 one of the new iMacs? if so, did you buy an expansion? By default it only has 256 Mb ram :evil: ... and that could be the problem...
about the compression: you will have to render the movie before, this will "apply" the compression (you choose) amongst other things... in a "raw" format, video tends to be large
hope it helped
- gianni1
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Congrats on your G5, I cannot advise on that error and message. If the following doesn't work using iMovie and iDVD, then you may have a lemon, so return it under warranty.
I do have experience of Mini DV input to the mac. Use iMovie, and iDVD (if FCP is broke), connect the Firewire cable to the inputs on the camcorder and the computer. Turn on the camera (either fully charged battery or on the powersupply). Start iMovie, and click on the camera mode icon, which is next to the scissors (edit mode) icon. From edit mode with camera connected, clip import and Voila! your clips appear.
After capture is done, assemble your faviourite clips into an edit, then export them. Export options will give you quality settings from tiny email to full quality DV format. Expert options lets you to fiddle with all the available formats, like sorensen, screen size, fps, etc... If you have quick time pro, or some of the othe paid for quick time extras, you get many more options.
Finally, exporting to DVD will prompt you for DVD-R blanks. You could also click on the iDVD icon and start iDVD tool for Authoring DVD Disk with chapters, buttons, etc...
Gianni
I do have experience of Mini DV input to the mac. Use iMovie, and iDVD (if FCP is broke), connect the Firewire cable to the inputs on the camcorder and the computer. Turn on the camera (either fully charged battery or on the powersupply). Start iMovie, and click on the camera mode icon, which is next to the scissors (edit mode) icon. From edit mode with camera connected, clip import and Voila! your clips appear.
After capture is done, assemble your faviourite clips into an edit, then export them. Export options will give you quality settings from tiny email to full quality DV format. Expert options lets you to fiddle with all the available formats, like sorensen, screen size, fps, etc... If you have quick time pro, or some of the othe paid for quick time extras, you get many more options.
Finally, exporting to DVD will prompt you for DVD-R blanks. You could also click on the iDVD icon and start iDVD tool for Authoring DVD Disk with chapters, buttons, etc...
Gianni
Last edited by gianni1 on Thu Nov 25, 2004 7:05 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Well, it's not the G5 iMac I can assure of that. It's a PC tower with dual processing, the works. And I'll figure out the video capturing, the more pressing issue is the Final Cut. Perhaps I installed it wrong I don't know but if there are any Apple users here I welcome any help and thank you for yours munnin. I'm a Windows man myself so beyond the capacity and some basics that are true for Apple and IBM compadibles, I'm lost.
- gianni1
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I've got over 25 imacs (my laboratory at uni), a G3 and G4 notebook, and my office mates have the G5's. They are all basically the same, just have pretty design differences. They all work the same, using the same software and interfaces.
Apple tech support will interrogate you about the problem before they give you a Return Authorisation Number. That process may take a few days if they ask you to try various things out. I suggest try again using iMovie and iDVD, which is supplied with the computer as standard, then Apple has to fix it if the computer is broke. They will probably say it's FCP's problem, and walk you through that process... then if it's not FCP's fault, Apple has to fix it.
gianni
Apple tech support will interrogate you about the problem before they give you a Return Authorisation Number. That process may take a few days if they ask you to try various things out. I suggest try again using iMovie and iDVD, which is supplied with the computer as standard, then Apple has to fix it if the computer is broke. They will probably say it's FCP's problem, and walk you through that process... then if it's not FCP's fault, Apple has to fix it.
gianni
Hi there,
I'll take a stab at this. (Disclaimer....I'm a Windows guy, very, very limited Mac experience).
My first guess would be to check the allocated RAM for Final Cut, I'm not sure if not having enough ram allocated to Final Cut would cause that error or not, but it's something you can check. I don't remeber how to do that exactly, I just remeber reading something about it.
Exactly how much space is being used by your 7 minutes of video? I do video editing professionally (on a Windows system, running Vegas 4). My DV files capture at 3.5MB/sec which is 210MB/min....so 7 minutes shouldn't take up any more then 1.47GB. That is unless you're capturing true uncompressed video. What are you using to get the video clip off of the miniDV tape? I'd assumed IEEE-1394 (Firewire) but if your 7 minutes is more then 4.7GB then that doesn't seem right....hmmm.
As far as the DVD goes I compress all the video for my DVD's to MPEG-2 (do they have that on Macs?). But make sure you do your editing before you do your compression, and compress as little as possible. Good luck.
Leviathan
I'll take a stab at this. (Disclaimer....I'm a Windows guy, very, very limited Mac experience).
My first guess would be to check the allocated RAM for Final Cut, I'm not sure if not having enough ram allocated to Final Cut would cause that error or not, but it's something you can check. I don't remeber how to do that exactly, I just remeber reading something about it.
Exactly how much space is being used by your 7 minutes of video? I do video editing professionally (on a Windows system, running Vegas 4). My DV files capture at 3.5MB/sec which is 210MB/min....so 7 minutes shouldn't take up any more then 1.47GB. That is unless you're capturing true uncompressed video. What are you using to get the video clip off of the miniDV tape? I'd assumed IEEE-1394 (Firewire) but if your 7 minutes is more then 4.7GB then that doesn't seem right....hmmm.
As far as the DVD goes I compress all the video for my DVD's to MPEG-2 (do they have that on Macs?). But make sure you do your editing before you do your compression, and compress as little as possible. Good luck.
Leviathan
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Go to the Apple Drop Down Menu, top left hand corner of your screen. Click on the first item on the list About this Mac, a window will appear on the desktop telling you the speed of your Mac & how much menory you have installed.
If shortage of memory is not the problem you will have to supply us with more info, as you should have no problem running Final Cut Express.
Dave
If shortage of memory is not the problem you will have to supply us with more info, as you should have no problem running Final Cut Express.
Dave
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There is one memory conflict described here:
Apple support for FCP: http://www.apple.com/support/finalcutpro/
Particular problem:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93260
Apple support for FCP: http://www.apple.com/support/finalcutpro/
Particular problem:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93260
RFinal Cut Pro 4: Out of Memory Alert With Digidesign Audio Cards
Final Cut Pro may report an out of memory alert when opened if a Digidesign audio card is installed.
Symptom
When opened, Final Cut Pro displays an "out of memory" alert and then quits.
Products affected
Final Cut Pro 4
.......more....
..tnx for reminding me Michael Lehnert.... or Santo or.... cinematography.com super8 - the forum of Rednex, Wannabees and Pretenders...
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Re: Super 8 Computer Editing Help
ok, most of the replies here miss the point...
the problem is (it hurts me to say that) that apple has a stupid potilicy with RAM. the low end towers only have built-in 256MB, which is a crime considering that you're working on one of the most powerful computers and that OSX benefits greatly from more RAM. FCE needs at least 384MB to run, and 512MB to use it full capabilities... i'd recomment everybody woking with video to go to 768 or more (about 1GB is a nice number, we have 3.5GB where i work :)
the good news is that you can get 3rd party RAM much cheaper than apple is selling it, you can (and should) get an extra 512MB for under 100 bucks.. installing it is dead easy (look at the instructions in the manual).
http://www.macprices.com/ram.shtml
http://www.macseek.com
as for DVDs:
to be able to play it back on a normal DVD player you'll have to encode it as mpeg2... i'm not sure if FCE can to this conversion (FCP does for sure), iDVD will do that, but will less control over the final output.
if you just want to back up your original DV video, then you have to slice it in smaler parts and use a lot of DVDs ;)
hope that helped to get you going
++ christoph ++
the problem is (it hurts me to say that) that apple has a stupid potilicy with RAM. the low end towers only have built-in 256MB, which is a crime considering that you're working on one of the most powerful computers and that OSX benefits greatly from more RAM. FCE needs at least 384MB to run, and 512MB to use it full capabilities... i'd recomment everybody woking with video to go to 768 or more (about 1GB is a nice number, we have 3.5GB where i work :)
the good news is that you can get 3rd party RAM much cheaper than apple is selling it, you can (and should) get an extra 512MB for under 100 bucks.. installing it is dead easy (look at the instructions in the manual).
http://www.macprices.com/ram.shtml
http://www.macseek.com
as for DVDs:
to be able to play it back on a normal DVD player you'll have to encode it as mpeg2... i'm not sure if FCE can to this conversion (FCP does for sure), iDVD will do that, but will less control over the final output.
if you just want to back up your original DV video, then you have to slice it in smaler parts and use a lot of DVDs ;)
hope that helped to get you going
++ christoph ++
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Alex´s note is sort of correct from the old days of SCSI drive MACs - it was recommend to install the software like APx on a different drive from its skratchdisk.
As you say - today this should be a no-issue.
Sidenote:
I once set up a max RAMdisk on my old AV 840 of the day and installed the AP application there -only the program itself - and the speed catchup for AP video work was really astounishing. Seems like the 5 mHz main bus and the HD was released for a considerable load and allowed the original built in A/D digitiser (Capturing card) to capture near full size real time uncompressed. Even More SN: I seem to recall that my latest Dual 20G SCSI Seagates were able to capture 640x480 real time uncompressed.
Even used the RAM disc as a capture disk as well for small clips - did a few secs of full size real time capture when extra quiality was required.
R
As you say - today this should be a no-issue.
Sidenote:
I once set up a max RAMdisk on my old AV 840 of the day and installed the AP application there -only the program itself - and the speed catchup for AP video work was really astounishing. Seems like the 5 mHz main bus and the HD was released for a considerable load and allowed the original built in A/D digitiser (Capturing card) to capture near full size real time uncompressed. Even More SN: I seem to recall that my latest Dual 20G SCSI Seagates were able to capture 640x480 real time uncompressed.
Even used the RAM disc as a capture disk as well for small clips - did a few secs of full size real time capture when extra quiality was required.
R
..tnx for reminding me Michael Lehnert.... or Santo or.... cinematography.com super8 - the forum of Rednex, Wannabees and Pretenders...
- gianni1
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Our macs in the lab use Premiere, and it crashed on any capture when the temp files was set to a locked folder (in the applications/premiere folder). I had the Alpha Geek change the temp folder (scratchpad) to the users/premier_temp folder, then Premiere worked fine. I 2nd that two drives are better than one, one for apps, one for data. We also produced a trick that a reboot disables Norton AV and other network background tasks.
Gianni
Gianni