Outputting Standard Definition in FCP from the Sony XDCam EX1

Great article from the always-great KenStone.net about creating proper SD footage from the new Sony XDCam EX1. A good read whether you own the camera or not, and are interested in HD / SD workflows. Whenever a new technology hits the market there are always teething problems. In the case of new video cameras there [...]

Compressor: Troubleshooting basics

Apple has a page available to help troubleshoot the (problematic at best) Compressor that we’ve all grown to love/hate. The most exciting adventure is the last step — Remove and Reinstall Compressor, which has you searching the depths of your system for all of Compressor and Qmaster’s little droppings. I’ve done this more times than [...]

Final Cut Pro Quick Tip: Hue Direction Control

   Another great Final Cut Pro Quick Tip from Genius DV:   Ever wonder what the color circle with the arrow in when you get to a color selection decision in Final Cut Pro. It is called the Hue Direction Control. What it does is control the direction a change in color will take if [...]

Quick Tip: Audio Mixdown in Final Cut Pro

Here’s a quick tip on Audio Mixdown in Final Cut Pro that I found on the Final Cut Help blog. When outputting material to tape, an Audio Mixdown feature was a recommended precaution to ensure you didn’t drop frames. Choose Sequence > Render Only > Mixdown (or press Command + Option + R). You can [...]

Get Organized with Flow from Gridiron Software

I read about a great new and exciting (to me, at least) product from Gridiron Software called Flow. It has not yet been released, but it has won a “Best of Show” award at this past MacWorld 2008. Here is a great description of the product, but I recommend watching the overview video here: “Flow [...]

Is Apple Shedding its Final Cut Pro Apps at NAB?

I found this great read over at Rougly Drafted Magazine, giving a great alternative viewpoint to the rumors that Apple might be selling its Pro Apps suite to a third party. A further interesting tidbit is the list below of the past release schedule at NAB’s gone by: NAB 2000 Final Cut Pro 1.2.5 with [...]

Mac Mediacast 009: Using the Media Manager in Final Cut Pro

Direct Download (QuickTime H.264 “iPod” setting): Click Here

Media Manager Overview

I realized recently that nobody ever talks about one of the most powerful tools in Final Cut Pro– the Media Manager. Here’s a quick overview on how to properly use the Media Manager:

Right Click on any sequence in your bin and choose “Media Manager”. The tool will pop up and give you information about your sequence and options for what to do with it. From top to bottom:

Perian 1.1 Released

Perian is a swiss-army knife QuickTime plugin (hence their friendly little icon) that allows playback of many non-native codecs in QuickTime. The latest update touts the following fixes / additions: Major performance improvements TrueAudio, MP1, and DTS audio support Slice-based multithreaded decoding for MPEG-1/2/H.264 Apple H.264 now handles AVCHD/interlaced vide Compatibility fixes for QuickTime 7.4 [...]

Compressor Woes

A regular subscriber to the podcast & emailer with great tips — Phoenix-Brian — wrote to me his experiences and findings with some recent problems with Compressor. Having experienced these issues firsthand (haven’t we all wanted to throw our Mac out the window in dealing with Compressor?) — I wanted to share his email, which [...]

Bottom 10 FCP Tips … revisited

The Editblog » Bottom 10 FCP Tips … revisited Over a year ago I followed up a post about my top 10 Final Cut Pro tips with a lost of the “bottom 10 tips.” Really it was all about stuff that just annoyed me about FCP. That was written way back around v. 5.1.1. Over [...]