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Is your Final Cut Pro sequence too dark or washed out?

This seems to be a common question. Sometimes people will create a sequence in Shake (or similar) and export to Final Cut, only to find that the image is much darker in FCP. Others have a different problem - it displays fine in FCP but appears washed out when you export it.

Final Cut Pro tends to make assumptions when it comes to gamma. If you create YUV (e.g. DV PAL, NTSC) footage, it will assume that it was created with a gamma of 2.2, which it would have been if it had been shot in a camera. Final Cut therefore lowers the gamma in order to mimic what it would look like on a broadcast monitor, resulting in a darkening of the image.

Note that the image is only dark in Final Cut Pro and if you export it, it will export with the correct gamma. However, the mistake that some people make is to brighten the image in Final Cut, leading to it being too bright upon exporting.

Applications like Shake do not make any modifications to the display of the gamma so if it looks fine in Shake, it will look fine upon exporting, no matter what Final Cut Pro is showing on the screen. This is assuming your monitor is correctly calibrated, of course.

When you import RGB elements (such as the Apple Animation codec or still images) into a YUV sequence, the opposite problem occurs. Final Cut Pro will assume they were created with a gamma of 1.8. Final Cut will then increase the gamma to 2.2 (the gamma value that FCP assumes all YUV media is created at) to compensate for this.

The image is now considered YUV, so when it plays back, Final Cut will lower the gamma again to compensate, as it does with all YUV footage. The RGB elements will be displayed on the screen at their correct gamma but when you export the sequence, the boosted gamma will be used and the exported sequence will be too bright.

The solution is to convert the files to YUV before adding them to your Final Cut Pro project. For footage, convert to Uncompressed 8-bit 4:2:2 or Uncompressed 10-bit 4:2:2 to ensure that no data will be lost in the conversion process. If the file sizes for this are too large, try a high quality lossy codec such as Apple ProRes.

For images, the easiest method is to convert them to a single-frame QuickTime file with a YUV codec such as DV NTSC. It is better to perform this task with Compressor rather than QuickTime.
Posted by Jon Chappell on Jan 12 2008 to Video Editing, Final Cut Studio
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Capture HDV to ProRes via Firewire in Final Cut Pro 6.0.2

Chris Poisson over at Creative COW has discovered that the recently released 6.0.2 update to Final Cut now allows you to capture from HDV directly to Apple's ProRes codec via Firewire.

This provides a means of getting rid of the awful HDV codec in one step, resulting in dramatically decreased render times, improved rendering quality of footage, and more latitude in color correction due to the 4:2:2 color space (as opposed to 4:2:0). Capturing to ProRes used to require a fast Intel Mac with an accelerated capture card, or AJA's Io HD. With the new update, you can now capture on a G5 Power Mac without any additional hardware, which very much levels the playing field.

As Chris explains, however, it is not quite a perfect solution just yet. It would appear that Apple has made some compromises (half raster import for example) in order to improve capture speed on slower machines. The preview window will also be considerably behind the actual footage being captured, making it difficult to monitor on-screen (an external broadcast monitor is always recommended, if you can afford it). But if you can live with these minor setbacks, you can capture to ProRes for a fraction of the previous hardware cost.

Before you rush to upgrade though, be aware that some people have been experiencing issues with the latest patch. As always, I would recommend not installing it in the middle of a production, and have a clone or backup of your working system before you upgrade.
Posted by Jon Chappell on Dec 24 2007 to Video Editing, Final Cut Studio
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Essential Tools: Carbon Copy Cloner

Carbon Copy Cloner is a utility for performing an exact clone of your hard disk. The idea is that you install your operating system and software and then immediately run Carbon Copy Cloner. The program will create a bootable disk image on a separate disk or machine. If you run into problems in the future, you can then immediately boot from this image and instantly have a working system again.

The problems people have been running into lately make this an essential utility for video editors, or indeed anyone who cannot afford any system downtime.

The software is donationware, which means you can download a fully working version for free but a donation is appreciated.
Posted by Jon Chappell on Dec 23 2007 to Software, Utilities, Video Editing
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Downgrading from Final Cut Pro 6.0.2 to 6.0.1

I like to keep an eye on my server logs and I get a list of what people searched for in order to reach the site. A significant number of people have been searching for a way to somehow downgrade from Final Cut Pro 6.0.2 back to 6.0.1. I didn't realize so many people were having problems.

There is no easy "rollback" method of downgrading. You'd have to uninstall FCP completely and reinstall it again. You would, however, be stuck at version 6.0.0 because Apple only offers 6.0.2 on its site, unless you can find a mirror somewhere (I couldn't).

The best way of preventing this issue in the future is to use something like Carbon Copy Cloner to clone your hard disk onto another disk. You can generate an exact carbon copy of your working installation and instantly restore to it if you run into problems in the future. An essential editor's tool.

Also be aware that if you happened to save one of your projects under 6.0.2, you will be unable to open it in a previous version. I am not aware of a way of converting them back again. The best way to prevent this in the future is to save a backup before you upgrade.

The moral of this story is: don't install on a machine in the middle of a production unless you are having serious problems that the patch claims to fix, and always prepare a way of getting everything back to normal before you upgrade.

P.S. If you're installing Final Cut Pro 6 on top of Final Cut Pro 5, it is best to uninstall version 5 first. In most cases, it won't do anything untoward, but for a lot of people a working machine is their livelihood and you don't really want to take unnecessary risks when you can avoid them.

Update: We now offer a tool for removing Final Cut Studio from your system.
Posted by Jon Chappell on Dec 20 2007 to Apple, Final Cut Studio, Video Editing
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Importing MXFs into Final Cut Pro

I think filmmaking is the only profession where the word "cheat" is used to mean a positive thing. Shane Ross has figured out a way of importing MXF files from Panasonic P2 cards. This is a way of importing P2 footage without having to go through Final Cut's "Log and Transfer" dialog. You just drag it directly into Final Cut and there it is, ready to be used.

In order to enable this functionality, you must install Panasonic's free P2CMS utility. The P2CMS utility allows you to view MXF files natively in QuickTime. Because Final Cut is built upon QuickTime, it also inherits this functionality. Presumably it should be backwards compatible with FCP 5 as well.

One caveat is that when you import, you will get a dialog saying that the media is not optimized for Final Cut Pro, so depending on the speed of your machine, you might have to constantly render everything. But this is good if you want to cut out the Log and Transfer step.
Posted by Jon Chappell on Dec 15 2007 to Final Cut Studio, Video Editing, Apple
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AJA releases new Leopard drivers

Just a quick note to say that AJA has released new drivers for its popular KONA 3 and Io HD lines. These primarily add Leopard support but also add a couple of small new features, so they're recommended for Tiger users as well.

KONA 3
This release updates the KONA 3/3X to have OSX "Leopard" compatibility. The release also adds support for 720p50 and provides other improvements and fixes.

AJA Driver Compatibility as of KONA Version 5.0 is as follows:
FCP 6.0.x - Kona Driver version 5.0 (Leopard and Tiger OS compatible version)
FCP 6.0.x - Kona Driver version 4.0 (Tiger OS compatible version)
FCP 5.1.x - Kona Driver versions 3.1 through 3.4 (Tiger OS compatible versions)
FCP 5.0.x - Kona Driver version 3 (first Universal Binary version)

Io HD
This release updates the Io HD to have OSX "Leopard" compatibility. The release also adds support for 720p50 and provides other improvements and fixes. The archive includes software, release notes, user manual, and utilities. Please read documentation before installing software on your Io HD system. This software should not be used with any other AJA product (KONA, Io, Io LA, Io LD).

[via HDForIndies]
Posted by Jon Chappell on Dec 11 2007 to Video Editing, Hardware
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New FXFactory patch fixes Final Cut Pro P2 import bug

Noise Industries has released FXFactory 2.0.1 to fix the P2 import bug with the new Final Cut Pro 6.0.2 patch, as reported earlier.

The patch also introduces some new features including three new plug-ins for FXFactory Pro.

Apple now has a support document acknowledging the issue, and revealing that it only applies to FXFactory and is not an issue with the overall FXPlug framework.

[via Little Frog in High Def]
Posted by Jon Chappell on Dec 1 2007 to Apple, Final Cut Studio, Video Editing
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Final Cut Pro 6.0.2 P2 import issue solved?

I posted a thread last week about some of the issues being experienced with the new Final Cut Pro patch.

Well, Shane Ross was one of those people experiencing problems. He did a complete reinstall and managed to narrow down the problem (at least on his system) to FX Factory plugins. This is probably not an issue with the plugins themselves but with Apple's FXPlug plugin system.

It is recommended that you temporarily disable all custom FXPlug plugins until a patch is released to fix the issues.

Shane's complete blog post is here.

Steps for disabling the plugins:

1. Click on Effects in the top menu and scroll down to Effect Availability. Select All Effects.
2. Go to the Effects tab in the browser.
3. Scroll sideways to the column marked Effect Class. There you will see the type of effect it is. If this column is not visible, control-click on the column bar and select Show Effect Class.
4. You will then need to go to the Finder and browse to /Library/Application Support/Final Cut Pro System Support/Plugins and remove the FXPlug plugins that you identified via the Browser in step 3.
Note: for safety, you are recommended to move them to another folder instead of completely removing them.
5. If you are going to remove them, try checking for an uninstaller program before you do so. Also make sure that you have the necessary installation discs and serial numbers to successfully install them again.
6. If this is too complicated or risky, or you can't do without a particular plugin, just downgrade to 6.0.1 until a fix is issued by Apple. Apparently they are aware of the problem and are fixing the issue.
Posted by Jon Chappell on Nov 26 2007 to Apple, Final Cut Studio, Video Editing
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Final Cut Pro 6.0.2 issues

I personally haven't experienced any issues but some people have reported the following bugs with the latest 6.0.2 patch:

* P2 import function not working
* Significantly increased render times
* Unable to open 6.0.1 projects in 6.0.2

Couple that with a list of 6.0.1 bugs here and there are some serious problems.

The 6.0.2 patch is worth it for the Color fixes alone and the Color patch can in fact be applied independently of the others, but if you like an easy life I wouldn't recommend it.

I'm sure these issues will be fixed in the next patch or two but they are a little annoying in the meantime. It feels like Final Cut Studio 2 was rushed out a little early.

Better bookmark the Final Cut Studio Feedback page. Apple never replies to feedback, but by all accounts they do listen.
Posted by Jon Chappell on Nov 21 2007 to Apple, Final Cut Studio, Video Editing
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New Final Cut Pro update in the works

There's a post over at HDForIndies (great site, can't recommend it enough) detailing some of the things on display at IBC.

It's worth a read and gives a little info on the Red presentation and some new Sony cameras but the part that caught my eye was also the smallest paragraph:

Also on display in the Sony Booth: A new Alpha version of FCP (6.02a) with 1080 50P (!) Apple ProRez 4:2:2 at 28MB/sec so HDCAM 50P direct edit in FCP!"


This is good but it also makes me a little uncomfortable. Yes, you can edit HDCAM 50P directly but you're tied to Apple's proprietary codec which means no sharing between software packages running on other operating systems, and the big thing that has kept me away from ProRes: it's only just come out so are there any issues/shortcomings with it yet to be revealed that will make me regret converting my footage?

But don't get me wrong: supporting it in this way is much better than not supporting it at all. The more formats supported, the better for everyone.
Posted by Jon Chappell on Sep 9 2007 to Apple, Final Cut Studio, Video Editing
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