Final Cut On iPad Rumors Begin

Running some kind of version of Final Cut on a near-future iPad are already starting to appear.

My hunch is that a future iPad will have an SD slot or something like a redesigned Camera Connection kit and allow import and editing of DSLR H.264 footage.

Hopefully it'll output to the card as well.

ProRes Plays Back Brighter in Viewer and Darker When Paused

Have you noticed this?

Load a ProRes clip into the Viewer in Final Cut Pro and it looks a little dark. Hit play and it brightens (gamma) until you pause, then it goes a little dark again.

I'm not sure why this happens but I see it regularly with ProRes clips. Some say it's the data rate being lowered for slower drives, others say it's the type of compression the timeline is using (highlight the sequence in the Browser, hit Command + 0 (zero) then look at QuickTime Video Settings in the lower left).

There's a brief discussion of it here on the Apple boards.

For me the difference in a clip that does it seems to be the size.

A ProRes clip which is 854 x 480 does have the brightness playback issue.

A ProRes clip which is 720 x 408 does not have the brightness playback issue. (Inconsistent though; some clips have the issue while others do not)

A ProRes clip which is 720 x 480 does not have the brightness playback issue.

That's the only difference I can determine between the two clips.

Playing the clips in QuickTime Player does not show a gamma shift.

Gamma while Playing in Viewer

Gamma while Paused in Viewer

I don't know a solution to this and really, it's just an annoyance overall; but it's good to be aware of it.

Googling Final Cut Pro 7

So I'm looking up something about FCP7 in Google and Google decides to try and help me. Just thought I'd mention this not just because it's hilarious but because it's pretty sad.

Apple unleashes Ubillos on Final Cut Studio

"In 2007, Final Cut Pro's original lead developer, Randy Ubillos, completely redesigned iMovie '08 to streamline and simplify the iLife title. The changes prompted criticism from existing iMovie users, as the new app didn't do everything the previous versions did. Last January, Apple released an enhanced iMovie '09 version that addressed many of those missing elements in the new app.


The Final Cut Pro team has since been put back under the direction of Ubillos, according to information AppleInsider has obtained, with the aim of similarly improving Final Cut Studio and making it more appealing and useful to the needs of prosumers. Currently, Final Cut Pro is targeted at advanced professionals with a scaled down, less expensive Final Cut Express version sold to users who don't need all of its high end features. Because Apple now primarily sells the Express version, the company wants to rethink Final Cut Studio and scale its overall development to better fit the majority of its customers."

Full story.

Eek. The revised iMovie was an abomination. Hopefully Randy Ubillos won't destroy FCS in the same manner. 


UPDATE:


Steve Jobs has apparently said about the upcoming FCS release:


"We certainly do [care about Pro apps]. Folks who left were in support, not engineering. Next release will be awesome."

LINK

AUgraphicEQ's Battle of the Bands

I've never been able to get the AUgraphicEQ audio filter's 10 Band setting to work. It's either a bug or something I'm unaware of. When I set the pull-down to 10 Bands nothing changes...the sliders aren't reduced in number nor are they linked so it's effectively only 10 bands.

I have heard from some others that it works in other applications but not using those apps I have no idea really. It may just be a filter in those apps with the same name. In FCP, the 10 band setting seems to have no effect.

QUICK TIP: While playing back an edit and having this or other filters active, you can use a mouse like the Mighty Mouse to adjust the sliders in real time during playback when normally it would stop if you click and drag on a slider. Just position the cursor over a slider and use your scroll wheel/ball...just don't click or playback will likely stop.

The Finder's Clipboard & FCP's Clipboard

Here's something I just noticed.

When you have something copied to the clipboard from within FCP (at least with Snow Leopard) then you go to say, TextEdit and copy some text you'll have two different things in your clipboard.

If you goto TextEdit (or any text editor) you'll paste the text, then without copying anything new if you to FCP you'll paste what you copied from within FCP.

Maybe this is some feature that's been around that I'm unaware of but it's really handy.

Installing Final Cut Pro 7 on unqualified machines

I haven't (and cannot) test this so if you try this you try it at your own risk.

If you want to install Final Cut Studio 3 on a machine that doesn't meet the minimum requirements you can try this hack which involves navigating to:

Final Cut Studio Installer > FinalCutStudio.mpkg > Contents > Resources > Requirements Checker.app

and deleting "Requirements Checker.app".

Again, I have no idea if this works but it could be helpful.



You could probably also edit the minsys.plist file in there but I don't know what that would do. The important part of the file is probably this:

<key>AELMinimumVRAM</key>
<dict>
<key>block</key>
<string>128</string>
</dict>


(If you don't get the reference in the image then you're young.)

Final Cut Pro and Freeverse's Color Picker

If you're seeing something like this:

5/7/09 10:34:53 AM Final Cut Pro[408] Warning Custom ColorPicker class with name .com.freeverselib could not be loaded.

In your Console logs it's because someone has likely installed Freeverse's Lineform application at some point on your Mac. Lineform is a simple drawing application but it's installer does (or did, not sure) some strange stuff. One thing is that it installs a 4 KB file called .com.freeverselib.06020 into ~/Library/ColorPickers (the tilde means it's the Library folder in your home folder).

The file it installs begins with a period so it's hidden. Why, I have no idea but I don't like it. I dislike hidden files entirely, but that's another rant. How do you get rid of it and the console error every time you use the color picker in Final Cut Pro?

01) Launch the Terminal.
02) Paste in "defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles 1" without the quotes. (this command toggles the visibility of hidden files in Leopard)
03) Hit return.
04) Hold down Command + Option and right-click on the Finder icon in the dock and select Relaunch.
05) Navigate to ~/Library/ColorPickers and trash the ridiculous .com.freeverselib.06020 file and empty the trash.
06) Paste "defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles 0" (that's a zero) without the quotes into the Terminal. [or just hit the Up Arrow and backspace and change the 1 into a zero.] Hit Return.
07) Command + Option right-click the Finder icon in the dock and hit Relaunch again.

Done.