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Video Editing / Graphics Cards...help!

col


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Hello all...

I would be so grateful for your help on this. I have a G4 1.25GHz PowerPC with 2GB RAM, running OSX 10.5.

I have edited one or two short films in the past using only iMovie. I recently bought Final Cut Express 4. Whenever I try to run the program it reminds me I do not have an OpenGL graphics card required for FCEx4 to run properly. The graphics card I do have is an ATI Radeon 9000 Pro with 64Mb of VRAM which came with the Mac. Also, in my Utilities list under the graphics heading I have Quartz Extreme 'Supported' - but where it lists Core Image - it does not say Supported or Non-Supported - but instead says 'Software' next to it which seems a bit unusual.

Can anyone tell me if the card I have should support OpenGL/Quartz Extreme or does it definitely need upgrading? My old iMovie application simply does not work at all any more and I cant use FCEx4 because the video simply will not capture - everything freezes and staggers.

Also, in FCEx4 I am unable to cut any footage at all and apply transitions without the footage requiring rendering. Any unrendered transitions dont play in the preview window and instead I get a blank screen with a bleeping sound. Is this because of my card or something else?

Finally - can someone just come around my house and have a look? This last point is just a joke by the way..!!

Please help!
Many thanks
Col
 
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The FCE spec does not say that Core Image is required. Quartz Extreme is. But non of that technology existed in the past and FCP was able to load video fine, so I have my doubts that is causing the loading problem.

The Core Image software support isn't unusual. You don't have the hardware required for it, so it uses a software version of the routines instead.

What version of iMovie do you have that it isn't working any longer?

You can add an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro to that machine and I'm fairly sure it supports Quartz fully, and Core Image as well. I don't have access to my MDD currently to check up on it.

Are you capturing from a standard DV camera? Is the camera connected through an external drive (or other device) which is connected to the firewire port? One trick I used to use on a old Powerbook was to have a cleanly formated partition or drive that I captured to. I wonder if the capture is actually working well, but the feedback you are seeing just isn't great.

The rendering transition issue does make it sound like your card is a bit slow. Have you played with the RT Extreme option? Use the Help system to find out more.
 
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col


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Hi xstep

Thanks very much for your feedback and for your ideas. I'll do a good thorough check on the points you've made and see if I can uncover something.

The old iMovie I have is version 3.0.3. I have used it before but now my system struggles to open it up at all. I get the beachball followed by the program just hanging up on me.

Thanks again for your feedback. Fingers crossed..!

Col
 
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col


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Another point you asked about...

I am using a Sony FX1 camera - it is very new and in fact the footage I am loading is the first footage I've loaded from this camera. I am trying to capture to an external hard-drive which is connected via a Firewire though not to the camera itself - but to the Mac. In other words - I am capturing to the external drive but through the Mac. I think this might explain the staggered footage. I dont have a lot of internal hard drive space left but am thinking that if I can get rid of some rubbish on there I can free it up and make the capture to my internal drive much smoother..? Does that sound like a solution?

I'll also look up the graphics cards you mentioned. I am certain my Mac is in need of an upgrade in this department...

Thanks again
Col
 
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What I was trying to convey was if you had the camera plugged into the drive and the drive plugged into the Mac. This has been an issue for some because what occurs is the Mac reads the tap over the same wire it is using to write to the drive. Although the two firewire ports are using the same bus, it may be best to plug the camera into one and the drive into the other. The external drive should be able handle the throughput.

I'm assuming since that camera does HDV, that you are trying to capture and edit HD content. Perhaps a card upgrade will help. Read the second link below.

Since I found these I'll supply the links:
An interesting review of the FX1.
A short Apple discussion on editing speed.
 
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Hi
You have done a good question, it’s really interesting. If you get any good reply, so please let me know. So I’ll also get some good idea.
Thanks for your future help.
 
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col


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Helo again xstep - thanks for that. At the mo I am just using standard def footage and trying to edit that. I dont think the Mac I have would cope very well with HD as I can only bump its RAM to 2gb and HD would probably need about 3 or 4gb if I remember rightly.


I'll try the cam/drive set up you mentioned.

Thanks again
Col
 
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2GB should be fine for editing HD.
 
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On an Apple discussion someone seemed to have a similar problem. they disconnected all the firewire devices except the camera and the firewire drive they were capturing to. They said it solved the problem for them.

Another concern is to check you firewire cable. It may be damaged. Although I'd expect a complete failure, I've seen odd things with flaky cables.
 
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I found my System Profiler information for my MDD 867MHz system running OS X 10.4 with the ATI Radeon Pro 9800 in it. Both Quartz Extreme and Core Image are marked as 'Supported'. See attached image.

Just out of interest, the NVIDIA GeForce4 MX that came with the machine only supports Quartz Extreme.

Picture 7.png
 

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