Publishers of technology books, eBooks, and videos for creative people

Home > Articles > Digital Audio, Video > Final Cut Pro

This chapter is from the book

Your "Edit Bay"

With little more than a Mac and DV camera, you can pretty much edit anywhere—I've edited in airport terminals and sitting in my car waiting for a meeting. An edit bay is a place set up to facilitate editing. Primarily, it includes three things: a Mac, a digital camcorder, and a FireWire cable. It might also include a video display (or TV), a comfy chair, a box of videotapes, and a log book. When you're souping up your bay, you might add a nice set of speakers and perhaps a dedicated digital video cassette player. But we're going to start simple: camcorder, Mac, FCP. Minimum configuration.

We won't be capturing video this early in the book, so you can launch FCP with or without your camera connected.

Still, let's go through the steps to make sure you understand how to hook up your camera and Mac. You'll need a 4-pin to 6-pin FireWire cable.

Figure 2The smaller side (the 4-pin side) slides into your camera.

Figure 3The larger side (6-pin "D") plugs into the Mac.

Unlike hooking up car battery jumper cables it really doesn't matter which end you plug in first. What's more, FireWire is designed to be "hot swappable," which means you can plug things in even when your computer is running (in the old days of SCSI, you had to turn everything off before messing with the cabling; this is a fine advancement).

While FCP can be made to look around anytime to see if you've plugged in any new "hot swapped" devices, it is my habit to plug in hardware before I launch the application. It seems to cut down on problems.

This is what it looks like as you hook up your camera to your computer:

  1. Plug the small end of your FireWire cable into your camera.

    Figure 4

  2. Plug the larger end of the FireWire cable into your Mac.

    Figure 5

With your camera and Mac connected, and your camera turned on (and set to VCR mode), you are ready to launch your application and get down to biz.

A Video Monitor

For all but the most basic set-up, a video monitor is really essential. You can certainly edit without one, and if you want the smallest possible configuration, by all means, skip it, but in no time you'll realize that video doesn't look "right" on a computer display. In general, it simply can't. Video plays on TVs in completely different ways than it does on computers. Without getting overly technical, let's just agree that FCP can't play your video smoothly and sharply in its interface, and even when it's playing as well as it can, you're still watching it in a little window.

Figure 6

And thus the problem: To make good editing decisions, you really need to see video in the way it will be ultimately viewed. If something is shot for the big screen of a movie theater, you really need to see it played in a theater. Same with home video. While it's easy to watch your video on the Mac display, or even mirrored on the LCD display of your (connected) DV camera, the ideal way to edit is to take the video signal from FCP and pump it to a television set. This allows you to see the motion, the size, the colors, the framing, as it will look once translated from digital video signal to analog signal—the way it will be when played on a typical television.

Connecting this up is easy, even for me.

Monitors and TVs

To be fair, a television is not really the same thing as a video monitor, although I tend to use the terms interchangeably here. And while we're on the topic, a video monitor is not interchangeable with a computer monitor. The most important difference for us concerns the available plugs on the back (or maybe front) of the display. Monitors designed to display video have an array of input/output plugs (analog, S-Video, and so forth); televisions do not, and sometimes sport only a single RF (coaxial) knobby for connecting up the cable. When you're just starting out, I wouldn't bother purchasing a dedicated monitor; you can get by with an old TV set, which can often be found for cheap or even free.

This Is How I Hook Up a TV

Method 1: Analog Cables Since I usually have my camera hooked up to my computer with the FireWire cable, all I do to see my video on a TV is take the analog output of my camera (using either the S-Video plug or the simple composite analog video/audio plug) and just jack those into any regular TV.

Here's how I plug in the analog cables. This gives me both video (the yellow plug) and stereo audio (the red and white plugs for left and right):

  1. Plug the special RCA-mini plug (a.k.a. the 1.4-inch plug) into the audio/video jack on your camera. It probably doesn't say "analog input or output" but this is what it is.

  2. Figure 7

  3. Plug the three RCA plugs into your video monitor. They likely will be labeled Video and Audio.

  4. Figure 8

Figure 9Some TVs only have a mono input for audio—one plug—and so you must either (1) plug in only one of the two stereo inputs (the red or the white); or (2) get a stereo-to-mono adapter (sometimes called a Y-cord) that will let you push the red and white plugs into one side and then connect the single plug on the other side to your TV.

Method 2: S-Video If you want to use the (higher quality) S-Video signal for the picture, plug an S-Video cable into the camera and into the S-Video input on your monitor (Note: Not all monitors have an S-Video input). Remember that the S-Video cable carries only video and doesn't carry audio, so you'll still need the audio signal (using the connection I described above). Simply unplug the (yellow) video plug, but leave the (red and white) audio cables connected. It looks weird, but it's OK to have the video cable hanging there. If you're particularly fastidious, you could use a different cable that has no yellow audio component, but I don't think it's worth buying a separate cable.

  1. Plug the S-Video cable into the camera.

  2. Plug the other end into the monitor (both ends are the same, so it doesn't matter which way this goes).

  3. Remove the video plug from the analog set-up, and leave it dangling!

  4. Figure 10

Method 3: With a VCR There are a few reasons you might want to insert a regular old VCR (probably VHS) in the middle of all this TV cabling.

First, your TV may not have the S-Video or analog RCA plugs we've been talking about. But even the cheapest old television has a plug for cable service. (This type of plug is known as an RF type, and the cable is called coaxial cable.) The easiest way to get from the camera to the TV with only an RF connector is to put a VCR in the middle:

  1. Plug your camera into the VCR as if it were the TV in methods 1 and 2.

  2. Run a coaxial cable from the VCR output to the TV.

The second reason you might want to do this—even if your TV can be connected to the camera—is so you can make VHS dubs of material on your DV camera. Getting the VCR into the pathway facilitates this.

Peachpit Promotional Mailings & Special Offers

I would like to receive exclusive offers and hear about products from Peachpit and its family of brands. I can unsubscribe at any time.

Overview


Pearson Education, Inc., 221 River Street, Hoboken, New Jersey 07030, (Pearson) presents this site to provide information about Peachpit products and services that can be purchased through this site.

This privacy notice provides an overview of our commitment to privacy and describes how we collect, protect, use and share personal information collected through this site. Please note that other Pearson websites and online products and services have their own separate privacy policies.

Collection and Use of Information


To conduct business and deliver products and services, Pearson collects and uses personal information in several ways in connection with this site, including:

Questions and Inquiries

For inquiries and questions, we collect the inquiry or question, together with name, contact details (email address, phone number and mailing address) and any other additional information voluntarily submitted to us through a Contact Us form or an email. We use this information to address the inquiry and respond to the question.

Online Store

For orders and purchases placed through our online store on this site, we collect order details, name, institution name and address (if applicable), email address, phone number, shipping and billing addresses, credit/debit card information, shipping options and any instructions. We use this information to complete transactions, fulfill orders, communicate with individuals placing orders or visiting the online store, and for related purposes.

Surveys

Pearson may offer opportunities to provide feedback or participate in surveys, including surveys evaluating Pearson products, services or sites. Participation is voluntary. Pearson collects information requested in the survey questions and uses the information to evaluate, support, maintain and improve products, services or sites; develop new products and services; conduct educational research; and for other purposes specified in the survey.

Contests and Drawings

Occasionally, we may sponsor a contest or drawing. Participation is optional. Pearson collects name, contact information and other information specified on the entry form for the contest or drawing to conduct the contest or drawing. Pearson may collect additional personal information from the winners of a contest or drawing in order to award the prize and for tax reporting purposes, as required by law.

Newsletters

If you have elected to receive email newsletters or promotional mailings and special offers but want to unsubscribe, simply email ask@peachpit.com.

Service Announcements

On rare occasions it is necessary to send out a strictly service related announcement. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance we might send users an email. Generally, users may not opt-out of these communications, though they can deactivate their account information. However, these communications are not promotional in nature.

Customer Service

We communicate with users on a regular basis to provide requested services and in regard to issues relating to their account we reply via email or phone in accordance with the users' wishes when a user submits their information through our Contact Us form.

Other Collection and Use of Information


Application and System Logs

Pearson automatically collects log data to help ensure the delivery, availability and security of this site. Log data may include technical information about how a user or visitor connected to this site, such as browser type, type of computer/device, operating system, internet service provider and IP address. We use this information for support purposes and to monitor the health of the site, identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents and appropriately scale computing resources.

Web Analytics

Pearson may use third party web trend analytical services, including Google Analytics, to collect visitor information, such as IP addresses, browser types, referring pages, pages visited and time spent on a particular site. While these analytical services collect and report information on an anonymous basis, they may use cookies to gather web trend information. The information gathered may enable Pearson (but not the third party web trend services) to link information with application and system log data. Pearson uses this information for system administration and to identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents, appropriately scale computing resources and otherwise support and deliver this site and its services.

Cookies and Related Technologies

This site uses cookies and similar technologies to personalize content, measure traffic patterns, control security, track use and access of information on this site, and provide interest-based messages and advertising. Users can manage and block the use of cookies through their browser. Disabling or blocking certain cookies may limit the functionality of this site.

Do Not Track

This site currently does not respond to Do Not Track signals.

Security


Pearson uses appropriate physical, administrative and technical security measures to protect personal information from unauthorized access, use and disclosure.

Children


This site is not directed to children under the age of 13.

Marketing


Pearson may send or direct marketing communications to users, provided that

  • Pearson will not use personal information collected or processed as a K-12 school service provider for the purpose of directed or targeted advertising.
  • Such marketing is consistent with applicable law and Pearson's legal obligations.
  • Pearson will not knowingly direct or send marketing communications to an individual who has expressed a preference not to receive marketing.
  • Where required by applicable law, express or implied consent to marketing exists and has not been withdrawn.

Pearson may provide personal information to a third party service provider on a restricted basis to provide marketing solely on behalf of Pearson or an affiliate or customer for whom Pearson is a service provider. Marketing preferences may be changed at any time.

Correcting/Updating Personal Information


If a user's personally identifiable information changes (such as your postal address or email address), we provide a way to correct or update that user's personal data provided to us. This can be done on the Account page. If a user no longer desires our service and desires to delete his or her account, please contact us at customer-service@informit.com and we will process the deletion of a user's account.

Choice/Opt-out


Users can always make an informed choice as to whether they should proceed with certain services offered by Adobe Press. If you choose to remove yourself from our mailing list(s) simply visit the following page and uncheck any communication you no longer want to receive: www.peachpit.com/u.aspx.

Sale of Personal Information


Pearson does not rent or sell personal information in exchange for any payment of money.

While Pearson does not sell personal information, as defined in Nevada law, Nevada residents may email a request for no sale of their personal information to NevadaDesignatedRequest@pearson.com.

Supplemental Privacy Statement for California Residents


California residents should read our Supplemental privacy statement for California residents in conjunction with this Privacy Notice. The Supplemental privacy statement for California residents explains Pearson's commitment to comply with California law and applies to personal information of California residents collected in connection with this site and the Services.

Sharing and Disclosure


Pearson may disclose personal information, as follows:

  • As required by law.
  • With the consent of the individual (or their parent, if the individual is a minor)
  • In response to a subpoena, court order or legal process, to the extent permitted or required by law
  • To protect the security and safety of individuals, data, assets and systems, consistent with applicable law
  • In connection the sale, joint venture or other transfer of some or all of its company or assets, subject to the provisions of this Privacy Notice
  • To investigate or address actual or suspected fraud or other illegal activities
  • To exercise its legal rights, including enforcement of the Terms of Use for this site or another contract
  • To affiliated Pearson companies and other companies and organizations who perform work for Pearson and are obligated to protect the privacy of personal information consistent with this Privacy Notice
  • To a school, organization, company or government agency, where Pearson collects or processes the personal information in a school setting or on behalf of such organization, company or government agency.

Links


This web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects Personal Information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this web site.

Requests and Contact


Please contact us about this Privacy Notice or if you have any requests or questions relating to the privacy of your personal information.

Changes to this Privacy Notice


We may revise this Privacy Notice through an updated posting. We will identify the effective date of the revision in the posting. Often, updates are made to provide greater clarity or to comply with changes in regulatory requirements. If the updates involve material changes to the collection, protection, use or disclosure of Personal Information, Pearson will provide notice of the change through a conspicuous notice on this site or other appropriate way. Continued use of the site after the effective date of a posted revision evidences acceptance. Please contact us if you have questions or concerns about the Privacy Notice or any objection to any revisions.

Last Update: November 17, 2020