I can't make any recomendations from personal experience but I've made some research. I chose against the Maxtor drive because I read posts and reviews that mentioned the drive failing after a short period of time. Also it doesn't seem to have a power switch. Therefore I chose to get the Lacie equivilant, they seem to have a good reputation in the mac community.

I couldn't find exactly the drive I'm getting but this is close: http://www.macmall.com/macmall/shop/detail.asp?action=CrossSell&options=SC&dpno=138841#scroll

I'm getting the one with 250Gb 8mb chache next week, I'll report back with my impressions of it.

i found a Maxtor hard drive (160gb, 7200rpm, 8mb buffer) for $100. I was wondering if i bought one of those firewire cases for $100 and turned it into a firewire hard drive, would it work just as good as if i bought a maxtor external firewire hard drive? has anyone ever done this before? did it work? is maxtor a decient hard drive? any dropped frames while editing with a maxtor drive?

A lot of firewire kits are just that. They are a regular drive popped into a kit. I don't see the big deal. I have two just like this. 72000rpm is good.

There have been descriptions of the screen shots of Panther and it is still GUI, some argument as to how big of a departure from the Aqua interface it may be. Some say it is more brushed metal.

Most of the comments I've seen have concerned the under the hood parts not the user interface parts.

Some recent discussions say that the G5s may not be ready for WWDC. I wouldn't be surprised about that since the OS apparently isn't there yet. I would still hope that it was demoed and announced. After all there was a big gap between when the 17" Powerbooks were announced and advertised and when they were available. I suspect most of us would want dual processors and everything I've read suggests they won't be available until fall at the earliest.

Thanks guys for your input!

[Bengamin]

Thing is that I need a huge Drive and I thought this was a good deal. After reading your recommendations that all firewire drives are really IDE in an external Firewire case I think is better to just buy an internal IDE and save some bucks. Maybe I'll buy a Firewire case for it! :)



[Imran]
BTW I would like to hear your experience after you buy your new HD I'll be checking for your post.


Thanks guys

I typically export the timeline in "NTSC DV/DVCPro" format with the audio at 48kHz. I then use Cleaner to compress this raw DV stream as needed.

Well, sort of. THe external drives are just internal IDE drives in a firewire case. However, sticking the SAME big internal drive in a Powermac may leave you very disappointed. The problem is the interface. AFAIK, only the very newest G4s can handle the big drives. The rest of them will read the drives but they will only allow you to access around 135 gb. You can get around this with a PCI board in the Mac or with external drive (where the chip to handle the bigger drive is already present).

So, if you have an older Mac then you'll likely need to go the external FW drive route (or add a card).

This isn't just a Mac issue. If you look at the boxes for the big internal drives they often come with the necessary cards - for PCs.

Hi people. Ive got a dual 867 Mac.
Im about to do some editing of an hours worth of footage with FCP3.
Would it be a good idea to get an external drive to dump all the stuff in? Theres a 125gig external HD on sale in town for £200. If I put all my editing stuff on there, would it work ok?

In my own (admittedly limited) experience, just about any 7200 RPM firewire drive should be fine. I have three different ones, from ACOM, Maxtor and Western Digital. No problems with any of them using FCP 3. Only caveat: I'm still using MacOS 9.2 on older G4/733.

You just need to make sure the chipset in the external case can handle a 160 gb drive. It wouldn't hurt to check out the information at www.xlr8yourmac.com

Iw ould say 72000 is great mine is just a 7200 and it works fine ;)

You might not want to spend so much on a case I got a case off ebay for 35 bucks myroom mate and I both did actually, he put a 200 and I put a 250 in haven't had a single problem with it. Final cost was about 300 bucks for an external 250gb hard drive, not bad.

(it was a chronos case and I believe a WD harddrive)

I'm a step lower (dual 800) and have no problems with my external hardrive running os 10.2.6.8.3.5.3.5.3.3.4 or whatever they're up to now.

I've had nothing but good luck with Maxtor drives. All you need for DV is 5400 RPM and I haven't seen any faster than 7200 (though I'm sure they exist somewhere). You really don't need more than 7200, as DV isn't THAT data intensive. If you are doing uncompressed video that's another story.

I just got my FCP4 today, and no matter what I do the serial for QT Pro isn't working. Is there something other than my own name I should enter?

Got it.

Had to put the name "Quicktime Pro" in :)

Try entering "Quicktime Pro" as the name (without the quotation marks).
edit: I see you've figured it out.

Also, I've been meaning to ask:

I am still using Quicktime 5 on OS 9, but QT 6 in OS X. Both are Quicktime Pro. Will the same QT 6 Pro password I have for OS X work for the OS 9 QT 6 Pro as well? I don't wanna upgrade if it won't.

Jeff,

I do have a new Mac. A quicksilver G4 867 Mhz with 1.5 GB of RAM.

I think this model can handel the big drives.

Thanks for the info :)

Not sure, but why not just try it? Worst that happens is it says no :)

Anyone know who in town is offering this? The Apple website shows it as Vancouver Film School, but they tell me it isn't the Apple certified course

No, the worst that will happen is that it will say no and I'll have to find a way to "downgrade" back to Quicktime 5. Don't wanna waste my time.

Check out http://www.dvdrhelp.com/dvd for comparison.

Thank you :)

I want to make another copy of a DVD I made in iDVD. I still have the original edited files but don't want to start from scratch.

Can disk copy do this? I'm still a relative newbie to the Mac and don't know all the ins and outs. If I can do this in disk copy how do I do it?

Note, this MY material. I'm not asking how to break copy protection or anything along those lines.

Yes! Look here. http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=42724

Thanks. I checked this group and the yahoo iMovie archives but neglected to check the Apple site - silly me.

If the input signal was not DV make sure it is DV when it is going
out. What resolution and framerate are you using? Print to tape
might require all sections to be rendered as well (unsure).

...it was Beta in...how do I make sure it is going out as DV? Everything is rendered...if you could tell me the exact setting to check I'd really appreciate it...I mean I've got a FW cable coming out of the G4 and it's running into the deck...I hate to sound dumber than I feel...but I don't know what else to check...

Thanks!

Chris

What resolution and frame rate is the beta footage? What happens
if you play the timeline while you have your deck connected
and try recording then?

Rob,

I tired playing it back out of the timeline...black...a little noise...but no picture...I captured Beta out using an Aurora Igniter card MJPEGA (thier codec) at 29.97 FPS...10 MBPS...I might be getting some of the terminology worng...I'm no tech, trust me...Apple said I should not run off FW drives...but that didn't work...really lost...

Keep in mind that 7200 rpm drives can get quite hot. My maxtor
drive is in a Maxtor enclosure that hopefully takes that into
account.

Personally I wouldn't go with 5400 drives. Yes they should be
able to sustain 3.6 MB/s for DV, but it feels a bit cramped to me.

SCSI drives are also available in 10000 rpm versions and faster
ones are on the horizon.

Do you have no picture on your monitor or on your firewire
out?

Being the Apple lemming that I am, I run all recommended software updates as they come up. I updated to 10.2.6 sometime last week, and for the first time today, tried to mount my WiebeTech MGB-40 external Firewire hard drive. The light comes on the drive, and it makes noise, but the icon does not come up on the screen and the System Profiler shows nothing on the Firewire bus.

I tried Apple's discussions, and I am not alone...searching for "10.2.6 firewire drive" brought up 185 responses. 184 of those were people with the same or similar problems and the last guy was whining about his Lisa not being OS-X compatible (I made that last part up).

What few workarounds that were offered usually involved booting in OS-9 and running disk utilities. I tried that, but the drive doesn't show up there, either.

Any help from the forum would be greatly appreciated. I have a couple of hours of video to capture to that drive.

I apologize if this has already been discussed, I searched a bit for this problem before I posted.

The problem is while I am editing in FCE, or just playing back the file in the viewer or canvas, the audio is out of sync. (you know when people are talking, their lip movements are slightly behind the audio).

Is this a common problem? or rather what is causing this to happen? The DV files are all about 3-4Gb, but I have worked with these sizes before with no problem.

This has happend to me before on a Win2000 premiere system, but I restarted and it was fine. A friend told me that it was because Windows' memory needed to be dumped. But this shouldn't be the case in FCE because doesn't OSX handle memory more efficiently?

thanks.

MDD G4 1.25, 7200 WD Drives, FCE

Is there such a thing as a Canopus Raptor codec for Final Cut Pro?

I've just received some footage that I can't open at all on a Mac...not with Windows Media, Quicktime, FCP, or Cleaner. I also tried opening it with Windows Media and Quicktime on a PC...no luck there either.

It was saved as a Quicktime AVI with no compression. Help! Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Jeff,
I use a MicroGB 40Gb drive almost daily with 10.2.6 with no trouble...although that's no help to you.

I really recommend contacting WeibeTech directly on this. On the one occasion I had to contact them for support (via email) they were very helpful.

Ricardo,
I use FCP, not FCE, so I do not have direct knowledge on your product. But in FCP's User Preferences there is a "Synch Audio" option which helps to keep audio in pace with video during long clips. You might want to check your preferences settings for the same, or similar, setting in FCE.

The Raptor is a PCI card developed for the Windows platform. I cannot see Canopus developing a codec for an 'alien' OS and application.

But, then, while some swear by Can'o'puss, I swear at them.

They might have a standalone codec for the PC (only registered
users can get into their download section on the site) but don't
expect one for the Mac.

It is still a DV stream just with a different codec. Changing the
FOURCC code in the AVI or extracting the raw DV stream might
be another way to access the file.

Folks, Rob the ubermensch saved the day. Through e-mail he guided me through the process of using a hex editor to enable opening the file.

Thanks, Rob!

Thanks John. Nothing beats a bit of "voodoo-magic" sometime eh.

Hello,

Just when I think I've got things running well something else toasts out...

OSX 10.2.6
FCP 4
Aurora Igniter X

The techs. at Aurora said I had to re-install everything...the card drivers...OS and FCP...really hpoing I don't have to do that...any ideas, as always are appreciated!

Take care,

Chris

Hi all. Anyone else out there have RSI? Editing long hours has gotten my right hand hurting quite a bit.

What are people using in terms of mice/trackballs, keyboards, A/V shuttles, keyboard trays, chairs?

I figure this must be a common problem in our community.

Right now I'm using a Logitech TrackMan trackball and a Apple Pro Keyboard.

-Aaron

Aaron...

I work at an all-mac newspaper and a couple of people have been diagnosed with RSI.

It's hard to say what causes it. In my own case I'd noticed that I was pressing too hard on the mouse button and was developing an irritation in my palm. It requires only a very light pressure to activate it, so I made a conscious effort to tap lightly and avoided developing a repetitive strain injury.

Also, several years ago I'd started using a Wacom tablet and have since stopped using a mouse entirely. If I need finer position control I'll use a track ball.

Position of the mouse and height of the desk can make a difference. The keyboard and the mouse should actually be a lot lower, just around elbow level, so that you don't have to reach upward. It also lets you keep your hands in line with your forearms.

Here's a URL with some helpful info:

www.usda.gov/oo/target/pdfs/beingcomfortableatwork.pdf

Dean Sensui
Base Two Productions

I was just experimenting with 16:9 and editing in FCP is fine but how do I set the right screen size in After Effects? It seems like the none of the presets are the right size. Can someone help me?

thanks,
H

Arrrrggghhhh!

I spent three days futzing with this problem, trying to reconfigure my computers so that they would recognize my drive again, when all along the problem was a bad Firewire cable.

It was a cable that I have relied on for 3 years or more...which may be part of the problem.

Lesson learned: Check the simple stuff first!

It will still be 720x480. It will be stretched (anamorphic).

hello

been busy getting to know FCP, like it a lot so far, but the slow refresh rate of the audio waveform is driving me nuts. I'm used to Media100 where displaying the waveform is no problem, but in FCP it really slows me down in editing. any suggestions?
G4 1Ghz 512 MB powerbook

thanks in advance & cheers
Michiel

I generally disable the audio waveform display in the timeline unless I really need it. While using the same PB model as you, I hadn't noticed it being distractingly slow, but it did slow things down. Toss another 512Mb in that thing!

Try using the three band EQ and cutting some lows or mid
frequencies. If you cut mid frequencies, you will generally
remove speech. You can identify prominant resonances
by boosting the mid band to max with a medium Q setting.
Sweep it around until something "blows" up. Then, reduce
the Q setting to focus in on a smaller band of frequencies
while sweeping the filter frequency. Once you're sure you've
boosted some prominant resonances, change the boost into
a cut. This is difficult on spaced sound liked speech, but it's
the best you can do with FCP.

Hey there people,
Just wondering if there is something special you have to do to edit HD footage from this camera in final cut pro 3. Also, since this camera has only one chip, has anyone noticed that the color isn't as good on the AG-DVX100? Please advise. Thanks