XF Utility on PowerPC Mac at DVinfo.net

Nicholi Brossia · December 8th, 2010, 12:06 PM

I'm hoping to buy two XF305's soon, but want to verify that the XF Utility 1.1 will work on a PowerPC Mac. I called Canon customer service, asking for a copy of the software. Unfortunately, they will not make it available outside of the camcorder package.
According to their specs (both customer service and Canon's website) the software works on OS X 10.5 with FCP 6.0.3 and higher, which I have. However, they cannot verify that it works with PPC Macs vs. Intel, saying that it "should." I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it does because my 4x2.5 GHz is still a strong machine.

Has anyone had success installing/using the XF Utility 1.1 on a PowerPC Mac?

Thanks in advance,
Nicholi

Nigel Barker · December 9th, 2010, 01:26 AM

I don't want to burst your bubble but I would be pretty amazed if it does work on PowerPC. Apple haven't been shipping PowerPC based machines for over 4 years & OS X Snow Leopard 10.6 which shipped well over a year ago does not support PowerPC so for Canon producing a PowerPC version would have a near zero priority.

Nicholi Brossia · December 9th, 2010, 10:56 AM

I'm aware of Apple's history and the odds of the XF Utility software being compatible with PowerPC machines. Canon customer service guaranteed that if my machine is running OS X 10.5 and Final Cut Pro 6.0.3 or higher, it will also run the XF Utility. I'm not quite convinced, which is why I'm reaching out to the community for help finding a verified answer.

I work for a university and have to be very precise and strongly justify any purchases, especially of this magnitude, with plenty of research, paperwork and documentation. If the XF305 requires a new computer, then I'll do the research and include my findings in the proposal. However, I will not automatically assume incompatibility and cost the school another $3000 on a computer just because I don't have a real answer.

Robert Turchick · December 9th, 2010, 12:31 PM

To spend $15k on two cameras and not want to upgrade your computer doesn't make a lot of sense to me. By getting the 300's instead of the 305's you'd save $2K right off the top. Or if you have to have the HDSDI outs, get a 305 and a 105 and save about $5k! That could be put towards a healthy computer!

The G5 no matter how tricked out is painfully slow compared to even my 2 year old 8-core. Even if the G5 worked, when transcoding files you would be wasting a bunch of time waiting. Just to give you an idea, my 1st gen Intel MBP which is much faster then any G5 takes almost 3 times as long to transcode files as my 8-core MP which as I mentioned is two years old.

December 8th, 2010, 12:06 PM	#1
Nicholi Brossia Major Player Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Oklahoma City, OK Posts: 389	XF Utility on PowerPC Mac I'm hoping to buy two XF305's soon, but want to verify that the XF Utility 1.1 will work on a PowerPC Mac. I called Canon customer service, asking for a copy of the software. Unfortunately, they will not make it available outside of the camcorder package. According to their specs (both customer service and Canon's website) the software works on OS X 10.5 with FCP 6.0.3 and higher, which I have. However, they cannot verify that it works with PPC Macs vs. Intel, saying that it "should." I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it does because my 4x2.5 GHz is still a strong machine. Has anyone had success installing/using the XF Utility 1.1 on a PowerPC Mac? Thanks in advance, Nicholi __________________ Nicholi Brossia

December 9th, 2010, 10:56 AM	#3
Nicholi Brossia Major Player Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Oklahoma City, OK Posts: 389	I'm aware of Apple's history and the odds of the XF Utility software being compatible with PowerPC machines. Canon customer service guaranteed that if my machine is running OS X 10.5 and Final Cut Pro 6.0.3 or higher, it will also run the XF Utility. I'm not quite convinced, which is why I'm reaching out to the community for help finding a verified answer. I work for a university and have to be very precise and strongly justify any purchases, especially of this magnitude, with plenty of research, paperwork and documentation. If the XF305 requires a new computer, then I'll do the research and include my findings in the proposal. However, I will not automatically assume incompatibility and cost the school another $3000 on a computer just because I don't have a real answer. __________________ Nicholi Brossia

December 9th, 2010, 12:31 PM	#4
Robert Turchick Trustee Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Mesa, AZ Posts: 1,389	To spend $15k on two cameras and not want to upgrade your computer doesn't make a lot of sense to me. By getting the 300's instead of the 305's you'd save $2K right off the top. Or if you have to have the HDSDI outs, get a 305 and a 105 and save about $5k! That could be put towards a healthy computer! The G5 no matter how tricked out is painfully slow compared to even my 2 year old 8-core. Even if the G5 worked, when transcoding files you would be wasting a bunch of time waiting. Just to give you an idea, my 1st gen Intel MBP which is much faster then any G5 takes almost 3 times as long to transcode files as my 8-core MP which as I mentioned is two years old. __________________ The older I get, the better I was!

December 9th, 2010, 01:26 AM	#2
Nigel Barker Inner Circle Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Norwich, Norfolk, UK Posts: 3,531	I don't want to burst your bubble but I would be pretty amazed if it does work on PowerPC. Apple haven't been shipping PowerPC based machines for over 4 years & OS X Snow Leopard 10.6 which shipped well over a year ago does not support PowerPC so for Canon producing a PowerPC version would have a near zero priority.