NLE Mac / Final Cut questions from 2004

Philippe Gosselin · June 14th, 2004, 11:35 PM

Hi all,

Today i burn .avi file ( not compressed , audio is pcm ) on a dvd.

My friend took it to his place and tried to put into his G4. Now the mac knows that something as big as 3.5 gig is the the dvd but he sees no file .

My friend tried with three different MAC and it was all the same.

Did i do something wrong ??

is there any trick for uncompressed avi on a MAC ,

My friend doesn't know much about PC and i don't know much about MAC,

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

thx a bunch

Phil

Ken Tanaka · June 14th, 2004, 11:50 PM

Check with the Apple FCP support site. In the recesses of my memory I seem to recall seeing this problem documented there, with a work-around, while researching a different topic.

Matt Stahley · June 15th, 2004, 02:37 AM

Free apps VLC and Divx Doctor may help. VLC is a really nice media player and will play some .avi files. Divx Doctor will convert most non compatible .avi to quicktime movie file.

Jeff Donald · June 15th, 2004, 03:37 AM

I've had students run into this. Search at Apple's support site, by the error code that is generated.

Michelle Cohen · June 15th, 2004, 10:35 PM

I want to make sure I am best utilizing the speed of my new powerbook (15" 1.5 1 Gb RAM):

I'm getting a firewire 800/400 160 Gb external drive and I have two 60 Gb external firewire drives (one is currently used for backup)

Please let me know if this is what I should do:

1. Install the OS (10.3.3) on the 160 external drive (and possibly others)
2. Install Final Cut Pro 4 on what I will intend to be the boot drive for editing (i.e. the 160 or at least part of it) as well as the internal PB drive.
3. Boot from the boot drive (by selecting it as the boot drive in the OS sys prefs) and run FCP on this drive. Or should I run FCP on the internal PB drive?

4. Save the FCP files on either of the external hard drives.

Regarding partitions, is it ok if I partition the 160 for half OS boot drive/FCP and other apps/ half storage/backup? Is this possible?

Also, is it really that much faster if you run the app from an external boot drive? Is it because the ext. drives are 7200 rpm and my internal is 5400?

Thanks so much for any advice!!

Mark Sloan · June 16th, 2004, 06:24 PM

I personally have never heard of someone booting off of an external firewire drive for speed. Putting the OS or FCP on an external drive doesn't make sense to me because once loaded, the OS and FCP simply live in RAM, which HD they live on should have no effect. Put your OS and Applications on the internal drive, even if it is 5400rpm.

Your disk issues will be your scratch space and where your project lives. I'd keep that on a FW 800 drive and check www.barefeats.com to see which FW 800 drive would best. Because the FW 800 and the FW 400 are on the same FireWire bus, I would suggest using only one FW port at a time for maximum results. If you don't see any problems, go ahead and try using the 400 port at the same time (I don't think there would be much of a performance hit).
http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Hardware/Developer_Notes/Macintosh_CPUs-G4/15inchPowerBookG4/index.html

Jeff Donald · June 16th, 2004, 08:39 PM

You can even slow down the performance by moving the software to places other than where the OS installs it. In other words, FCP will be installed in the applications folder, with all the other apps. That is where it should be and it should not be installed on a separate drive or partition. I would designate a separate drive (not partition) to me the scratch disk and to be the location of the FCP media files.

Jeff Donald · June 17th, 2004, 08:27 AM

Thanks for the link.

Kevin Burnfield · June 17th, 2004, 09:17 AM

I don't think you mentioned how big your internal drive was... how big is it?

I agree Mark and Jeff, I wouldn't install the OS and FCP on the external drive.

On thing you may look into is partitioning your main drive. Keep you apps on one partition, have the other partition be for media files, scratch, ect as well as having the external for that.

You want to have your app drive have lots of extra space if at all possible for things like virtual memory and temp space for render cache and things like that.

Partitioning your drive also makes the two partitions a little faster since they have limited area to move around stuff.

External Firewire drives have gotten fast enough to make them a real option for media drives and since I've maxed out my possible number of internal drives I'm going that way next.

Although I do have an external drive that I use as a back up device. I have a program that sends stuff over to it and I drop it into a fireproof box in my office... on the days when I'm being good and not forgetting or at least before I go away for a couple of days. Sometimes....

Kevin Burnfield · June 17th, 2004, 09:21 AM

When he loads the disk into his Mac, does he see the file and can't open it or (as I think you are describing) does he insert the disk and his system does not see the file at all... ie: a blank disk but sees that there is some of the disk taken up??

If it's the latter, there's something gone wrong in the way you burned the disk.

Macs can read all PC disks. It can see files on a PC formated CD, DVD, Floppy... anything.

it might not be able to open them (like .exe files) but it can see them.

When you burned the DVD, did you mount it and were able to see the contents and the disk?

How did you burn it? ISO?

Did you try to burn it as a DVD or as a Data DVD?

Jake Russell · June 17th, 2004, 10:02 AM

I think all the questions have been asked and the options said. If anyone wants to open .exe files on mac you do this with Virtual PC. And you may need to check the flatten movie option when encoding QT files for PC's. VLC should solve things as Matt said.

Jake

Dave Cook · June 17th, 2004, 01:24 PM

I have the opportunity to upgrade my Panasonic PV-GS200 to the JVC GR-HD1 with Beach Camera. All I have to do is pay a 10% restocking fee which is like $79. No big deal as I've had the camera for a month and didn't even expect them to consider it.

Question: I have Final Cut Express en-route from Apple. Will I be able to edit HD footage from the JVC in FCE? Thanks in advance!

Shane Ross · June 17th, 2004, 03:48 PM

According to Apples list of compatible devices...no.

http://www.apple.com/finalcutexpress/qualification.html

Michelle Cohen · June 17th, 2004, 04:12 PM

Thanks for the replies, very helpful!
Since I have a Powerbook (15" 1.5) my internal drive is a somewhat limited 80Gb. It's also only 5400 rpm.

I had just heard someone mention how his computer ran really fast when he booted from an external drive and ran the app on it.

I'm getting an OWC (Other World Computing) 160 Gb 800 fw drive as i've heard good things about them on speed and reliability. So I'll use that as my scratch disk and keep the files on it and use my other, smaller fw drive as a backup (really smart idea to keep it in a separate location)

Shane Ross · June 18th, 2004, 06:08 PM

<<<-- Originally posted by Kevin Burnfield : On thing you may look into is partitioning your main drive. Keep you apps on one partition, have the other partition be for media files, scratch, ect as well as having the external for that. -->>>

Uh...no.

Partitioning your internal drive is not a bad idea, but NEVER put any media on either partition. While it is not on the same PARTITION as the OS, it still resides on the same DRIVE. Never capture media onto the same drive as your OS.

I have my internal drive partitioned into two and it actually does improve system performance. I put the OS and apps on one partition, and files, pictures, iTunes music, movie trailers on the other.

June 14th, 2004, 11:35 PM	#796
Philippe Gosselin Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Montreal , Canada Posts: 197	can't open a avi file on a MAC Hi all, Today i burn .avi file ( not compressed , audio is pcm ) on a dvd. My friend took it to his place and tried to put into his G4. Now the mac knows that something as big as 3.5 gig is the the dvd but he sees no file . My friend tried with three different MAC and it was all the same. Did i do something wrong ?? is there any trick for uncompressed avi on a MAC , My friend doesn't know much about PC and i don't know much about MAC, Any help will be greatly appreciated. thx a bunch Phil

June 14th, 2004, 11:50 PM	#797
Ken Tanaka Retired DV Info Net Almunus Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 6,943	Check with the Apple FCP support site. In the recesses of my memory I seem to recall seeing this problem documented there, with a work-around, while researching a different topic. __________________ Lady X Films: A lady with a boring wardrobe...and a global mission. Hey, you don't have enough stuff! Buy with confidence from our sponsors. Hand-picked as the best in the business...Really! See some of my work one frame at a time: www.KenTanaka.com

June 15th, 2004, 03:37 AM	#799
Jeff Donald Warden Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Clearwater, FL Posts: 8,287	I've had students run into this. Search at Apple's support site, by the error code that is generated. __________________ Jeff Donald Carpe Diem Search DVinfo.net for quick answers \| Where to Buy? From the best in the business: DVinfo.net sponsors

June 15th, 2004, 10:35 PM	#800
Michelle Cohen New Boot Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: New York, NY Posts: 9	Boot drive questions: Is this correct?? I want to make sure I am best utilizing the speed of my new powerbook (15" 1.5 1 Gb RAM): I'm getting a firewire 800/400 160 Gb external drive and I have two 60 Gb external firewire drives (one is currently used for backup) Please let me know if this is what I should do: 1. Install the OS (10.3.3) on the 160 external drive (and possibly others) 2. Install Final Cut Pro 4 on what I will intend to be the boot drive for editing (i.e. the 160 or at least part of it) as well as the internal PB drive. 3. Boot from the boot drive (by selecting it as the boot drive in the OS sys prefs) and run FCP on this drive. Or should I run FCP on the internal PB drive? 4. Save the FCP files on either of the external hard drives. Regarding partitions, is it ok if I partition the 160 for half OS boot drive/FCP and other apps/ half storage/backup? Is this possible? Also, is it really that much faster if you run the app from an external boot drive? Is it because the ext. drives are 7200 rpm and my internal is 5400? Thanks so much for any advice!!

June 16th, 2004, 08:39 PM	#802
Jeff Donald Warden Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Clearwater, FL Posts: 8,287	You can even slow down the performance by moving the software to places other than where the OS installs it. In other words, FCP will be installed in the applications folder, with all the other apps. That is where it should be and it should not be installed on a separate drive or partition. I would designate a separate drive (not partition) to me the scratch disk and to be the location of the FCP media files. __________________ Jeff Donald Carpe Diem Search DVinfo.net for quick answers \| Where to Buy? From the best in the business: DVinfo.net sponsors

June 15th, 2004, 02:37 AM	#798
Matt Stahley Major Player Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Waynesboro, PA Posts: 648	Free apps VLC and Divx Doctor may help. VLC is a really nice media player and will play some .avi files. Divx Doctor will convert most non compatible .avi to quicktime movie file.

June 16th, 2004, 06:24 PM	#801
Mark Sloan Major Player Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Venice, CA Posts: 346	I personally have never heard of someone booting off of an external firewire drive for speed. Putting the OS or FCP on an external drive doesn't make sense to me because once loaded, the OS and FCP simply live in RAM, which HD they live on should have no effect. Put your OS and Applications on the internal drive, even if it is 5400rpm. Your disk issues will be your scratch space and where your project lives. I'd keep that on a FW 800 drive and check www.barefeats.com to see which FW 800 drive would best. Because the FW 800 and the FW 400 are on the same FireWire bus, I would suggest using only one FW port at a time for maximum results. If you don't see any problems, go ahead and try using the 400 port at the same time (I don't think there would be much of a performance hit). http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Hardware/Developer_Notes/Macintosh_CPUs-G4/15inchPowerBookG4/index.html

June 17th, 2004, 08:27 AM	#803
Jeff Donald Warden Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Clearwater, FL Posts: 8,287	Thanks for the link. __________________ Jeff Donald Carpe Diem Search DVinfo.net for quick answers \| Where to Buy? From the best in the business: DVinfo.net sponsors

June 17th, 2004, 09:17 AM	#804
Kevin Burnfield Major Player Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Princeton, NJ Posts: 363	I don't think you mentioned how big your internal drive was... how big is it? I agree Mark and Jeff, I wouldn't install the OS and FCP on the external drive. On thing you may look into is partitioning your main drive. Keep you apps on one partition, have the other partition be for media files, scratch, ect as well as having the external for that. You want to have your app drive have lots of extra space if at all possible for things like virtual memory and temp space for render cache and things like that. Partitioning your drive also makes the two partitions a little faster since they have limited area to move around stuff. External Firewire drives have gotten fast enough to make them a real option for media drives and since I've maxed out my possible number of internal drives I'm going that way next. Although I do have an external drive that I use as a back up device. I have a program that sends stuff over to it and I drop it into a fireproof box in my office... on the days when I'm being good and not forgetting or at least before I go away for a couple of days. Sometimes....

June 17th, 2004, 09:21 AM	#805
Kevin Burnfield Major Player Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Princeton, NJ Posts: 363	When he loads the disk into his Mac, does he see the file and can't open it or (as I think you are describing) does he insert the disk and his system does not see the file at all... ie: a blank disk but sees that there is some of the disk taken up?? If it's the latter, there's something gone wrong in the way you burned the disk. Macs can read all PC disks. It can see files on a PC formated CD, DVD, Floppy... anything. it might not be able to open them (like .exe files) but it can see them. When you burned the DVD, did you mount it and were able to see the contents and the disk? How did you burn it? ISO? Did you try to burn it as a DVD or as a Data DVD?

June 17th, 2004, 10:02 AM	#806
Jake Russell Regular Crew Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Oxford, UK Posts: 177	I think all the questions have been asked and the options said. If anyone wants to open .exe files on mac you do this with Virtual PC. And you may need to check the flatten movie option when encoding QT files for PC's. VLC should solve things as Matt said. Jake

June 17th, 2004, 01:24 PM	#807
Dave Cook New Boot Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Fort Myers, FL Posts: 24	JVC GR-HD1 and Final Cut Express? I have the opportunity to upgrade my Panasonic PV-GS200 to the JVC GR-HD1 with Beach Camera. All I have to do is pay a 10% restocking fee which is like $79. No big deal as I've had the camera for a month and didn't even expect them to consider it. Question: I have Final Cut Express en-route from Apple. Will I be able to edit HD footage from the JVC in FCE? Thanks in advance! __________________ Dave Cook \| Panasonic PV-GS200 \| PowerMac G5 Dual 2Ghz \| Final Cut Express \| DVD Studio Pro

June 17th, 2004, 03:48 PM	#808
Shane Ross Major Player Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Los Angeles, USA Posts: 539	According to Apples list of compatible devices...no. http://www.apple.com/finalcutexpress/qualification.html

June 17th, 2004, 04:12 PM	#809
Michelle Cohen New Boot Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: New York, NY Posts: 9	Thanks for the replies, very helpful! Since I have a Powerbook (15" 1.5) my internal drive is a somewhat limited 80Gb. It's also only 5400 rpm. I had just heard someone mention how his computer ran really fast when he booted from an external drive and ran the app on it. I'm getting an OWC (Other World Computing) 160 Gb 800 fw drive as i've heard good things about them on speed and reliability. So I'll use that as my scratch disk and keep the files on it and use my other, smaller fw drive as a backup (really smart idea to keep it in a separate location)

June 18th, 2004, 06:08 PM	#810
Shane Ross Major Player Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Los Angeles, USA Posts: 539	<<<-- Originally posted by Kevin Burnfield : On thing you may look into is partitioning your main drive. Keep you apps on one partition, have the other partition be for media files, scratch, ect as well as having the external for that. -->>> Uh...no. Partitioning your internal drive is not a bad idea, but NEVER put any media on either partition. While it is not on the same PARTITION as the OS, it still resides on the same DRIVE. Never capture media onto the same drive as your OS. I have my internal drive partitioned into two and it actually does improve system performance. I put the OS and apps on one partition, and files, pictures, iTunes music, movie trailers on the other.