G5 vs. Intel Macs: Problems when moving projects between them?

[Scott Shuster]

We are experiencing continuing problems using our Intel Mac when we work on projects that were originally either imported or partially rendered in the G5.

This was alluded to in this thread:
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=79196
...and at the end of that thread I left the impression that our problems were solved. Well I was wrong. Myriad problems - always resulting in crashes - have continued to plague us. It has gotten to the point where we feel we must keep projects completely isolated from each other: Either it is a "G5 project" or it is an "Intel Mac" project. Moving projects back and forth between the two leads to problems such as:

The Intel Mac does not recognize any renders done in the G5...

The Intel Mac crashes when rendering 'G5' projects...

The Intel mac crashes when compressor goes to work to export sequences to mpeg...

The G5 works fine with Intel Mac-originated material: It is only in the Intel Mac where we have these problems.

Both systems are up-to-the minute on their OS, security updates, and FCP versions. We are using variously 720p/30 from the JVC GY-100UA and 1080i/30 from the Sony Z1U.

Is anyone else experiencing similar problems moving projects between a G5 and an Intel Mac?

Is anyone moving projects between the two platforms and experiencing NO problems at all? That information would be just as valuable, in that it would give us hope!

Do any of the under-the-hood experts have any ideas on what could be the cause of our gremlins?

[Cody Lucido]

I transfer work between my home Intel iMac to my G5 at work without ever having a problem. I do not ever transfer renders between them as renders are flakey. I have no issues with compressor crashing the system.

Have you tried verifying your disk and trashing your preferences? FCP resue is good for that.

I wish I could be of some more help.

[William Hohauser]

Originally Posted by Scott Shuster

We are experiencing continuing problems using our Intel Mac when we work on projects that were originally either imported or partially rendered in the G5.

This seems to be a problem with the most recent version of FCP. I have the comination of systems and had the same problems. Also with cutting and pasting rendered sections within projects.

You don't mention how you are moving between systems but I found that using Media Manager to make copys seems to avoid render problems. Just copying entire folders in the Finder doesn't work. I haven't tried working an entire project on an external drive.

[Scott Shuster]

Thank you, William and Cody. Wow: So it's not only us who are having this problem! I was beginning to wonder. We move files between systems in the following manner: First, we keep absolutely everything on external drives. Our internal drives are completely empty. When we want to work on a project in a different machine, we 'trash' the drive from "machine A" and plug it into "machine B." Simple as that. At least we thought it would be simple...

So how do we go about placing this issue before the good folks at Apple? They need to know about this so they can fix it. Anybody here know people on the FCP development team who they could call about this?

[William Hohauser]

Maybe they are reading this.

Where are you keeping the project file? Is it on the external drive or are you transfering it to the internal drive?

[Scott Shuster]

You can bet they are reading it. How could they not be reading these sites? I mean honestly, it has to be a 'must' for the development team to keep abreast of what folks like us are experiencing. And I don't blame them one bit for NOT posting their own comments. There would be legal liability involved for Apple based on comments made by any of their developers here. All in all it's great: The best among us offer guidance, while the developers look on. This resource is invaluable to us all.

Our projects (including the small project file) are all kept 100% on external drives at all times. Four or five years ago there was some lore about how it was better to keep the project file on a different drive from the media file -- we never followed through on trying that. Does it make a difference for you?

I don't think we have ever had one of our projects on an internal drive even for a minute!

Our internal drive contains system and the minimum number of applications to keep the computer working. Nothing else. I actually bought the MacPro with the smallest single drive they make (160GB i think it was) because that's the way we work.

Now I'm really curious to learn if we are making some kind of major basic structural error in operating this way...!!

[William Hohauser]

Well then, HELLO, APPLE FINAL CUT DEVELOPMENT TEAM!

The reason I asked where the project file was, was to confirm or disprove a suspicion about file directories and what not. I think this might be a code problem between the PowerPC and the Intel versions of FCP. Although that doesn't explain the problems with a scrolling title I tried to cut and paste to another timeline on the Intel Mac.

I have successfully transfered projects from the Intel to the G5 but they didn't have any major renders in them, just color-correction that was playing real-time.

You might just have to stop going between computers.

[Scott Shuster]

Originally Posted by William Hohauser

I have successfully transfered projects from the Intel to the G5...

Oh yeah - so do we. There's no problem there. It's going in the other direction where the problems ensue. In our latest conversation here in the office we came away with your conclusion exactly: No more transferring projects between computers. And this implies...buying more MacPro Towers.

Hmmm...could this be Apple's strategy? To purposely make the systems just slightly incompatible so that we are forced to toss out the old gear? Not that we can, because we need it to deal with old projects, such as creating HD versions once the Blu-Ray/HD-DVD thing becomes clear. So that means keeping a moribund machine around doing nothing most of the time.

If Apple is doing that, eventually the truth will be known and they will lose a lot of credibility in the marketplace. If they are not doing that, then they should be able to come up with a fix for these problems. We are watching and waiting.

[William Hohauser]

Originally Posted by Scott Shuster

Oh yeah - so do we. There's no problem there. It's going in the other direction where the problems ensue. In our latest conversation here in the office we came away with your conclusion exactly: No more transferring projects between computers. And this implies...buying more MacPro Towers.

Hmmm...could this be Apple's strategy? To purposely make the systems just slightly incompatible so that we are forced to toss out the old gear? Not that we can, because we need it to deal with old projects, such as creating HD versions once the Blu-Ray/HD-DVD thing becomes clear. So that means keeping a moribund machine around doing nothing most of the time.

If Apple is doing that, eventually the truth will be known and they will lose a lot of credibility in the marketplace. If they are not doing that, then they should be able to come up with a fix for these problems. We are watching and waiting.

I would quell the corporate conspiracy theory for a while. This problem just came up with the recent update. Since I have the problem within the Macbok Pro it looks more like a bit of code that collided with something that was written more recently. I have done a little work with programmers recently and you would be amazed at how a llittle code improvement can knock something unrelated out of whack. My two G4's with FCP5.0 have no problems with transfered projects. Both computers with 5.1 are having this problem. By the way, everything I transfer from the G5 to the Intel works fine, it when I go the other way the problem surfaces.

So if Apple is reading this.

PLEASE FIX THE BUG, PLEASE!