NLE Mac / Final Cut questions from 2002

[Jeff Donald]

the drive does not need to be partitioned for your media. However, problems can arise if your OS X system and OS 9.x.x system are on the same partition. It is also recommended that FCP application files be seperate from the system files. So, to recap if you are using OS X you should have your internal drive partitioned into 3 drives and your media on a totally seperate drive which can be FireWire if all your doing is DV. I hope that helps.

Jeff Donald

[Jeff Donald]

This could be real simple. What OS are you using? Is it OS X or OS 9.x.x ? Post back or email me direct at jtdonald@mac.com and I'll try to help. Sorry about the late hour but Road Runner was out most of the day where I live in Florida.

Jeff Donald

[Marcus Farrar]

What are some good CG software programs for the Mac? I recently moved from a PC with Adobe Premiere 6, and loved the Title Deko. I now use Final Cut Pro 3. The titler that comes with it is great but I am looking for something in addition to this. Boris Graffiti is the CG titler that comes with it.

Any advice???

[Mike Butler]

I sure learned my lesson about UPS's ... was working here in Westport when the power browned out (yes Muffy, even in West-excusemeverymuch-port) and took my PC down hard. A complete HD reformat and reinstall of all software was not enough to exorcise all the goblins, and that CPU wound up getting swapped out (and knackered up) and a UPS got plugged in to service the new unit, never wanting to see that happen again. The Mac also has a UPS on it, and ditto at home.

Oh, as for monitors, I am currently staring at a 22-inch NEC (Mitsubishi) MultiSync FE 1250+ and ditto on the home Mac. It is a very pleasant monitor and it is FLAT! No, not a TFT flat panel like the oh-too-sexy Apple Cinema but a regular CRT, however, the front glass is flatter than the windows in Chris' farmhouse. :-) As in, hold a straightedge up to it. Really nice. The only way you know you are looking at a tube is to peer around at the (quite ample) back side of it. And for NTSC, a seasoned 13" Panasonic color monitor with front-panel switch-selectable inputs. Handy. Can borrow "home" TVs from within the building to test how the work will look on one.

[Joe Redifer]

Last year lightning struck my house and took out everything hooked to a phone line. Since my Mac was dial-up at the time, it went bye bye as well. Had to have the entire motherboard replaced. Fortunately insurance paid for it (!) but I quickly went out and bought a UPS. It's worth it.

[Mike Butler]

I thought I was replying to the "Monitors, so many to choose from." thread, not starting a new thread! But hey, UPS's (UPSes?) are important enough to get their own thread, right? They are, if you've ever lost a computer or your work to a brownout/blackout/spike.

[Joe Redifer]

Well I think I could combine it with that thread, but I think it'll do more good out here on it's own. Everyone should have a UPS. You may have accidentally saved lives and entire civilizations by posting this as its own thread.

[Vic Owen]

A few years ago, I added a UPS to the Windoze machine I had -- I thought I'd be clever and increase the available time by not connecting the monitor to it. You guessed it......power failure, and I didn't have a screen to work with so I couldn't shut the damn thing down! Later models have auto-shutdown modes, but mine didn't. Considering what I lost, it took awhile before I could laugh over that one!

[Rob Lohman]

For the people who are reading this thread and do not know
what an UPS is (no, we are not talking about that postal service
here): UPS stands for Uninterruptable Power Supply. Basically
it is a very large "Battery" that charges itself when there is power
on the net. In the event of a power failure it will allow you to
keep all the connected devices to work while the power is down.

How many devices you can connect and how long you can
operate these when the power is down depends on the model
(read size) of the UPS.

But at least you'll have the time to shutdown your computers
correctly! Together with an NTFS formatted drive (We do use
Windows 2000/XP for editing, now do we? I'm talking to the
PC people here, not Mac in case you wonder) and a solid backup
strategy you have a very good protection against data loss. If
any one wants to know what the advantages are to having a
NTFS drive drop me a line and I'll explain.

[Mike Butler]

LOL, Vic! But sorry about your losing data. BTW, that jazzy automatic shutdown software won't work on my Mac, only Windoze boxes. They have the servers here rigged up with that feature, for obvious reasons.

In this shop, almost everybody has a laptop, except the admin assistants & receptionists who presumably don't take work home with them or on the road. So nobody thinks about a UPS cuz a laptop is one by definition. But due to the fact that I need to store the creative out on a server, and all my print jobs go to a humongous Canon Color Laser, mobility in computing is not a practical reality for me. Plus the company-issued laptops don't have the brute power I need, so it's desktop boxes for me. With a UPS on each one. Cheap insurance, courtesy of APC or Tripp-Lite.

OK, Rob, we'll bite, 'splain to us about NTFS drives since you brought it up. Actually I'm not on Win2K yet, my ol' Pennium 2 is still on Win NT!

[Adrian Douglas]

Mike, NTFS is NT's native file system, hence the name NTFS(NT File System). Your NT machine is probably running NTFS as we speak.

[Vic Owen]

After a while, I, too could laugh about it, Mike. Sometimes, we just outsmart ourselves!

I found the same thing you did on my MACS, but I'm reluctant to allow any UPS to control my computer, regardless. On the Windoze machine that the rest of the (unwashed) family uses, I moved the monitor over to it (and put in a BIG honker), but still use the manual shut-down mode. The one item to keep off of them is a Laser printer -- they're real power hogs.

Unless using a laptop, they're absolutely mandatory, in my way of thinking. Lots of peace of mind for very little cost. They also provide pretty good filtering.

[Rob Lohman]

Mike,

NTFS has the following advantages:

- better data integrity
- security
- larger files

and some disadvantages:

- small files tend to be accessed a bit slower
due to security checking etc. Although you'll
probably won't notice a speed difference in
your dialy work
- if you dual boot a windows 9x system you
cannot make your boot drive NTFS
- Windows 9x systems cannot read NTFS
formatted partitions (they can over a network!)

One of the most pleasant things of NTFS is its support
for better data integrity. When NTFS is updating files
and tables on your drive it actually records so that it
is doing so. So if your computer would crash (or power
be cut) in the middle of writing your file NT will no about
it the next time it boots. It either continues the write or
rollsback your file to its previous content. This assures
that you always have a working file, even if the computer
crashed. Now I cannot give you any numbers on how
reliant this all actually works, but I've never had any
problems with data integrity on NT or 2000. And I have
used those OS-es a lot for very different things. XP also
has support ofcourse.

Security might be interesting too if you plan to allow or
disallow certain people or groups of people access to
your folders.

If you want to know more or if something is unclear
lemme know.

[Mike Butler]

Thanks for the explan's Rob & Adrian. Right, I probly am running NTFS, I do know that all the servers are NT.

Vic, I definitely keep the printers off the UPS, I think the instructions even say something about that.

As for fire protection, don't skimp on smoke detectors and a carbon monoxide detector. Unfortunately the only alarm my cat is useful at sounding is the empty-stomach siren! :-)

[Marcus Farrar]

I looked for Ray Dream Studio 5 and could not find it. Anybody have any other ideas?