NLE Mac / Final Cut questions from 2002

[Jeff Donald]

NVIDIA and ATI battle it out for Mac video cards. Unless your playing games or doing high end 3D graphics you don't need too much muscle to run FCP and 2 monitors. In the ATI line I would be looking at the 8500 http://mirror.ati.com/products/mac/r...0me/index.html This card won't break the bank and has more than enough power to run 2 monitors, FCP and do some basic 3D work. NVIDIA counters with the GeForce 4 MX http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?PAGE=geforce4mx Either card card should do what you need unless 3D animation is your main business.

The card you purchase must be for the Mac. PC cards to not have Mac drivers and the firmware is different. Video cards are platform specific.

Jeff

[Henrik Bengtsson]

Yes, they are specific when they leave the factory. But most videocards can be re-flashed with the proper BIOS. (This was true for both Geforce2 and Geforce3).

I will have a serious look at the 8500 though since as you mentioned, it's not that expensive.

Thanx for the info,
Henrik

[John Locke]

Paul,

Nope...hadn't seen those before. Thanks for pointing them out. There are a couple I really like to get my hands on and play with.

Looks like one more thing for Santa's list.

[Curtis T. Stoeber]

You seem to think that since I said that my projects can take up to 5 days, that ALL of them take 5 days. Not the case. The only reason it takes so long is because I spend so much time at my real job. I don't spend 8 hours a day mixing audio. Also, with the setup you describe, there is no way that it would only take me a few minutes worth of work. It would be drastically reduced, yes, but not THAT much. :)

[Jeff Donald]

I've just started using DVD-10 (dual sided, flip disc) media to archive my completed projects. I burn the finished video on one side and on the other all the elements and media. This works for small projects. I'm still using hard drives for large projects and billing the client.

Jeff

[Nathan Gifford]

Yeah Jeff, I don't see how DVD can yet be used for backing up DV: it just too compressed. The way disks are getting so cheap, it might be cheap enough to copy to a small hard drive and then put the drive on the shelf somewhere....

[John Locke]

Does plain data get compressed also on DVD? I always thought that data goes in as is, just like on a floppy.

[Curtis T. Stoeber]

It does. That's why he said it works for small projects. I don't think he's trying to fit an hour of DV on one side.

[Jeff Donald]

You can put commercial spots, and other short projects on 1 side as a DVD (MPEG 2) and the raw foootage, graphics, music etc can go on the other side. Program on 1 side, elements on the other. One nice, neat bundle.

Jeff

[Jeff Donald]

My Holiday gifts to all the Mac users here. Jeff's Top Ten Shareware and Freeware Programs and links to download.

1.) Launchbar - 3.2.6 http://www.versiontracker.com/morein...id=2409&db=mac

LaunchBar offers an amazingly intuitive way to control your computer. Just type a few letters of what you intend to do and LaunchBar will do it for you.... Even before you can finish your thought of what to do next - it will be done....... You just hit Command-Space to attract its attention, enter a short, abbreviated description of what you're looking for, and a sophisticated, adaptive evaluation algorithm immediately offers the best matching choice from a list of thousands of possibilities. Start applications, open documents, invoke system services, compose emails or navigate the web - LaunchBar will be your essential servant.

2.) Chimera - 0.6.0 http://www.versiontracker.com/morein...d=14326&db=mac

Chimera is a new project aimed at delivering a best-of-breed browser on the OS X platform. Chimera uses Cocoazilla, a variant of Fizzilla that consists of a UNIX back end wed to a Cocoa front end. The cross-platform UI will be replaced with native Cocoa widgetry (such as customizable toolbars and a drawer for the sidebar). The plan is to produce only a browser (no other apps!), and to keep the UI as simple and as clean as possible.

3.) SpeedChimera - 2.0 http://www.versiontracker.com/morein...d=17113&db=mac

SpeedChimera allows you to take advantage of speed increase in Chimera by enabling HTTP pipelining in Chimera 0.6. SpeedChimera also provides a GUI that allows you to tweak many hidden preferences and modify standard Chimera preference


4.) Chimera Chameleon - 1.2 http://homepage.mac.com/maran/

Chimera Chameleon is a simple utility that allows you to quickly change the color scheme of the Chimera Navigator interface. The Chameleon comes bundled with six different color schemes, and thirteen additional ones are also available for download from this site.


5.) iPulse - 1.01 http://www.versiontracker.com/morein...d=17033&db=mac

Using its concise and visually pleasing graphical user interface, iPulse displays a multitude of information about OS X on the desktop or in the dock. The entire UI is completely configurable so you can turn off gauges you don't want, leaving only what you are interested in for easy viewing.

iPulse's Gauges:

* CPU activity (single and dual)
* System load
* Network activity
* Memory activity and usage
* Disk usage
* Current time and date

6.) Minimize in Place http://www.mcgavern.com/mac/mip/index.php

Instead of minimizing windows to the dock it minimizes to the finder (desktop). This feature was removed from Mac OS 10.2 Jaguar after build 6C48, and now you can have it back! MacTech has created an installer that will automatically install all the files needed to enable this feature again.

7.) TimeDisc - 0.2.2 http://www.versiontracker.com/morein...d=16934&db=mac

TimeDisc is an analog clock that uses colored segments instead of hands.

* user selectable colors
* variable size and appearance
* put it on desktop level or above everything else
* make it click-through so it doesn't get in the way
* display seconds in one of two user selectable styles
* hide dock icon
* menu bar clock with full color or icon style clock, weekday, time and date
* select any clock pulse between one and sixty seconds
* reduce process priority
* switch off window shadow
* select any ranking of time units (e.g. hours innermost, then seconds and minutes last)
* use random color selection
* free
* source available

8.) DesktopCalendar - 0.60xa http://www.versiontracker.com/morein...d=17159&db=mac

DesktopCalendar is a tiny application that changes your desktop into a calendar. It also shows today's date on the menu bar.

9.) CopyPaste X - 1.5b11 http://www.versiontracker.com/morein...d=12795&db=mac

One of the early wonders of the Mac was its revolutionary ability to do copy and paste across various applications. Unlike other areas in the Mac's system software that have changed and progressed over the years, copying and pasting has not evolved. How many times have you found yourself going back and forth copying in one application and pasting in a different application, wishing to yourself that you could copy 5-10 items at a time, then go to another application and paste each of these items.... CopyPaste-X gives you: Multiple Clipboards Clipbord Archive Clipboard Stack Clipboard Palettes Clipboard Editor Clipboard Tools Save Clipboards Through Restarts CopyPaste Uses Contextual Menus, Key Commands and Drag and Drop CopyPaste is incredible useful for anyone who wants to accomplish more with less effort.

10.) Searchling - 1.1 http://www.versiontracker.com/morein...d=17198&db=mac

Searchling is a free, quick and unobtrusive way to access your favorite search sites in MacOS X. Once running, Searchling appears as a small icon in your menu bar alongside your other menulings. Click the icon and a small text field and two pop-up buttons will appear. Enter your search and hit return...poof, you've got results in your favorite Web browser.

* Convenient web searching -- in your menubar
* Hot key support
* Configurable search sites/types
* Automatic update checking
* Sweet fade-out effect

11.) DockFun! - 3.6 http://www.versiontracker.com/morein...d=13495&db=mac

The power of Mac OS X's dock... to the tenth power! DockFun! is a tool to run infinite different Dock, without losing the original simplicity of the Dock. Hopefully, DockFun! will not only increase your productivity, but also be a cool application. You can have a dock for internet applications, a dock for Utilities, etc. Further more every dock has it's own size position and properties, so you can have the dock of Internet on the right side of the screen so that makes more space to your browser window... but you can have also a useless dock with huge icons a great zoom effects for show to your friends how much MacOS X rocks!!! Version 3 has an amazing user interface... you won't be able to live without it on you desktop!!!

12.) Net Monitor - 2.9b5 http://www.versiontracker.com/morein...d=11677&db=mac

Net Monitor graphs network interface throughput in a floating window, the Dock or the Menu Bar. Net Monitor controls PPP connections, including status reporting.

13.) Synergy - 0.3 http://www.versiontracker.com/morein...d=17100&db=mac

Synergy is a tiny Cocoa application that puts three buttons to control iTunes in your menubar: previous track, next track, and play/pause. These controls, together with the ability to control iTunes via system-wide hot-key combinations, mean that Synergy provides the fastest way of skipping between songs when using the keyboard or the mouse; all this without having to switch to iTunes, or accessing its Dock menu.
With other iTunes "remote control" applications you have to give up some screen real-estate to accommodate a floating window, or you have to navigate into a menu extra so as to access the features. In contrast, Synergy, allows you to skip between songs simply by flicking the mouse into the menu bar and clicking one of the buttons. It also offers the ability to assign system-wide hotkeys (for example Command-F11, -F12, -F13) for the play/pause, previous track and next track buttons). Synergy won't take up precious space in your Dock as it appears only in the menubar.


That's it. You got 3 extra because of the extra apps that help Chimera. Enjoy and feel free to post any programs that you feel are useful.

Happy Holidays

Jeff

[John Locke]

You are THE MAN, Jeff! These are great! I downloaded about ten of them...still trying to get Synergy to work...but the others are fine.

Here's one I can't live without...

iChoose - http://www.versiontracker.com/morein...d=12872&db=mac

[Dick Walton]

Would someone (or ones) suggest a brand/model for a 2-button mouse with scroll. I'm presently in transition from Premiere/G3 PowerBook to FCP/TiG4.

Thanks!

[Curtis T. Stoeber]

I can't be without my MicroSoft Intellimouse Explorer. I think that's what it's called. It's PC and Mac compatible. The "simple" one with a left and right click plus scroll wheel is plenty for me. No need to go for the thousand button version that costs a billion dollars. Requires software install to work in OS 9, but not in X... right click and scroll wheel work fine in that OS natively! FCP seems to ignore the scrollwheel in both OS's, though.

[John Locke]

Jeff,

Any advice on Synergy? That's actually the one I'm most interested in. The system wouldn't allow me to put the "prefpane" file in the system library folder, so I put it in my user library prefpane folder. When I open up system prefs and click to adjust the settings, nothing happens. I have 10.1.5.

Here's a request to any Mac users out there...does anyone know of any apps that do the following?

1. puts a shortcut to a Sherlock search in the menu bar (similar to Searchling above)
2. speaks the time

I used to have two programs with OS9 that did those things, and they were great. But I can't find an OSX update for them. The time app had a very natural sounding female voice and could be set to announce every quarter hour, half hour, or on the hour.

[Matt Stahley]

jeff are you using an internal superdrive and DVD SP?