• Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy

  Need to work with XDCAM EX video/audio on a Powermac G5 Dual 1.8GHz?

  Posted by Meagan Brady-wright on May 12, 2011 at 6:48 pm

  I am running Final Cut Pro 4.5 (HD) on a Powermac G5 Dual 1.8GHz with a NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra card, and need to upgrade my system so that I can ingest and edit XDCAM EX video/audio. Will Final Cut Studio 2 (Final Cut Pro 6 specifically) do the trick for me? It looks like that is the latest version of Final Cut that will work on my system and also ingest the XDCAM EX footage (I believe the video is also High Def). Can someone confirm or correct me on this? I realize my system would be taxed heavily in trying to deal with the footage, but I simply don’t have the funds for a new CPU and Final Cut Studio 3 (I am able to use a copy of FCS 2 for free), and I really need to take this job for the money right now. So can I limp through this project until I am able to upgrade everything?

  Also – will I need to upgrade my NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra card to an AGP or PCI Quartz Extreme graphics card? Does it matter whether the Quartz Extreme card is AGP or PCI. My knowledge is pretty limited re: graphics cards.

  Any help is appreciated. Thanks

  Rick Moore replied 14 years, 10 months ago 3 Members · 3 Replies
• 3 Replies

• 

  Richard Cooper

  May 12, 2011 at 8:12 pm

  “…ingest and edit XDCAM EX video/audio. Will Final Cut Studio 2 (Final Cut Pro 6 specifically) do the trick for me?”

  Hi Meagan, Yes FCP 6 will handle XDCAM EX no problem (just make sure it is 6.03 or later).

  Once you have your system upgraded and running FCP 6.03 you also need to install the SXS Card reader drivers and FCP log and transfer plugin so you can bring ingest your XDCAM footage.
  All of these driver downloads can be found HERE

  Good Luck!

  Richard Cooper
  FrostLine Productions, LLC
  Anchorage, Alaska
  http://www.frostlineproductions.com
• 

  Meagan Brady-wright

  May 12, 2011 at 8:31 pm

  Thanks for the info!

  The clips/footage will first be transferred to a Hard Drive and then injested into my Final Cut system from there. I will indeed be downloading/installing Sony’s Log and Transfer plug in software utility for XDCAM EX, but will I still need the SXS card reader drivers if I’m not dealing with those cards directly?

  The other thing I am concerned about is the ability of my Powermac G5 Dual 1.8GHz to handle the XDCAM EX footage (especially since it is HD). I know it will be taxing my system a lot, but do you know if there will likely be a problem with my machine just dealing with the footage at all?
• 

  Rick Moore

  June 16, 2011 at 5:22 pm

  I’ve been using my power mac with 6.03 for a few years now using footage from sony ex3 without fail.
  I actually liked it better than my current system, fully upgraded and which now shows several issues that were not there before with xdcam ex footage.

  You will be happy.

  Rick

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