FCP Studio, are the wheels about to fall off?

[Bill Davis]

Just anecdotally, Last Friday I got a call from a client asking for the audio track from a spot from about 14 months ago. Thinking I would have to de-archive and re-install 7, load the project, and export the track, I was depressed about what I figured would be a good half day of client service necessitated grief.

I went looking for it in my Disk Librian archive and realized I’d actually done it in X!!!

Mounted the archive drive and BAM -the project loaded up and I had the job up and done in 2 minutes.

The point is NOT that this isn’t just as possible with any other NLE. It surely is.

The point is that the longer you hang onto a system you know is dying, the more you delay starting to build a dependable new system for the future.

Know someone who teaches video editing in elementary school, high school or college? Tell them to check out http://www.StartEditingNow.com – video editing curriculum complete with licensed practice content.

[Douglas K. dempsey]

I have an entire EOL package frozen: MBP 17″ (last model before Thunderbolt), Snow Leopard and FCS3. It seems to be a sweet spot for FCP7, and I use it for the dozens of old FCP7 (and 6) projects that I often use.

But I am very careful about any updates to anything, and try to avoid ANY Apple updates for any reason.

I recall a couple years back when a ProApps update came thru, mostly to affect Logic. But the new frameworks files installed suddenly made DVDStudio Pro break (another obsolete app & format, right?). I had to wade into Time Machine and do a swap with the previous version files.

A subsequent ProApps update worked fine — but it scared me off touching anything on the machine.

Just talk to the video pros who cannot play old tape formats, or for that matter early Mac adopters who have a stack of floppies populated with old Word, MacWrite, FileMaker and other docs that are a nightmare to access.

Frozen in time!

Doug D

[Dave Gage]

[Gary Huff] “What year are your MacBook Pros?”

1. I have an early 2011 17″ i7 that did ship with Snow Leopard.

2. My wife has my older 2009 MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo 2.53 15″. I believe this originally shipped with Leopard.

[Gary Huff] “Did they originally come installed with Lion? (Late 2011 and onwards).”
I am actually considering picking up another 17″ Quad-Core i7 if I can swing it and they are still available as a refurb in the Apple Store later this year. The 17″ size is easier for me to see than the 15″ models and I really like the upgradeability and portability of it. With 16GB RAM and 2 internal drives, it’s plenty fast for what I do. I’m disappointed the 15″ retina displays are not upgradeable except for the hard drive or I would consider one of them for the next MBP upgrade.

Dave

[Dave Gage]

[Jeremy Garchow] ”
[Dave Gage] “Are you sure about that?”

I’m not 100% sure of everything, but every new Mac that I have worked with can boot older OSes.”

I think the reason I questioned the ability to run an older OS even via an external drive is that I believe one of the local Apple Store or 800 number Geniuses told me it wasn’t possible back when I bought my first MBP. You’d think I’d know by now not to listen to them. Except for under warranty repair work, I won’t even go into an Apple Store any more, at least not when I have a question or problem. I do buy from the online Apple Store though when there is a good deal on a refurb as I did with my last two MBPs.

Dave

[Dave Gage]

[Douglas K. Dempsey] ”
But I am very careful about any updates to anything, and try to avoid ANY Apple updates for any reason.”

I too have been burned numerous times doing upgrades that I didn’t really need for new functionality, but instead was just “trying to stay current”.

Back in the G5 days, I had a webcam and was running OS 10.4.8 which we used all the time with my toddlers to iChat with the grandparents. I foolishly upgraded to 10.4.9 (just to stay current), and lost the ability to use the webcam and have my kids iChat. I waited patiently for 10.4.10 to come out months later and “fix” it. Sadly, it didn’t. I had to wait until 10.4.11 more months later to finally be able to iChat again. I think it was at that point that I began always turning off all auto-updates from all manufacturers.

Some people never learn… A month ago, I again foolishly updated my install of MS Office that was working fine. Now, when I quit Word and Excel, I get an error that the app “quit unexpectedly”. It works, but still.

Dave
Snow Leopard, FCP X 10.0.4

[Gary Huff]

[Dave Gage] “1. I have an early 2011 17″ i7 that did ship with Snow Leopard.

2. My wife has my older 2009 MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo 2.53 15″. I believe this originally shipped with Leopard.”

That’s why you can still boot Snow Leopard. I think the idea in question was installing Snow Leopard on a Mac that originally came installed with either Lion or Mountain Lion.

I have the same Mac you do (17″ Early 2011) and I’ve easily gone back and forth between Snow Leopard, Lion, and Mountain Lion (though settled on ML…working very well for me).

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Gary Huff] “hat’s why you can still boot Snow Leopard. I think the idea in question was installing Snow Leopard on a Mac that originally came installed with either Lion or Mountain Lion.”

You can’t, at least in my experience, install older software on to newer machine from the install disks.

However, if you have an older disk that has an older OS on it, you can BOOT the mac from that disk.

It is a good idea to do a clean install on Snow Leopard or whatever you want and FCS3, then make a disk image of that.

This way you can reimage any disk at any time and have a bootable working disk from which to work off of.

I hope that makes sense.

[Warren Eig]

FCP 7.0.3 works perfectly fine with no difference in speed or slow down on a 15″ MacBook Pro Quad 2.4 and a 2008 8-Core 2.8 Mac Pro both running 10.8.4. The Mac Pro has a Kona 3 and it still works fine.

Warren Eig
O 310-470-0905

email: warren@babyboompictures.com
website: https://www.babyboompictures.com

REEL: https://www.babyboompictures.com/BabyBoomPictures/Reels.html

[Dave Gage]

[Gary Huff] “That’s why you can still boot Snow Leopard. I think the idea in question was installing Snow Leopard on a Mac that originally came installed with either Lion or Mountain Lion.”

Yes, that is indeed the question. In theory then, I may be able to boot from an external drive with Leopard on it (or not). I think I have one that I can try later. I doubt it, but I will try.

It would be nice to know though that if I picked up a Retina 15″ down the road that ships with ML (or a refurb that originally shipped with Lion) I could still occasionally boot into 10.6.8 if needed.
—

Gary, I think I’ll start another thread now so I don’t keep veering away from this subject, but as I mentioned in a post yesterday, I’m considering picking up a second 2011 17″ MBP while they are still available in the Apple Refurb store. I haven’t been as happy with a computer since my old G3 Pismo, which was rock solid. Until Apple comes out with a new line of MBPs with similar specs to the coming Mac Pro, I believe this 2011 17″ is plenty laptop computer for what I do for at least another couple of years.

Thanks,
Dave

[Gary Huff]

[Douglas K. Dempsey] “Just talk to the video pros who cannot play old tape formats, or for that matter early Mac adopters who have a stack of floppies populated with old Word, MacWrite, FileMaker and other docs that are a nightmare to access.”

Those situations kill me, because I always intend to boot those up and get them into newer formats…some day.

Anybody got a Zip Drive that can read 250MB disks, or one of those Super Drives I can borrow? 😉