Final Cut Pro 7 compatibility and the Mac Lion OS 10.7 upgrade

[Michael Gissing]

Do you run software that will benefit from Lion? Final Cut 7 gets no benefit from Lion, just potential grief as posters on this forum have reported. And Lion will eventually break FCP7.

So unless there is other software that must run under Lion, my advice is to turn off all software updates and stick to the working SL system you now have. If anything breaks FCP7, Apple will not be releasing any fixes.

[Ryan Holmes]

+1 to what Michael said. I think he’s exactly right.

Unless you have some reason you have to upgrade to Lion, I’d avoid it. FCP7 is a dead platform – meaning that Apple is not investing anymore time patching, bug checking, and updating the software. If Lion 10.7.3 or 10.7.4 or whatever breaks FCP7 then that’s it. Since it’s working on 10.6.8 (and all your plugins work) then stay there. If there’s some software you need to run under 10.7 (Adobe, or FCPX, or ) then you’ll have to take your chances. But if not, stick with 10.6.8.

[Jenny Hicks]

Thanks chaps, and F.Yealls.I

This from the FCP guru on the ground in Cape Town…

‘… I am running FCP 7 on Lion, I have not had any issues myself as I follow the following good practices. Always keep all drives to a maximum of 80% full try and keep the start up disk to 60%. Run disk utility at least once a month…’

He is also already a very happy FCPX convert.
I myself am deliberating still, leaning towards AVID, as I already know it more or less… and learning FCPX is potentially making my life more complicated than it needs to be right now.

[Michael Gissing]

It is always important to get sample groups bigger than one person. You Guru friend has reason to run Lion and it moving to FCPX so when FCP7 breaks it may not matter.

Search this forum for the results others have had with Lion OS upgrades.

[Adam n. Greene]

Wouldn’t the soon-to-be death of MobileMe’s services be a reason we are FORCED to upgrade to Lion?

If you have iDevices that hold Address Book contacts, iCal calendars, and other syncable items, those (at least so I’ve read) will only be able to still exist for users by using iCloud. And since iCloud appears to only work on Lion, what options are there? For filmmakers still using both FCP7 (out of necessity) and iDevice services, it feels like the Lion cornering you against a cliff — bad news if you keeping inching back, [seemingly] bad news if you make the move forward.

Perhaps I haven’t found the right thread yet, but am I incorrect in this assessment? What is the best plan of action (with a single system if possible) if you want to:

– continue to sync contacts, ical, and others between iPhone, iPad, MacBook Pro (or other main)
– continue using FCP7
– use FCPX
– keep your projects working, clients happy, checkbook unneeded

If relevant, my personal setup includes:
– 2009 MacBook Pro 17″, 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4 GB RAM (runs 10.6.8)
– 2007 Mac Pro, 2 x 3 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon, 7 GB RAM (runs 10.5.8)

Thanks!

-Apple Certified Trainer / Pro-

[Ryan Holmes]

@Adam

Lion is not necessary for calendar/contact if using iDevices. Convenient? Yes. Necessary? No. You can just as easily use Google services or Micro$oft exchange for the items you need. Granted it’s not as easy a solution.

Or you pickup a spare computer that is upgradable to Lion and you leave your production machine on 10.6.8 running FCP7.

[Heather Parker]

Hi Adam –

I have a similar background/situation. It’s March… What did you decide to do?

Thanks,
Heather

17″ MacBookPro (OS 10.6.8, Processor 2.8 GH Intel Core 2 Duo) with FCP7.

Just upgraded to iphone 4S and ran into all the upgrades… from Mobile Me to Cloud = upgrade to Lion = upgrade to FCSX…. = $1000 or so. I’ve only upgraded my phone so far.

[Adam n. Greene]

Hi Heather,

I actually haven’t done anything about it yet. I decided to wait and see if a 10.6.9 update comes out with iCloud capability. I read some threads on that possibility a while back (not sure where those URLs are now). Moving to a different service like Google, or buying lots of new gear, is not a decision we enjoy having to choose between, and neither is really an option at this point.

If the rumored 10.6.9 with iCloud capability does not emerge within a month or so, we will be upgrading to 10.7 on what machines we can and hope for the best. Though I am beginning to doubt they will, I am really hoping that Apple comes out with a solution for people like you and me, since the incompatibility is just a total slap in the face to loyal users of Apple equipment and services. We’re a small business, and from our perspective we don’t have a dedicated individual to solve/handle this problem like a big company might, so it means interrupting everything we are doing to focus on this, and it is disappointing to see the lack of support or empathy from our primary computing vendor.

That said, we are still very much Apple people, and have appreciated their technology and assistance in other areas. It helps us do the work we love and make our clients happy. I do hope Apple takes comments like mine and others similar seriously, since I want to believe in the products and company I am both using and recommending to staff, clients, students, and crew. OS transitions, how ever important and groundbreaking, should be made to be painless and easy, and better research should be done by their team about how to satisfy not just the existing mass customer base, but customers with real and specific concerns like you and me.

Good luck with your upgrade process.

[Heather Parker]

Hi Adam –

Thanks for the clear and thoughtful reply. Not what I wanted to hear, 😉 but helpful.
I will continue to ponder, and am in the same boat.

Question:

I know there is some limited functionality in FCSX for tape input. I’m a digital user too, but have old unfinished personal projects on tape… So, in your opinion.. would you just digitize those now, even if I’m not working on them just yet?

By the way, I’ll send you something at your company website to review….

Thank you again,
Heather

[Adam n. Greene]

We have undergone a massive digitizing effort for all our tape based media, and are still not done, but will do it all eventually. We are still obviously keeping tapes, but digitizing just seems the prudent thing to do at this time for us. The best backup solution is via LTO tape decks if you want to preserve the data guaranteed for 30+ years, but the decks can be expensive and overkill for some projects. LTO tapes once you have a deck are not so bad for the price, but access data can be slow.

Another affordable option is to buy bare hard drives (which up until the Thai floods were the best deal in town), and then use them in combination with an external bare hard drive mount like the Voyager (sold by MacSales.com; I do not represent them). This has been a good option so long as you do proper maintenance on the shelved drives by running them at least once every 3-6 months.

At GLM we use a Drobo Pro as primary storage and live accessible backup, and the bare hard drives as a second backup.