Snow Leopard 101: For Smart People Only

[Lance Moody]

While I certainly don’t want to minimize the quite good advice contained herein, I have to admit that I have never done as drastic a reinstall as is suggested here.

I have been using FCP since 1.0 and while I have migrated from machine to machine over the years (thus getting a nice clean system to start with), I think I have always just used the upgrade option when I had it available.

So far with FCS 2009 and now Snow Leopard, all seems to be working as expected. I weighed the time investment and heartache to decide the course I would take and I don’t regret my decision.

I will mention that I don’t use many 3rd party plug-ins in FCP (I save those for AE).

Thanks,

Lance

[Winston A. cely]

I’d bet that the lack of a lot of third party plug-ins for FCP has something to do with the smooth upgrades you’ve had in the past. I don’t use many myself, I don’t always do a fresh wipe the drive install, and I have yet to have that many problems. Typically, the problems arise when Software update says something needs to be updated. Typically I’ll wait a week or so, but then, no matter what the update is for, I start to have problems.

Winston A. Cely
Editor/Owner | Della St. Media, LLC

Mac Pro 3GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon
4 GB RAM | Final Cut Studio 5.1.4 | Aja Kona LHe

“If you can talk brilliantly enough about a subject, you can create the consoling allusion it has been mastered.” – Stanley Kubrick

[David Roth weiss]

[Winston A. Cely] “I’d bet that the lack of a lot of third party plug-ins for FCP has something to do with the smooth upgrades you’ve had in the past.”

More importantly, Lance has no accurate baseline with which to benchmark performance. Things may appear to work properly, but that does not mean they are working at the performance level they might otherwise be working at without lingering legacy code and database info hanging about.

It’s very much like people who claim to drive cars for years without changing the oil. Because the car gets them to their destination they claim there are no performance issues and there’s no impact on their engines.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.

[Lance Moody]

“It’s very much like people who claim to drive cars for years without changing the oil. Because the car gets them to their destination they claim there are no performance issues and there’s no impact on their engines. ”

Of course I also work at lots of other studios, which gives me (over 9 years) sort of a baseline, perhaps? Nothing like the, no doubt, scientifically verified one you are describing.

I think here we have strayed from real knowledge and into mumbo jumbo. I see that all time with computers–weird things people believe about how their computers work, rituals they follow, etc.

Usually those people have one common trait: they are full of crap.

I’m not saying it is stupid to do a clean install. I am saying it might not be necessary.

Dogmatic assertions (upgrade=degraded system) are not necessarily accurate or in my opinion, helpful.

Lance

[Bob Cole]

[David Roth Weiss] “It’s very much like people who claim to drive cars for years without changing the oil.”

David, are you telling me that I need to change the OIL?????

(My wife’s girlfriend drove her new Camaro, including several cross-country trips, for several years, before she ever heard about oil changes.)

[Jeremy Garchow]

Here’s the perfect case to wait to upgrade to Snow Leopard:

– IMPORTANT NOTICE –
****************************************************************************
P2 driver compatibility information with Mac OS 10.6 (Snow Leopard)
****************************************************************************
1.P2 driver software for Mac OS 10.4 & 10.5 are NOT compatible
with the recent Mac OS X version 10.6 (Snow Leopard).
For the following drivers/software, upgrade are being planned
for the Mac OS 10.6.
– IEEE1394b driver for AJ-PCD20 series
– PCI express(PCIe) driver for AJ-PCD35 series
– P2 Card formatter for Mac
– P2 Contents management software (P2CMS) for Mac

2.Notice to users working with Duel Systems’ DuelAdapter
　- P2 cards will not be recognized with the adaptor in Mac OS 10.6
due to no software driver exists.
– Please use Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard) instead.
– For MacBookPro users, please use USB 2.0 port which is standardly
equipped with P2 equipment for data transfer between Mac.

Jeremy

[David Roth weiss]

[Lance Moody] “I am saying it might not be necessary.

Dogmatic assertions (upgrade=degraded system) are not necessarily accurate or in my opinion, helpful. “

Lance,

You’re putting nine puny years of experience and 35 posts on the Cow up against an entire team of seasoned pros with a collective experience of 100+ years in the business and 40,000+ Cow posts, who provide support here 365 days a year to a virtual herd of people who make this mistake all the time. There are already numerous posts that came in over the weekend from people who like you tried to cut corners and who are now regretting that decision.

Honestly, you could argue your case until the cows come home, but you won’t gain any respect here from anyone who really knows what they’re talking about. If you’re looking for respect from those who don’t know what they’re talking about I’m sure you’ll get a few takers however. So, keep pursuing the matter, you’re bound to dredge up someone eventually.

Good luck, and have a nice day,
David

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.

[Lance Moody]

Hilarious.

You might check on the 2-pop discussion boards circa 2000. I was a frequent poster there (before the Cow was created I would guess), often working with Ralph Fairweather (privately and publicly) on FCP issues. By the way, 9 years is just with FCP, 10 years before that with Avid, and 10 years before that as an online guy–doing spot work at the national level.

I haven’t posted here much because I have not really run into many issues. And at any rate, what does that have to do with the price of tea in China? You may imagine your post count means something in the scheme of things but I suggest otherwise.

Again, I agree that a clean system is the best route to go but I also contend that an upgrade is not automatically the great evil you suggest. The dogmatic way you present your case (and your unsupported claim of superiority) is off putting to me.

Lance

[Mark Petereit]

LMAO! Thank you, Mr. Weiss.

[David Roth weiss]

[Lance Moody] “The dogmatic way you present your case (and your unsupported claim of superiority) is off putting to me.
“

Your gambler’s mentality is off-putting to me, and the fact that your approach is predictably prone to failures, makes it’s a waste of time, so go argue with somebody else please,

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.