[Alan Okey]

[J. Tad Newberry] “i’m not seeing a huge advance in rendering times in FCP”

FCP doesn’t really take advantage of multiple cores yet. For a better performance comparison, set up a virtual cluster in Compressor with 4 instances (search this forum for details) and submit some jobs.

The best improvements you can make for general FCP performance are more RAM and a fast disk array. Even if you can’t afford a real RAID, you can still set up a RAID 0 volume by adding 3 drives to your Mac Pro internal drive bays and using Disk Utility to create a software RAID. Just make sure you have backups of your footage, as RAID 0 has no redundancy.

[Alan Okey]

I’m willing to bet your X1900 XT is dying a heat-related death. My first X1900 XT died within 9 months and Apple replaced it under warranty. When the first card died, I was seeing pixel artifacts exactly like what you describe. The replacement X1900 XT has been working fine since I got it, but it has still been hot and loud.

I just bought the ATI Radeon HD 4870 upgrade for my 2006 Mac Pro last week. Apple doesn’t list the card as officially being compatible with the 2006 Mac Pro, but it works just fine as long as you’re running OS X v10.5.7. The 4870 uses both PCIe auxiliary power connectors on the motherboard, so if you’re currently using two graphics cards that both need aux power, you’ll lose that ability if you upgrade.

I’ve had zero issues since upgrading, and the card is working great both in OS X and Windows XP under Boot Camp. For all intents and purposes it’s the same as the X1900 XT in OS X, only with the advantages of being much quieter and not needing regular cleaning of the heat sink vanes.

The 4870 absolutely slaughters the X1900 XT in Windows 3D gaming performance.

By the way, I’m using two DVI monitors with the card – I purchased the Mini Display Port to DVI adapter and it works perfectly.

[Alan Okey]

The Kona LHe does not have hardware upconversion capability. For that, you need the Kona LHi or Kona 3.

[Alan Okey]

I may be misunderstanding you, but if you need to make edits of an exact length, i.e. 60 frames, here’s one method:

Double click a source clip in the clip browser. Set in and out points in the viewer to equal the number of frames you need. Drag the clip to the timeline or drop it in the canvas and choose an edit type (insert, overwrite, etc.). Once the clip is in the timeline, use the slip tool to perform a slip edit and season to taste.

If that’s not what you’re asking, please clarify.

[Alan Okey]

They are most likely older autosaved projects that were moved to the trash once the specified number of versions to save was reached.

You can check this in the Final Cut Pro user preferences under the Autosave section, where you can define how often autosave files are generated, and what the maximum number of autosaved versions there should be per project.

These files are like a time machine for your projects. If you mistakenly delete something or screw something up, you can step back to an earlier version of your project by opening an older file in the autosave directory.

[Alan Okey]

[Akbar Ukani] “Yeah I did check out the Caldigit RAID card. No doubt they are awesome, but I am just not a big fan of a card which limits me to their enclosures only.”

Just to be clear – you do realize that the CalDigit RAID card can use the 4 internal drives in the Mac Pro, right? Plus, the card includes a kit to mount a fifth drive in the second optical bay of the Mac Pro. If you don’t use Boot Camp, you can set up your system drive in the second optical bay and use up to four of the original hard drive drive bays for hardware RAID. You don’t even need to use an external enclosure.

I set up a system exactly like this for a client. He has a boot/system drive in the second optical bay and then four 1TB Hitachi SATA drives set up in RAID 5 with the CalDigit card. He’s quite happy with the results, and he didn’t have to spend a lot.

The CalDigit RAID card sells for about $550.00. You can’t buy another Mac for that little.

[Alan Okey]

Check out the CalDigit RAID card. In addition to RAID 0 and 1, it provides true hardware RAID 5 at a reasonable price (assuming you use 3 drives or more).

https://www.CalDigit.com/RAIDCard/

[Alan Okey]

You might also check out XM|edit’s Traffic. Not exactly what you’re asking for, but a useful tool none the less:

https://www.xmedit.com/case-studies/case-studies-visualfx.html

[Alan Okey]

Check out the CalDigit RAID card. Whatever you do, DO NOT buy the Apple RAID card – it’s a dog, and it’s overpriced.

https://www.CalDigit.com/RAIDCard/

Please note that the external ports on the CalDigit RAID card can only be used with CalDigit’s HDElement RAIDs.

[Alan Okey]

Without an external hardware converter that converts either HDMI or Firewire to HD-SDI or analog component video, you won’t be able to use the Kona LH to capture directly from the camera. If you have the Kona LHi (which has HDMI), you may be able to use it to capture to ProRes directly from the camera.

Related article:

https://creativemac.digitalmedianet.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=188809

Hardware converters for HDV cameras:

https://convergent-design.com/CD_Products_HDConnectMI.htm

https://convergent-design.com/CD_Products_HDConnectSI.htm

https://convergent-design.com/CD_Products_HDConnectLE.htm