[Dave Mac]

A lot of people do not like to use tools like DiskWarrior or TechTool Pro for drive maintenance and optimization, but rather prefer to reinitialize their drives on a regular basis. A regular basis could be weekly, monthly, quarterly, or after a particular project has been completed. Reinitialization simply wipes the drive clean and creates a new directory structure for the drive/partition. Either maintenance, using the above tools, or reinitialization, or a combination of the the two helps keep a drive/partition in good working order.

[Dave Mac]

iMan,

I would agree with others that La Cie likely sells a lot of drives so you’re more likely to hear about failures. But, none of us knows the real failure rate. People do tend to post about problems and not about successes.

However, very tech-savvy people post to places such as macintouch.com. There have been many reports about issues with La Cie drives posted there.

I have 3 different La Cie drives myself. One began to fail due to a bad power brick. The drive would unmount, or not mount at all, or cause the spinning beachballl cursor in the Finder. Since my drive was already out of warranty, I needed to buy a new power brick. La Cie couldn’t sell me one (it isn’t part of their business model). Fortunately, third-party vendors carry compatible power supplies.

This leads me to the following recommendation….

Don’t buy La Cie drives. Why? Because WiebeTech drives and enclosures are a smarter way to go. Why? Well, La Cie won’t service anything out of warranty, nor will they sell you parts. Most often, the interface “bridge,” a fan, or a power brick is the source of failure with many drives (La Cie drives are often cited for these exact reasons). WiebeTech WILL sell you parts and help you with repairs beyond their warranty period (not free, of course). So, to me, I would rather go with a company that is more than a reseller of drives, as La Cie is, so that when an otherwise good drive goes bad, you can get parts for it and keep on using it.

Another way to look at it… WiebeTech is like the local, high-end stereo/hi-fi repair shop and La Cie (and other companies like them) are the superstore retailers. Who do you think will be able to give you the best service when/if you need it?

-Dave

[Dave Mac]

My “Yes” answer was for current users of PPC-based Macs….

[Dave Mac]

Jim,

Actually, I meant to strongly suggest that it is very likely there will be more updates to FCP/FCS, prior to the release of the next versions.

While the next version of FCS may be announced at NAB, it likely won’t ship for some time afterwards. Therefore, it is likely that there will be updates to individuals applications within FCS before the next paid upgrade, implying that to benefit from these updates you would need to have the Universal versions of the applications installed.

So, the answer to your original question is a strongly qualified “Yes.”

[Dave Mac]

Actually, some of the comments mentioned so far are somewhat inaccurate.

Yes, you would need the universal version to run FCP 5.x “U” on an Intel-based Mac.

However, according to the Apple webcast on the release of the Universal versions of the pro apps, all future updates to FCP 5 will be based on updates to the universal version. So, if a FCP 5.0.5 update, for example, comes out in early April, you will need the universal version installed to be able to install that update. Apple says the entire codebase, whether you’re on a PPC or Intel Mac, has moved to the universal version.

For reference, check out the webcast on the Apple Sale Web (available to Apple Certification Alliance members, e.g., anyone that is FCP certified).

So, there is a reason to “upgrade” to the universal version of FCP 5.x.x for use on a PPC-basesd Mac. Hope this clears up things a bit. We’re certainly in store for a wild ride….

-Dave

[Dave Mac]

Sorry for the multiple posts. There seems to be a problem with the Cow’s post processing 😉

After hitting the post button, the process didn’t seem to complete. I cancelled and tried again… but the post had already been submitted. Oops.

[Dave Mac]

Hi,

You may also want to consider using a plugin to get better results, or at least a better interface in which to work. Here are a couple:

• Lyric Pan Zoom Pro
• Stagetools Moving Picture

I use the former with great efficiency and success. The latter is also much easier to use than FCP’s built-in controls and provides great results, as well. I believe that these plugins approach (or “equal”?) the quality provided by Motion, AE, et al., without having to leave FCP.

Best of luck,

Dave

[Dave Mac]

I can add a few points to the mix. Unless you get a DOA unit, the La Cie drives work pretty well, especially when used with a FireWire 800 connection.

A lot of the reported failures with La Cie drives are due to a bad FireWire bridgeset, and, more frequently, due to the power “brick” failing. Symptoms include erratic drive operation, failure of the drive to mount, and so on. La Cie doesn’t do repairs for drives that are out-of-warranty. Unfortunately, they do not even offer replacement parts. They are, at heart, a reseller and not a manufacturer.

The “death” many people experience with La Cie drives is usually repairable. You may be able to get a new power brick from La Cie (if you’re still under warranty), or from a third-party electronics supplier. If the bridgeset is the issue, or you don’t want to simply replace the power brick, you can install the drive(s) into a new case. WiebeTech is one of the better case resellers, as they offer replacement parts (and their cases/components are well-made to begin with).

I have heard good things from people about the following vendors of FireWire drives:

WiebeTech Their stuff is somewhat more expensive than other vendors, but they offer excellent support and replacement parts for equipment that’s out-of-warranty. Bullet-proof quality.

G-Technology Very good quality stuff. Used by a lot of media production folks.

Other World Computing (OWC) Prices similar, or better, than La Cie. I haven’t heard about problems with their stuff.

Granite Digital Another, high-quality vendor.

MacGurus A terrifically informative site, with great prices. They sell quality
stuff from other vendors, and high-quality, do-it-yourself kits.

FireWire Depot Also well-regarded.

You should choose a FW-800 capable drive, if possible. They are much faster. A dual-drive setup is also much faster. A hot-swap RAID setup is even better. A SATA-based external setup is even better yet. Of course, a fiber-channel-based RAID system like the xserve RAID is the ultimate (other vendors are terrific, as well, such as Medea, etc., but these are very pricey though definitely worth it for commercial HD post work).

For more information about La Cie drive issues, check out MacInTouch’s reader reports (search their site). Bare Feats is a great site for learning about performance benchmarking and enhancements of Mac OS systems (http://www.barefeats.com).

I have personally own 2 La Cie FW-800 drives (d2): single-drive 250 GB model and a 2-250 GB (500 GB) dual-drive model. The power brick on the dual-drive unit started flaking out and I swapped it with the other one… things are working okay, for now. I also have a dual-drive FW-800 unit from OWC that has worked well for about a year now (2×400 GB drives). I also have a WeibeTech FW-800 case, in which I put a 500 GB Hitachi drive (that I bought separately to save big bucks over an “all-WiebeTech” model).

My main storage system is an 8-bay, external SATA hot-swap system. Wicked fast. Bought it from Mac Gurus as a kit. Bought the drives separately from New Egg, which always seems to have among the best prices on bare drives.

Hope this info helps (sorry if it is too much).

-Dave

[Dave Mac]

You may want to use Final Cut Pro itself!

I answered this same question in November last year. Here’s the post:

Use FCP to Batch Convert AIFF/MP3 files to 48kHZ AIFFs

Cheers,

Dave

[Dave Mac]

Will,

Thanks for the article link.

However, if you read towards the bottom of the article it does mention that you may benefit from third-party disk optimization/defragging utilities when using large video files.

That article is somewhat outdated. Also, it doesn’t go into enough detail about drives beyond the startup disk or, more specifically, heavy use for video editing.

In reality, keeping your media files defragmented and located in the faster portion of the hard drive does make a difference. As others have said, copying or backing up media files, erasing a drive/volume, then copying/restoring the media files would have the same effect.

I use both DiskWarrior and TechTools Pro and haven’t experienced any issues.

A good scheme may be to put captured media on a separate disk/volume from your scratch/render files. Captured media doesn’t change much, so once it’s “optimized” (by any of the suggested methods), the drive/volume should perform well. More significant performance benefits may be seen by keeping the volume/drive where your scratch/render files are stored “optimized.” Using faster drives, or a RAID, and not filling up the drive beyond 60 to 80 percent may have the most beneficial affect on disk performance.

For more info, you may want to check out “Optimizing Your Final Cut Pro System” by Sean Cullen, et al.