[David Johnson]

That is normal size for a video so I must’ve confused extensions…I was referring to a similar extension that would only be a few kilobytes.

You might find these links useful:
https://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/format/asfspec.aspx
https://www.geocities.com/myasftools/

[David Johnson]

Check the file sizes to see if they’re unusually small for video. If I recall correctly, ASFs are not actually video files, just pointers to streaming video files that reside on a server.

[David Johnson]

I should clarify that I don’t claim to be a computer guru…just going on what our guys say and the fact the our Macs seem to run a lot better than under the care of the previous no-defrag regime.

We don’t put anything on our local HDs except software, but I’m pretty sure our very accomplished Mac Techs defrag them. What they’re doing works well so I’ve left it alone, but now I’m more curious and plan to inquire more…if I learn anything useful on the subject, I’ll post.

We use a 2TB X-Serve RAID on one system and are putting a 1TB FireWire800 on the other so I’m very cuirous to know specifically why we’d want a certain amount of fragmentation of our media files and how it helps. Both systems have hundreds of GBs of media files that are constantly accessed, moved, rewritten, etc. so reformatting is not a practical option for us since its not that easy to move that much media.

[David Johnson]

Great. Thank you, Tom.

[David Johnson]

Apple and many Mac users will tell you no, but any good Mac Tech will tell you there is both a need and a way. Unfortunately, that’s all I can tell you since we have a Mac Tech who takes care of maintenance for all our Macs. I have seen the difference it makes though.

[David Johnson]

Absolutely. I can’t tell you exactly where to find them on Macs, but the files you’re looking for are:

Render Settings.ars
Output Modules.aom

To find them, maybe use the Finder to search for files with those unique extensions and/or look in the folder that is the Mac equivalent of:
C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Application Data\Adobe\After Effects\Render Settings

You should be able to copy those files to the corresponding folder on any other computer with AE installed. I’m not 100% sure of this, but I seem to recall that these files in particular can even be copied between platforms and versions of AE. Of course, you’ll ant to back up the originals first.

[David Johnson]

I feel your pain, Nick. I doubt it’ll solve your $ problem, but there’s some additional info on the subject you might find useful in the following post string, which includes a link to a good article by Barend Onneweer:
https://forums.creativecow.net/cgi-bin/new_read_post.cgi?forumid=2&postid=866743

Personally, I decided to bite the bullet and repurchase the Boris version because past experience with their products has given me more confidence in their ability to maintain, suppport and improve the FEC set than that of any of the other owners…including the original code writers Cycore. In other words, especially considering their awesome “obsolete plugins” backwards compatability method, I’m convinced that having the Boris version will finally make this the last time I have to buy the FEC set.

[David Johnson]

I don’t recall the proper AE terms and am not sure I correctly understand what you’re asking, but try this…

Without any keyframes selected, put the cursor over the part of a layer that extends beyond the outpoint. When the cursor changes to a bracket-like cursor, slide that part of the layer in either direction and adjust the in/out points accordingly.

FYI, you’re more likely to get answers to these kinds of questions at the AE Basics forum (the new Creative Calf).

[David Johnson]

Chris gave the solution to your current problem in the first reply, but in case your guy used other Final Effects Complete plugins in other projects you haven’t come across yet, ther’s more info on the status of that plugin set in this thread:

Re: Which “Final Effects Complete” is which? by Dave Johnson on Dec 19, 2005 at 10:44:06 pm

[David Johnson]

Welcome to AE world, tw0BALANCE0ne.
[I probably would have spent a few hours pulling out my hair.]
A few hours!? I guess you really are new to AE world…you must learn to pull your hair out in clumps rather than one at a time..it’s so much faster!