[Don Greening]

Hi Mat,

Thanks for the info about the updated drive fans and such. I’ll be in the market for another LaCie 1Tbyte Disk soon, so I’ll keep that in mind. I just recently added a LaCie 500 Gbyte Bigger to my growing collection but it has no fan at all. Let’s hope it runs as well as the ones that Walter Biscardi used for his article that can be found here at the Cow.

– Don

[Don Greening]

……..and there he is! LOL Hi Mat. Notice I said nice things about you.

– Don

[Don Greening]

Actually I don’t have a Porche drive, but was referring to the many people who do have them and whom I’ve helped to get them up and running. They all had the same question: why won’t my drive capture from FCP properly.

I found out awhile ago that some of the FW drives from LaCie were shipped with literature saying they were already formatted in Mac OS Extended when in fact they were FAT32, a problem that has since been corrected, as far as I know. The gentleman from LaCie who stops by here from time to time has been very helpful to all those who’ve had LaCie problems ranging from formatting issues to drives that die before their time.

By the way, someone in the Canon forum was asking about 16:9 shooting so I posted the link (among others) to your article at Ken Stone’s place. An exellent article too, I might add.

– Don

[Don Greening]

Kevin,

Here’s a link to an article by Graeme Nattress that was tailor made just for you:

https://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/24p_in_FCP_nattress.html

Graeme is actually around here today so if you have any further questions after reading his article he may very well respond to you soon after.

– Don

[Don Greening]

Make sure your sequence settings are the same as the media you’re dragging into it. e.g if your media is NTSC DV then make sure your sequence reflects the same setting. Otherwise FCP has to re-write a new file in the different codec.

– Don

[Don Greening]

Especially like the LaCie Porche drives. They all come formatted in FAT32. In their “litter” ature it does say to reformat before using but I don’t think many users read cover to cover before they start using their new drive. A sticker on the drive would solve a lot of confusion.

– Don

[Don Greening]

Jennifer,

No, you don’t need to upgrade your OS at all. I’ve used multiple firewire drives with OS9 for quite a while now. As Walter has suggested you need to reformat your new drive before using it. In OS X go to: Applications/Utilities/Disc Utility. Start the program and select your new drive from the list. Give it a name and choose to erase the new disc. Then choose the format ‘Mac OS Extended’ (journaling off) and the click on “erase.” It should only take a few minutes and your drive will now be ready for Final Cut Pro.

I can’t remember if OS 10.2 had journaling or not, but if the choice doen’t come up in Disc Utility don’t worry about it. Journaling is simply the way that your Mac keeps track of what gets put on and taken off your disc by keeping an up to date file. Journaling should be turned off for any media drive because it slows down the video capture process.

And you dodn’t need to partition or ‘compartmentalize’ your new drive. All that does is eat up valuable hard drive space and will accomplish nothing in your case.

hope this helps,

– Don

[Don Greening]

Using the GL in 16:9 actually will have less resolution than shooting in 4:3. In order to create the widescreen image your camera cuts the bottom and top off the 4:3 frame and then electronically expands it to the 16:9 aspect ratio. It’s called “electronic interpolation”, or “digital stretch” and several scan lines are lost in the process. The only way you can shoot 16:9 with these cameras and not lose any resolution at all is to use an anamorphic lens adapter, which forces a true 16:9 image onto your 4:3 imaging chips.

Your GL1’s frame mode is Canon’s version of progressive scanning as opposed to interlaced, and I don’t think there will be much image resolution loss using this mode. Certainly not as much as using the ‘in camera’ 16:9.

For more info go to:

https://www.dv.com/columns/columns_item.jhtml?articleId=59100233

https://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/understanding_16_9.html

This last link is about using 16:9 footage in Final Cut Pro but there’s still lots of good info about the different types of widescreen to make reading it worth your while.

– Don

[Don Greening]

Did you initialize the new drive in Mac OS Extended (aka HSF+) with journaling “off”?

– Don

[Don Greening]

Try rebuilding the desktop file first. It’s actually the directory that’s rebuilt but in OS9 it’s called rebuilding the desktop. Hold down the Option and Command keys while you start up. Keep holding them down until you see a message asking whether you want to rebuild the desktop. Click OK. The desktop file will become corrupted over time and you really should do a desktop rebuild every other month or so, depending on how much you use the iMac.

If that doesn’t return things to normal then get a copy of Disk Warrior v.3 and use that. Start up from the Disk Warrior CD and follow the onscreen directions. It will build a brand new directory for you in OS9 instead of trying to patch up the existing directory like lesser programs do (like OS9’s rebuilding the desktop command).

If you’re still having problems you’ll need to re-install OS9. Do an archive and install because you don’t want to lose your personal info or preference files, extentions, etc. This way you’ll have a new OS9 and a folder that’s called “Previous System Folder” that you can retrieve your personal info from, such as all your email information.

Hope this helps.

– Don