[Jeff Carpenter]

The easiest way I know to do this is to have a MobileMe account. It has a feature called ‘Back to my Mac’ that is made to make this work easily.

It may be possbile without a MM account, but I’m not a network engineer so I’d have no idea on where to begin on that quest. All I know is that I have MobileMe and it works. (Your home router plays a part in this as well, some work with it and others don’t. I own an Apple router so it’s not a problem for me, but I know it won’t work at my parent’s house with their Verizon-loaned router. So google up ‘Back to my Mac’ troubleshooting tips and see if you can learn anything there before you pay for anything.)

MobileMe does cost money, but be sure to get it from Amazon.com. There are people selling it there for less than the $99 list price. Usually because it’s last year’s box, but the code is still just as good as any new box. You can usually save a few bucks that way.

[Jeff Carpenter]

I think you can, but instead of that I’d suggest doing a custom installation on the internal drive. Before you install it, de-select the options for all the libraries of sound effects and music loops.

Once you cut it down to just the program (which is all you need, it sounds like) it really doesn’t take up all that much space. It’s the audio library that takes up all the space.

[Jeff Carpenter]

This is a memory-chip camera, not tape, correct?

When you plug it in, does it appear as a little drive icon in Finder? That’s the first thing to check.

If it does, use the ‘Log and Transfer’ option in Final Cut’s FILE menu. Do not use ‘Log and Capture,’ that’s for tapes only.

You’ll see the clips in the top window. Drag the ones you want to teh bottom window and wait for them to copy. When you’re done, be sure to eject the drive from finder before you turn off the camera.

[Jeff Carpenter]

What kind of camera is it, and what kind of cable is being used to connect it to the computer?

[Jeff Carpenter]

Here’s another idea…

Shoot the ceremony at 24p on both cameras and then switch to 30p for the reception.

I think 24p looks lovely and romantic for shots of wedding vows and flower girls and whatnot. But it’s not really as critical for line dancing bridesmaids and drinking games.

So if you make a clean break at some point (say, when the recessional organ music ends) then switching from one frame rate to another wouldn’t be the worst idea in the world.

I’ve never done this, but now that I’ve thought of it, I kind of like it. It’s kind of like a photographer shooting color and black and white images during the day…different looks for different parts of the wedding.

Just another idea to consider…

[Jeff Carpenter]

Final Cut will do just fine. If you drop 24p video onto a 30p sequence it’ll do the math and work out which frames need to be repeated.

So technically, you’ll be fine.

Aesthetically, however, you may find that each camera looks a bit different from the other. It may not work too well to have your video switching back and forth between these two differen “looks.”

But one point in your favor is that ceremonies don’t contain much motion. If you’re 24p shot is the un-manned back camera…well then it might not be too obvious.

So it could work out. I’m not saying you shouldn’t do it, but just that you should do some test shots and edit them together so you can decide for yourself.

[Jeff Carpenter]

It’s possible to have both, but what type of computer do you have? It must be a Macintosh using Intel chips. I’d also suggest keeping away from any Mac with less than 4 GB of RAM. Running 2 OSes can take a lot of RAM and you’ll be unhappy with less than that.

Once you’ve got that then you can run OS X and Window at the same time using either one of these programs:

Parallels:
https://www.parallels.com/

Fusion:
https://www.vmware.com/products/fusion/

The other (cheaper) option is to use Boot Camp to run Windows on your Mac:
https://support.apple.com/kb/ht1656

The downside there is that you have to shut down one OS to run the other. It’s an either-or thing. With Parallels or Fusion they can both run at the same time.

(You have to supply your own copy of Windows for all of these options.)

[Jeff Carpenter]

What you’re missing is that “XEON” is just Intel’s marketing name for many different chips. Your computer uses the chips known internally at Intel as “Harpertown” chips. The newer Mac Pros use what Intel called “Nehalem.”

But as far as the customer knows, they’re all just called XEON.

So what that means is, since Nehalem chips are newer, they are faster than Harpertown chips, even at the same speeds. So those 2.93 chips are actually faster than your 3.2 chips. There’s a lot of stuff going on in there, the processor speed is only one part of the equation.

Here’s an article that talks about that EXACT issue:

https://www.barefeats.com/nehal01.html

[Jeff Carpenter]

Did you reset the PRAM yet?

https://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n2238

If that doesn’t work then you may need to call Apple (or a 3rd party repair company near you) and talk to them. Before you do that, download this widget:

https://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/status/istatpro.html

Flip the widget over to the settings on the back and turn on all the fan and temperature views. That way you’ll have an easy way of telling them on the phone what the fan speeds are and the computer temperatures are.

At this point we don’t even know if the problem is that the fans are running too fast for no reason or if the fans work but the computer is over-heating for some reason.

By talking to an expert you’ll hopefully be able to learn which problem you have and then they should be able to suggest what to do from there.

[Jeff Carpenter]

It’s a pain, but actually remove the video card from the machine and inspect it for dust.

Is it the type of card that has its own fan? I discovered that my video card’s fan exhaust area was clogged with dust in such a way that blowing it out while it was in the machien didn’t help. I had to actually take the card out and pull the dust out of there with my fingers.

That was causing the video card to overheat which, in turn, caused the computer to run its fans all the time.

Look at this blog…that’s the same card I have:

https://blog.hyperjeff.net/?p=147

That fuzzy grey dust looked like plastic until I got the card out into the light and realized it wasn’t plastic! Scary stuff. Check your card to make sure it’s not something similar.