[Jeff Carpenter]

I don’t use Firefox much, but most web browswers have the ability to set your favorite fonts and their sizes for most internet text.

Try looking in the preferences for something about fonts or text size.

[Jeff Carpenter]

All you have to do is erase things you don’t need. If you need everything, back-up stuff you don’t need that often onto CDs, DVDs, or external firewire hard drives before you erase them.

That’s about all you need to do.

I’m not sure what you mean by seeing “how memory is allocated.” You can click on the drive and hit Apple-i to see how much space is being used, but you already know how much space is being used. What else are you trying to find out? If you can explain that a little more specifically maybe we can help you, but really, just clearing up space is all you have to do.

[Jeff Carpenter]

I agree with David. Go for the RAM.

When you’re rending or making DVDs it will be slower, but what does that mean, exactly? Well, for example, it might mean that the computer takes 2.5 hours to render or compress instead of 1.8 hours.

Ok, that’s slower, but are you gonna sit there and watch it render for 1.8 hours? No, you’re gonna go find something else to do anyway. I’d rather have a machine that’s fast while I’m using it rather than fast when I’m not using it.

(Warning: All numbers in this post were totally made up as an example. They have no relationship to reality. Your millage may vary.)

[Jeff Carpenter]

I think the 11 shuttles about as fast as the 30. I guess they’ve gotta give you something for all that extra money for the 1800 and 1500!

They should all work fine with Final Cut, though.

[Jeff Carpenter]

What are you trying to use the space for? What I mean is, what is it that’s on the FW800 drive now?

If it’s video then you should stick with the external drive. Running your media from the same drive that the editing application lives on will degrade your performance.

If it’s something you have to do (editing on an airplane, maybe? Or out in nature?) then you have to do it, but if you’re set up on a table somewhere, I’d just plug in the 2nd hard drive.

But if you need extra space you should check these guys out:

https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-drives/2.5-Notebook/

[Jeff Carpenter]

You’re correct, the footage won’t look any better.

But if you do any effects, any color correction, any titles…all of those things WILL look better working in an uncompressed tmieline instead of sending THEM through the DV compression too.

The question for you, then, is what is going to happen to the movie in the end? If you put it back on DV tape then it all gets compressed anyway and there’s probably not much point to doing it that way. If you put it on Digibeta or are up-converting to HD or something…well then it probably IS worth the trouble.

[Jeff Carpenter]

Have you tried restarting the computer with the disc in it while holding the “C” key?

If the disc loads, use its tools to erase the hard drive before you continue with the installation.

[Jeff Carpenter]

You should answer Jerry’s questions, they might change some of this, but here’s my first reaction:

* Computer: Apple.com -> STORE -> Red SAVE Tag in lower right (Refurbished machines, same warrenty as new ones)

* RAM: Crucial.com or Newegg.com (Crucial makes it easy to learn what type you need…once you know, price compare)

* Hard Drive: Any computer store that sells SATA drives. (Online or real wold.)

* Video Card: The one that comes with it will run 1 30″ monitor and 1 smaller monitor.
Are you using Motion or anything like it? Otherwise, what comes in the computer will do ok for Final Cut editing.

[Jeff Carpenter]

In the new sequence, right-click the nested track and pick “open in viewer.”

In the viewer, open the Motion tab. Find “Distort” and click the arrow by it. Change “Aspect Ratio” to 0.

That should do it.

[Jeff Carpenter]

I have 3 answers: Short, Long, and Longer.

SHORT answer: If this is being edited in a DV-timeline then what you have in the Final Cut timeline is exactly the same as what will end up on that DV tape (with a firewire connection).

So the short answer is, no, it doesn’t matter if you come right from Final Cut or dub it to DV tape first.

The LONG answer is “maybe.” For example, if your Final Cut system is hooked up to a BetacamSP deck with a Y/C cable then it would not be as good as if you had a DVCAM deck hooked up to a BetaSP deck with Component cables. But if your DV deck just has composite out, suddenly the Final Cut option is better.

So really, it depends on the connections available to you.

The even LONGER answer is this: The absolute best quality would be to copy your project into an uncompressed SD timeline. Convert your source footage to uncompressed video and re-link the files to the new, converted video. The video won’t look any better but any effect, title, or color correction you do would benefit from existing in a less-compressed sequence. In that case you’d not only have to have a storage system capable of running uncompressed SD, but also a good connection from a computer to the Beta deck. In that case you could NOT go back to DV tape without losing the extra quality you gained.