[John Rofrano]

[Walter Miale] “1) I have been using Photoshop CS2 for years on my 2007 iMac with OS 10.6.8. Months ago I found I couldn’t open it, and eventually Adobe told me I should uninstall the app and download a new one and activate that. But the Adobe website says, CS2 requires Mac OS X v.10.2.8–v.10.3.8, PowerPC® G4 or G5 processor. If that is true, how could I have been using CS2 with my OS 10.6.8 Mac????????”

Because Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard contains a subsystem called Rosetta that emulates a Power PC and allows you to run Power PC apps in your Intel Mac. That’s why it will work on your iMac. Just install it like Adobe told you to.

[Walter Miale] “3) If CS2 is installable on the iMac and the PowerBook and the PowerMac, will trying to do so on all three present activation problems?”

CS2 has been discontinued by Adobe and before they did, they were nice enough to issue versions that did not use activation. You should be fine installing it on multiple computers as long as you have a license to legally use it in the first place.

[Walter Miale] “4) Here is another possibility: Install Affinity on the iMac, after installing an up-to-date OS.”

That would be the long term solution because anything that you do short of that is just another patch to get you by on old outdated software. I really like Affinity Photo and I don’t mind not paying Adobe a monthly ransom at all.

[Walter Miale] “Can I boot the iMac from an external drive?”

Yes, just hold down the Option ⌥ key while booting at you will get a screen that shows all of the bootable drives that are attached.

[Walter Miale] “I guess I could use advice on which OS to us, and how to go about this. I have the internal drive partitioned, so I can install a new OS on one of the partitions. Is this a better idea than putting the new OS on the external drive? “

The internal drive will be much, much faster because I’m guessing that you are using USB 2.0 to attach your external drive which is excruciatingly slooooow. Also it sounds like every time you need to use CS2 you are going to need to reboot so you want that to be as painless as possible and partitioning your drive so that one partition is Snow Leopard and the other is OS X 10.11 El Capitan which is the last OS X to support the 2007 iMac, will be your best approach.

[Walter Miale] “5): Could/should I use Photoshop Elements instead of Affinity? I suspect it might be easier for me to learn. Please advise. If I use Photoshop Elements, is it available safely and ethically for free?”

Photoshop Elements is not free. You can get it in the Apple AppStore for $99 but it doesn’t come even close to Affinity in features which is only $49 so Elements would be the wrong approach. Get Affinity instead. It’s cheaper and better and works a lot like CS2 so you will learn it quickly.

[Walter Miale] “6) Is there an easier and faster way I can upload and an image ASAP? (jpg or preferably raw)”

Upload where? To the Cow? Try this:

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasstsoftware.com

[John Rofrano]

[Ellen Garvey] “I don’t know if it’s still applicable but I can’t find the “option to Save project markers in rendered media file under Metadata Options” referred to in this thread.”

It’s under Metadata Options in Vegas Pro 14.0. I don’t have Movie Studio so I have no idea if that is an option in that version:

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasstsoftware.com

[John Rofrano]

[harry singh] “i also fimd difficulty to delievr mpeg.ts file very few devices support this format and mpeg .ps supported many devices.”

That’s because TS stands for Transport Stream and is an acquisition format (i.e., for recording). PS stands for Program Stream and is a delivery format. So it’s no surprise that devices that don’t record can’t handle transport streams because they are meant for playback and are expecting program streams.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasstsoftware.com

[John Rofrano]

[Chuska Esteban] “I wonder if I should change the initial size of the video”

I would. This way you are in control of resizing the video and WhatsApp is only changing the bit-rate. That would give WhatsApp less to do (and less to mess up).

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasstsoftware.com

[John Rofrano]

Dropping 4K into an HD project and stabilizing it should use the full 4K resolution for stabilization which is what you desire so that any black edges introduce by the stabilization can be cropped to HD so that you don’t loose any final resolution.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasstsoftware.com

[John Rofrano]

[Steve Hart] “The audio is in 44Khz format. Is it ok to use, or should it be in 48Khz format”

You can certainly use the 44.1K audio. Vegas Pro will do the conversion to 48K on the fly.

[Steve Hart] “I don’t really understand the difference between the 2 in relation to video. “

It’s all about standards. The standard audio sample rate for Digital Video, DVD, and Film is 48K. The standard audio sample rate for Music CDs is 44.1K. It’s just about two different industries standardizing on 2 different sample rates.

[Steve Hart] “If the video file I import to Vekas has no sound, and I import audio at 44Khz, and export it at 44Khz it should be ok?”

No, you always want to output 48K because that is the standard for audio with digital video.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasstsoftware.com

[John Rofrano]

I would use the Apple Devices 720p setting in FCP X or Apple Devices HD (Most Compatible) in Compressor. You certainly don’t need anything larger than that for most mobile phones and even tablets. This will create an MPEG4 AVC/H.264 video file with AAC audio which should play nicely in WhatsApp.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasstsoftware.com

[John Rofrano]

[Daniel Palkowski] “If you have any….ANY success in finding help from either magix or sony, please let me know! I have a printout of a page with my 18 licenses that all vanished with that transition, and they are both unreachable and unhelpful (so far).”

Good Luck! My experience is that both companies (Sony & MAGIX) dropped the ball and could care less about their customers. I have customers coming to VASST because neither their Sony account nor MAGIX account has their Vegas Pro Production Assistant license keys that they purchased from Sony and both Sony and MAGIX are telling these customers to contact VASST. Problem is… Production Assistant is NOT a VASST product! We don’t sell it!! We created it exclusively for Sony to sell under their brand and we don’t have a clue who Sony sold it to. It is a Sony product, created by VASST. Now both Sony and MAGIX is sticking their customers and there is nothing that VASST can do to help them because I don’t have the sales information which belongs to Sony.

So in my experience both Sony and MAGIX have definitely dropped the ball and abandoned their customers and left VASST “holding the bag” in the case of Production Assistant.

[Daniel Palkowski] “If anyone is thinking of running for Congress, here’s a great platform that will get you a lot of support: Allow license holders to class action sue software companies for breach of contract when they pull stuff like this.”

That actually won’t go anywhere because there is no contract to breach. As a customer, you purchased the license key and it is your obligation to hold on to it. The fact that the company you purchased it from allows you to look it up is a courtesy to you not an obligation. It would be like trying to sue a car dealer because you lost the keys to your car. When you buy software, what you buy is the license. Don’t loose it! It is the physical proof of your virtual purchase. It’s not the companies responsibility to keep track of your purchases even though many of them do. Treat your license key like you car key and you won’t have any problems.

[Daniel Palkowski] “And don’t get me started on dongles….”

Dongles actually can be a good solution and here’s why. MAGIX is worse than Sony when it comes to copy protection. The draconian copy protection in MAGIX Vegas Pro only allows it to be installed on two computers. I have a MacBook Pro, Mac Pro, and Mac Mini. If I wanted to use Vegas Pro on all three I cannot do it without deregistering it from one to register on the other. What a huge pain! I also have many Waves plug-ins which uses a USB dongle. I can install Waves on all three of my Macs and use it on any one at a time simply by moving the dongle from one to the other. Given the silly registration/deregistration dance or a dongle I prefer a dongle.

Of course, I don’t have this problem with 99% of the software on my Mac like Final Cut Pro X, Motion, Compressor, Logic Pro X, Pages, Numbers, Keynote, etc. because unlike MAGIX and Microsoft and others, Apple allows me to install and run all of my software on all of my Macs with no restrictions. Another reason why I no longer use MAGIX Vegas Pro with it’s two computer limit and use Final Cut Pro X on all of my Macs instead.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasstsoftware.com

[John Rofrano]

Hi Jacob, It might have been a good idea to start your own thread so that we don’t get two different sets of requirements between you and Jerry tangled up but as long as you asked here:

[Jacob Holcomb] “Also as far as FCX structure, I’m thinking a single Library for the entire movie and then creating/naming Events after the major events that happened (and also giving them a date in the name to keep them sorted). Then I can make separate stand-alone timelines for each event that independently tell little pieces of the story, and later assemble them in a Master Event/Timeline where I can start killing off my darlings”

It sounds like you have a good approach. Understand that there are two ways of working with Libraries in FCP X. One is to keep all of the media in the Library which is what I do because my projects are small. Another is to keep the media in place on the filesystem and just import pointers to the media into FCP X. It sounds like you might benefit from the latter. Just be consistent in whatever way you choose.

[Jacob Holcomb] “For me the Lynda classes leave a lot to be desired, but that probably has to do more with my specific questions as far as media management. For people experienced in Ripple do you think it will do a better job of addressing these concerns? “

Ripple Training is very well done from people who edit video, not people who just teach how to edit video. There is a big difference. They have an excellent module on Media Management. I would highly recommend that every FCP X editor understand what is taught in that module before attempting to start a major project in FCP X because it will show you all of your options for media management which is crucial to every project’s success.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasstsoftware.com

[John Rofrano]

Jerry, Sorry if you took some of my advice as scolding. It was not my intent although when I read it now, several days later, even I don’t like my tone at times. (lol) Consider it “tough love” but it was meant to help you see where you needed to alter your thinking a bit to get more aligned with the FCP X concepts. On to the next set of questions. ????

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasstsoftware.com