[Rob Moreno]

Answer to the question: No 🙁

MediaKobo
Tokyo, Japan

[Rob Moreno]

> Exporting a self-contained file at current settings then taking that file to compressor is the > same as sending it directly from FCP to compressor.

Actually this is not necessarily true. When you have several video layers, especially text and graphics, exporting from the FCP timeline will give you much better results because these layers are compressed directly to MPEG-2 from their native format. This is why compressing from directly from the FCP timeline takes longer than compressing a stand-alone movie file; because it’s calculating all text and graphics layers as uncompressed. With a self-contained movie, all text and graphics are converted to DV (if the sequence setting is DV). So when you take this file to Compressor you are actually compressing text and graphics twice. I will admit, however, that the difference in quality is not always enough to justify the increased rendering time. Depending on the complexity of the sequence and the format of the video the difference in rendering time can be drastic, especially when working with uncompressed video.

MediaKobo
Tokyo, Japan

[Rob Moreno]

Final Cut Pro 6, LiveType, DVD Studio Pro, Soundtrack and Compressor all run just fine on my first generation Macbook (with 2GB of RAM). Of course, you will want to install the additional media content on an external Firewire HD. Motion can be used to make simple animations with acceptable performance. I lauched Color soon after installing FCP Studio 2 and performance was sluggish, as expected. Recently when I try launching it, however, (perhaps after applying the update?), I get a message that Color requires at least 128MB of VRAM and that I only have 64MB. The only option from there is to quit the program. I would never use a macbook for critical color corrrection anyway but I was hoping to learn the basics of the program while on the go.

MediaKobo
Tokyo, Japan

[Rob Moreno]

Are there any known issues with Decklink HD Studio? I’m consistently experiencing crashes when switching between DV NTSC and Blackmagic 8-bit uncompressed in the capture input setting. Mac Pro, 5 GB of RAM.

Rob

[Rob Moreno]

I wrote this hack a few years back when I needed to install FCP 4 on my G3 ibook. You will need to have FCP installed prior to doing this however.

1. Copy the Final Cut Pro 4 installer from the DVD onto your desktop. While holding down the [control] key click on the installer alias and select “Show Original”. Open the Packages folder and inside it there will be another Packages. Open it and copy the FinalCutPro401.pkg file to your desktop. The file should be around 224MB in size.

2. Open the Package Contents of the file on your desktop by holding the [control] key, clicking on the icon and selecting “Show Package Contents”.

3. Open the InstallationCheck file (located in the Resources folder) in a text editor and the “zero” in the last line in this section to a “one”.

Original:

# Only G3s are not compatible
if(CheckIOReg(“PowerPC,750@”, “PowerPC,755@”, “PowerPC,740@”,
“PowerPC,745@”, “PowerPC,750CX@”, “PowerPC,750CXe@”,
“PowerPC,G3@”, “PowerMac1,2”)) {
$hasG4 = 0;

Hacked:

# Only G3s are not compatible
if(CheckIOReg(“PowerPC,750@”, “PowerPC,755@”, “PowerPC,740@”,
“PowerPC,745@”, “PowerPC,750CX@”, “PowerPC,750CXe@”,
“PowerPC,G3@”, “PowerMac1,2”)) {
$hasG4 = 1;

4. Save your changes and run the installer.

Now, to run the program, you have to do one more hack. This requires that you have Final Cut Pro 3 installed, or access to a computer that does. There may be an easier way to do this step (one that does not require FCP 3), but this is the only trick I’ve found to work.

1. Find the Final Cut Pro 3 (not 4) app on your computer. Control + click on it and select “Show Package Contents”. Copy the Info.plist file inside the Contents folder onto your desktop.

2. Control + click on the installed Final Cut Pro 4 app and replace the Info.plst file inside the Contents folder with the copy you made on your desktop.

3. Enjoy using Final Cut Pro 4 on your G3 Mac!

Note: this procedure installs only the core Final Cut Pro 4 application. Live Type, Compressor, Soundtrack and Cinema Tools will not be installed.

MediaKobo
Tokyo, Japan