[Zak Mussig]

Alan,

I may be wrong here, but I believe FCP isn’t supported on the MacBook… only the MacBook Pro. They’ve decided to really draw the line between consumer and pro hardware and software. For what it’s worth, you could run FCE. I know you don’t want to run FCE… you want to run your copy of FCP that you already own. I’d be pissed too if someone told me that.

Sorry man… hope I’m wrong.
Zak

[Zak Mussig]

Frank,
I’m with Jeff on this one… if you’ve been running on a G4 for this long, and haven’t gone nuts, you should give it another month or so, and see what happens.
I posted on new hardware day that I was skeptical about the Mac Pros, and wanted to wait a while to see how they worked in the real world. That said, I’m writing this on our new quad 3 GHz Mac Pro, which just came in a few hours ago. When the boss says new computer, Zak says yes, sir.

Reiterating what Jeff also said… you’re also looking at a paid software update to the universal version of Final Cut Studio if you don’t have it yet, so make sure you budget for that when you’re buying your new system.

Hope the new setup works out for you,
Zak

[Zak Mussig]

A Kona will indeed downconvert on the fly, but mel doesn’t have a Kona… only an Io. I’m skeptical that an SD only capture card could downconvert HD, which it doesn’t even understand, on the fly… what model of Blackmagic card do you have?

Zak

[Zak Mussig]

Shane is saying that your card can’t do HD. If you change your sequence settings, or nest into an SD sequence, render all of that (which will obviously take time), you are no longer dealing with HD. Your sequence will then be SD, and you should be able to output it to your deck with your Io. Your setup can deal with your HD sequence… as soon as it isn’t HD anymore.

Zak

[Zak Mussig]

I’d look for a low(er)-end model using the conroe (Core 2) processor, with the high end using multiple Woodcrest (Xeon) processors. Nothing beyond what everyone has guessed so far.
I think PCIe is around for a while… PCI-X was Apple’s hardware version of Windows ME. Something better (questionable on ME’s case, I know) in the interim while we wait for the next real advancement. Assuming the software and drivers are current (universal), I think any PCIe capture card will be able to work with the Mac Pro at release.
The real question here may be who wants to pay big to “beta test” Apple’s new hardware. These new machines are going to blow the PowerMac G5 out of the water, no doubt, but is everyone confident enough to put your work on a first-gen Mac Pro with some of the, albeit understandable, issues with the first round of intel macs? I guess most of the problems have been power and heat related problems in the notebooks that wouldn’t so much affect a desktop, but who knows. Unless initial reports are just amazing, I’m content to wait for rev 2. That said, I’d be spending my boss’s money and not my own… so I’d definitely like to avoid and problems and buyers remorse.

Zak

[Zak Mussig]

The first suggestion I would make, albeit for future reference, is to lock picture before you put a lot of time into audio mixing. You may even want to export all of your audio into Soundtrack Pro to use a program better suited for audio mixing.
You’re obviously past that stage now, so here are some other options…

1) It seems to me that if you’re dealing nat sound, and you remove a clip, you’d want its nat sound gone as well, which would just involve deleting the audio, and re-syncing the rest. If it’s just the music bed you’re trying to get back in sync (at least the keyframes), you could just use the slip tool (keyboard -s), and slip your music to the left to compensate for the duration of the clip you removed. This should move the keyframes as well, but while your start and end points in your timeline would be the same, the point in the music at which it comes in and goes out will be different.

2) I just made this up, and i sounds sketchy in my head, so you’ve been warned. Copy the audio (1 piece at a time if you’re dealing with multiple things in the timeline), and paste it on an empty track at the same point in time. Make sure your target tracks are selected correctly, and that auto-select is turned off for all tracks with lower numbers (A1,A2, etc.) Use the roll tool, or razor blade, to remove an amount of time equal to the duration of the video clip you removed from the front of the audio. Now copy the audio. Ctl-click the original version of the audio you just copied and modified, and select remove attributes, then check the levels box. Now ctl-click again, and paste attributes. Click the levels box again, and make sure the “Scale Attribute Times” box is NOT checked. Now you should have the same keyframes moved forward in time the same amount as the duration of the clip you removed.

If someone gives you an easier way, go with that… just my thoughts

Zak

[Zak Mussig]

Roman,

Same thing happened to me a while back… twice in a row. The media files are just g-o-n-e gone. All I’ve come up with is a bug that comes into play when passing media around between Pro apps with several of them open at a time. Sounds like you’re in the same boat I was in that there’s no way to recover your file (at least the iteration you lost) from tape. My project was an older one that got pulled off of the back burner and set in my lap when I started my current job. I think that’s the right way to put it because it causes a warming sensation that eventually and invariably leads to long-term discomfort.

Sorry… I would say keep a backup (obviously) of everything, although it sounds like your drive space is maxed out. After doing this I don’t feel as if I’m taking my life into my hands when I use the send to Shake command.

I realize none of this helps you… just wanted to let you know you aren’t alone.

Zak

[Zak Mussig]

Thanks Tom,

That answered my question. Oh Applescript… you so crazy.

Zak

[Zak Mussig]

I would love to go to this event, but, unfortunately for me, it’s just not going to happen. What are the odds there will be videos of the presentations available after the event (streaming or otherwise)? The whole thing sounds really informative and a lot of fun… thanks for the great work.

Zak

[Zak Mussig]

Keith,
Assuming you did a crossgrade from FCS (can you even crossgrade just a standalone copy of FCP?), you should have gotten new install discs for each piece of software in the suite. So I guess the short answer is YES, you need to run the installer for all of the apps (Motion, Soundtrack Pro, DVDSP), not just fro FCP and it’s old cronies. I imagine you could run into compatibility problems pretty quickly if you don’t since the new versions (FCP for sure) have updated file formats.

You should have 4 install discs to upgrade from… if your only have the one, then something may have gone awry for you along the way.

Hope that helps,
Zak