Upgrade to Snow Leopard and newest Final Cut Studio 2? How?

Hi,

The status of this project is that about two years ago I was pretty much through the learning curve for everything I need to do except learning how to use Color when health problems caused all progress to grind to a halt. Its been so long that to determine which Kona Card I have I needed to check my notes.

The next steps are:
Work with five hours of DigiBeta:
Capture using SDI -> Teranex Noise Reduction -> Kona LSE -> Sheer Video Codec
Export the audio to be cleaned up (a friends studio)
Create SD DVD's and archive the footage on Blue Ray

While the DigiBeta work is progressing start working with about ten hours of DV:
Capture using Firewire:
Learn Color
Simple editing
Color Correction render out to DV50 to minimize image degradation
Create SD DVD's and archive the footage on Blue Ray

When work with the first DV is complete start working on ten more hours of DV:
Capture using SDI -> Teranex Noise Reduction -> Kona LSE -> DV50
Color Correction
Create SD DVD's and archive the footage on Blue Ray

I currently have Final Cut Studio 2 installed. I think I should update to the latest version, mainly to get the newest version of Color?

I am reluctantly planning a completely fresh install on a bare partition. What I am mainly concerned about is not losing things like my FCP Easy Setup's for Kona and Sheer, DVD Studio Pro Templates etc.

My main problem is its been so long I don't even remember everything that I don't want to lose. Some kind of an update that preserved all of my settings and preferences would be really tempting. Any tips or advice on upgrading safely while maintaining any settings or preferences would really be appreciated!

At least if I record the date of the fresh install I can grab anything I need from one of the Time Machine Backup drives.

This is the hardware:

Quote

Model Name: Mac Pro
Model Identifier: MacPro3,1
Processor Name: Quad-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed: 2.8 GHz
Number Of Processors: 2
Total Number Of Cores: 8
Memory: 4 GB

Thanks !

Mitch

I personally would go with a fresh install on a new drive, and this is what I do, because you soon find out what things you really use and can install those. Anything that doesn't drive you crazy for not being there in the fresh install is just taking up space. Also, like you say, you can start up on the old drive to reference settings for the new setup.

Don't be reluctant. A fresh install on bare metal is a wonderful feeling. Everything's so clean and neat.

I wouldn't rely on Time Machine as my sole backup, though. Don't get me wrong; I love Time Machine, and in my experience ? I know others have different experiences ? it's been 100-percent reliable. It's just that if I were you, I'd just get a new drive. Hard drives are astonishingly cheap nowadays. Terabyte drives are under a hundred bucks US. It's ridiculous.

Also, just a data point: Sheer is ancient. I'd strongly recommend you use ProRes instead. Much lower data rates, much higher performance, perfectly transparent across many generations.

Hi,

Sorry for the late response. Still dealing with some health issues?

Quote
Jude Cotter Wrote:
I personally would go with a fresh install on a new drive, and this is what I do, because you soon find out what things you really use and can install those. Anything that doesn't drive you crazy for not being there in the fresh install is just taking up space. Also, like you say, you can start up on the old drive to reference settings for the new setup.

Thanks for the advice! I just purchased the Snow Leopard Upgrade disc, the FCS Upgrade and some hard drives!

Quote
Jeff Harrell Wrote:
Don't be reluctant. A fresh install on bare metal is a wonderful feeling. Everything's so clean and neat.

Thanks! A Fresh install is unanimous!

Quote
Jeff Harrell Wrote:
I wouldn't rely on Time Machine as my sole backup, though. Don't get me wrong; I love Time Machine, and in my experience ? I know others have different experiences ? it's been 100-percent reliable. It's just that if I were you, I'd just get a new drive. Hard drives are astonishingly cheap nowadays. Terabyte drives are under a hundred bucks US. It's ridiculous.

I have four drives dedicated to backups. Two drives are for TM backups and 2 drives are for cloning (SuperDuper) my boot partition. Each of the "Clone Backup Drives" has 2 partitions. Before I install the update I will clone one copy of the Current Boot Partition to each of the "Clone Backup Drives". This insures I can get back to a working configuration if necessary. After the fresh install of the update I clone one copy of the Boot Partition with the fresh install to a different partition on each of the "Clone Backup Drives". This insures I can quickly get back to the fresh install if necessary.

Before and after the fresh install I also perform fresh TM backups.

I also do the double clone routine and TM backups before and after any system changes that are not easily reversible.

BTW would someone be willing to briefly explain the point of David Saraceno's ""Reinstall OS X & Final Cut Studio The Right Way" methodology? Isn't easier to just maintain clones of your boot partition?

Quote
Jeff Harrell Wrote:
Also, just a data point: Sheer is ancient. I'd strongly recommend you use ProRes instead. Much lower data rates, much higher performance, perfectly transparent across many generations.

I think (let me know if I'm missing something) for this purpose (no editing, audio cleanup, DVD creation) Sheer is a better choice. It's lossless.

Thanks Again !

Mitch

David's article is (unless I've missed a segment somewhere) just about restoring your OS disk to a bootable hard drive, and imaging your Final Cut DVDs. It's a performance thing.

It's always better to do a fresh install on bare metal than to recover a clone. Often it's only marginally better, so's you wouldn't notice the difference. But it's always better.

I would not recommend Sheer any more, no. Like I said, ProRes is superior on all fronts these days.

Hi,

Quote
Mitch Sink Wrote:
Work with five hours of DigiBeta:
Capture using SDI -> Teranex Noise Reduction -> Kona LSE -> Sheer Video Codec

While the DigiBeta work is progressing start working with about ten hours of DV:
Capture using Firewire:

When work with the first DV is complete start working on ten more hours of DV:
Capture using SDI -> Teranex Noise Reduction -> Kona LSE -> DV50

It would really help if I do the captures BEFORE upgrading. Any good reasons not to do that?

Thanks !

Mitch

Hi,

Quote
Mitch Sink Wrote:
Work with five hours of DigiBeta:
Capture using SDI -> Teranex Noise Reduction -> Kona LSE -> Sheer Video Codec
Export the audio to be cleaned up (a friends audio studio)
Create SD DVD's and archive the footage on Blue Ray

Quote
Jeff Harrell Wrote:
Also, just a data point: Sheer is ancient. I'd strongly recommend you use ProRes instead. Much lower data rates, much higher performance, perfectly transparent across many generations.

Quote
Mitch Sink Wrote:
I think (let me know if I'm missing something) for this purpose (no editing, audio cleanup, DVD creation) Sheer is a better choice. It's lossless.

Quote
Jeff Harrell Wrote:
Jeff Harrell Wrote:
I would not recommend Sheer any more, no. Like I said, ProRes is superior on all fronts these days.

I don't understand how ProRes (lossy compression) can be equal in quality, let alone superior to Sheer (lossless=uncompressed quality).

I realize ProRes has some other advantages (supports realtime effects, uses about 25% less disk space etc.) but for ten 30 minute, already edited programs, in which we want to get the absolute best quality possible Sheer seems like a good fit to me.

Thanks !

Mitch

I think the biggest problem with Sheer is the lack of commonality. If you have to go out of house for anything, then everyone else needs Sheer to work with it.

Hi Jude,

Thanks for the Sheer advice!

It would really help if I do my captures BEFORE upgrading to Snow Leopard and the "NEW" Final Cut Studio.

Any good reasons not to do that?

Thanks Again !

Mitch

Mm not that I know of, unless you're thinking of going Sheer and that's not supported any more. I don't know enough about the codec to make a solid recommendation about that, but really you should be able to capture in whatever version you like. I would check that Sheer functions well in SL and FCS3 - and that's it not some kind of possible Legacy problem.

Thanks Jude!

Mitch

which brand of external hard drive did yoiu pick up?
Mitch C

Hi,

smyth Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> which brand of external hard drive did yoiu pick
> up?
> Mitch C

2 Hitachi 1tb drives for capture and editing with trays for the Seritek enclosure that will be their new home.

1 Hitachi 750gb drives for cloned boot partitions. It will get swapped into the Wiebetech RTX100-SJ trayless enclosure:

Quote

No trays, no screws - just insert the drive and close the door. The satisfying *click* will reassure you the drive has mounted correctly into its shock absorbing bay.

500gb is sufficient for my cloned boot partitions but the 750gb drive was only an extra $10.

Best Wishes!

Mitch