How to set up FCE/FCP ?

[liketom]

What would be the best way to set up Final Cut Express HD or Final Cut Pro to work spot on with my machine.


Specs:

Powermac G5 dual 1.8/3gb/2*250GB/ATI9600XT
External HDD Firewire 400 200gb

Software
FCE HD


any advice would be great

 

[Danksi]

Powermac G5 dual 1.8/3gb/2*250GB/ATI9600XT
External HDD Firewire 400 200gb

How much space is left on these three drives?

Assuming they're not almost full and you're planning to 'just' edit DV/HDV then a standard drive setup of:-

Main Internal Drive = System, Applications, FCP Project files, Waveform etc cache
Second Internal Drive = Media/Capture
External Drive = Additional Media

 

[YS2003]

I see some pros use PB (or other portable computer) with video editing. Given the smaller internal HD for notebook computer compared to the desk top, I would like to ask a few questions:

If I use the external HD (faster drive) with FW 800 (or FW400) connection, can I work on video editing reasonably well? I think access time to external HDs will be longer than the internal one. But, I prefer not to use the internal one to avoid unnecessary disk fragmentation.

If I install main app in the internal and install other media files and project files on the external one, does FCP perform reasonably well? If I go with this route, how much space FCP will take up my Mac's internal HD space?

 

[FF_productions]

If I install main app in the internal and install other media files and project files on the external one, does FCP perform reasonably well? If I go with this route, how much space FCP will take up my Mac's internal HD space?

Final Cut Studio can take up to 30-40 gigs of space on your system drive. Final Cut Pro alone takes up a gig plus all that livetype stuff.


It doesn't hurt to capture to the internal drive, it's just not recommended at ALL. If you really need portability, then capture to your internal drive in your PB, just make sure you have a huge hard drive in it and you don't fill it more than 80 percent.

 

[Mydriasis]

As far as I know you have to install FCP on your booting drive.

Firewire drives work fine with a laptop, when editing you hardly notice the difference to a desktop. The thing that makes a laptop less attractive is render time and live preview of effects. (processor intensive tasks)

When exporting/compressing your film, export to a different HD than the original media. That way the heads don't have to go back and forth (reading and writing) and you'll cut a lot of time.

 

[Texas04]

I use a MacBook Pro with an External Drive...

What I do is i hold all my applications (live type, FCE, and soundtrack) on my internal Hard Drive (just the application) and all my media, loops, live type extras and all my captured footage goes into my external drive. I run it through USB 2.0 and it works just fine.

 

[YS2003]

I use a MacBook Pro with an External Drive...

What I do is i hold all my applications (live type, FCE, and soundtrack) on my internal Hard Drive (just the application) and all my media, loops, live type extras and all my captured footage goes into my external drive. I run it through USB 2.0 and it works just fine.

With that set up, how much space does it take on your internal HD? Is it 40 GB? Or, is it going to be less than that?

 

[marioman38]

With that set up, how much space does it take on your internal HD? Is it 40 GB? Or, is it going to be less than that?

If you have just the apps on your internal, with all media/templates on external, it'll only take up ~3GB on your internal

 

[YS2003]

If you have just the apps on your internal, with all media/templates on external, it'll only take up ~3GB on your internal

Ok, that's more like it. 40GB app is a little too much on a notebook computer. I think I will make a go with FCP in the near future as I have many external HDs with FW800 or FW400 connections available.

 

[Texas04]

Actually I think it might have been less (FCE ) than 3gb... lol