fcp suite 2 upgrade advice - 2-Pop Forums

chris2 · 05-01-2008, 01:49 AM

Finally, now that I'm between projects, I'm preparing to upgrade from fcp suite, fcp v. 5.0.4, OSX.4.8 to fcp suite 2, fcp 6 and some version of OSX and QT.
Here's my plan. I'd appreciate any feedback/advice before I start.

Power Mac G5 dual 2.3 GHz, 3.5 MB Ram, ATI Radeon X850 XT Graphics Card with 256 VRam, current boot drive = 250 GB.

I plan to put my current fcp boot drive on the shelf for backup in case anything goes wrong and I want to revert.

FCP suite and all my apps. occupy 174 GB of the 232 available GBs on this drive. Maybe I'd use carbon copy cloner first to copy my current fcp drive contents over to the empty drive, and then install/upgrade from there.

I could clear off one of my other 250 GB drives and do my upgrade on it, or I could, instead, use a new 500 GB drive I recently purchased.

Would the 250 GB drive be about right to accommodate the upgrade . . . would the 500GB be overkill, thus wasting drive space?

I plan to stay with Tiger OS, because Leopard would not be compatible with my version of photoshop, CS1 (in fact is not even compatible with the latest CS3, I think). Also, I'm not aware of any compelling reason to upgrade to Leopard for fcp suite 2.

I want to continue using Boris 3D for my titles. Are their upgrade levels of OSX or QT that would break my Boris 3D? Is there an easy fix or should I avoid certain levels of update?

Any other heads up advice before I start would be appreciated.

TomWolsky · 05-01-2008, 04:26 AM

You're right to do a clean erase and install of the OS on a wiped drive. I've been using CS3 with Leopard without any problem.

If you mean Title 3D. It works fine in the current version of FCP and OS.

As for the 500G drive. You can never have too much drive space.

chris2 · 05-06-2008, 11:02 AM

is there any compelling reason for fcp editors to upgrade to leopard?

telly · 05-06-2008, 06:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chris2

is there any compelling reason for fcp editors to upgrade to leopard?

You can now use Automator for repetitive tasks. That's pretty cool. Before Leopard, FCP was not scriptable at all.

Also, some cool new plug-ins and generators won't work unless you have Leopard (SugarFX and others).

Other than that, I can't think of many reasons. Anyone else?

CS3 works fine in Leopard, where did you hear that it didn't?

Zwick · 05-06-2008, 07:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by telly

CS3 works fine in Leopard, where did you hear that it didn't?

As of 10/07 Adobe was still acknowledging some issues with some CS3 products and Leopard. AE was one, Acrobat was another but I think most of it was due to some stuff still being in "trial" mode. That's all been resolved.

The OP mentioned being on CS and that is certainly something to cause concern in going to Leopard. CS was 2003 so that was OS 10.2.

I do a What The... every once and awhile still on Photoshop CS3 Extended and I'm on 10.4.11. However, the PS 10.0.1 update resolved most issues I ran across.

chris2 · 05-06-2008, 10:06 PM

Tom, do you mean fcp suite 2 and leopard X.5 when you say "current version"

Besides Boris Caligraphy, I want my Eureka Plug-ins to keep working.

It would be a real hassle to move to leopard later, after I have fcp suite and everything loaded on, so guess I should buy leopard and install it now before the upgrade. I'll just have to live with only being able to use PS on my older G4, and not have it on my G5, cuz the cost of buying another CS or PS is just not in the budget now.

Zwick · 05-06-2008, 11:28 PM

For what reason do you want to go to Leopard? I say upgrade FCS and save Leopard for your next Mac.

chris2 · 05-06-2008, 11:44 PM

good point and it was my original question. it will be quite a long time before a new mac. If I thought there was something really helpful for fcp users, I thought I should make the upgrade now before installing fcpsuite2.

But so far I'm not hearing of anything essential in leopard, at least not that I've heard so far. Tom mentioned some new plug-ins, but they are not something I need for my work.

TomWolsky · 05-07-2008, 11:01 AM

Something else to consider is that the current version of QuickTime works with 10.4.11 and Leopard. It's required for the latest Pro Apps updates. In my view it won't be long before an iteration of QT for the Mac and updates for FCS require Leopard.

chris2 · 05-07-2008, 11:14 AM

Yes, that is something to consider.