Final Cut Express Hard Drive Consumption

How much hard drive space does Final Cut Express consume?

The specs are listed here: http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB278Z/A?fnode=MTY1NDAzOA&mco=MTA3OTEy
Specifically, the space requirements are:
• 500MB of disk space to install Final Cut Express and LiveType
• Additional 500MB to install LiveType content
-DH

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My pro crashed on me last april. this week bought a new 13" pro. I have 8 years worth of Final Cut on hard drives. I had bought fcp4 I think in 2004, and a buddy gave me his Studio 3 last year.... it won't launch into this new system. How to access

my first time in the support community.... i asked a question above.... if I sign out, can I reopen tomorrow, or does one stay online. I want to be able to access my FCP files. I've a new pro this week.... and it's not opening FCP....

FCP4 is not supported as it is a Power PC app, but if you install FCS3 from the install discs, FCS3 (FCP7) should work.
Migrating the pro apps is not recommend as a best practice, but it is done.
60 GB of free space on your system drive is not a good idea, having about 20% free is usually about as little as recommended.
FCP-X uses a completely new editing paradigm, some like it, some don't. There is nothing similar about the way one edits with FCP-X and editing in Final Cut Pro, and your legacy projects that were created in Final Cut are not directly useable in FCP-X. There are third party apps that are available that will convert FCP legacy projects into FCP-X useable files, but there are limitations.
http://assistedediting.intelligentassistance.com/7toX/
Premiere is much more similar to editing in FCP 7 and earlier than FCP-X is. You can even switch the keyboard short cuts in Premiere to the same shortcuts used in FCP.
MtD

I'm running Final Cut Express 2. How can I move entire project and application from one internal hard drive to another? Ran out of space on one drive. Thanks.

I'm running Final Cut Express 2. My video project is 95% done and I've run out of space on my 500g internal hard drive. How can I (1) move the complete FCE program and video to my unused 250g internal hard drive and operate it from there and (2) how do I then purge all the FCE info from the 500g drive without losing anything from the 250 drive?
Also, is it possible to change the aspect ratio from 4:3 to 16:9 when the project is finished? If so, how? I now know this all should have been done before I started. Thanks for the help.

1. You can't move the application. It must remain on the system drive. Move your capture scratch folder to the external FireWire drive and use the reconnect function in the project.
2. What's the media 16:9 or 4:3?

My external hard drive is 'seen' by my iMac and I can go into the Finder and open files and folders. I am using the hard drive for Time Machine back up. However Time Machine says it can't find the drive. Same thing has happened with Final Cut Express.

My new LaCie external hard drive is 'seen' by my iMac and I can go into the Finder and open files and folders. I am using the hard drive for Time Machine back up. However Time Machine says it can't find the drive.
The same thing happened recently between Final Cut Express and my other LaCie external hard drive used as the Scratch disk. It fixed itself.
I've run out of ideas. Help would be very much appreciated. Thanks.

have you done some searches on FCPx and time machine? Is there a known issue with using a TM drive with FCPx? dunno but ...wait...I'll take 60 sec for you cause I'm just that kind of guy.... google...." fcpx time machine problem" Frist page link
http://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/fcpx-bug-best-practices-for-using-external-hard- drives-and-final-cut-pro-x/
You cannot have time machine backups on your hard drive if you intend to use it in FCPX.
booya!

Family Videos on DVD into Final Cut Express and external hard drive?

I have family videos that were transferred from video tape to DVD. I now want to get the DVDs into Final Cut express to make movies.
1. I am using mpeg streamclip -- what format is best to save to disk to work with FC express? DV or QT? Other?
2. Is it faster to use an external drive (firewire) or the main hard drive of my computer? I have an iMac (intel, very first one) as well as a recent macbook pro 2.33 GHz core duo)
3. I have an external fantom drive (1 TB) that I had connected to an airport extreme, and used briefly with user login as a central server. I now want to connect this to my iMac, but with some files I get "error code 0" when I try to copy them over, and others will work. I had hoped to keep all of the dVD files which I anticipate will be large on this drive. Anyone know what this means? I do also have a 500 GB G drive which works perfectly, but I suspect is not as fast.
Thanks to anyone who can help. I am new at this and excited about making the movie, but not about the learning curve -- had been proficient with iMovie until the new version came out.
thanks
Paul

I don't know how new you are to Streamclip but there are 2 DVs and the one you want is got via QuickTime as Tom said.
When you drop your DVD files onto Streamclip and go up to the File Menu you will find "Export to QuickTime" and "Export to DV".
The second one, I believe, is for iMovie but for FCE you click "Export to QuickTime" and in the window that opens you alter the "Compression" setting from "Apple Motion JPEG A" to "Apple DV-PAL" or "Apple DV/DVCPRO-NTSC" as appropriate.
You can usually leave all the other settings alone, click "Make Movie" and wait !

Final Cut Express moving videos off hard drive

So I started capturing some footage on my laptop because I didn't have an external drive available. I finished the project, and now I'm back home with my external drive. My internal drive had 1.5 gigs free now, and I want to move all the footage I captured from FCE onto the external.
I know iMovie has an option to export the project and all the files into a single file. Does FCE have an option like this, or do I need to go through finder to where it saved all the footage and move them like that? How can I do this without losing all the links and having to reconnect my media...
hopefully this all makes sense, I've never really used FCE

Hello Drew,
FCE doesn't have that option. You will have to use the Finder to copy the folders/files to your external drive and yes you will have to Reconnect Media after moving the files.
Be sure your external drive is formatted as Mac OS Extended and is connected via Firewire.
In FCE, close your Project. Then in FCE preferences reset your scratch disk location to the new Final Cut Express Documents folder on your external drive. Then exit FCE.
The default FCE scratch disk location is /Users/yourusername/Final Cut Express Documents. Normally your FCE project file and related material is in this folder. Under it you will find the following folders:
Autosave Vault
Capture Scratch
Render Files
Waveform Cache
Thumbnail Cache
and there may be an Audio Render Files folder too
At this point you should be able to find a Final Cut Express Documents folder on your external drive; it should have automatically been created when you reset your FCE preferences earlier, along with an Autosave Vault and a Capture Scratch folder. Copy the files from your internal drive's Autosave Vault and Capture Scratch folders to the corresponding new folders on your external drive. Don't bother copying the render files or cache files - it will be better to re-render after you move your project. Also, if you have any other source media such as photos or music, copy them to a new folder on your external drive. Keep your FCE project file on your internal hard drive but do make a backup copy of it somewhere.
After copying everything, verify & double check that you have good copies of your clips on your external drive because the next step is to delete the originals of your captured clips that are on your internal drive. Don't delete any folders, just the captured clips themselves ... and all the render files. This is necessary so that when you reopen your FCE project it will be forced to reconnect media and you can point it to the new location on your external drive. Otherwise it will just continue to use the clips that are on your internal drive.
Then reopen your Project File that you left on your internal drive and reconnect media when prompted.

Best hard drive performance on mac pro for final cut express

This week I'll be setting up a basic 4 core mac pro with 16 gb ram and 2 internal- 2tb WD Caviar Black drives. I'm wondering what would give me the best performance for running final cut express, and I'm considering setting up software raid 0 or using one drive for boot and one for scratch. Or should I set up software raid 0 with boot and scratch partitions? Or other suggestions? Thanks.

My recommendations -
With 2 drives in your Mac Pro, use *one disk for OS X and all of your apps;* the *second disk for data* (including your FCE scratch disk location). Partition each drive as a *single partition,* which will maximize performance over time.
In addition, you should invest in at least 1 external drive to use for backup purposes; if you don't, the day will come when you wish you had.
I strongly recommend AGAINST doing software RAID. Certainly not for your situation with only 2 drives, one of which will be your system HD; but also because hardware RAID is faster, more reliable, and does not require CPU resources to run.
Your internal SATA drives will provide plenty of performance for most video editing needs. You also have the ability to put 4 drives in your Mac Pro, in which case you can utilize the extra drives to provide additional performance if/when you get into serious multi-multi track video compositing.

Does Final Cut Express 4 Read Clips From an External NAS Drive?

After upgrading from iMovie 08 to 09 I have found out through these pages that iMovie no longer supports reading clips from and writing them to my external wireless drive (via the Events library). The question for this forum - does Final Cut Express 4 have the same issue?
Just to anticipate a couple of points - I do not intend to use my external hard drive for 'in line' editing, it is merely a repository for excess clips that my hard drive cannot accommodate. I understand this kind of arrangement is slower than Firewire 800 but it is what I have and I want it to work.
Message was edited by: Plutonian

FCE has nothing to do with how you archive your media as long as it's not used for playback within the application. The only issue might be how the drive is formatted. For large media files it really needs to be formatted in Mac OS Extended.

Installing final cut express with a disc drive

I have 2 copies of final cut express 4, however my laptop was stolen. I know have a new laptop but it is a mac book pro without a disc drive. How do install my copy of final cut express? I don't want to (and can't afford) to buy it again when I already own 2 copies and all the used software coupons.
Can I download it? where and how?

Get an external DVD drive. Apple sells one:
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MD564ZM/A/apple-usb-superdrive?fnode=5f
You can probably find something cheaper, if you look around.
MtD

Final Cut Express on last legs, it seems.

I am having major problems with my Final Cut Express these days. I can't ever capture more than 10 minutes worth of camcorder footage without the whole FCE suddenly freezing up on me. I then have no choice but to Force Quit & end up losing the 10 or 15 minutes worth of footage captured. Quite often I can't even get that far...when I click on "capture now" it goes into "allocating disc space" and just freezes up again. Force Quit all over again.
I am using a Crossfire external hard drive so there is plenty of space. Even the Macintosh HD has lots of space...so I'm not sure it's related to that. I have made tons of movies in the past, without such trouble....but as time has gone by it has become more & more unruly. More prone to crashing & siezing up. Is there any way I can uninstall the whole thing, and start from new with restored factory settings? Or is there a way to clean up the mess (if there is one) which is apparently clogging up the works? I am using an Apple iMac which I have owned since 2003, with Mac OSX version 10.4.11.
1.25 Ghz PowerPC G4
with 1GB DDR SDRAM.
The Final Cut Express version I am using is version 2.0.2 (from 2004).
Please help ! I used to be able to crank out tons of movies with minimal effort, now it's a nightmare!

Check out Armando's suggestion first but if the problems persist take a good look at this FCE troubleshooting article.
I would particularly recommend trashing the preferences first and if that is ineffective uninstall FCE as described and reinstall it.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TA24195?viewlocale=enUS&locale=enUS

Final output of Final Cut Express HD 3.5 is blurry and out of focus.

Using clear/sharp '.mov' files as clips. Doing simple editing, nothing fancy. When I finally output the project using 'Export/Using QuickTime Conversion,' the final is blurry and out of focus. I've tried every compression type (H264, Animation, etc.). Same problem. Anyone know why this is happening?
Although the specs for my computer are well within the Final Cut Express guidelines (I've even upgraded my graphics card to a Radeon 9800 Pro 256 MB), I'm still thinking that perhaps the G4 I'm using doesn't have enough juice to run the FCE software. By the way, I don't have any other programs active when using FCE. Any help on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
G4 (Mirror Drive Doors)/1.25 GHz/2.0 GB Memory/Radeon 9800XT (256 MB) Mac OS X (10.4.9) 2 Internal 120 GB Hard Drives (RAID)/2 CD-DVD Drives: Super Drive & Combo Drive
G4 (Mirror Drive Doors)/1.25 GHz/2.0 GB Memory/Radeon 9800XT (256 MB) Mac OS X (10.4.9) 2 Internal 120 GB Hard Drives (RAID)/2 CD-DVD Drives: Super Drive & Combo Drive

Thanks for your response.
Here's what I'm (trying) to do:
I'm creating short 5 minute tutorial movies that will be distributed as QuickTime movies (burned to disk) for short run distribution (college).
Here's the process: the movie itself is a recording of monitor screen actions recorded (audio and video) using Snapz Pro movie mode. The recorded size is 800 x 600. There might be 5 such 1 or 2 minute clips. The quality is excellent. I bring them in to FCE, drop all the clips on the same track, and add simple transitions. That's it.
Now I need to somehow get a final QuickTime movie, with close to the same quality I had in the clips.
So... I take the FCE file, output it using 'Export>QuickTime Conversion,' using the same size I originally recorded in, 800 x 600. Tried every codec available. Every time, the end result is a very blurred version of the original Snapz Pro recordings.
I've even tried outputting the FCE file as 'Export>QuickTime Move' (not using the conversion method). Opened that up in QuickTime Pro with the same result: blurred and out of focus.
I'm viewing the exported file in QuickTime Pro, with the 'Movie Properties' setting of 'High Quality.'
Any clue? This is driving me crazy. But I'm determined to get this right.
G4 (Mirror Drive Doors)/1.25 GHz/2.0 GB Memory/Radeon 9800XT (256 MB) Mac OS X (10.4.9) 2 Internal 120 GB Hard Drives (RAID)/2 CD-DVD Drives: Super Drive & Combo Drive

I have been creating a film on Final Cut Express and half of my film has disappeared- what can I do to retrieve it back!?

I have been creating a film on Final Cut Express and half of my film has disappeared! What can I do to retrieve it?! Furthermore, command Z doesn't appear to be working! Any help would be much appreciated!

Check the capture/scratch disc to make sure the media is still there. If it isn't your hard drive may be going bad. If it is, then you may have inadvertently cut part of the video from the Timeline or deleted it from the Browser.
As for the Command z issue, see how many levels of undo you have set in FCE preferences. Also keep in mind that Command z will not work if you close the project and reopen it.
-DH

My HD died on my iMac. I replaced it and lost everything that was on it. I found my source disks from my original purchase for Final Cut Express HD 3.5. I now have Maverick ISO and it will not let me load my software so I can continue my film work. ???

My HD died on my iMac. I replaced it and lost everything that was on it. I found my source disks from my original purchase for Final Cut Express HD 3.5. I now have Maverick ISO and it will not let me load my software so I can continue my film work. How do I get it too recover it without paying for it again since I paid for it already and have projects in progress that need to be completed?

1) Partition your hard drive or add an external drive and install Snow Leopard (with the Optional Rosetta) into it and then you can dual-boot (System Preferences:Startup Disk) into Snow Leopard and run FCE 3.5 there.
2) Use one of the following methods to install FCE 3.5 into Mavericks:
a) Pacifist: http://www.charlessoft.com/
b) Jeremy Johnstone's Terminal method: http://www.jeremyjohnstone.com/blog/2012-03-11-installing-final-cut-pro-studio-2 -0-on-mac-os-x-10-7-lion.html
Reports on this forum seem to confirm that Final Cut Studio 2 will continue to operate in Mavericks once it is functionally installed, albeit some plug-ins may fail to function. FCE 3.5 is the same generation as FCS2, and presumably will continue to operate in Mavericks, as well.

Final Cut Pro to Final Cut Express -- Format issues?

Hi,
I'm shooting a project on a Panasonic HVX-200A, and my cameraman is going to import the footage to his Final Cut Pro station. He's then going to transfer the FCP footage and data over to an external hard drive, which I am going to use to edit the film using Final Cut Express.
Will there be any formatting issues if I bring the data from Final Cut Pro to Final Cut Express?
Thanks!!
Sameer Ketkar

Clip files can be easily imported into FCE if they are QuickTime DV-NTSC/DV-PAL or Apple Intermediate Codec (720p30, 1080i50/60). If they are other formats/codecs they should be converted to DV or AIC before importing into FCE.
FCPro project files cannot be imported into FCExpress.
I'd suggest a trial run before committing the project to this workflow.

Final Cut Express HD transfer from Intel to new Retina MacBook Pro

Final cut express HD will not open on new macbook retina using my intel version serial number. Do I have to purchase it again!!?

RAM may be an issue, if you can upgrade it that may help.
Also, make sure all your Media is on an External Hard drive. It's not a good idea to have your media reading off the same drive as your Application.
You could also try Trashing your Preferences and see if that helps.
~Luke

Final Cut Express Hard Drive Consumption

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