Should I updgrade to Final Cut Express HD

I am new to the Mac, having just bought it over xmas and having come from a PC using Studio Plus I have been very disappointed with the iMovie application (even the new v6).
I'd be interested to know peoples views on whether I should invest the £200 and move to Final Cut Express HD and if anyone has used Studio and can compare ?
Also, I was amazed at how poor the performance was using iMovie as you can't switch off background rendering and even with a G5 2GHz 1.5Gb of RAM it is soooo slow..... Is FCE HD any better ?
I'd appreciate any advice ?
Thanks
G5 iMac 20" Mac OS X (10.4.4) 1.5Gb RAM

Welcome to the Discussions.
I use both iMovie HD (but not yet '06) and FCE HD, and I do not find either of them to be slow. I will warn you, as Ian did, that the learning curve for FCE is much steeper than for iMovie, and I have miles to go on FCE. I will also note, that FCE often requires more rendering during editing, than I see with iMovie.
However, as is often recommended, I use a second and third hard drive to store my movie projects, and not the main HD. I use Firewire external disks, with no problem, and prefer the one I can use with FW 800 Bus.
I hope this helps.
Ernie

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Does Final Cut Express 4 work with mac mini and other questions...?

I have a few questions I need help in answering... I would appreciate opinions on the following:
I am about to make a purchase of a new mac. I already have a mac mini PPC, but it is too slow...
Here is what I am thinking.
Mac mini, 2GB mem, 160GB hard drive. Will this new mac mini work with Final Cut Express 4?
Or should I go with the more powerful iMac?
I like to make movies on my mac but I hate iMovie 08 so I constantly use iMovie HD 06. Should I go to Final Cut Express 4 or just stick with iMovie HD 06?

There is no doubt that FCE 4 will run on an Intel mini - the GMA graphics processor is compatible. There is also no doubt that an iMac would give you somewhat better overall performance, though it's important perhaps to note that as complex as FCE is, it is actually a little less demanding on hardware than iMovie has traditionally been, so the difference between a mini with 2Gb RAM and a similarly equipped iMac will not be all that great in FCE, though it will become a little more noticeable if you continue to use iMovie 6.
The main reason for the performance difference between iMovie and FCE is that in order to provide a reasonably sophisticated video editing package that will run on very basic hardware, Apple relied heavily on caching techniques, meaning that while FCE basically spools from video and relies on CPU power, iMovie constantly moves data to and from the hard drive. The mini's hard drive is a (relatively) slow device in comparison to the iMac's - thus the iMac runs iMovie rather more seamlessly. In FCE, the difference is, as said, rather less clear unless you were to go for the top-end model.
If your budget can stretch to an iMac it makes sense to go that route simply because the extra power and overall performance (and the better graphics processor) will give you greater flexibility down the road. On the other hand, if funds are tight and you need to spend as little as reasonably possible, a mini will do fine, and is sufficient;y inexpensive that in a couple of years could be sold off and replaced without severe financial implications.
In terms of the choice between FCE or iMovie, beware that if you haven't used FCE before, the transition is not easy, and the learning curve for it is pretty steep. That said, it has far greater power and flexibility in terms of what you can achieve with it than has ever been possible with iMovie.
That said, for casual and home use, iMovie (version 6 at least) has plenty of power and tools for the majority of projects. iMovie 8 is, in many ways, deeply flawed for those who want that sort of power and workflow tools, being that it is designed for quick and easy creation of movies, not creative and considered productions. It has it's uses, but if you have experience with iMovie already, v8 is really not intended for you at all.
All that said, I've used iMovie 6 on systems will a lot less power than the current Intel minis, and have found it stable and workable, so I have no doubt it would work well on any current Mac.

Final cut express 4 Graphics crad

Hi everyone.
I just bought a 2nd hand 2008 Mac Pro 3.1 with the ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT graphics card.
I do not want to pay for FCPX and required Graphics card upgrade.
From what I am researching, my ATO card should be compatible with Final Cut Express 4?
Would anyone be able to clarify this for me please?
Many thanks!
Mac Pro 3.1 2008
OSX 10.7.5
Two 2.8 GHz (E5462) Quad-Core Intel Xeon "Harpertown"
10 Gig Ram
ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT with 256 MB of GDDR3 SDRAM
Mac Pro, iOS 6

Legacy versions of Final Cut don't really care what graphics card you're using.

Final Cut Express (What Version should i purchase?)

Sorry but i am a little confused. I see that there is a Final Cut Express and Final Cut Express HD what's the difference? I just need to do a little video editing at the lowest cost possible. With either of these versions do i need a certain graphics card or hardware to run one of these? and also what's the latest version out?
I already got my videos on the computer in mpeg format, will i be able to load them into Final Cut Express or will i have to convert them?
Thank you

FCE HD v3.5 is the current version. That's the version you need for your Intel based iMac. Check the Apple website for complete specs.
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Yes, I am buying a blackmacbook with 1gig of ram, and a 200gb hard drive in june! now will a black macbook run final cut express? (in like dec. ill updgrade to 2gigs of ram) but does it work? any video tests or reviews? Thanks

The disk that contains your computer’s operating system is called the startup disk or boot disk. In addition to the operating system, the startup disk also stores your applications (such as Final Cut Pro), your application preferences, system settings, and other documents. Since the files on the startup disk are your most critical data, maintaining the startup disk is vital.
Since digital media (especially high data rate video) makes your disks work harder, you should use dedicated disks for capturing and playing back your digital video and other media files. Consider your media disks as storage units that work long, hard hours, while your startup disk keeps your system properly organized. If a disk is going to malfunction, it’s better if your critical data is separate from your replaceable media files.

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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?

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I just bought an IMAC with Final Cut Express to do all my video editing of my kids activities. I used Pinnacle Studio on my old PC prior to this but it finally gave out. I downloaded some music CD's I had into itunes and then tried importing the music into FCE. This is not working. I have no problem adding it to my imovies but it will not work with FCE. The music format is m4a which I think is typical.
I went to You Tube and watch several tutorials from some of fellow FC users and still cannot get it to work. There must be something I have to set up in FCE to get this to work but I do not know what that is. I been looking around the program and have not been successful. Any help any of you can provide would be great. Thanks.. Ron

Hi Ron, and welcome to the FCE Forum !
You should convert the audio files to AIFF, 48KHz (aka 16-bit) stereo before importing them into FCE. Neither CDs nor iTunes songs are in that format. You can use iTunes to do the conversion.
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Hey I'm a dummy but....Just installed Final Cut Express 4 but doesn't open tells me I don't have the AGP graphics card,my ATI Radeon X1600?Do some imac 1.83 Intel Core Duo come with out it?I'm freek'n stuck!!Any help would be Greatly appreciated!!

Al's suggestion should solve the problem.
However, if you get fed up with hitting the esc key every time you open FCE you could try this permanent cure .......... it's nowhere near as frightening as it sounds and only takes a minute !
For a permanent cure edit the info.plist like this:-
1. Right click on the FCE icon (in Applications NOT the Dock) and select "Show Package Contents".
2. Open the "Contents" folder and double click the "info .plist". It should open automatically in TextEdit - if it doesn't, choose TextEdit manually.
3. Around 15 or so lines down you will see AGP. Delete it and put in PCI.
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I run Final Cut Express 4.0.1; I shoot with a Sony HDR-CX260V. How do I import from the camera directly to Final Cut, without having to go through the intermediate step of using iMovie?

I use Final Cut Express 4.0.1; I shoot with a Sony HDR-CX260V.
How do I import from camera to Final Cut without going through the intermediate step of using iMovie?

If you shoot in one of the following modes you should be able to Log & Transfer directly into FCE:
HD: 1920x1080/60i (FX or FH mode)
HD: 1440x1080/60i (HQ or LP mode)
SD: 720x480/60i
1080/60p (PS mode) seems to be the default mode in your camcorder. FCE only supports progressive video in 720p50 or 720p60. That's probably why you have had to import via iMovie.
It would be better to upgrade to Final Cut Pro X, the version currently supported. FCE was discontinued over 18 months ago and is not supported on Lion or Mountain Lion.

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.

Video out of sync in Final Cut Express... but in sync everywhere else!

'm working on making one video that is composed of two camera angles of the same thing. So, I have two video tracks in Final Cut Express, one for the side view, and one for the main view. Both videos are Quicktime Movies (.mov extension).
Here are the file details:
Main Cam: duration - 1hr 26min 46sec // file size - 5.74gb
Side Cam: duration - 1hr 29min 18sec // file size - 5.63gb
[the side cam video is a little longer because I started filming with that camera a little bit before the main cam and stopped the filming a little earlier]
Now, here's the problem. Both videos are in my Final Cut Express project. The Main Cam video runs fine. But the Side Cam video's video is out of sync with the audio by a lot (somewhere between 2 and 6 full seconds). Normally I would think that something had happened during the filming, but here's the odd thing: the Side Cam video plays perfectly in sync out of Final Cut Express.
If I open it in Quicktime, or even in iMovie, the audio and video are perfectly in sync for the entirely of the video. But when I import it into FCE and watch it there, whether it's in the timeline, in the viewer, rendered, or unrendered (I've tried them all), it's horribly out of sync.
So, the video plays fine and in sync everwhere except for in the Final Cut Express program. The Main Cam video, which has a very similar duration and file size and which is the same file type, plays perfectly even in FCE. The only problem is the Side Cam, and I can't figure out why this is, or how to fix it.
Another thing: these videos were not captured from a camera into Final Cut. I already have the video files on the computer, and as I've said, the audio is fine there. To get them into FCE, I use file -> import.
Also, if anyone has suggestions on how to fix this, could you provide directions of some sort? I'm fairly new to Final Cut.
Any advice would be greatly, greatly appreciated.
Thank you so much in advance!

Hi(Bonjour)!
Does both camcorders was set to 16-48 khz audio?
One way to synch audio that drifting from video (or from anoter audio lenght) is to set precisely 2 markers (one near the beginning, another near the end) in the correct lenght video track. Try to find spots where you can hear and see a common reference. The result of the workaround will put a corrected audios between those points only.
Now note the duration between those 2 markers in video track.
*Unlink the video/audio clip with the wrong duration.*
Select the drifting audio and put the 2 markers at the intended reference points.
The duration should be less or more than the video.
Use the blade tool to cut the wrong lenght audio at markers.
The tips is to set a new duration for this portion with the set speed command.
With this +new duration+, align the in point of audio with the first video marker. The out point of audio should be aligned with the second video marker.
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Michel Boissonneault

Video cameras no longer connecting to Final Cut Express

I have two video cameras (Sony TRV-25 and Sony HDV-A1U) which are no longer connecting to Final Cut Express through the firewire (4-pin to 800). I get the "unable to initialize" message. What's weird is that they were working fine just last month.
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I went and bought another firewire cable just to make sure, but got the same results.
For what it's worth, I also could not get the cameras to be recognized in iMovie.
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When I looked in System Profiler and click on the firewire line, it just said something about maximum speed 800 MB per second or whatever. Should it actually have the camera listed there? Is that the right way to check?
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Hi,
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Thank You

^^^
The only reason i might be updating is because I'm getting Pro Tools LE to learn about their new features. And they highly recommend installing it on 10.5.5.

How do I import an AVI file for use with FInal Cut Express

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Should I updgrade to Final Cut Express HD

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