PC to Mac Download of Video Files for Editing at DVinfo.net

Kevin Arkadie · February 14th, 2005, 11:02 AM

I hope this is the right forum. I have two 500g drives. For time and cost reasons, I need to use separate Mac and PC formatted drives for storage. My editor has Final Cut Pro. Will he be able to pull the DV footage from my NTSF drive and edit it in Final Cut Pro on his Mac? What do I need to do to make this happen?

Rhett Allen · February 14th, 2005, 03:10 PM

What kind of drive's are they? Internal, external, Firewire? Are you networked?

You can transfer the files over a network to him, or for external drives you will need to use FAT32 formatting. MacOS cannot read NTFS formatted drives.

Also make sure you are capturing them in a format that FCP can actually read. Not some proprietary format used by another editing program.

Kevin Arkadie · February 14th, 2005, 05:34 PM

Thanks. I've got two external LaCie BigDisk 500g drives that are triple-interfaced. The LaCie comes formatted for the Mac, but it's easy to format for NTSF, which is what my Canon PC-DV Recorder requires to store as I record off the camera. I'm trying to figure out a way to keep from buying an Apple computer -- maybe I'll have to bite the bullet.

Shane Ross · February 14th, 2005, 06:19 PM

Your editor is going to have difficulty editing with footage stored on a drive formatted anything other than Mac OS Extended (HFS+) with journalling off.

Also, what format are the video files? are they quicktime files? If they are .AVI's, again, he will have some issues. The optimum format for FCP is DV/NTSC 29.97 drop frame video. FCP will have difficulty with PC .avi or mpeg2 files. Just like Premeire would have difficulty with files captured on an FCP system.

Rob Lohman · February 16th, 2005, 05:09 AM

Shane: PPro or Vegas should have no trouble with a QuickTime
DV file (ie, captured with FCP), as long as you can transfer that
file to a PC.

Dave Perry · February 16th, 2005, 07:04 AM

Kevin,

Bite the Bullet!! :) It's worth it. Macs definitely play nicer with PCs than PCs do with Macs.

We have a Mac as our main edit station and an old PC running XP Pro and Premier. Occassionally we transfer files from the PC to the Mac and it is usually problematic.

I thought XP Pro discs were formatted as NTSF. We have no problem connecting to them from the Mac and can read the files on the Mac but can't write to them. FAT 32 is no problem though.

Mark Sloan · February 16th, 2005, 03:44 PM

NTFS can be read only on Macs directly. Through a network though you can do whatever. With FAT32 you can read and write on a Mac, but are limited to 4GB files. So for video that usually doesn't work...

February 14th, 2005, 11:02 AM	#1
Kevin Arkadie Tourist Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 3	PC to Mac Download of Video Files for Editing I hope this is the right forum. I have two 500g drives. For time and cost reasons, I need to use separate Mac and PC formatted drives for storage. My editor has Final Cut Pro. Will he be able to pull the DV footage from my NTSF drive and edit it in Final Cut Pro on his Mac? What do I need to do to make this happen? __________________ KA

February 14th, 2005, 05:34 PM	#3
Kevin Arkadie Tourist Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 3	Thanks. I've got two external LaCie BigDisk 500g drives that are triple-interfaced. The LaCie comes formatted for the Mac, but it's easy to format for NTSF, which is what my Canon PC-DV Recorder requires to store as I record off the camera. I'm trying to figure out a way to keep from buying an Apple computer -- maybe I'll have to bite the bullet. __________________ KA

February 16th, 2005, 05:09 AM	#5
Rob Lohman RED Code Chef Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Holland Posts: 12,514	Shane: PPro or Vegas should have no trouble with a QuickTime DV file (ie, captured with FCP), as long as you can transfer that file to a PC. __________________ Rob Lohman, visuar@iname.com DV Info Wrangler & RED Code Chef Join the DV Challenge \| Lady X Search DVinfo.net for quick answers \| Buy from the best: DVinfo.net sponsors

February 16th, 2005, 07:04 AM	#6
Dave Perry Major Player Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Roanoke, VA Posts: 796	Kevin, Bite the Bullet!! :) It's worth it. Macs definitely play nicer with PCs than PCs do with Macs. We have a Mac as our main edit station and an old PC running XP Pro and Premier. Occassionally we transfer files from the PC to the Mac and it is usually problematic. I thought XP Pro discs were formatted as NTSF. We have no problem connecting to them from the Mac and can read the files on the Mac but can't write to them. FAT 32 is no problem though. __________________ Dave Perry Cinematographer LLC Director of Photography • Editor • Digital Film Production • 540.915.2752 • daveperry.net

February 14th, 2005, 03:10 PM	#2
Rhett Allen Major Player Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Plano, TX Posts: 607	What kind of drive's are they? Internal, external, Firewire? Are you networked? You can transfer the files over a network to him, or for external drives you will need to use FAT32 formatting. MacOS cannot read NTFS formatted drives. Also make sure you are capturing them in a format that FCP can actually read. Not some proprietary format used by another editing program.

February 14th, 2005, 06:19 PM	#4
Shane Ross Major Player Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Los Angeles, USA Posts: 539	Your editor is going to have difficulty editing with footage stored on a drive formatted anything other than Mac OS Extended (HFS+) with journalling off. Also, what format are the video files? are they quicktime files? If they are .AVI's, again, he will have some issues. The optimum format for FCP is DV/NTSC 29.97 drop frame video. FCP will have difficulty with PC .avi or mpeg2 files. Just like Premeire would have difficulty with files captured on an FCP system.

February 16th, 2005, 03:44 PM	#7
Mark Sloan Major Player Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Venice, CA Posts: 346	NTFS can be read only on Macs directly. Through a network though you can do whatever. With FAT32 you can read and write on a Mac, but are limited to 4GB files. So for video that usually doesn't work...