Does the new Snow Leopard 6.2 update really fix FCP issues?

[Greg Quinn]

Anyone applied the update?

[Christopher Drews]

I was just on Apple's forum and this is what someone posted:

I was just working in Final Cut Pro when a "software update" message came up. Mac OSX 10.6.2.
I stopped working and updated. When I restarted and went back into FCP, my audio is ALL MESSED UP!
Every clip that is played has an echo to it...the echo is slightly slower than the original audio.
No matter what I do, the echo remains.
I noticed that after restarting the computer after the update, my system audio settings had been messed with.

Shane Ross, the emergent fcp master, recommended that he repair permissions. Not sure if it fixed the issue.

-C

[Greg Quinn]

Ooooookay - looks like I'll hold off applying the Snow Leopard update

[Chad Dyle]

I drank the Snow Leopard Kool-Aid to fast. I'm gonna hold off on the updates for a few days.

[Mike Barber]

Everyone learns this lesson one way or another: Never update/upgrade in the middle of a project... NEVER*











* unless absolutely necessary for very specific reasons.

[Robert Lane]

As always when a new or updated OS comes out I get flooded with emails screaming for help...

So I tested ".2" and found that in fact it's quite buggy. Seems the developers are either getting lazy with testing procedures or the quality of the ADC pool is dropping off. Either way I found many problems with 10.6.2:

- Mail now doesn't synch to POP servers properly on startup requiring a manual "GET MAIL" command to fully connect.
- FCP6 has audio forced out of synch in some long-GOP timelines
- Some P2 clips now don't play properly
- Compressor 3 stalls on launch and often hangs
- DVDSP 4.2.1 can't find it's native project assets - until you manually relink them
- Adobe Media Encoder freezes or causes PP to crash
- Some FxPlug filters show an error saying "not enough memory...".
- Some QT clips will now only play in QT-X not QT 7 as preferenced earlier
... and a host of other small yet annoying glitches.

Even after using software "fix-up" tools like Onyx and DiskWarrior these problems didn't get corrected.

If you follow my post about Snow Leopard being self-healing then it's easy to get things back in order:

- Boot from your Snow Leopard disk
- Reinstall the OS (with whichever advanced options you need such as Rosetta, QT 7 etc)
- After reboot download the 10.6.1 update from Apple:

Mac OS X v10.6.1 Update

- Install the ".1" update and get back to work.

For those that just can't help themselves with grabbing the newest thing, I would highly recommend turning OFF automatic updates on everything, not just the OS.

I consider 10.6.1 to be a fully stable OS and it's proven itself worthy of professional-environment use. The ".2" update however should be skipped altogether until ".3" or later shows up. It's too bad Apple doesn't pay me to figure this stuff out; I could have probably prevented such a goofed up update from being released in the first place. Oh well.

[Andy Mees]

I'm not seeing this wealth of issues with 10.6.2 here Robert ... have you confirmed this on multiple installations or just one test bed? Am wondering if it could Be install specific?

[Robert Lane]

Any postings about usability/reliability are always the result of a thorough verification and review process and don't emanate from a single source.

I should point out that there's absolutely no reason to get the ".2" update. The ".1" version isn't broken in any significant manner and the troubles people are reporting with FCP 7 are specific to the application, not the OS, which will require a Pro Apps update to address not a global OS patch.

10.6.1 is the MOST stable version of Mac OS X to date, even more than 10.5.8 was, and that's really saying something.

[Jiri Fiala]

Then again, Robert's satisfaction with 10.6.1 is only a single source :)

Just kidding. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Every troubleshooting guide insists you should install latest drivers and versions of all software, which is the SINGLE WORST advice you can get. Video software is picky - if it works for you, don't update, or at least wait for a week or two and see how it fares for others.

I didn't notice any improvement with 10.6.2 so far, but I have seen some new quirks - for example, dragging a folder to Places sidebar in Open/Save dialogue doesn't work for me now.

[Tim Dashwood]

10.6.2 solves some graphics driver issues that affected 3rd party plugins like FxFactory.

[Andy Mees]

Thanks for the clarification Robert ... you'll be aware that many folks are not as through as your good self in their testing regimen. I've lost count of the number of outraged claims I've seen paraded as fact over the years, when the vast majority of those issues have turned out to be due to specific workstation, network or site based configurations.

Is it your feeling then that OS X 10.6.2 w/ FCS2 is a particularly bad combination?

As noted, so far so good on my personal use OS X 10.6.2 / FCP 7.0.1 setup ... whilst the production machines are all still perfectly happy with OS X 10.5.8 / FCP 6.


Best
Andy

[William Hohauser]

It would be interesting to hear if these problems are specific to particular Mac models. As someone who has beta-tested programs in the past I can certainly attest that some Mac models can have a problem while other work perfectly. Video boards can be an issue especially. So here is what I have..... all still 10.6.1 by the way.

2.66 Dual Quad-core Mac Pro 2009 basic model - FCP7
2.66 Dual-Core iMac 2009 - FCP7
2.00 Dual MacMini 2008 - FCP6
2.00 Dual MacBook Pro 2007 - FCP7

[Robert Lane]

Originally Posted by Andy Mees

...s it your feeling then that OS X 10.6.2 w/ FCS2 is a particularly bad combination?

As noted, so far so good on my personal use OS X 10.6.2 / FCP 7.0.1 setup ... whilst the production machines are all still perfectly happy with OS X 10.5.8 / FCP 6.


Best
Andy

As I always say, if you've got a stable system with no issues then don't rock the boat with core-level changes.

[William Hohauser]

So my Dual 2.66 iMac got 10.6.2 installed on it without my knowledge (it's used in a master control room with several people using it). No real problems except that it suddenly reported dropped frames on capture which it never did before. It's rarely used to capture from tape, most of the captures are from live studio sources. The files were fine, no frames were dropped. I turned the alert off.