I found a old unregistered copy of 2.0 for a client of mine and then bought the 4.0 upgrade for them all for a whopping 500 bucks.

Being able to upgrade from ANY previous, registerable, version is fantastic.

The word is getting around about the HD capabilities of 4.5. A LOT of buzz is being generated among people who used to dismiss FCP.

Movie edited on FCP 3 can it be opened in FCP Hd
 

I finished editing my movie on FCP3, now I need to do some adjustments and I have upgraded my system to FCPHD. Will I have any problems opening the movie in it? I don't wanna mess up any sequences or have some bugs that might affect it. Am I being paranoid? Any input on this is appreciated. Thanks.

Your project will be converted to be compatible with the current version of FCP. After conversion it may not be compatible with prior versions of FCP.

agreed so if you have any chance of needing to drop this back into FCP3 make sure you back up your project files where they won't get updated.

Still Image Problem
 

Hi.
FCP3 Mac G4
I have still images saved as JPGs which wont render in the timeline. A message pops up saying, 'Codec not found'.
I've never had this problem before. Do the images need saving as something else? If so, any idea's?
Regards

What is the source of the jpeg's and in what program were they edited and saved?

Hi
They were scanned into PSP7 and saved as JPgs which is the same as I've always done it with no problems before.

Follow the instructions at the top of the forum for trashing preferences. Make sure you get all three files and repair permissions afterwards.

??

It's the first post at the top of this forum.

backing up project
 

Working with FCP 3 on a G4 running OSX, I should be backing up my project. How does one do this? (I also have a second hard drive. ) And I was also told that it may be wise to back it up to an external hard drive, which I am looking into as they are rather affordable at a nearby Mac dealer. Now if I get the external drive, will the whole project, with all it's files, easily drag into that drive, or is there more to it?

Sure, you shouldn't have any problem backing up to an external drive. Just make sure you've located the folder hierarchy where all the capture and render files are stored, then drag to the external drive. Unless you have changed the scratch disk in your preferences these can be found at:

[your boot drive]/Documents/Final Cut Pro Documents/

Also a note if you're using multiple removable drives and want to be able to transport them between computers (or work on a project that you stored to an external drive). You will need to specifically set the preference to your firewire drive or FCP will put your capture and render files on the boot drive of whatever machine you're using. This has burned me in the past with FCP3. When you plug in the external drive go to the preferences in FCP and select it as your scratch disk.

There is kind of a fast and easy way to backup. I learned this trick from Ken Stone and it saved me on a project someone wanted re edited. What you do is save your final cut file and not the actual video clips. If you need to pull the project in again you just pull the project off of what ever u back up to and open the file in FCP. It will ask you for the media and you will be able to recapture the clips from the tapes you used. It requires that you log your tapes so at least you know what is what but it works great.

I also kind of recall something about saving the EDL but I think thats only if u plan on going to something other than a FCP editing system.

Check Kens site to read the full directions.

www.kenstone.net

Sure, that should work fine too, but if you're in the middle of a big project it's nice to have the security of a "clone" that includes everything needed on an external drive. And large firewire drives are reasonably priced now. It sure saved me from a nightmare last fall....

GL2 editing with FCP3
 

The Canon website says that the GL2 is only compatible with FCP4... has anyone tried using it with FCP3? Are there any problems? What about with iMovie? Any help? Thanks.