Downgrading from Final Cut Pro 6.0.2 to 6.0.1

I like to keep an eye on my server logs and I get a list of what people searched for in order to reach the site. A significant number of people have been searching for a way to somehow downgrade from Final Cut Pro 6.0.2 back to 6.0.1. I didn't realize so many people were having problems.

There is no easy "rollback" method of downgrading. You'd have to uninstall FCP completely and reinstall it again. You would, however, be stuck at version 6.0.0 because Apple only offers 6.0.2 on its site, unless you can find a mirror somewhere (I couldn't).

The best way of preventing this issue in the future is to use something like Carbon Copy Cloner to clone your hard disk onto another disk. You can generate an exact carbon copy of your working installation and instantly restore to it if you run into problems in the future. An essential editor's tool.

Also be aware that if you happened to save one of your projects under 6.0.2, you will be unable to open it in a previous version. I am not aware of a way of converting them back again. The best way to prevent this in the future is to save a backup before you upgrade.

The moral of this story is: don't install on a machine in the middle of a production unless you are having serious problems that the patch claims to fix, and always prepare a way of getting everything back to normal before you upgrade.

P.S. If you're installing Final Cut Pro 6 on top of Final Cut Pro 5, it is best to uninstall version 5 first. In most cases, it won't do anything untoward, but for a lot of people a working machine is their livelihood and you don't really want to take unnecessary risks when you can avoid them.

Update: We now offer a tool for removing Final Cut Studio from your system.

Importing MXFs into Final Cut Pro

I think filmmaking is the only profession where the word "cheat" is used to mean a positive thing. Shane Ross has figured out a way of importing MXF files from Panasonic P2 cards. This is a way of importing P2 footage without having to go through Final Cut's "Log and Transfer" dialog. You just drag it directly into Final Cut and there it is, ready to be used.

In order to enable this functionality, you must install Panasonic's free P2CMS utility. The P2CMS utility allows you to view MXF files natively in QuickTime. Because Final Cut is built upon QuickTime, it also inherits this functionality. Presumably it should be backwards compatible with FCP 5 as well.

One caveat is that when you import, you will get a dialog saying that the media is not optimized for Final Cut Pro, so depending on the speed of your machine, you might have to constantly render everything. But this is good if you want to cut out the Log and Transfer step.

New FXFactory patch fixes Final Cut Pro P2 import bug

Noise Industries has released FXFactory 2.0.1 to fix the P2 import bug with the new Final Cut Pro 6.0.2 patch, as reported earlier.

The patch also introduces some new features including three new plug-ins for FXFactory Pro.

Apple now has a support document acknowledging the issue, and revealing that it only applies to FXFactory and is not an issue with the overall FXPlug framework.

[via Little Frog in High Def]

Final Cut Pro 6.0.2 P2 import issue solved?

I posted a thread last week about some of the issues being experienced with the new Final Cut Pro patch.

Well, Shane Ross was one of those people experiencing problems. He did a complete reinstall and managed to narrow down the problem (at least on his system) to FX Factory plugins. This is probably not an issue with the plugins themselves but with Apple's FXPlug plugin system.

It is recommended that you temporarily disable all custom FXPlug plugins until a patch is released to fix the issues.

Shane's complete blog post is here.

Steps for disabling the plugins:

1. Click on Effects in the top menu and scroll down to Effect Availability. Select All Effects.
2. Go to the Effects tab in the browser.
3. Scroll sideways to the column marked Effect Class. There you will see the type of effect it is. If this column is not visible, control-click on the column bar and select Show Effect Class.
4. You will then need to go to the Finder and browse to /Library/Application Support/Final Cut Pro System Support/Plugins and remove the FXPlug plugins that you identified via the Browser in step 3.
Note: for safety, you are recommended to move them to another folder instead of completely removing them.
5. If you are going to remove them, try checking for an uninstaller program before you do so. Also make sure that you have the necessary installation discs and serial numbers to successfully install them again.
6. If this is too complicated or risky, or you can't do without a particular plugin, just downgrade to 6.0.1 until a fix is issued by Apple. Apparently they are aware of the problem and are fixing the issue.

Final Cut Pro 6.0.2 issues

I personally haven't experienced any issues but some people have reported the following bugs with the latest 6.0.2 patch:

* P2 import function not working
* Significantly increased render times
* Unable to open 6.0.1 projects in 6.0.2

Couple that with a list of 6.0.1 bugs here and there are some serious problems.

The 6.0.2 patch is worth it for the Color fixes alone and the Color patch can in fact be applied independently of the others, but if you like an easy life I wouldn't recommend it.

I'm sure these issues will be fixed in the next patch or two but they are a little annoying in the meantime. It feels like Final Cut Studio 2 was rushed out a little early.

Better bookmark the Final Cut Studio Feedback page. Apple never replies to feedback, but by all accounts they do listen.

Apple software updates

Apple posted a LOT of updates today (or yesterday; I'm a little jetlagged and don't really know what day it is right now). We've got Final Cut Studio updates, plus patches for Leopard AND Tiger.

Mac OS X
Leopard 10.5.1 - The most important fix is the Finder data loss bug, whereby data could be completely lost when moving files from one volume to another.

Tiger 10.4.11 - Safari 3 is no longer in beta - it is now part of the operating system. This may cause issues for some people, as a lot of add-ons are incompatible with the latest version. It also increases compatibility with third party wireless routers and improves reliability when mounting USB hard drives, both of which are very much appreciated by me, having experienced both problems recently.

Final Cut Studio 2
The most important update here is OS X 10.5 Leopard compatibility. I was unaware that it was previously incompatible, having not upgraded yet. It's normally pretty safe to install so-called "point updates" that fix minor issues.

Color 1.0.2 - Better format support, greater roundtrip reliability from Final Cut Pro to Color and back again, better image quality, greater control surface compatibility. All very useful things to have. I have had a LOT of problems with FCP roundtripping (e.g. clips being offline, clips being replaced with the ungraded originals) so I hope this will fix these issues.

Motion 3.0.2 - New format support and improved Master Template performance in FCP. The latter is very welcome for me.

Compressor 3.0.2 - Color space options for certain formats, in addition to the aforementioned Leopard support.

Final Cut Pro 6.0.2 - Sony XDCAM EX support (with a plugin from sony.com), Sony HVR-H1 support, Sony HDV camcorder hard drive support, improved AVCHD support (Full HD and spanned clip support), AVC Intra support (must be transcoded to ProRes and requires a plugin from Panasonic), DVCProHD 720p50 support, new HDV easy setups, 60fps drop-frame support, improved 50p support, Sony BWF metadata support (iXML), and extra interface options.
Please note that Final Cut Pro 6.0.2 projects are not backwards compatible with version 6.0.1.

Soundtrack Pro 2.0.2 - 50 and 60fps support, various effects issues resolved.

DVD Studio Pro 4.2.1 - Native support for extra HDV and H.264 formats for HD discs, improved still image processing.

Cinema Tools 4.0.1 - Pull lists show correct lengths for speed changes, messages included in exported lists, PDF format support for change lists, AL files now match sound timecode, reel and roll names now sort more predictably.

Pro Applications Update 2007-02 - Improved HDV 50 and 60p support, performance improvements for IMX codec, various bug fixes.

Seems like a good set of patches there. Based on the issues reported with Leopard, I'm not planning to upgrade production machines until around 10.5.3 or 10.5.4 which is normally around the time that all of the major issues are resolved and the operating system is finally stable and able to be trusted in a production environment.

If you do have Leopard though, it is advisable to install that patch.

Note: Tiger users must first install OS X 10.4.11 in order to see these updates. I would imagine that Leopard users have to install 10.5.1 in order to see them too.

New Final Cut Pro update in the works

There's a post over at HDForIndies (great site, can't recommend it enough) detailing some of the things on display at IBC.

It's worth a read and gives a little info on the Red presentation and some new Sony cameras but the part that caught my eye was also the smallest paragraph:



This is good but it also makes me a little uncomfortable. Yes, you can edit HDCAM 50P directly but you're tied to Apple's proprietary codec which means no sharing between software packages running on other operating systems, and the big thing that has kept me away from ProRes: it's only just come out so are there any issues/shortcomings with it yet to be revealed that will make me regret converting my footage?

But don't get me wrong: supporting it in this way is much better than not supporting it at all. The more formats supported, the better for everyone.