FCP Versioner 1.2 released - many more XML backup options

We released FCP Versioner 1.2 last week and I completely forgot to blog about it.

If you have a large FCP project, Final Cut Pro can sometimes take a while to export an XML copy when you save. Older versions of FCP Versioner had incorporated an all or nothing approach - either you waited for it to finish or else you were left without an XML copy of the backup, which meant that some of the functions of the software wouldn't work.

Version 1.2 changes this completely. You now have a slider to control how often you want to generate XML copies. At lower settings, the XML copy will only be generated for the second, third or fourth backup depending on how far you push the slider.


Versioner will then show the differences between versions that you have an XML copy for and if you want more detail, you can choose to generate the XML data on demand for backups without that information. But in most cases this will be unnecessary.

Alternatively, version 1.2 gives you the power to completely disable automatic XML generation and only generate XML copies when you actually need to use the functions of Versioner. This provides the best of both worlds for larger projects by giving you all the benefits of Versioner without interrupting your work.

FCP Versioner is a backup and versioning utility for Final Cut Pro. It automatically backs up Final Cut Pro projects in XML format and generates changelogs to show exactly what has changed between revisions.

In addition, it offers a wealth of options for managing your backups to ensure they don't consume all your disk space. Rather than simply keeping a certain number of total backups, Versioner can choose to keep a certain number per day, week or month, allowing you to see much further back in time while minimizing disk usage (the current day's backups are always kept in their entirety unless you set a limit on them).

FCP Versioner is available for $59 with a 15-day trial version available here.

Introducing FCS Maintenance Pack Network Admin

Yesterday we released a brand new product, FCS Maintenance Pack Network Admin.

FCS Maintenance Pack Network Admin is designed to compliment FCS Maintenance Pack by giving system administrators the ability to run tasks remotely across the entire network in unison.

It also allows you to sync preferences, plugins, user paths and scheduled tasks between computers, which is great for minimizing problems and makes it easier to move projects from one machine to another.



FCS Maintenance Pack Network Admin also offers many extra troubleshooting features in addition to those featured in FCS Maintenance Pack. The Difference Finder works out the differences between operating system, plugin, kernel extension and framework versions to tell you what is unique about a certain group of computers.

This is really useful if you have one or two computers on your network that are experiencing a problem and every other computer is fine. Just drag the computers that work properly to the Working category and the ones that aren't working to the Not Working category. Difference Finder will then tell you if the non-working group is missing any important files or using old versions compared to the working group. This is a huge timesaver.

You can also view Crash Analyzer statistics to discover how often the machines are crashing, which are the most and least stable, the most common cause of crashes, and much more. If users experience a problem, they can request help from their system and the administrator is immediately notified in Network Admin, allowing them to remotely troubleshoot the problem.

These are just some of the features of FCS Maintenance Pack Network Admin. To find out more, download the 15-day trial or check out the user manual. It also requires FCS Maintenance Pack but this can be installed remotely from within Network Admin (another great feature).

A common question we've been asked is if it is suitable for small businesses with only a few systems on the network. The answer is yes - FCS Maintenance Pack Network Admin provides lots of benefits that are useful no matter how many computers are being used. Many of our beta testers only had a few systems and experienced tangible benefits despite this.

As this is a version 1.0, we're looking for people to try it out and tell us how well it fits in with their workflow. We want to hear if we have missed out any features that would be useful for you, or if there is a common issue you run into that you wish it would fix automatically.

To contact us, use the Report Bug or Request Feature links inside the app itself, the contact form on our website or contact us on Twitter.

Update - If you are connecting though a corporate firewall, you will need to open ports 35011-30513. The user manual has a troubleshooting section at the back that lists other circumstances that may prevent clients from connecting.

FCS Maintenance Pack 1.2.5 released

We recently released an update to FCS Maintenance Pack, bringing it up to version 1.2.5. Here are some of the important changes:

Task Scheduler can now run tasks as root

Task Scheduler can now run certain tasks (such as Compressor Repair) as root, meaning that it will no longer pop up a password dialog when protected tasks run.

To take advantage of this you will need to remove and re-add your scheduled tasks. When you try to add a task that needs to run as root, you will be prompted for an admin password.

More options for Autosave Cleaner

We've added an action button to Autosave Cleaner that can be used to perform cleaning actions manually, such as removing all autosaves older than 7 days. This allows you to perform actions on a per-project basis rather, which is very useful if you finish a project and want to clean things up by removing all except the 5 most recent autosaves, for instance.

When running automatically, Autosave Cleaner can now archive (compress) autosaves that match the specified criteria instead of removing them.

QT Repair now repairs invalid ImageDescription extensions

There's a strange bug in Final Cut Pro where it will crash if an ImageDescription extension is incorrect while QuickTime quite happily ignores the issue and plays the file just fine.

QT Repair can now fix this issue.

Corrupt Clip Finder is faster and more accurate

Corrupt Clip Finder has been improved to be faster at scanning folders and more accurate when scanning Final Cut Pro project files.

Other changes

• Autosave Cleaner - Improved Final Cut Express support
• Compressor Repair - Fixed an issue where multiple clusters would sometimes appear after repairing
• Path Manager - Final Cut Express support
• Preference Manager - Fixed an incompatibility with the Open in Editor function of Final Cut Pro
• QT Repair - Added m4v support
• System Toolkit - Now lists system QuickTime components
• XML Repair - Interface improvements
• Updated Crash Analyzer definitions
• General bug fixes, tweaks and improvements

The full list of changes in version 1.2.5 is here. There are also many significant under-the-hood changes in this version that are not listed in the changelog.

FCS Maintenance Pack is an essential tool for any Final Cut Studio user. It is available for $129 and a free 15-day trial and user manual is available here.

FCS Maintenance Pack 1.2.4 released

Yesterday we released FCS Maintenance Pack 1.2.4, a bugfix and polish release. Notable changes include:

Logging

Most of the applications now generate detailed logs showing exactly what the application did while it was processing, and if it encountered any problems along the way. It will also create separate logs for tasks started by Task Scheduler, letting you know when the task last ran and the actions it performed.

These logs are available in the Help > Troubleshooting menu.

Support for future beta versions

We will be entering a public beta stage soon for the next major version of FCS Maintenance Pack. With this in mind, Software Update can now notify you of beta software updates. This makes it easier for us to distribute betas while at the same time separating them from regular stable releases.

Participation is optional so you will need to switch this on in Software Update preferences.

Other changes

• QT Repair - Fixed an issue where large files would not repair correctly
• System Toolkit - Speed increases when performing Refresh Files and Strip Temp Files scans
• System Toolkit now pays attention to language settings when showing eligible files for streamlining
• Corrupt Clip Finder no longer stops processing when it encounters a read-only hidden file
• FCS Housekeeper - Now closes running apps before cleaning and reopens them when it finishes
• Software updater can now check for beta updates (switch this on in preferences)
• Path Manager - Fixed a bug with the Qmaster cluster path not being recognized when using the Browse button
• Task Scheduler - Reduction in the CPU usage and disk I/O of scheduled tasks
• Task Scheduler - Fixed a bug that would sometimes cause tasks to repeat over and over
• Plugin Manager - Many UI improvements
• Updated Crash Analyzer definitions
• General bug fixes, tweaks and improvements

FCS Maintenance Pack is an essential tool for any Final Cut Studio user. It is available for $129 and a free 15-day trial is available here.

Advance notice - Tiger support to be phased out

We will shortly be phasing out OS X 10.4 Tiger support for FCS Remover, Preference Manager and Compressor Repair.

Phasing out Tiger support is necessary to improve the experience for users of more modern operating systems. This will lead to more frequent software updates, greater stability and additional features. We believe that now is a suitable time to do this because it has been a considerable amount of time since Apple has actively supported Final Cut Studio on Tiger systems.

We will be releasing special Tiger-only versions of these applications within the next few weeks, which will receive no further software updates except in the case of any major bugs. If you have any bug reports or feature requests to make for the Tiger versions of these applications, please submit them as soon as possible.

After the Tiger-only versions are released, future software updates will only support OS X 10.5 and 10.6. Note that PowerPC systems will continue to be supported.

FCS Maintenance Pack 1.2.3 released - improved File Salvage and QT Repair

We've just released FCS Maintenance Pack 1.2.3, a minor update to our suite of popular troubleshooting tools for Final Cut Studio.

This update mainly focuses on File Salvage and QT Repair but there are many other tweaks and improvements elsewhere in the suite. Here's the changelog:

• QT Repair - added options to ignore certain consistency checks when rebuilding - this can help to repair particularly problematic files
• QT Repair - added option to renumber track IDs to ensure they are unique
• QT Repair now caches file information to speed up rebuilds when rebuilding from the same working file
• File Salvage - Improvements to audio salvaging
• File Salvage - Fixed an issue with green frames appearing in the middle of DVCProHD movies
• File Salvage - Improved memory usage and responsiveness when scanning
• System Toolkit - Improved memory usage when scanning applications
• Launcher - Fixed an issue with a blank launcher window appearing on 10.6
• Crash Analyzer now shows an icon to indicate when a log has been submitted to Digital Rebellion for analysis
• Updated Crash Analyzer definitions
• General bug fixes, tweaks and improvements

FCS Maintenance Pack is an essential tool to keep Final Cut Studio in good working order. A free trial is available here.

For more information on FCS Maintenance Pack, check out the user manual or the recent Q&A we did with Pro Video Coalition.

FCS Maintenance Pack Q&A on PVC

I recently did a Q&A with Scott Simmons over at Pro Video Coalition about our flagship product, FCS Maintenance Pack. It gives a good insight into the reasons for creating the suite and answers many common questions.

If you haven’t been having any noticeable problems with Final Cut Pro and Final Cut Studio, do you need Maintenance Pack?

If you haven’t run into problems in the past, that’s no guarantee that you won’t run into problems in the future. And of course, those show-stopping problems always happen on a deadline.

FCS Maintenance Pack is not just limited to fixing problems though. It has been designed as a prevention, diagnosis and cure rolled into one. You can run common housekeeping tasks to keep Final Cut Studio performing well and minimize the chances of a problem developing, use Crash Analyzer to diagnose your crash logs if a problem does occur, and then use System Toolkit, Project Repair, QT Repair, or one of the many other tools to fix it.

Some of the applications, while being invaluable if a problem arises, are useful applications in their own right. Plugin Manager, for instance, allows you to organize your Final Cut Studio plugins into groups, selectively enable and disable them, toggle between making them available to all users or just the current user, and painlessly install new plugins - all without having to worry about which one of the many plugin folders the plugin resides in.

So FCS Maintenance Pack is still useful for users who might not currently have problems, and it will be invaluable once problems do crop up (and I can guarantee they will sooner or later).

You can read the full article here, and feel free to leave a comment with additional questions.

FCS Maintenance Pack 1.2.2 out now - redesigned Corrupt Clip Finder and more

Yesterday we released FCS Maintenance Pack 1.2.2. This update adds several new features, a few of which I will detail below.

Corrupt Clip Finder

Corrupt Clip Finder has a redesigned user interface and now offers more options for dealing with files once they have been found.



You can now assign a color label to corrupt files in the Finder so that they are easily recognizable, as well as quarantining them into a separate folder or moving them to the Trash. Corrupt Clip Finder now supports batch operations so these actions can be performed quickly to a large number of files.




In addition, Corrupt Clip Finder is now more tolerant of reference QuickTime movies, and will automatically close any QuickTime dialogs that pop up as a result of trying to process these files.

FCS Housekeeper

FCS Housekeeper has been greatly simplified to be more user-friendly. The new Preset drop-down at the top of the window gives you a choice of two presets.

Basic is for everyday housekeeping tasks where Final Cut Studio is not necessarily misbehaving and Comprehensive is specifically designed for troubleshooting. You can also select and deselect tasks individually.



These are just a couple of new fixes and tweaks. Here's the full changelog:

• Improved Corrupt Clip Finder clip detection
• Corrupt Clip Finder - Batch operations on corrupt clips are now supported
• Corrupt Clip Finder - Corrupt files can now be color coded in the Finder for easy identification
• Corrupt Clip Finder - UI improvements
• Corrupt Clip Finder - Added a timeout to prevent reference movies with missing data from tying up the application
• Path Manager - Support for Final Cut Pro user paths (read-only)
• Autosave Cleaner - Added the ability to specify autosave paths manually
• FCS Housekeeper - Simplified the application by adding presets for common tasks
• File Salvage - Improvements in responsiveness when creating a QuickTime movie
• QT Repair - UI improvements
• Updated Crash Analyzer definitions
• General bug fixes, tweaks and improvements

FCS Maintenance Pack is available for $129 and a 15-day trial is available which will fix many problems for free.

We're always on the lookout for feature suggestions and the changes in this release are a direct result of user feedback. So if you have a request, however important or trivial, use the Help > Suggest a Feature link in each application, contact us or send us a message on Twitter.

FCS Maintenance Pack 1.2.1 released

We've just released FCS Maintenance Pack 1.2.1, a small maintenance update to our popular Final Cut Studio troubleshooting software.

As well as the usual bug fixes and performance improvements, this update also offers a couple of new features. File Salvage now supports Big Endian audio formats and also offers audio support for DV QuickTime movies; Corrupt Clip Finder can now locate corrupt audio files in addition to corrupt movie clips; and Preference Manager can now automatically launch the Final Cut Pro System Settings dialog when you open a new project to encourage users to double-check their scratch disk settings.

Here's the full changelog:

• Improved Task Scheduler memory usage
• Fixed an Autosave Cleaner crash
• Improved compatibility with PowerPC processors
• File Salvage now supports Big Endian audio formats
• File Salvage now supports audio for DV QuickTime movies
• Path Manager automatically creates a subfolder for safety if you set a path to an important directory such as your user library or system root
• Corrupt Clip Finder can now locate corrupt audio files
• Preference Manager can now automatically launch the Final Cut Pro System Settings dialog when a new project is opened
• Updated Crash Analyzer definitions
• General bug fixes, tweaks and performance improvements

FCS Maintenance Pack is $129 with a free 15-day trial available here. Check out the Resources section of the site for more useful tools.

FCS Maintenance Pack 1.2 released

We've just released FCS Maintenance Pack 1.2, a significant update to FCS Maintenance Pack.

There are far too many tweaks, bug fixes and optimizations to mention in detail but here's a summary of some of the biggest changes.

Three new tools

• QT Repair repairs QuickTime movies and is intended as an alternative to the heavy-handed approach of using File Salvage to extract data to a new file. It can also repair invalid CLUT IDs that can corrupt movie clips created with older versions of QuickTime and optionally restore trimmed or edited media if you make an edit that you regret (providing the media is still within the file).
  
  For more heavily damaged files, it can rebuild the clip by combining the movie data of the damaged file with the QuickTime structure of a working file.


• Path Manager provides a central place to manage Final Cut Studio content and user paths. It replaces Content Manager and offers extra options such as mass path organization, path locking and syncing, and more.


• XML Repair verifies and repairs Final Cut Pro XML files. Can also convert between Final Cut Pro XMEML versions for compatibility with older versions of Final Cut Pro.

Final Cut Express support

FCS Maintenance Pack now supports Final Cut Express 4.

Redesigned File Salvage

File Salvage has been redesigned with a focus on batch processing. Multiple files can now be salvaged sequentially - saving a lot of time if you have a large number of files to process.

It also supports significantly more formats than the previous version, including DVCPRO HD and all flavors of ProRes. Audio support has been added for several file formats and you can specify custom frame sizes and frame rates for formats where these parameters are variable.

One very useful new feature is the ability to read information from a working QuickTime file with the same encoding settings (captured with the same camera or exported with the same Compressor preset for instance) and apply these settings to the corrupt clips in the batch. This is very useful if you can't remember the exact codec or frame size, for example.

Crash Analyzer now supports all Final Cut Studio apps

Crash Analyzer is no longer limited to Final Cut Pro support but can now analyze crash logs from Final Cut Express and all applications in Final Cut Studio.

This is, of course, in addition to the usual updates to crash definitions. Crash Analyzer now supports over 60 different categories of crashes (yes, FCS really is that unstable).

---

Users of previous versions of FCS Maintenance Pack will have to install the update manually. This is to ensure that all users have the recent software updater components on their system which will allow future updates to progress smoothly.

FCS Maintenance Pack is available for $129 and a 15-day trial is available here.

Many of the improvements in FCS Maintenance Pack 1.2 are a direct result of user feedback. We're always keen to hear from people and find out what works well and what doesn't. Just use the Report Bug or Suggest Feature links in the apps themselves, contact us or message us on Twitter.