How to clone and restore your system
This is a quick guide to cloning and restoring your system. I'd advise that you print this out and keep it in a safe place by your machine so that you won't waste time looking for it when your machine goes down.
Cloning your machine will create an exact copy of every single file on your computer onto a second hard drive. This can be either an internal or external disk. I'd advise external over internal because if something damages your machine, the external disk won't get damaged as well. The best time to create a clone is right after you have done a fresh Erase and Install of your operating system, have installed all of your apps and are ready to go.
Cloning1. Download and install
Carbon Copy Cloner.
2. If you are cloning to an external drive, connect it now.
3. Fire up Carbon Copy Cloner from your Applications folder. In the dialog that appears, select your system drive as the source and set your backup drive as the target.
4. Under options, make sure "Copy everything from source to target" is selected. You
must check "Erase target volume" too, so as not to cause conflicts with data already on the disk. If you do not check this, the drive may not be bootable and this whole process would be pointless.
5. Click Clone and wait for it to finish. Be aware that this could take several hours.
6. Unmount your external disk (if applicable) and keep it in a safe, dry place, not too hot and not too cold. If you're paranoid like me, I'd advise connecting it to your machine every so often and verifying the disk in Disk Utility to make sure that it everything is ok.
RestoringSo the worst has happened. Your system is completely hosed and you have a deadline in 12 hours. What do you do?
Temporary Solution1. Mount your backup disk, go to System Preferences and click on Startup Disk. If it is an external disk, it
must be connected via FireWire in order to be bootable.
2. Select the backup drive in the drives list and click Restart.
3. The system will now restart in the backed-up "fresh" operating system.
This is a temporary solution to help you get your project finished without wasting time. You are advised to follow the permanent solution below.
If you have an external disk, make sure that it doesn't get disconnected either deliberately or accidentally. That's a good way to cause a kernel panic, which is never good. Don't put the machine to sleep. Shut the machine down completely before unplugging the drive. I once forgot the machine was asleep and unplugged it and my system completely froze. Not good.
Permanent Solution1. Backup any data that you do not want to lose.
2. Boot to the backup hard disk as detailed in the
Temporary Solution above.
3. In Carbon Copy Cloner, clone the backup disk over the startup disk. Follow the steps for cloning above but select your backup drive as the source and your startup disk as the target.
4. You
must select "Erase the target drive".
5. Click Clone and wait for it to finish. Again, this could take several hours.
6. Go back to System Preferences > Startup Disk and set your startup disk back to the old drive and click Restart.
Posted by Jon Chappell on Feb 22 2008 to
Software,
Utilities,
Video EditingPermalinkApple releases Xsan 2
Apple today announced
Xsan 2, a brand-new edition of its popular Storage Area Network (SAN) software.
SAN software allows you to manage storage devices on a network. It manages the reading and writing to the volumes through one machine (a server), otherwise data corruption can occur if two machines are reading and writing to the same area at once. It also allows you to control access to the data on these volumes. It is commonly used for managing video editing storage networks (we use Xsan 1.4 here at Digital Rebellion) so while it's probably not particularly exciting for most people, it is a big deal.
New features include a completely overhauled Xsan Admin (yay) which offers greater speed, greater stability and more monitoring features. There is now an Easy Setup wizard, a new filesystem offering up to 2 PB per volume (1 petabyte = 1024 terrabytes), and templates that optimize the system for a particular task (e.g. HD video, SD video, file sharing, etc).
There's also a new MultiSAN feature that allows you to connect to other SANs on the same server, such as a SAN for dailies and a different one for stock footage for example. It also comes with Spotlight support.
My number one favorite feature though would have to be the ability to direct files to a specific location. You can automatically set certain types of files to go to certain volumes such as dailies in one place, audio in another, project files in a third. This is very cool and is a great way to keep everything organized without having to impose rules on everyone.
I am very much liking the sound of this. My major complaint about Xsan 1.4 (and the same goes for Color and Shake) is that it didn't feel very Apple-like. It was complex to set up, it didn't "just work" and it was difficult to manage. Apple is famous for its ease of use but it was lacking in the previous version of Xsan.
I would be upgrading in the near future were it not for the following caveat: it is
Leopard-only. The system requirements for the server are much higher too - 2 GB RAM minimum, plus 2 GB per volume (up from 512 MB per volume). I would not advise the use of Leopard in a critical environment yet. Some people edit on Leopard and have no problems at all but I am waiting until at least 10.5.4 before I consider upgrading.
Despite this, this is a great upgrade. Xsan 2 is available now for $999 per machine.
To see the difference an Xsan 2 network will make to a video editing network, see the graphs at the bottom of
this page.
Posted by Jon Chappell on Feb 19 2008 to
Apple,
Video Editing,
SoftwarePermalinkThe proper way to install a Mac OS X update
As always, I advise you not to update a working system, especially not in the middle of a project. And I am hoping that those without a working system are at least waiting a few days to see if any major issues crop up.
With that out of the way, here is the proper way to update your Mac OS X system.
1. Clone your system drive using something like
Carbon Copy Cloner. This may take a while but it is worth it.
2. If you have a laptop, make sure it is plugged into the mains. You don't want it switching off mid-update.
3. Make sure you are logged in as an administrator.
4. Don't use Software Update. Always download the Combo Update manually, which is less likely to cause problems because it includes all previous updates.
5. Close all applications, including ones running in the background, minimized in your dock and residing in your menu bar. You don't want anything conflicting with an OS update.
6. Go to Disk Utility and repair permissions on your startup disk.
7. Install the update. Don't fire up any applications after it finishes, just restart immediately.
8. Your computer may reboot more than once; this is perfectly fine.
9. When it loads back up, go to Disk Utility and repair permissions again.
10. Install updates for your third party software to ensure compatibility with the new OS version (if applicable).
11. Repair permissions.
12. Test your applications thoroughly (including capturing, rendering, etc).
13. If it all went wrong, restore from the clone you made in step 1.
Posted by Jon Chappell on Feb 12 2008 to
Apple,
Software,
Video EditingPermalinkEssential tools: Perian
Perian's icon is a swiss-army knife and that couldn't be a better description. It is a
codec pack for QuickTime that allows you to play back a whole host of formats including AVI, DivX and 3ivX. These are PC formats that we editors get given from time to time and it is incredibly useful to have a free Mac component to view them with.
Some people have reported
problems with it but I personally have experienced none so far.
The brand new version 1.1 (just came out today) features the following changes:
* Major performance improvements
* TrueAudio, MP1, and DTS audio support
* Slice-based multithreaded decoding for MPEG-1/2/H.264
* Apple H.264 now handles AVCHD/interlaced video
* Compatibility fixes for QuickTime 7.4 and Leopard
* Objective-C GC compatibility
* Fixed a crash in Toast
* Better subtitle rendering
* Subtitles play during MKV loading
* Snow support
* Miscellaneous bug fixes
Perian can be downloaded
here for free.
QuickTime 7.4.1
Apple today released an update to QuickTime, to bring it up to version 7.4.1. This update "addresses security issues and improves compatibility with third-party applications".
The big question everyone is asking is: does it fix the dreaded
After Effects 10 minute rendering bug?
Initial testing would indicate yes.
As always, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. And definitely don't install it if you have a Final Cut Pro version lower than 6.0.2.
QuickTime 7.4.1 for LeopardQuickTime 7.4.1 for TigerQuickTime 7.4.1 for PantherUpdate: Macworld
claims that an Apple spokesperson confirmed to them that this fixes the After Effects issue.
Update 2/7/08: Adobe
confirms this.
Posted by Jon Chappell on Feb 6 2008 to
Apple,
QuickTime,
Video EditingPermalinkProKit 4.5 update
Apple has just updated
ProKit to version 4.5.
ProKit, as far as I am aware, contains only UI elements such as button images for professional applications such as Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Express, Logic Studio, etc. There is unlikely to be anything exciting in it I'm afraid.
Apple's release notes are, as always, rather vague:
This update improves reliability for Apple's professional applications and is recommended for all users of Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Express, Aperture, Logic Studio and Logic Express.
As always, don't update a working system unless you are experiencing a major problem that this update may fix. And when you do it, make sure to clone your drive with something like
Carbon Copy Cloner first.
Update: Some people are
reporting that Motion 3 instabilities with the Ozone plugin are a thing of the past with the new ProKit update.
Update 2: Others are
reporting that the DVD Studio Pro menu that had disappeared is now back, while others are
reporting that it causes their Logic 8 installation to crash.
I know people have been experiencing issues with Compressor windows not opening, so I would advise them to give this patch a go and see if it fixes it for them.
Posted by Jon Chappell on Feb 5 2008 to
Apple,
Video Editing,
Final Cut StudioPermalinkList of video / image formats supporting alpha channels
I had a request for this list, so here it is. It is a list of video and image formats that support alpha (transparency) channels.
(Note: "Unknown" means I couldn't find specific information on the maximum alpha bit depth, but it's commonly the same bit depth as the other channels in the file.)
| Codec |
Maximum Alpha Bit-Depth |
| Apple Animation |
8-bit |
| Apple ProRes 4444 |
16-bit |
| Apple ProRes 4444 XQ |
16-bit |
| AV1 |
Unknown |
| Avid Meridien Compressed |
8-bit |
| Avid Meridien Uncompressed |
8-bit |
| Avid DNxHD (RGB) |
Unknown |
| Avid DNxHR (RGB) |
Unknown |
| AVIF |
12-bit |
| Cineform |
12-bit |
| Cineon |
16-bit |
| DPX |
16-bit |
| GIF |
1-bit |
| H.265/HEVC |
Unknown (probably 8-bit) |
| JPEG XL |
32-bit |
| Maya IFF |
32-bit |
| OpenEXR |
32-bit |
| PNG |
16-bit |
| RLA |
32-bit |
| RPF |
32-bit |
| SGI |
16-bit |
| SGI RAW |
16-bit |
| Targa (TGA) |
8-bit |
| TIFF |
32-bit |
| WebP |
8-bit |
DiskWarrior 4.1 adds Leopard support
I've
mentioned DiskWarrior before. It has been a life-saver to me, and is well worth the asking price of $99.95. It will diagnose and fix hard disk problems that Disk Utility cannot.
DiskWarrior is an essential editors' tool in the fight against data loss.
Version 4.1 adds Leopard support and support for Leopard-specific features such as the ability to repair Time Machine volumes.
Note, however, that you cannot repair Leopard volumes from within Tiger, so if you were trying to repair a Time Machine volume it would fail.
Posted by Jon Chappell on Jan 25 2008 to
Utilities,
Software,
Video EditingPermalinkA little update on Final Cut Pro's gamma quirks
Last week I made a post about Final Cut Pro
modifying the gamma of clips, causing some to be too dark and some to be washed out.
The washed out issue was the most serious because it only happened upon exporting the movie, and the image looked perfectly fine in FCP. The darkening issue was less severe because it only affected the user's perception of the image in FCP and if they were not performing
color correction in FCP, they would be perfectly fine.
I was just going through User Preferences, trying to help someone who was having difficulty, when I noticed a new option that I had never seen before (I don't adjust user prefs very often). In the Editing tab, there is a section marked "Imported Still / RGB Video Gamma". You can choose from Source, 1.80, 2.20, 2.22 and Custom. My research indicates that this option has been there since 6.0.0 but Apple recently renamed it in 6.0.2 to clarify that it is for
RGB footage only.
1.80 refers to the default
gamma of RGB footage (eg. still images and special effects codecs such as Animation). This is also the default gamma of your Mac display. 2.20 refers to the default gamma of
YUV footage (eg.
NTSC,
PAL, ProRes, etc). Camera footage falls into this category, as do a lot of the displays on Windows machines. Gamma 2.22 is also used by Windows PCs. I would advise leaving this option on
Source, so that no gamma correction will be applied to the clip itself. The only correction that will occur will be when playing back in the FCP Canvas, and not upon exporting the movie.
This setting will fix the RGB gamma issue that caused images to be washed out upon export. This does not change Final Cut Pro's handling of YUV images.
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Aspect Ratio Matte Generator
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