Blog Archives

In this short video excerpt from a recent webinar, Larry Jordan explains what Activity Monitor is and how to use it to spot problems and verify Macintosh system performance.

Storage speeds can vary dramatically during playback and cause problems for video editors, as this article illustrates. This also presents things you can do to prevent this.

An illustrated explanation of what DCI P3 color space is, and how to configure a 2016 MacBook Pro to display it.

An explanation of the various factors that influence hard disk speed when transferring files from one drive to another.

In this short, illustrated video, Larry Jordan shows two ways to transfer 4K media from an iPhone 6s (or 6s Plus) to a Macintosh. (These techniques do not require video editing software on the Mac.)

An illustrated, step-by-step guide to upgrading a Mac to OS X 10.11 (El Capitan); what works, what doesn’t and what I learned in the process.

Disk Utility changed with the release of Mac OS X 10.11 (El Capitan). It no longer supports creating RAID 0 or RAID 1 volumes or repairing permissions. This article explains what you need to know.

Some SSD drives are not compatible with Mac OS X Yosemite (OS X 10.10). Read this article to see if you have a problem – or how to fix your gear if you are already in trouble.

A detailed product review of the new mTape LTO-6 tape drive from mLogic.

A discussion of partitioning a RAID to improve its speed for video editing.

A detailed and illustrated guide to the new media management features in Final Cut Pro X v.10.1.2.

One of the questions I get asked frequently is: “How much RAM should I have in my computer?” The specific answer varies, but there is a tool that can help us determine the best number. It’s called: Activity Monitor. I’ve …

A step-by-step tutorial on how to create a dual-boot drive on a Macintosh system.

A simple technique to turn off file ownership, which can solve problems with direct-attached hard drives on Mac systems.

Lots of details tips and techniques to keep your Final Cut Pro X editing system running at peak performance.

A step-by-step guide to moving Final Cut Pro X Events, media and Projects.

A series of Macintosh trouble-shooting procedures for the video editor> Safe Boot, Create New User, and Trash Preferences.

A simple workaround to get Premiere Pro CS6 to recognize the graphics card on your Mac.

A video tutorial on creating, renaming, moving, and deleting Events using Final Cut Pro X.

Here’s a simple way to share the same FCP X project files between editors.

Here are a variety of ways to improve FCP X performance and stability.

William Hohauser contributes an article solving sluggish FCP X performance in Lion.

This article explains how Final Cut Pro X handles Events and Projects. It explains where they are stored and how you can make them active, or inactive.

The Activity Monitor in OS X is one of those unsung utilities that I find indispensable. It allows you to look inside five key areas of your computer to tell you what’s going on. Best of all, you can’t hurt anything using it – because its simply a monitor.

Are you getting the “render error: insufficient disk space” message? You just need to create more free space on your hard disk by deleting files you don’t need.

Soundtrack Pro suffers from the same problem as Final Cut Pro – both applications can only access 4 GB of RAM.

Common Final Cut Pro X trouble-shooting and performance tips, including how to trash Final Cut Pro (FCP) X preference files.

The latest version of OS X — Lion — is now shipping. While many people are excited, I recommend taking a cautious approach to upgrading any systems that you depend upon for editing.

Using multiple drives for media is an EXCELLENT technique. Final Cut fully supports it.

For people pushing pixels (or waveforms) Thunderbolt is a high-speed, data storage birthday present.

If Blu-ray Discs are in your future as a Mac Pro user, you need to read this report from Michael Powles on installing a Blu-ray burner in a Mac.

I am advocating LTO-5 tape drives for archive and backup of our Final Cut Pro media. However, I still have not gotten this unit to work on my MacPro.

Ben Balser writes on editing H.264 video natively in Final Cut Pro.

I’m not a fan of QuickClusters because, personally, I’ve found them problematic and unreliable. However, if you can get them to work, then by all means use them.

DVDs are always standard-def, not high-def. So your AVCHD material will always look worse on a DVD than your source footage.

A subscriber recounts the difficulties, and the workaround that fixed them, he experienced with Buzz lines cropping up in a project.

Although there’s no universal answer for this question, in this article we look at what RAID system or otherwise, that I personally recommend using for various types of video editing.

I am not a fan of Capture Now, however, for some formats Capture Now is the best option. I like the workflow one subscriber suggests in this article.

In this article we examine my personal favorite method to burn DVDs (Roxio Toast) as well as the most reliable way to burn a VIDEO_TS folder.

Inevitably, adding too many FireWire devices will cause problems. In this article we discuss some things to think about to keep your system running smoothly and avoid, at all costs, the dreaded “beach ball” .

In this article we examine Final Cut’s usage of multiple processors to enhance rendering speed, the possible alternatives, and more.

Creating markers for H.264 is exactly the same as creating markers for a DVD. In this article we examine the technique to do just that.

A subscriber and previous contributor returns with another great tip about operating the Compressor from the command line and advises to limit the number of your batches to a few hundred compressions.

In this note we look at a hard-learned lesson regarding the perils of adding extension cables to Mini-DisplayPort cables.

In this article we examine how SmoothCam is processor-dependent, faster computers working this program more quickly, and recommend a couple of options to speed up the process without upgrading your system.

A kernel panic is a complete crash of the operating system – probably the most serious software crash that exists. Kernel panics are generally not caused by a single application, but by the interaction between the software and hardware.

In successfully working with tapeless media, I’ve developed an easy-to-implement workflow that will help prevent problems in your own projects.

Not all software updates work the way they are advertised.This article describes an update approach you can use to make sure all software updates go smoothly.

What’s the best video format for archiving materials? This is an easy question to ask, but a hard question to answer. Also, what’s the best way to preserve 1″ and 2″ master video tapes — especially since those machines are increasingly hard to find? This article gets you started in the right direction.

Final Cut Pro is a QuickTime editor. But what if you want to create WMV files? Well, you are not out-of-luck, but you will need different software. This article describes what you need to know, along with how to resolve problems when creating WMV files.