I started editing video with final cut since version 5. I was lucky enough to go to a college that had a mac computer lab and I was able to edit most of my church project on the mac. Prior to using the FCP (Final Cut Pro) I used Sony Vegas. Vegas was a joy when I started to edit video. I remember the countless hours that I would work on my computer editing .avi video and all the frustration times that I found myself in when windows will crash or when the render time will take hours and hours and I was an a reliability fast computer at the time in fact no much faster than what I am using now, the only difference is that with vegas I was using a desktop and Now I use my laptop. Anyways, Switching from Vegas to Final Cut was not so easy, With Vegas I had no limits on what I could use yet I had more problems With Final cut I had more restriction as far as what kind of quicktime fine I could use and audio compression etc. But now I realize that those restrictions were in place to make my life easier in the long run also it allowed me to understand the workings of files.

Recently our lab was upgraded to final cut 6.0.4

and while I was been using final cut studio 2 four about a year the little 6.0.x are not backward compatible meaning that anything created with final cut 6.0.3 was not compatible and other computers was is odd but thats the way it is with final cut.  Little advice. DONT EVER UPGRADE IN THE MIDDLE OF A PROJECT!!! NEVER!! You are not a beta tester and unless your program is not working the way it is suppose to, Don’t ! ! it will be pain. Well I upgraded and BOOM my file that I had been working for the past year ( its a comp that I am always updating) stopped trying to render!!! what that heck? It would not render. There was  a “general Error’ well it would have been fine but I had a dead line at 9am the next day and it was already 10pm. I googled my fingers away trying to find an option. See it is fine if you are going to start a new file but the old files don’t transfer that well most of the time. I searched and searched and it was about 6 in the morning when I found the error. What was the error? I had downloaded some pictures off my email and had included them in the composition. All I had to do was to  open up those pictures and save them again. And presto! my file rendered and I had lost a night of sleepy time and I was tired but I met the dead line and that is what is more important.

I love working with final cut in dual screen mode because I have a laptop and the screen gets to small when working on a long project but there is a glitch in final cut 6 under tiger and I don’t even know if it is resolved in Leo 10.5 but after a while the screen flickers the video and I have to restart final cut.  At any rate the advantage of having an extra screen to have your time line is so great because it allows you to work faster.
large-preview-with-dual-screen-track My screen setting for final cut 6 that you can load by going to windows, arrange, Load.

Cheers