A Simple Way To Keep A Hard Drive Spinning with FCP

I have several hard drives that for whatever reason, likely their firmware, will spin down no matter what you tell them otherwise in system prefs, their own generally useless software or anywhere else.

This old tip still works.

However, here's a super quick and simple tip to keep them spinning while using FCP 6/7:

Tell FCP to autosave to a folder on the drive that spins down.

1. Hit SHIFT + Q in FCP
2. You'll see "Autosave Vault" and a Set button. Push it.
3. Tell it to save to a folder -preferably one you make so the saves are not loose all over the drive- and done.

Almost.

You'll have to figure out how long it takes for the drive to decide to spin down after the start of inactivity. As an example, lets say you figure out it's about 15mins.

Now, in FCP hit OPTION + Q and under the first tab, called "General" at the bottom left you'll see "Autosave Vault" make sure the check box is checked. Then after "Save a copy every" set it to something less than the time you figured out for the hard drive spin down. In this example set it to 14mins or 10mins to be safe. Hit Ok.

Adjust the other options under Autosave Vault to you liking. I like to set "Keep at most" to something between 20 to 40 depending on the importance of the project and how complex it is and the rate of changes I make to it.

This is actually important. Save files for FCP 6/7 are HUGE XML files. Huge. You can easily get into the multi GB range in terms of size. They're highly compressible though which is great. So if you keep too many saves for a project you could potentially fill up a lot of space on a drive fairly quickly.

Convert Final Cut Pro 7 projects to Final Cut Pro X

There's a $10 app called 7toX [app store link] that claims to convert Final Cut Pro 7's project files to Final Cut Pro X.

"7toX for Final Cut Pro brings your Final Cut Pro 7 projects forward to Final Cut Pro X so you can use Apple’s powerful new professional editing tools to update or finish your older projects. The lightweight application is simple to use, with drag-and-drop support and progress information. 7toX translates important metadata from your Final Cut Pro 7 Project — including bins, clips and sequences — to a new Event in Final Cut Pro X with the highest fidelity of any translation application for Final Cut Pro. In addition, the application provides clear, detailed reporting after every transfer. "

I haven't had much time to play with it but I'll be looking into it more this week and beyond to see how it fares. I wonder why Apple didn't release an app like this or build something like this into FCPX, even as a "beta" feature.

Had Apple integrated this (as a big red flag warning-ized "beta" feature) and waited until Photoshop Layer import, broadcast monitoring and Multicam editing were ready I believe the adoption rate for FCPX would have been MUCH higher and the bad press would have been MUCH lower. Heck, they may have even had Mac Towers still on display in all of their stores. (meaning, today some Apple stores don't have Mac Towers on display anymore...I know!)

Final Cut Pro X Can Almost Import Final Cut Pro XML Projects

MacMagazine has discovered [google translation link] that the ability to import a Final Cut Pro XML file is kinda sorta already in Final Cut X but isn't working. Either it's going to be implemented in an update or will work in tandem with a stand-alone app that converts Final Cut Pro XML into something Final Cut X can import.

Either way, there's a little teeny tiny bit of hope.

Quickly Name New Files in Open and Save Dialogs

Here's a quick one.

When you're exporting or saving a file that doesn't have the name you want, and you need to name it something based on another file just click on a similarly named (and greyed out) file in the Open/Save dialog to pre-name it that file name.

For example, lets say you have to export 10 different versions of a edited piece and don't want to type in "Video With A Needlessly Long Name 01", "Video With A Needlessly Long Name 02"...you can click on the greyed out, already there in the folder file with the name you want and the OS will name the currently ready to be exported or saved file identically to the one you clicked on so all you have to do is append your numbering convention, 02, B, Alt, whatever you use.