• you have a Beige G3/300. The performance is not reliable because that series is a little slow overall for Final Cut Pro 2. Stay with Final Cut Pro 1.2.5 and keep the system running as it always has. The benefits of the faster speed and Velocity Engine enhancement makes a G4 upgrade a good investment, particularly if you're earning income from your Final Cut Pro system. If you want the benefits of Final Cut Pro 3, upgrade.
• you have less than 256 MB of RAM if you will be running on OS 9.2.2 or at least 384 if you want to run under OS X. In fact, I would really recommend that you have 512 MB of RAM for Final Cut Pro 3, not only for the application and Operating System, but for additional software and functions like the Real Time Still cache and RAM for the VoiceOver tool. RAM is cheap and one of the best investments you can make. Final Cut Pros issues with 'too much' RAM are long gone.
• you have software that has not been updated to work with OS 9.2.2 or will not run/work with the HFS+ drive formatting.
• you cannot use QuickTime 5 for some (obscure) reason. QuickTime is always backwardly compatible (will play older movies without problem) and no software should have a problem but if you know of an issue that affects 'mission critical' applications you use, don't upgrade to QuickTime 5. Without QuickTime 5.0.4 Final Cut Pro 3 will not run. (See QuickTime note below).

Preparing to Upgrade
Upgrading Final Cut Pro to Final Cut Pro 3 is the easiest part - put the CD in run the installer, run the application with the CD in the drive, enter your registration details and you're done.
But unless you're ready to upgrade it might not go smoothly and you'll regret it. Successful upgrading is in the preparation, and the sequence of events is very important. This is particularly important if you are going to upgrade to OS X 10.1 or start using it for the first time.
In these follow items I'll be ranking them as:

#### For something you must do ­ like actually install the upgrade!

### Should do items that are highly recommended.

## A wise person would do this, but if you're really in a hurry and feeling lucky, you can skip over this step without any consequences.

# If you really want to be as sure as possible that you'll avoid all problems, do this step as well.

The best time to upgrade is when you've got no projects under way and the drives where you keep your media (Media Drives) are empty. Since that's almost never likely to happen, we'll also talk about strategies for working around the work in progress. Fortunately FCP2 can be installed alongside Final Cut Pro 2 and earlier versions so you can complete current projects in the version they were created in, while starting new Projects in Final Cut Pro 3. Once a project has been opened and saved in Final Cut Pro 3, you won't be able to open it in any earlier version.

# Backup your System (internal) hard drive & Reformat the drive
Not essential, but a clean drive is a good idea with a major upgrade. The best way to go about this is to back up all the content on your internal (System) drive to the backup of choice. CD-R or CD-RW is a good choice, as most applications folders etc will fit on relatively few internal drives.

Having the backup is reassuring, just in case something happens. As a matter of course I back my entire internal drive (System, Applications, Documents) to DVD-R no less often than every 3 months, or before any major upgrade or (since it's a laptop) a major trip. The editing and production machines are backed up at 2am every morning.

This would also be a good time to update your internal drive to HFS+ (Extended format) if it's still formatted with HFS (the standard file system).

At a minimum Run Disk First Aid and have it check your drive, or if you use one of the more advanced Drive Utilities, have that check your hard drive for problems, damage or error. I like Tech Tool Pro and have found it reliable.

If you do clean the hard drive, use the Software Restore discs to re-install the drive back to factory condition - necessary to get a base OS X install.

#### Backup your Projects folder
There are two reasons to back up your Projects folder, particularly your Final Cut Pro projects. The first reasons is so you'll have a backup if anything goes wrong, but the second reason is that Final Cut Pro 3 will update the Project file so that it will no longer open in Final Cut Pro 2 or earlier. Having a backup means you can go back.

I should explain that I do not believe there will be problems, but when it comes to my hard work I'm a 'belts and braces' kind of guy ­ just in case the belt breaks, I've got the braces to hold up my pants!

### Backup your System Folder for Mac Os 9.x
The System folder is the Central Nervous System of the Macintosh and becomes customized for every system whenever you install new software. It also contains the Preferences files for your applications, including Final Cut Pro. It's good to have the Final Cut Pro 2 preferences file for future reference.

By backing up at least the System folder you've got the opportunity to go back to where you were. Exactly. Same Extension Set, same Preferences, same magic combination.

There is software - Rewind I believe - that will take your system back to a previous time but I haven't used it. It has won a couple of 'Best of Show' awards. Personally, there's nothing like having a backup I can go to myself.

## Create a copy of your Favorites to get them to Final Cut Pro 3
Favorites are saved with Preferences and there's no easy way to get them to Final Cut Pro 3 since Final Cut Pro 2 and Final Cut Pro 3 don't share Preferences files. Here's a workaround, but there may be other ways.

Create a new Project in 2 and call it something like "Favorites Exchange". You'll need some Clips but in reality a Slug, a Gradient and something with audio will be fine. What you'll need depends on what Favorites you have.

• Filters:Add all your favorite filters to one Clip. It can be in a Bin, the Browser or a Sequence, doesn't matter. If the Clip has audio it will take all your audio and video favorites.
• Transitions: Alternate a Slug and a Gradient Clip in a Sequence and add one favorite transition each time they meet, until you've applied all your favorite transitions.
• Motion Tab Settings: Add one motion tab setting to each Clip ­ those Clips in the sequence that you've used for your Transitions favorites would be good candidates. You can only have one set of Motion tab settings per Clip, and they're the most work to restore so only keep the ones you really need ­ but it's not that difficult.

Save the Project and you're done.

## If updating from Final Cut Pro 1.x, copy Final Cut Pro 1.2.5 and it's Preferences to another Drive.
Final Cut Pro 3 upgrade will leave Final Cut Pro 2 on your hard drive, but if you want to continue using Final Cut Pro 1.2.5 alongside Final Cut Pro 3 for a while, copy the Final Cut Pro 1.2.5 folder to another hard drive, for example one of the media drives, to prevent the updater installing over it. Rename the Folder Final Cut Pro 1.2.5.

Open the System Folder, then the Preferences Folder. Inside the Preferences folder, locate the Final Cut Pro Preferences folder and copy the whole folder to the other hard drive along with the Final Cut Pro Folder. Put the Preferences folder inside the Final Cut Pro folder for storage. Leave a copy inside the Preferences folder as it has your Registration information that the updater will need to refer to validate the update.

After the update is complete you can copy the Final Cut Pro 1.2.5 folder back to your main hard drive and the preferences back to the Preferences folder.

Operating System(s)

#### OS 9 Clean Install the Operating System
This is a little more complex because Final Cut Pro 3 requires OS 9.2.2 and there is no 9.2.2 installer available. So to do a clean install of the OS you will need to do a Clean install of 9.1 then do an update to 9.2.1 immediately. Then you are ready to do the update to OS 9.2.2 using the installer on the Final Cut Pro 3 disc. If you originally had 9.0.4 when your system shipped and did not purchase a CD-ROM version of OS 9.1, you will need to reinstall 9.0.4 then upgrade to OS 9.1 then upgrade to 9.2.2. The OS 9.2.2 updater is on the Final Cut Pro 3 installer disc. Earlier version updaters are available for download from Apple, or by using the Software Update Control Panel (while connected to the Internet).
It is worth going to the trouble instead of just doing an update install. A Clean Install puts new, fresh copies of every part of the Operating System on the Hard Drive. An update will copy over only those parts that have been updated and leave any existing Extension in place. The Clean Install ensures that no corrupt drivers or Extensions are in place.

The most recent versions of FireWire drivers are on the Final Cut Pro install CD and will be installed with the OS 9.2.2 update. You should use them.

Tip: Once a Clean Install is done, go into the Control Panels and Extensions folders (separately) and select all icons, then change their label color to something you don't use often. I make mine Brown so that I know the Brown colored Extensions are the ones installed by Apple, ditto the Control Panels).

After doing the Clean install of the Operating System do not copy across Control Panels and Extensions from the old System Folder. We'll get to them later but first of all we want to make sure that Final Cut Pro 2 is working with just the installed System with no 3rd party 'pollution'.

#### OS X 10.1.1 Upgrade and Update
Before you can use Final Cut Pro 3 on OS X you must have updated to OS X 10.1.1. OS X 10.1 is available on CD from Apple or by taking a computer with OS X 10.0 installed to an Apple Store's "Genius" counter. OS X 10.1 is so close to a complete reinstall of the OS X Operating System that there is no practical difference between updating and doing a Clean Install.

If you do not yet own OS X you will need to purchase it from Apple prior to updating to OS X 10.1.1 and installing Final Cut Pro 3.

Once OS X 10.1 is installed, there are 3 more steps required to prepare for Final Cut Pro 3. You can only upgrade from OS X 10.1 to OS X 10.1.1 over the Internet.
Connect to the internet (this is required), and perform the following 3 steps in the order listed:

• 1. Open system Preferences and click on the Software Update icon. You might as well install any updates you are offered but you must install the "Security Update 10-19-01". After the Security Update has been installed, restart your computer.
• 2. After restarting, once the Security Update 10-19-01 has been installed, open system Preferences and click on the software update icon again, and install the "Installer Update 1.0". You will need to make a second connection to the Internet for this second update.
• 3. Once the Installer Update 1.0 has been installed, open System Preferences yet again, and once again click on the Software update again and install the Mac OS X Update 10.1.1. You will need to restart your computer again.

PS: If an update newer than OS X v. 10.1 appears in step 3, install it instead. OS X 10.1.2 has just started to appear and it is OK to install that, or a later version.

If you have already installed the Security Update and Installer Update you will not need to repeat Steps 1 and 2. You can proceed directly to Step 3.

#### IMPORTANT NOTE FOR RTMAC USERS
Before installing or updating to OS X you will need to download the newest drivers, firmware updater and enablers from the Matrox site. Unless you have the OS X compatible drivers, simply having the RTMac card installed will cause 'Kernel Panic' errors when you attempt to run OS X. Matrox provided this update several months ago, but if you have not downloaded it yet and updated your firmware, now is the time to do it. It is in the updates area of the Matrix support site.

There is an enabler in the Final Cut Pro Utilities section of Matrox.com that activated RTMac under Final Cut Pro 3 only on OS 9.2.2. At the time of writing there is no support for RTMac and Final Cut Pro 3 under OS X. The extended desktop will work under OS X but that is all.

Upgrading

#### Install QuickTime 5.0.4 from the Final Cut Pro 3 CD
The version of QuickTime on the Final Cut Pro 3 CD is exactly the same as the public QuickTime 5.0.2 version except that it has two new codecs. The difference between QuickTime 5.0.2 and QuickTime 5.0.4 are two extra codecs. What is very confusing is that after installing, when you look at QuickTime version in the QuickTime Control Panel, it will still report as being QuickTime 5.0.2. But as long as you follow these steps from the QuickTime installer on the Final Cut Pro 3 CD you will have the extensions you need.

• Run the QuickTime installer, select Custom install.
• In the next panel, select all the options ­ there's a convenient Select All at the top.
• Continue to the rest of the Install.

If you don't do Custom and the Select All, you will get "missing QuickTime Component" and "missing codec" errors. Custom installs more than the Full or Multimedia Authoring options in the first panel. Go figure.

It is almost always okay to go to a newer version of QuickTime as QuickTime retains 100% backward compatibility to version 1. So if a newer update is offered by the QuickTime Control Panel Updater, download it if you want.

#### Install Final Cut Pro 3
Finally you're ready to install Final Cut Pro 2. Run the Installer and choose the options that match your system. If you have a RT-Mac card you'll want to choose that option during install as Final Cut Pro 3 will then have the Easy Setup files to set everything to RT-Mac with one menu selection.

The choices you make in the Install dialogs will also set your starting defaults, so chances are you'll never have to even choose an Easy Setup.

If you want to install on OS X you will need to have run Final Cut Pro on OS 9.2.2 at least once so that the updater knows that you have a legitimate copy of Final Cut Pro to upgrade.

## Update your Media Drives to HFS +
If the hard drives you use for media are not already HFS+ (Extended Format) this would be a good time to update them, if they have no media on them. Macintosh OS 9.1, QuickTime and Final Cut Pro 2 all support HFS+ for virtually unlimited file sizes. All are required to break through the 2 GB limit of the earlier Operating System. Updating Media drives to HFS + is recommended, but not essential.

Having the media drives formatted for HFS+ isn't essential ­ Final Cut Pro 2 can still capture unlimited durations by seamlessly joining 2 GB files, a QuickTime feature and the major benefit of HFS+, small files not taking more space than they should on large drives, isn't that crucial with the size files digital video uses, but you'll need to do it some time.

Warning: Converting drives to HFS+ normally requires a reformat, which destroys all data on a drive. Format one drive at a time, copying data to another drive first, if you have more than one drive. Or wait until you can clean the drive of media before converting it. There is a piece of software, in the MacMedic V1.5 (and later) package called SpaceMaker that converts disks to HFS + (Mac OS Extended Format) without having to clear the disks first, or lose data. While I haven't used it, I've not heard of any problems, so if you just cannot find a time when the disk is clear: http://software.totalrecall.com/macmedic/index.html

After Upgrading

Test Final Cut Pro 3

#### First things first.
Test Final Cut Pro 3. Start a new Project, assign Scratch Disks and do some test captures. Add Clips to a Timeline and render some effects and transitions and test any G4 real time preview effects. Be sure everything is working as intended before going beyond this point.

### Return Final Cut Pro 1.2.5-
to the internal Macintosh Hard Drive, and move the preferences to the System Preferences folder if you are planning to continue to use Final Cut Pro 1.2.5.

# Work with Final Cut Pro 3 -
for a couple of weeks or at least a few days before adding Extensions and Control Panels back. Most people can't live with this option (myself included) but hold out as long as you can to prove that all is working well before adding those 3rd party extensions.

### Make a Final Cut Pro 3 Extension Set OS 9 only
Open the Extension Manager Control Panel. As Final Cut Pro 3 and QuickTime 5.0.4 will probably have changed the Mac OS 9.2 All Extension set, a copy will probably be automatically created for you. If not, create a copy of the Extension set so that you can return the Extensions and Control Panels back to this state, where everything is working, at any time. Name this Extension set: 'Final Cut Pro 3 Control Set'. Apple recommend the Mac OS 9.2 All for Final Cut Pro 3 and I would only pare that down if there was a serious problem.

Immediately create another Extension set and call it 'Final Cut Pro 3 Operating'. Make the Final Cut Pro 3 Operating extension set the active set. When new software adds Extension they are added to the currently active Extension set without regard to any need to keep it 'controlled'. So the Control Set is there as reserve backup to take us back to this absolutely Final Cut Pro 3 only "and working" set if there are every any potential Extension Conflicts.
Note: There are no System Extensions in OS X, and therefore no Extension Sets OS X.

### Restore Extensions, Control Panels and Preferences OS 9 only
I'd really like to say that you should re-install all software again but that can be a huge burden. The best reason to re-install is to avoid any corrupt extension but since they're fairly rare, following this strategy should work.

Only ever restore one, or at most two, extensions at a time. Personally I prefer to wait until I need to run an application that requires the extension before I restore it to my active set. Partly because I usually have no idea what half those Extensions do anyway, and waiting to be asked for a given Extension helps me work out what belongs to what, but also so I only add back in the Extensions I really need now. It's amazing how many Extensions never make it back into the folder because I just never need them. Keep the Extensions folder lean and happy.

Never add more than 2 Extensions at a time ­ or the extensions for one Application if it uses more than two (can you say Microsoft?) without extensively testing Final Cut Pro 3 between. That way, if you run into an Extension conflict, or some problem arises, you know exactly which two might be the culprit. Much easier to troubleshoot 2 Extensions than 20!

Add back Control Panels the same way ­ one or two at a time.

## Restore your Favorites
Open the Favorites Exchange Project in Final Cut Pro 3. It will update the Project format when opened. You want it to do this. Once open, restore your favorites by:

• Filters: Open the Clip with the Filters applied, in the Viewer. Select the Filters ­ all of them if you like ­ and drag them to the Favorites folder. They'll be immediately added with the original names.
• Transitions: Open the Sequence that has the Clips with the Transitions between them. Drag each Transition to the Favorites Folder. It will be added with the original name.
• Favorite Motions: A little less easy but not too bad. Open each Clip in the Viewer from the Timeline in turn. While the Clip is in the Viewer, choose the Make menu and select 'Favorite Motion'. The Motion Tab settings will be saved as a Favorite Motion again, under the name of the Clip so you'll have to rename the Favorite Motion again, but that's easier than redoing the settings, including any keyframes you might have had.

And if it doesn't go smoothly?
It will go smoothly if you follow these guidelines but if you run into problems, these might be some causes or solutions:

General Error Messages:
In Final Cut Pro, General Error Messages are very broad, but at least one set was solved by reverting to a minimal (OS 9.2 Basic) Extension set. This could have been a corrupt Extension left over from an upgrade, rather than a clean install.

Dropped Frame Warnings:
The solution may be to just turn off the Dropped Frame warning! Final Cut Pro 2 and 3 is much more sensitive to the reporting of non-standard frame lengths from QuickTime. This lead to "false" dropped frame reports in two circumstances ­ on Capture and when playing from the first frame of a Clip. The explanation is that when QuickTime starts capturing a Clip it is not always on a 'frame boundary' ­ it might start 1/3 the way through a frame, 1/2 way through a frame, 15/16th the way through a frame. QuickTime doesn't care ­ it will just count that bit as an extra bit on the next full frame for a frame of more than 1/29.97 or 1/25th (PAL). QuickTime is quite happy with variable length frames while Final Cut Pro 2, wanting standard video intervals complains about the 'long frame' which it interprets as a dropped frame.

Final Cut Pro 3 has a new Tool for displaying "long frames". To check if you have a genuine dropped frame problem, or merely the first frame being long, run the "Show Long Frames" tool from the Tools menu. If more than one frame shows as being "long" (a.k.a. dropped), then you will need to do some more troubleshooting. If there's only the one long frame at the head of the Clip, don't worry.

Type 12 Errors:
RAM related, could be from mismatched RAM, substandard RAM or more RAM in the system than is supported. Try removing one or more RAM modules and see if that stops the problem. Remove each RAM module in turn until you identify which module is causing the problem. Be aware of, and use, static prevention when handling RAM to prevent 'zapping it' with static electricity.

But it will go smoothly, and you'll love Final Cut Pro 3.

copyright©2001Philip Hodgetts

All screen captures and textual references are the property and trademark of their creators/owners/publishers.