Mac to PC

[marin415ca]

I'm editing on FCP and creating clips to a hard drive. My client needs to access the clips from this same hard drive on their PC. Is there a way through FCP/mac that I can format my drive so clips can be viewed on both platforms? Thanks!

[Sprocketboy]

Using DISK UTILITY under the ERASE tab, select MS-DOS File System (FAT-32) to format your drive. Both Mac and PC can read and write to this drive. WARNING- There is a 4 GB limit. If your clips are over the 4GB limit, then networking your computers together maybe your only resort. I'm sure there are other options, but these are the two most readily available.

[Barry_Green]

Also, what kind of files? The mac supports certain file types that aren't readable on a Windows system (and vice versa).

[Sprocketboy]

Originally Posted by Barry_Green

Also, what kind of files? The mac supports certain file types that aren't readable on a Windows system (and vice versa).

I'm answering under the assumption that the question posted was for moving QuickTime video files. Obviously, QuickTime must be installed on your Windows-operated computer to make the files readable. On MacOSX, AVIs cannot be open unless you have some sort of software (Flip4Mac comes to mind) to help QuickTime read the AVIs or WMFs. .EXE files are unreadable under MacOSX but almost everything else with proper software support. If you have either iWork or MS Office for Mac installed, you can read DOC, PPT, PPS, and XLS files.

If you have similar Adobe or MS products installed on both Mac and PC, they usually translate flawlessly. On the other hand, if you own a Intel Mac, you can format another partition with a Windows Operating System and use an NTFS drive to move your large (over 4GB) video files from Mac to PC or vice versa.

I work with both systems on a daily basis and feel for once there is common ground. Even networking PCs and Macs are easy.

[Barry_Green]

Well, that's what I'm asking for as well -- quicktime files from FCP are not necessarily openable on Windows. If it's an HVX200 Quicktime file, you can't use that on Windows Quicktime unless you buy the Raylight Quicktime Decoder for your windows system.

[filmguy123]

You can also use MacDrive 7 on a Windows PC to read & write from HFS+ file systems (and of course NTFS)

You can't write to NTFS from Mac (unless using an unstable 3rd party mod); but if you are dual booting with Windows, using MacDrive 7, you can read/write to both NTFS & MacDrive 7 so it makes moving files around easy. Without the FAT32 4gb limit (or is it a 2gb limit? I can't remember).

[mcgeedigital]

Using the Sheer video codec on both systems will allow you to both keep the quality of the files as well as open files on both systems.

http://www.bitjazz.com/en/products/sheervideo/

[marin415ca]

Thanks guys. These are quicktime files.

[adkimery]

Originally Posted by marin415ca

Thanks guys. These are quicktime files.

Even though they are QT files, the files need to be in a codec that a Windows machine can recognize.


-A

[Sprocketboy]

Originally Posted by marin415ca

Thanks guys. These are quicktime files.

Are these MXF from a P2 Card converted into QuickTime files? If so, as Barry mentioned, an application on Windows will not open them. I do not have first hand experience in this because I do all my editing on a Mac.

On the other hand, I have had DVCPro 50 24p Widscreen tape logged and digitized on a PC-based AVID and the same media files exported and (QuickTime DVCPro50 Codec) opened in Final Cut Pro.

Many, if not most QuickTime codecs open in Windows as long as you have QuickTime installed. I use QT Photo-JPEG a lot for compositing work. Most people use the QT Animation codec, which gives no visible difference to Photo-JPG. Only difference is that Photo-JPG is a smaller file size. The DV codec opens on both Mac and PC.

If your files originated from MXF, Raylight sounds like problem solver for Mac and PC translation without converting your MXF files.

To the poster above, Fat-32 has a 4GB limit. I think Fat-16 (no one uses) has the 2GB limit.