FCP 7 and El Capitan?

I'm Running FC Pro 7 on OS X El Capitan 10.11.6, MacBook Pro mid 2012. 2.5 GHz i5 with 16 GB Ram. Both FC Pro and DVD Studio seems to run well although i have just found that the issue where i can not get .avi files to import into DVD Studio Pro on this new system but can on the old G5 FC Pro 3 Software, is, best i can figure might be a codex problem which I'm trying to get ran down now.

To further this - FCP 7's last update was to work with OSX 10.6.8

Everything OSX version after that has not been vetted. That most people find that FCP7 works through 10.11 is a gift. No warranty is implied or given.

Having said that, FCP7 works for me under 10.10 and 10.11 but - not all the other elements of the suite. My main machine runs 10.10 along with the Adobe CC suite and FCP functions. Slowly (and reluctantly) switching to Premiere Pro.

x

Try building a fresh 10.6.8 disk and installing FCP on there, then upgrading that to 10.10, and then 10.11 if you need to run that. I used to run FCStudio 1 on 10.6 and all the other OS's have been migrations from that. I've got Studio 3 running on 10.6.8, 10.9.5 (all componetnts run) and 10.10.5 ( Motion 4 is dead there) and that was installing Studio 3 over the migrated Studio 1 on each OS version. Maybe installing FCP7 on your El Cap disk will work, but if it doesn't,.......

It probably doesn't matter, but they're all running on a late 2011 17", so I can't believe they wouldn't eventually run (except for Motion of course) on your sweet, sweet 2010 Mac Pro.

Greetings Hans;

The last OS version to reliably run Final Cut Studio was 10.9.5. I would be really surprised if Final Cut worked with El Capitan.

All the best...

Syd Rodocker

SRVideo Media Design

I have been using FCP 7 on El Capitan on a late 2013 Mac Book Pro for or an hour or two - So far I have not found any more problems or glitches than 'normal'. Importing / exporting, reconnecting media, editing EFX all working. Opened and edited a number of old projects and all good.

If anything FCP 7 appears to be a little more responsive.

Also upgraded MacPro 5,1 and all working well so far...

:-)

Greetings John and thanks for the response! I'm glad to hear that the transition to El Capitan with FCP 7 was a success. Just curious, do you use FCP X in your work? I have it on all of the Macs in my Edit Suite but I'm an "old dog" in this business (I've made my living with Apple since 1989) and the new software never seemed to fit my workflow. All the best...

Syd Rodocker

SRVideo Media Design

I have continued using FCP 7 whilst learning FCPX over the past year. Both are on both of my machines and work well.

I have to constantly update projects ('events') so I am at the moment in the process of converting all of the FCP 7 Projects to FCP X - Using "7toX for Final Cut Pro" - the conversion tool is (now) about 70% painless. The main problems I encounter usually involve layered photoshop files that I have used in FCP 7 as a nested sequence - they just don't convert that well - if at all.

Some EFX are also temperamental and need to be re-timelined in FCP X

I have suddenly found my-self surprisingly fond of FCP X

Regards

J

Hey there. I'm finding this thread so helpful. I've resisted moving to FCPX and hav not my OS in ages so that I could continue to use FCP7. That is now becoming a problem with other apps.

Is there any trick to installing both 7 and X on the same machine? And did you have to reinstall after moving to El Capitan?

THanks so much!

ac

I already had FCP 7 installed when I installed FCP X - at that time I was running OSX 10.8 Apart from the two FCP versions refusing to run concurrently -everything just works.

I have since re-run the FCP 7 (Studio) installer and had no problems (I think I was on OSX 10.10 at the time)

I would say that FCP 7 appears a little more stable on 10.11 than it was on 10.9 (I was only on 10.10 for a month or two before upgrading to 10.11)

Dragging to copy sequences in FCP 7 from one project to another can hang the program, although copy and paste works fine.

I think the magic trick is to make sure that you have a working TIME MACHINE backup of your Startup disk before you start ;-)

I just came across your answer about using FCP 7 on El Capitan on a MacBook Pro. Before I try upgrading from OS 10.8 I thought I should see if you're still happy with how your projects are working now.

Thanks

Have been using my MacBook Pro on a FCP 7 project for the past few days. I have had no problems re-editing / updating sequences, changing EFX, exporting (or converting to FCP X). I obviously do not use all the features of FCP 7, but what I do use have been stable.

Re-converting FCP 7 sequences to FCP X : I do have some re-working to do when FCP 7 EFX are not available in FCP X, but there is usually an alternative / workaround. Failing everything else, I keep the awkward EFX sequence in FCP 7 and export from there - or remake in MOTION.

Again, I keep a couple of TIME MACHINE backups, just incase everything grinds to a halt, so I can wind back to the last working version of the OS. SO far they have not been needed.

Thanks for testing, johnieuk.

I have a documentary I've been working on for over 2 years on FCP 7, and figure I'll need to upgrade my OS sometime before I'm finished, since nothing stands still in the digital world. I've got FC X, but so far haven't dug into it. But it's encouraging to hear that you've been able to convert FCP 7 projects to FCP X.

Agreed about Time Machine backups. Essential.