Final Cut Pro or FCP, runs on any of the Apple Macintosh systems described in my What kind of Mac page.
With any of these configurations, you can plug in almost any new digital camcorder. Right out of the box. And get to work making movies.

Please note that FCP works on a Mac only (not on a PC, not on Windows). There is no PC version of FCP and there probably never will be one. So you want FCP, you get a Mac. Its that simple.

If you want to know about the computer you need to run FCP you need to see my 
"What kind of Mac ?" page.
This page as all other pages on this site are subject to a disclaimer. Please do read it.

Capture cards 

Capture cards are PCI-X or PCI-e cards that are fitted insde your MacPro or even older G5 and G4 system. They don't connect to iMac, MacBook Pro, Mac mini systems.

They are needed only if you have a MacPro and wish to capture to FCP from ...

1. DigiBeta - over SDI
2. Beta - over component analog
3. U-matic/VHS/DVD - over somposite or S-video
4. DAT or digital audio over S-PDIFF or AES-EBU

5. HDCam, HDCam-SR, D5, DVCProHD over HD-SDI
6. Play video on pro monitor - over SDI/HD-SDI or component analog.

Then and only then would you need these cards.

If you don't understand or haven't heard of SDI, S-PDIF etc, then you maybe don't need a capture card.
But if you're sure you need a card , but can't decide which one, write to me.

BlackMagic Decklink

Decklink is a series of cards made by a company called BlackMagic Design.

Standard definition or SD cards are...

Decklink, Decklink SP, and Decklink Pro, Decklink Extreme
You can compare these SD cards here

High Definition or HD cards are...

Decklink HD Extreme, Decklink HDPro.
You can compare these HD cards here

To connect with the latest HDV decka and camcorderd digitally, as well as to play out to LCD and Plasma TVs over a new interfce called HDMI, BM have a small economical card Decklink Intensity

You can compare these HD cards here

The top-of the line BM capture device is a Multibridge - Pro and Eclipse

You can compare these devices here

The Multibridge, in a system equipped with a sufficiently fast drive system call allow you to play and grade full 2k or HD uncompressed resolution film footage.

This information on Blackmagic cards keeps changing over time. Links move too. If these links don't work, write to me. I'll send you new ones.

I've peronally used BM cards for many years now and know them to be stable and versatile. Blackmagic is also very zealous in honouring their warranty on any defective equipment. I've had mostly working good cards from them, but they've replaced the occasional defective one without question.

AJA cards

Aja is a company known for their excellent converters that permit signal conversion over variety of formats. Aja makes capture cards for Final Cut Pro, to go inside nearly any mac from the old G4 and G5 to th latest 8-core MacPro.

For PCs Aja makes a card called Xena. An interesting aside is that this Xena card is sold by Autodesk as part of their smoke and flame systems. So if you ger a Aja Kona card - the Mac version of the Xena - you will be using, with FCP, the same card that smoke and flame systems use to capture video and audio.

Kona 3
More on the Kona 3 here

Kona LH
More on the Kona LH here

Kona LS
More on the Kona LS here

The latest among Aja products is the new iO HD

Aja iOHD

This is a small, portable device that connects to the system - MacPro or MacBook Pro or iMac - over Firewire 800. It has a variety of inputs and outputs and can convert them as well. The main advantge of this device is that it permits work in Apple's new compresed high-quality codec ProRes.

More on the Kona iOHD here

Some amazing HD workflows even field editing workflows and maybe film DI is possible with the Aja iOHD.

Below are older Aja devices iO, iO LD and iO LA

Aja iO

This is an external unit called IO - is short for Input and Output.

It connects to the Mac with a single Firewire cable. But this Firewire is used to pass audio and video into the Mac and out of it, without any compression. It is NOT the same as DV over Firewire. IO only uses Firewire as an interface but doesn't apply DV compression to it.

AJA IO LD and LA

These are smaller units and can be regarded as subsets of the IO for those who don't need so many different types of ins and outs.

The IO LD is the digital-only IO. It has 10 bit SDI with 24 bit embedded audio in and out. (1 In, 2 outs) Analog Component and composite Out. 2 channel S/PDIF audio out. Genlock in with loop out. RS-422 deck control port.

The IO LA is the analog-only IO. It has 10 bit analog component, S-video, and composite in and out. 4 channel balanced audio in and out. "Frame synchronizer architecture" which should mean that you can capture from unstable sources like VHS, U-matic, Hi-8 etc. Which the main IO and many other capture cards can't do. IO LA also has genlock in with loop out and a RS-422 deck control port.

This information on Aja cards keeps changing over time. Links move too. If these links don't work, write to me. I'll send you new ones.

I've peronally used Aja cards for many years now and know them to be stable and versatile.

HDV camcorders.

HDV is the new consumer or prosumer tape-based digital video medium. It shoots HD resolution to DV-sized tapes. 1 hr per tape. The resolution is 1920x1080 and the compression is MPEG-2.

Seen on a large plasma or LCD TV, footage from these new HDV camcorders look stunning.

HDV camcorders have Firewire in and out and can be used to captured HDV into FCP over Firewire. At the same data rate as DV.

MiniDV and DV camcorders.

MiniDV camcorders use a tiny cassette looks just like HDV tape.
Not all miniDV camcorders have analog inputs and outputs, and some even don't have a DV input. So if you are buying miniDV camcorder check for this. You'll need a DV input if you plan to transfer from other cameras. And an analog input if you plan to transfer from VHS tapes.

MiniDV tapes run upto 1 hr.

But there are also some DV camcorders that take a larger DV tape. There are just a few pro models that can. The large DV tapes (not miniDV) run upto 3 hrs. 

DVCAM camcorders.

DVCAM is a Sony format that records on tape with wider "tracks". What this means in practice is that the tape is more resistant to defects and wear. DVCAM camcorders produce the same DV signal that miniDV camcorders do. Meaning you can connect either a DV or a DVCAM camcorder to the Firewire input of your Mac, the signal going in is the same.

DVCAM camcorders can record on "normal" DV tapes or on special DVCAM tapes. Either way they record in the DVCAM format. Tapes recorded in the DVCAM format in a DVCAM camcorder can't be played back on a DV camcorder or deck. That's because DVCAM is a different recording format from miniDV.

Whether you use a DVCAM cassette or a miniDV cassette in a DVCAM camcorder, the quality doesn't change. But DVCAM tapes do seem to lasts longer. They also seem to hold up better with frequent playing and searching as happens during editing.

Note that if you use a DV tape in a DVCAM camcorder, it runs for less time than in DV mode. Meaning a 1 hr miniDV tape will run about 41 min. on a DVCAM camcorder. This is because DVCAM uses a faster tape speed.

As far as I know, only Sony makes DVCAM camcorders.

Digital8 camcorders.

Digital8, or D8 is no longer in production. But I've seen some in action in small towns outside Mumbai.

They use Digital8 cassettes to record digitally, and can also playback your old Hi8 tapes. Digital8 was price-wise at the bottom of the Digital camcorder range. But it had rather good picture quality. 

HDV decks

HDV decks play and record HDV and DV or DVCam. Sony and JVC makes HDV decks. But Sony's HVR M-25 deck is beset with Firewire port issues and there are many decks in Mumbai India whose Firewire port does not work. So beware with a Sony HVR M-25.

Sony also makes a 'Video Walkman' deck a small 'clamshell' design with a screen. Very useful in the field.

DV decks

DV decks are like VCRs. They can play or record DV tapes. Sony, Panasonic and JVC has models that can play and record DV.

Sony also makes small "video Walkman" DV decks which are tiny and one version even has a flip out LCD screen.

DVCAM decks

DVCAM decks are made only by Sony (as far as I know).

There are the mini Walkman type decks with and without LCD screens, which play small cassettes only.

Portable decks

The mini "Walkman" decks mentioned above also qualify as portables but apart from them the only other portable DVCAM deck I know of is the Sony DSR-50. From what I've gathered at Sony's web site, this looks like a scaled down BVW-50. It has a mini LCD screen, four channel audio ins and controls, 26 pin Sony camera input so you could connect a 537 to it directly and even roll from the camera.

The DSR-50 even has Beta component in and out and Control-S. But no RS-422.

Older, outdated systems...

The following systems are no longer in production. I'm keeping the information only for those who might come accross one. None of these will work with FCP 6 and some may not even be compatible with MacOSX Tiger or leopard. or wirth the MacPro system itself.

Aurora Fuse

Aurora Video Systems used to make the Fuse and Igniter line of cards for the Mac all of which run with FCP. The Fuse is actually discontinued, but you might just get one from a sound studio that may have upgraded to something else..

The Fuse is not officially "qualified" for use with FCP, but there are many users worldwide who use this card with FCP.

It's an analog video capture card that has S-video and composite video inputs and outputs. But no sound input or output. Meaning you need to capture sound separately with the Mac's sound input. If your Mac doesn't have one, you'll need to get a PCI sound card as well.

Fuse captures video and stores it a QuickTime Movies in the M-JPEG A format. You can use compression ratios from 50:1 up to 2:1, so this is a great low-cost off-line edit solution. 

The Fuse also finds use as a video card in a Pro Tools sound editing system. In this application, it lets you play out a QuickTime movie and record audio to it in ProTools.

Fuse is now discontinued and will not work under MacOSX.

Fuse used to sell for US$ 500.

Aurora Pipe

The Pipe is a recent addition to Aurora's family of PCI cards. This card has analog composite and S-video in and out and stereo RCA unbalanced audio in and out. It offers no compression or real-time. The card works under FCP 4 and provides whatever RT functionality your system is capable of. It is aimed as an analog interface for FCP only and is not suited as a video interface for audio software. For this Aurora recommends Igniter X which has M-JPEG compression.

The Pipe also offers video out for applications like After Effects and Combustion.

The Pipe sells for US $ 800

Aurora IgniterX

The IgniterX is the latest line of cards from Aurora.

The basic IgniterX lite gives you composite and S-video in and out and 2 channels of audio in/out. This card is certified for FCP and stores video as QuickTime Movies in the M-JPEG A format which makes an excellent off-line solution going all the way upto 2:1.

To this basic IgniterX one can add options and scale up to a more "feature-full" edit system. Features one can add and upgrade to are ...
Beta Component In/Out
SDI In/Out
Uncompressed video
AES/EBU audio
24 fps support.

IgniterX cards have some amount of RT effects, and even make use of RT Extreme which is part of FCP 4 to give you more RT than before.

There is also an IgniterX Lite that's the same as IgniterX minus any Real-time FX. IgniterXLite cannot be upgraded to component or SDI I/O, but IgniterX can. So you need to make this choice first.

IgniterX Lite is US$ 1000 and IgniterX is US$ 2000. And to the IgniterX as you add features like component I/O, balanced audio I/O, ext. genlock, 24 fps editing, SDI. Going all the way upto  US$ 4,000 for the IgniterX Studio which has everything. By the way, buying a basic Igniter and adding upgrades is more expensive than buying everything you need right at the beginning.

Digital Voodoo

The Digital Voodoo D1 Desktop used to be is a digital in/out only card that worked in a Mac. Digital Voodoo has now stopped all further development for Mac. So now Digital Voodoo is no longer an option for FCP.  

Older information on Digital Voodoo.

It used to work with FCP and allowed you to capture from DigiBeta for editing in FCP or compositing in After Effects or Commotion. D1 Desktop had an added feature that allowed you to view anything on your Mac from the SDI out. So you could be retouching that pesky mark in a film frame in PhotoShop or layering in AE, all while looking at your work on a PAL monitor in real-time.

D1 Desktop ate up disk space at 96 GB per hr at it's best 10-bit resolution. It also offers some off-line resolutions that saved disk space.

D1 Desktop also had some effects real-time. But D1 Desktop had only SDI in and out. So to be able to use it with analog Beta, you'll needed a Component to SDI convertor and another SDI to component convertor. What about sound ? If you had any of the older G4 Macs, that didn't have audio inputs, then you needed a sound card as well. Of course, the D1 Desktop could grab sound embedded in an SDI signal. So if you worked exclusively with DigiBeta, no additional audio hardware was required.

D1 Desktop sold for US $ 3500 There was an HD version as well. The high cost of the card, or maybe the low cost of the competitors, along with practically no development in RT, and the absence of audio, did this card in. Too bad, I hope this is the first and last of the FCP captures to bow out.

Digital Voodoo still lives, and sells the card for PCs.

RT Mac 

This is a card and a small (breakout) box combination made by Matrox. The card sits inside your Mac and the box outside connects to the card. The box outside has connectors for S-video, composite and DV input and output. It also has stereo audio input and output.

With an RT-Mac you can capture from analog sources like VHS, or even U-matic and Betacam. But the RT-Mac has only composite or S-video IN so don't expect component quality. 

The RT-Mac takes in video as composite or S-video, audio as RCA in, and converts it to DV, so you can freely mix it with stuff from a DV camcorder for editing in FCP. But bear in mind that if you're using an RT Mac to capture from anything, even Beta picture is compressed 5:1 (when converted to DV by the RT-Mac). So don't expect it to look as good as uncompressed component Betacam.

And if you're one of those gifted people who can tell the difference between uncompressed and slightly compressed, take a look - RT Mac is 5:1. You'll be amazed.

You can also connect a TV or monitor to the RT-Mac to see what you are editing, on a large screen.

But the whole point of the RT-Mac is the RT part of it. This adds real-time to editing in FCP. Meaning many of the effects that earlier needed to be rendered can now be seen in real-time. If you're heavily into effects during editing, then this feature alone can save you many hours. Provided you make heavy use of the cheesy effects that are real-time. Also, these real-time effects are real-time only through the RT-Mac's analog outputs. So if you're capturing from Beta or VHS or outputting to Beta/VHS no rendering needed. But to output your effects-laden edit to a DV tape, through Firewire, you still have to render.

Apart from RT Mac's real-time effects, FCP 3.0 also gives you real-time. But that's not the same as RT-Mac's real-time. For one thing FCP 3's real-time on the Mac screen only. Not on an external monitor. And FCP's real-time works only with footage captured via Firewire. Whereas RT-Mac gives you real-time for footage captured from analog as well.

The RT Mac captures only at 5:1 or DV resolution. There's no way to make it work at higher or lower compressions. You can't capture using any kind of compression using the RT-Mac. But if you have FCP 3 you can capture with RT-Mac and then "Batch-recompress" to a lower resolution. This works nearly at real time.

The RT-Mac costs Rs 75,000 in India (but $1000 in the US), and is great value for starting an off-line Beta edit suite.

Note that the RT Mac Works under Mac OSX with a recently released test driver. So you have to use FCP 3 under Mac OS 9.2.2 to use the RTMac reliably. Apparently this driver has now been updated to make the RT-MAc work with FCP 4. Check out at Matrox' web site.

If you are planning on getting a new Mac and installing an RTMac in it, proceed with caution. It may or may not work properly under OSX 10.2.6, and probably not at all under FCP 4.

To use the RTMac and capture from Beta with time code, you'll need to get a RS-422 control cable and USB-serial adapter to control Betacam and get time code into FCP.

RT Effects in the RT Mac work with FCP 3. I don't know how this helps if you are using FCP 4 that has it's own Real-time. I'm not even sure RTMac will work with FCP 4

Hollywood DV bridge

This is an external device that has FireWire in and out, and analog composite and S-video in and out and stereo audio in and out. 

With the DV-bridge you could connect your FCP system to an external TV or monitor to see what your video would look like. This saves your camcorder/deck from connected as a convertor.

You could also connect the DV bridge as an analog to DV convertor to capture from VHS, U-matic, or even Betacam.

It sells online at Dazzle's web site for US$ 300 and in India for Rs. 26,000. And there is no such thing as an NTSC or a PAL DV-bridge. They work for both.

Canopus ADVC 100

This is a cute little convertor that has simply great picture quality. It has amazingly cool blue indictor lights that always get noticed. It has S-video and composite analog video and unbalanced audio inputs where you can connect any Betacam or VHS source. The canopus converts this to DV that FCP can grab. If you connect the S-video input to a Betcam PVW 2800 you get pristine quality video and audio. Just like working with Beta.

While editing you can connect the analog S-Video or composite outputs to a TV set or monitor to see the picture while editing.

There's a switch to control the direction of conversion  - analog-DV or DV-analog. And many little DIP switches to set NTSC or PAL, 48k audio or 32 k audio etc.

The ADVC 100 costs about Rs. 22,000.

BlackMagicDecklink Multibridge

This is a standalone converter-embedder-deembedder. It has SDI in and out, analog YUV in and out AES audio in and out, analog audio in and out. And you can input any of the above and convert output to any of the above. Control is via a USB port and a small app that acts as a control panel.

Multibridge is available as SD-only or HD-SD costing $ 1500 and $ 2000 respectively.

Director's Cut

This is made by a company called Miglia. It is similar to the Canopus in that it has Compsite and S-video inputs and outputs and a DV port. meaning you can convert from DV to analog audio-video and vice versa. What makes this product special is that it is bus powered. Meaning no power supply required. One use of this feature is to able to work with a laptop and enable capture of video in the field. Live video assist from a 35 mm or movie camera.

Miranda DV-bridge

I don't have any direct experience with this but have only heard of this. Will find out and write more. There are two versions. One version called DV-bridge+ also takes time-code from digi and embeds it into Firewire. Also, these convertors don't convert from analog to DV only from SDI to DV and reverse An they cost thousands of dollars.

Control

If you use FCP for editing from Betacam or other pro equipment, you'll need to be able to control the Beta deck and get timecode from it. Through the RS-422 port in a Beta deck.

For this you have three options. 

• One is a card that goes into the modem slot of your Mac and gives you a Mac serial port. From this you need a Serial - RS-422 cable that connects with Beta, and then FCP can control the Beta and read time code from it for batch capture and batch redigitizing.
•  The second option is a PCI card that goes into a PCI slot and gives you a Mac serial port. From this again you need a Serial - RS-422 cable that connects with Beta.
•  The third option is a USB - serial convertor. This connects to the USB port of your Mac and gives you a Mac serial port. From this again you need a Serial - RS-422 cable that connects with Beta. Some say this method gives errors because of "latency" or delays between the USB and the RS-422. And some say these errors can be easily offset with the Timecode offset setting. I believe the latter.

Geethree makes the "Stealth Port" that's described in the first option.

Pipeline makes great controllers for RS-422 control for the second option.

The last two are also made by KeySpan and many users use these without any problems. Between the three, the USB-serial option seems to have problems, and is an option only if you're using a PowerBook and have no PCI or modem slot to fix the first two options.

There are also controllers for LANC and controls made by Tao systems.

When I wrote to Tech support at Dazzle, they told me you can "convert" the NTSC version to PAL, by holding down the Power button while applying power to the unit. And that there was no specific PAL version.

I tested a Dazzle DV bridge on a Dual 800 system. It worked for a week and then gave up. In the mean time I had upgraded to FCP 3, so maybe it's not compatible, maybe it is. Either way it works everywhere else except in this system.

I tested a Canopus ADVC 100 on a Dual 800 system. And use it daily in fact. It works. I even use it in a OSX system. Works there too.

So if you're contemplating buying a Canopus try it if possible.

If you need to buy these control devices in Mumbai contact RSG Infotech. You can even try ordering them online if you have an international credit card.

Storage

This section too is old, and not updated. Being kept for information only

This is because FCP like any other non-linear editing software needs to be able to play huge video files and switch between files instantaneously. This works best if the drive that has the operating system and FCP on it is not the same drive that you store your video and audio on.

Meaning, one drive that you boot from and that has the MacOS, and FCP and other applications on it, an another drive that stores video and audio and nothing else. Partitioning one drive into drives is not the same thing. You have to have a separate hard disk.

Storage needs differ depending on the nature of your video.

IDE disks for DV

If you plan on editing exclusively from footage captured from your DV camcorder, meaning all your footage comes in through the Firewire connector in your Mac, then all you need to do is to add another 40 GB or 60 GB or 80 GB hard disk to the existing 20, 30, 40, 60 or whatever your Mac has.

This hard disk has to be an IDE hard disk which spins at at least 7200 rpm. The IBM DeskStar series of drives or the Seagate Barracuda are good choices. An IBM 120 GB DeskStar costs around Rs 17,000 in Mumbai. Western Digital an Quantum are good too.

Stay away from the cheaper Maxtor or Samsung 5400 rpm drives. These are not sufficiently fast for DV. And don't let anyone talk you into buying costly SCSI drives. While these perform better, they're not necessary for DV.

If you have an analog capture card and your are capturing from Betacam or even Digi Beta but using compression, even then you can use IDE drives. Provided you are using compressions till 1:3.

DV consumes 1 GB per 5 mins of footage. So a 60 GB hard disk will give you 300 mins of storage. 80 GB will give you 400 mins.

And, assuming that you have one hard disk and one CD or DVD drive in your Mac, you can add two more hard disks.

Additional IDE disks

If you feel you need even more storage that 2 disks can give you, you can also, add a PCI ATA controller. Promise an Acard are two companies that make these cards. These cards sit in a vacant PCI slot in your Mac and allow you to add 4 more drives. In a Mac G4 there is space to take 3 drives in addition to the existing drive.

These PCI ATA controller cards cost about Rs 6000 or thereabouts. A better 133 controller should cost under Rs.10000.

You can also combine these disks into a RAID. See below.

SCSI disks and cards

For lower compression ratios like 1:2 or uncompressed captured through analog cards (like the Aurora Igniter or Pinnacle Cinewave or Digital Voodoo) you'll need to have SCSI drives. And since the new Mac G3 and G4 don't support SCSI, you'll need to add a PCI SCSI card.

ATTO and Adaptec make good SCSI cards. Get a top-of-the-line dual channel Ultra160 card like the Adaptec 39160 or the ATTO Express.

For the drive you can choose between Seagate Cheetah drives that run at 10,000 rpm or IBM UltraStar drives of the same speed. 72 GB drives of these makes cost about Rs 45,000 apiece. And the SCSI card itself costs about Rs 30,000. So a SCSI card plus 70 GB space will be Rs 1,20,000

RAID

RAID stands for Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks. (Or maybe the I stands for Independent). What this is, is a way of combining two or more disks in a way that they appear as one continuous disk to the system, and data written to the disk is split between the two disks. That way the individual disks themselves don't need to be very fast but a combination of disks appears very fast because they share the load between them.

To make a RAID all you need to do is to connect 2 disks to the two SCSI channels of your dual channel SCSI card and then "stripe" (something like format) them using software like SoftRAID into one continuous disk. You then see one disk on your desktop. So if you RAID two 36 GB hard disks using SoftRAID, you'll see one 72 GB disk on your desktop.

Two SCSI disks can sit comfortably inside your Mac if you have a G4. For a G5 the SCSIs always go out. Even for a G4, it is best to use an external disk "enclosure". This box looks like a miniature PC. It has it's own mains power and fan for the disks that go inside it. And SCSI connectors to connect the disks to your SCSI card in the Mac.

Another way of implementing a RAID is with IDE disks. Some cards, like one made by Acard allow you to connect 2 or more IDE disks on separate IDE connectors an then "stripe" these using hardware into one large disk that is twice as fast as the individual disks. Some IDE Raids may be fast enough for uncompressed video but for long-term reliability SCSI still rules.

You can even get an X-RAID - a really good looking disk array from Apple. Consisting of IDE drives in a special bracket sitting inside a rack-mountable mainframe. And a small PCI card that connects to it.

The array goes all the way up to 5 TB, meaning 5000 GB. The 5 TB X-RAID has 14 drives in striped sets of 7 each. This is sufficient even to play out HD. At lower capacities, X-RAID is more expensive than SCSI, but adding drives in 400 GB increments turns out cheaper.

Mouses

Mouses and Keyboard replacements for Apple computers in India are prohibitively expensive. With USB it becomes easier and somewhat less expensive than getting Apple mice. It's also much faster especially if you are in the midst of critical deadlines.

For users in India wanting a two button mouse on the Mac here are some options:

Logitech
Get any Logitech USB mouse and the accompanying CDROM has a MacOS driver.
Alternately you can download the Mac driver from here
Logitech is currently developing a Mac OSX driver.

Microsoft
Yes, the evil empire has mice and keyboards which work well with Macs. Their optical mice also have an OSX driver which you can download for
OSX
Classic or OS 9

Other Mice
As long as you use a USB mouse you can download this excellent control panel for Mac OS 8-9.
You can also download a beta which Alessandro Montalcini has developed for Mac OSX. This allows a user to use some of the less expensive mice on the market.

The research on Mouses has been shared by a friend Dev Benegal who's as fanatic as I am about FCP. Thanks Dev.
And yes this is THE Dev Benegal who made English August and Split Wide Open. When he isn't making movies he lovingly tends a house full of computers. But has managed to remain sane because they are Macs.