Visual QuickStart Guide [Electronic resources] : Final Cut Express HD for Mac OS X

Lisa Brenneis

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  • Setting Scratch Disk Preferences

    A

    scratch disk is a folder on a hard disk where Final Cut Express stores your captured media source files and render files. The default scratch disk location is the same hard disk where your Final Cut Express application is installed. You can specify multiple scratch disk locations, either to improve performance by capturing audio and video on separate drives (not recommended for DV) or to provide the necessary storage capacity for your project media.

    You should assign your scratch disks to your fastest disk drives. For best performance, avoid using the system hard disk as a scratch disk.

    When a disk or folder is added to the scratch disk list, Final Cut Express automatically creates a folder on that disk called Final Cut Express Documents. That folder contains subfolders (one for each type of media file your project will generate) named Capture Scratch, Audio Capture Scratch, Render Files, Audio Render Files, Thumbnail Cache Files, and Waveform Cache Files (Figure 3.10 ). If you are capturing DV, your captured media files will be stored in a folder bearing your project's name inside the Capture Scratch folder.

    Figure 3.10. The Final Cut Express Documents folder contains a subfolder for each type of media file that your project will generate.

    Tip

    • Final Cut Express requires that each hard disk have a distinct name that does not contain the entire name of another media drive. For example, the program will not reliably distinguish between two drives named Media and Media 1, but Media 1 and Media 2 are acceptable names. Bear this in mind when you are assigning names to hard drives you are using with Final Cut Express.

    FCE Protocol: Scratch Disks

    Unless you specify otherwise, Final Cut Express uses the disk with the most available space as its storage area for rendered files. If you specify multiple scratch disks, Final Cut Express will use the next disk in the list with the most available space when the current disk runs out of space. You can specify separate disks for captured video and audio files to obtain better capture quality at higher data rates and improved playback performance. If you're capturing DV, however, you should always specify the same scratch disk for captured video and audio.

    To specify Scratch Disk preferences:

    1.

    Choose Final Cut Express > System Settings.

    The Scratch Disks tab appears as the front tab of the System Settings window (Figure 3.11 ).

    Figure 3.11. The Scratch Disks tab of the System Settings window.

    Chapter 4, "Projects, Sequences, and Clips."

  • Minimum Allowable Free Space on Scratch Disks: Enter a limit value. When disk space falls below this minimum, a disk will no longer be used as a scratch disk, and files will be stored on the next disk in the list.

  • Limit Capture/Export File Segment Size To: Enter a limit value. The default value is 2 GB. Final Cut Express allows the capture and export of single files larger than 2 GB, but if you plan to move your files to another system that has a file size limitation, or if you share media files over a network, you should enable this option. Files that are larger than your specified limit will be spanned (written as separate, but linked, files).

  • Limit Capture Now To: Enter a limit value. The default limit is 30 minutes.

    • Tip

    • FCE automatically calculates a safer, saner default value for Minimum Allowable Free Space (MAFS) on Scratch Disks. Previous versions of FCE used 10 MB as the default minimumtoo low for comfort.

      Each time FCE generates a new preference file, it checks the capacity of the first scratch disk selected in the Scratch Disks tab, and automatically sets a default value for MAFS that is based on a percentage of the disk's capacity. FCE allows 5% if the scratch disk is a boot drive, and 1% for a non-boot hard drive. You can always set a higher MAFS. If you're interested in preserving the performance and reliability of your captured source media, you should set a higher minimum. Many users set aside 10 percent of each drive's capacity as "headroom"and sleep better for it.