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Can use Wester Digital’s MyBook drive on a network featuring multiple OSs, such as Mac OS as well as Windows, provided one does not install MioNet (bundled with the drive).  My instincts were right then (I did not install it).

• http://raoulpop.com/2007/06/25/hardware-review-wd-my-book-world-edition-ii/
• http://forums.macrumors.com/archive/index.php/t/t-300586.html (which references the above)

In my case, the drive is formatted as NTFS, on a Mac it simply appears automatically in Finder then Mac OS is able to read it (Mac OS is able to read NTFS).  In retrospect, maybe would have been better to format it as HFS+ since then Windows could use MacDrive to not only read but write to it.  Meanwhile on Windows I found it necessary to run the “Discover” application bundled with MyBook, which configures the network drive mapping (to a drive letter).

In a post at http://www.macvideo.tv/BLOGS/index.cfm?blogid=101658&entryid=3201452 Matt Davis links to Sony’s page offering the latest SxS driver which is compatible with Snow Leopard.  Also he points out is bugs/features, irritating rather than show-stopping.   There is also a driver for Windows, I’ll try it under Boot Camp.

• http://www.sony.ca/promedia/drivers.htm

The following has a FAQ about it:

• http://www.sony.ca/promedia/support.htm

Need to establish a better home network, e.g. so Parallels on my Mac can see my Windows laptop, so it can suck the XP out of it.  Also want shared printer etc. (I have a node for that).   Just a question of setting it all up…

After having installed FCS3 (feat.FCS7) and its XDCAM Transfer plugin, I did an Apple Software Update.  As expected, this detected an available update for “Pro Applications”.  Among those updates listed was one for Soundtrack Pro, described as “Fixes issue with installer”.  What does that mean?  I already installed it.  Should I uninstall and reinstall it ?  I’ll do nothing until I find out for sure.

After that update , there were no further updates.

The XDCAM Transfer plugin allows FCP to easily ingest footage in the format generated by XDCAM-EX cameras such as the EX3.   Unlike FCP6, where it was also advised to load a “FAM Driver” (as a separate plugin), this is not appropriate for FCP7 (explained below)

From the ReadMe phase of the ‘Install XDCAM Transfer’ installer dialog:

XDCAM FAM driver and tool.
Mount Professional Discs in XDCAM devices connected by FAM (i.LINK) in the Finder.
Note: The XDCAM FAM driver and tool are not compatible with Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard and are not installed.
•    XDCAM Transfer main application.
Preview clips from XDCAM and import your selected material as QuickTime movies. XDCAM Transfer supports the PDW-U1 XDCAM Drive unit and Professional Memory Cards recorded with the PMW-EX1 camcorder.
•    Sony XDCAM Import and Export plug-ins for Final Cut Pro.
Initiate transfers from XDCAM directly into a Final Cut Pro project and render your Final Cut Pro sequence directly onto a connected XDCAM disc.
•    Final Cut Pro XDCAM presets.
Configure your sequence and export settings to be compatible with XDCAM. The XDCAM HD422 presets replace those installed by Final Cut Pro 6.0.3.
•    XDCAM Transfer User Guide.
Found in the Documentation folder of this disk image and also available from the Help menu of the XDCAM Transfer application after installing the software.

 As a first experiment (with how well or not FCS3 would run), I installed the upgrade to a new machine.

Groundless concerns:

• There is no hassle over installing it on a second machine.  The license allows it and there is no Deactivation etc required.  Only if both machines are on the same network will it complain.
• It was not necessary for the target machine to have the previous version of FCS installed.

The update physical form was a cardboard box measuring about (by eye) 5×5x1.5 inches.  Its main contents were 7 data-DVDs, a nice concise booklet and some formal documentation, one of which had the serial number printed (twice).   Installing the system took a few hours.

The main installation disk additionallycontained electronic documentation.  I copied it to :

• Boris Calligraphy User guide
  • Makes fancy text.
• Exploring Final Cut Pro 7
  • Same as the booklet that came in the box.

It also contained “Extras”, as follows:

• AppleQmasterNode.mpkg
  • Allows a computer to act as a node in a render-farm, in support of Compressor.  If you are unsure which role each computer will play in your network, just install the Apple Qmaster software on each computer in your network. You can sort out the details later. [http://documentation.apple.com/en/appleqmaster/distributedprocessingsetupguide/index.html#chapter=2%26section=2%26tasks=true]
  • I started its installer but it asked whether I wanted to let this computer be used as a rendering node.  I had already been asked that question when loading the main FCS3.  So maybe it was loaded already.  Decided that FCS was probably best left alone in this respect, so I aborted the install.
    • CORRECT: While following QMaster tutorial [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTrxEAPGY5Y] I checked existing System Preferences for QMaster and they were already there, it was already enabled for sharing.
      • In contrast, when I checked the same for my older machine running FCP6, its QMaster was not enabled for sharing.  Of course I fixed that immediately.
  • • BUT in both cases (both machines) the options were greyed-out.
    • For the newly-installed FCP7 machine,  Options for selected service (Compressor) said “Selected Service On (2 instances).  Sounds like it’s using both cores OK.
    • For the older FCP6 machine, it said “Selected service On (1 instance)”.  But its an 8-core machine.  So maybe something is not quite right…
    • Then again it might be a “feature”  of no significance, just run a render and check Activity Monitor to see if all cores are being used [http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=7315551].  The discussion (like some others) also suggests not using all the cores available.
• DVX-100 Audio Sync Tool
  • DVX-100 is a camcorder by Panasonic. Broadly EX3-like and film-ish e.g. 24P)
  • I don’t need this, so I won’t install it.
• Head Leaders for Cinema Tools
  • Countdown etc.
    • A number of prebuilt QuickTime clips have been included to use as head leader in your edited sequences. Using these head leader clips is preferable to selecting the “Start with 8 seconds of leader” checkbox in the Export Film Lists dialog because these clips also contain Picture Start, countdown, and an audio pop at the 2-second mark. [’Head Leaders Read Me’ file]
  • I guess they’re intended to be copied somewhere (?).  I put them at […/Documents/Final Cut/FCS 07]
• Spotlight Importer
  • Spotlight importers should be provided by all applications that support custom document formats. A Spotlight importer parses your document format for relevant information and assigning that information to the appropriate metadata keys. [http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/DOCUMENTATION/Carbon/Conceptual/MDImporters/Concepts/WritingAnImp.html]
  • In other words, it allows Spotlight to search withinapplication-specific files.
  • But when I tried installing it, it said “The domain/default pair of (com.apple.dock, loc) does not exist”.  Don’t know what it means but it sounds broken…   Either way, I can’t install it, so must abandon it.
• Template Intro Movies for DVD Studio Pro
  • Blocks, corporate, mosaic, stripes, smoke…
  • I guess they’re intended to be copied somewhere (?).  I put them at […/Documents/Final Cut/FCS 07]

Further config items:

1. Safe-Boot (hold shift-key down when booting)
2. Create a “Default Everything” account.
3. Disable bluetooth (is enabled by default) and also disable its Discoverable property.
   • RightClick on the bluetooth icon at Mac’s top-right “system tray”
4. Which graphic card (GPU) is in use?  According to “About This Mac”, it is the lower-powered  9400M instead of the higher-powered 9600GT (both are NVIDIA GeForce). How do I change it to the higher-powered one?