Installing Final Cut Studio 3 On A G5 Mac
Installing Final Cut Studio 3 On A G5 Mac
I upgraded from the old Final Cut Pro 3 to Final Cut Studio 3 when I started playing with HD footage that the old version didn’t support. However I was disappointed to learn that FCS 3 is listed as Intel Only. Apple doesn’t sell FCS 2 (the last PPC supported version) anymore, so I was stuck.
But Apple provided a gift by compiling the FCS 3 applications as Universal. By tweaking the installer to allow installation on a G5 Soundtrack Pro, Compressor, and Final Cut Pro 7.0 seem to work fully. I am editing HDV 720p24 footage without problems.
Motion and Color work but are super slow. They run much faster on a MacBook Pro 2.2 than on the G5. But it’s better than nothing! All software legally owned, no laws broken.
This trick only works because FCS 3 is a Universal application, which has an Intel-only limitation in the installer. I understand that Logic 9.0 is the same way - people have it working fine on their G5's.
Here's what I did (pieced together from several incomplete discussions on the net):
1. Put the FCS 3 installer disk in drive
2. Open Carbon Copy Cloner
3. Make a disk image of the installer disk on your hard drive somewhere
4. In the new disk image, Cntrl-click on Final Cut Studio Install
5. Select Show Original
6. Cntrl-click on FinalCutStudio.mpkg
7. Select Show Package Contents
8. Cntrl-click on FinalCutStudio.dist
9. Select Open With...
10. Browse your apps folder for Text Edit
11. Remove the section that talks about Intel. Remove from the beginning of that section to "my.result.message = ""; etc
(if you don't do this part right you will get a javascript error when you try to install)
12. Save the edited document
13. You can eject the FCS DVD to avoid confusion...
13. Run the installer on your disk image
- 7 hours later -
Before first running FCP, do the following (This will allow RT Extreme to profile correctly):
1. In your apps folder, find Final Cut Pro
2. Cntrl-click on it
3. Select Show Package Contents
4. Find the file Content/Resources/Non-Localized Settings/FXScripts/Enablers/RT Software Enabler.txt
5. Cntrl-click on it and select Open With... Text Edit
6. Edit the line in the "RT Software Enabler.txt", which originally was:
else if (cpucount > 1 && cpuspeed >= 2330 && cputype == cputtype_x86 && !(ispowerbook || ismini) && x8664bit)
changed to:
else if (cpucount > 1 && cpuspeed >= 2500 && cputype == cputtype_ppc && !(ispowerbook || ismini) && ppc64bit)
(changes shown in bold)
Now, when I launch FCP I get the following error:
“One or more unsupported enabler files are installed...” However I haven’t noticed any unexpected behavior so I just click OK and it’s smooth sailing after that.
This worked on a dual 2.5ghz G5 PCIx water cooled model.
-That's it! -
Please don’t ask me questions about this one - this is all I know, Google knows the rest! I did not write the directions, I only compiled them.
Do this at your own risk, I am not responsible if your computer implodes or becomes a spambot for the mob because of this tip.
Thursday, February 18, 2010