Now that I am back on here, I already have some issues that I would love to get opinions from the troops :blush:

I've been talking to knightly about a dropped frame problem I have been having with my FCP and he has been quite helpful but the problem still exists, so on the off chance that someone else has seen this or experienced this:

When I attempt to capture my footage I get a dropped frame alert and the capture is stopped. In order to fix this problem, I have:

1. Changed User Settings from 'make a clip' to 'warn on capture'
2. Cleanded the cameras heads
3. Re-installed FCP 4
4. Done a 'repair' on my Mac G4
5. Moved all footage off of my laptop hard drive onto my external hard drive

Actually, now the error I get is a timecode problem. :rolleyes: ...sigh...

Since I am not a complete idiot, I have considered that it might be the tapes. But the problem is on every tape I use, recently taped (last week) and previously taped (some months ago.)

Has anyone ever experienced this sort of thing before? What did you do to fix it?

...damn! this is so un-cool! I have at least 3 things I need to pull together and I can't capture anything! :grumpy:

Any help would be appreciated......

-- spinner :cool:

Not sure if this'll help, but try getting a new firewire cable. Sounds like some slow data is missing the BUS. If it's not the tapes, and it's not the camera/capture-device, and it's not the computer... then it's usually a hamster lodged in the cooling fan. And if it's not that, it's usually the cable.

...oh, I never thought of that! :hmm: ...I'll try that and let you know what happens....later....

-- spinner :cool:

When you set up FCP to capture, what format are you capturing in?

If you're setting it to something high like "DV50-NTSC" or "UNCOMPRESSED", you're probably setting the capture type too high. I made this mistake. I lowered the capture setting down to "FIREWIRE-BASIC" and it captured perfectly.

What kind of camera did you shoot with?

What computer do you have FCP on? (iMac? MacBook Pro? PowerMac? Mac Pro?) What capture device are you using? (Camera? Deck?) How do you have that capture device hooked up? (Is it going into a firewire drive which in turn is plugged into the computer or is each plugged into the computer separately?) Do you have any other programs running?

If you can I would recommend turning off ALL programs except for FCP. If you're using a firewire drive I would further recommend plugging the capture device and drive in separate ports if at all possible.

Denis's idea is also a good one. Check the cable.

There are also some possible changes to your settings that might help but I'm not in front of my Mac right now.

When you set up FCP to capture, what format are you capturing in?

If you're setting it to something high like "DV50-NTSC" or "UNCOMPRESSED", you're probably setting the capture type too high. I made this mistake. I lowered the capture setting down to "FIREWIRE-BASIC" and it captured perfectly.

What kind of camera did you shoot with?

I am capturing in DV-NTSC, I shot my footage with DVX 100a, and I am using a camcorder as playback, all of which was working up until a couple of weeks ago...

-- spinner :cool:

What computer do you have FCP on? (iMac? MacBook Pro? PowerMac? Mac Pro?)

I am using a PowerBook G4 laptop running FCP 4....


What capture device are you using? (Camera? Deck?)

I am capturing with a Panasonic 3ccd, 1.2 megapixel camcorder....


How do you have that capture device hooked up? (Is it going into a firewire drive which in turn is plugged into the computer or is each plugged into the computer separately?) Do you have any other programs running?... If you can I would recommend turning off ALL programs except for FCP.

I am connecting my firewire from the camcorder into the firewire port on the right side of my laptop, there are no other programs running...

If you're using a firewire drive I would further recommend plugging the capture device and drive in separate ports if at all possible.

...am I not doing that? Camcorder to laptop firewire 400 port :huh:

Denis's idea is also a good one. Check the cable.

...did that, thanks for the suggestion.... :(

There are also some possible changes to your settings that might help but I'm not in front of my Mac right now.

...well, when you are, I would really like to know what else to try. This is a recent development, like over the last month or so, I had no problems for the last 1-1/2 to 2 years with anything like this....this is extremely frustrating...

-- spinner :cool:

I am capturing in DV-NTSCAh! When I attempt to capture in DV-NTSC, I get dropped frames too. Tons of them.

I solved this problem by capturing in DV-NTSC FIREWIRE BASIC. No more dropped frames for me.

Try it and let us know if this helps.

...headed there right now....

-- spinner :cool:

Hey! LOC!

Where do you have your preferences? knightly recommended unchecking 'abort capture on dropped frames' so I was going to do that and I was going to put the setting on warn after capture...

-- spinner

Click:

[FINAL CUT PRO]
- [EASY SETUP]
- - Format: NTSC
- - Use: DV-NTSC Firewire Basic

Then try to capture. This worked for me!

...okay, I changed my settings to 'warn after capture', unchecked 'abort capture on dropped frames' and changed my user preferences to DV-NTSC Firewire basic. I am still getting the dropped frame error, however, the place where the 'hit' is has moved which confirms that it isn't a hit on the tape itself.

I still have the problem, though... :grumpy: it's infuriating!!!!

-- spinner :cool:

I am connecting my firewire from the camcorder into the firewire port on the right side of my laptop, there are no other programs running...

...am I not doing that? Camcorder to laptop firewire 400 port :huh:

Where are you capturing the footage to? The internal HD? If you're doing that I would recommend picking up an external firewire drive. It's not good to capture onto the same drive where the app is run. It slows things down.

Did you upgrade the OS recently? I know OS X 10.4.10 just came out. That may have something to do with it.

Most Mac users say you don't need to defrag your drive but in my experience if the drive is heavily fragment it can cause issues. Download and run iDefrag to check you drive. Doesn't hurt to see how heavily fragmented the drive is.

Akso, repair permissions and the disk. (Permissions can be repaired through Disk Utility in the Utilities folder, but to repair the disk you need to boot from your OS X CD/DVD and use Disk Utility from that.)

Where are you capturing the footage to? The internal HD? If you're doing that I would recommend picking up an external firewire drive. It's not good to capture onto the same drive where the app is run. It slows things down.

...I have found that this is so. I had been saving to my internal because I could not afford an external. I now have a 320 Ghz firewire Western Digital external and I have moved all my footage to that. However, I called the Apple people and talked to them about my problem and how to 'defrag' my computer and they said that I needed to do a repair permissions and then verify permissions. That's what I did and I am still getting the dropped frames.

So what I am hoping is to repair whatever it is that has 'fragmented' my hard drive.

Did you upgrade the OS recently? I know OS X 10.4.10 just came out. That may have something to do with it.

I just got a update alert for Mac OS X update, but it says: 'PowerPC' so I wasn't sure if I should download it.

Most Mac users say you don't need to defrag your drive but in my experience if the drive is heavily fragment it can cause issues. Download and run iDefrag to check you drive. Doesn't hurt to see how heavily fragmented the drive is.

....I'll try that...

-- spinner :cool:

I just got a update alert for Mac OS X update, but it says: 'PowerPC' so I wasn't sure if I should download it.

You have a G4 so your processor is a PowerPC. You can use that update safely.

iDefrag can be found at http://coriolis-systems.com/iDefrag.php

iDefrag can be found at http://coriolis-systems.com/iDefrag.php

...so you recommend the iDefrag, I still consider myself to be computer illiterate about these kinds of programs. What do you know about it? has it been around for a while?

I'm just alittle nervous about putting something into my computer, having the computer not function the way I am used to and not being able to fix whatever it does...

-- spinner :cool:

I registered and use iDefrag and I've never had a problem with it. But every computer behaves differently, doesn't it? :) If you're nervous about it I would recommend getting an account with Mozy (mozy.com) where you can back up important files/directories to their server. It's free for 2GB or $4.95/mth for unlimited storage. Back you your files to their server or a DVD-R then give iDisk a try. (I don't know if you can actually defragment the drive without registering it but it should be able to tell you how fragment your drive is.

...okay, I changed my settings to 'warn after capture', unchecked 'abort capture on dropped frames' and changed my user preferences to DV-NTSC Firewire basic. I am still getting the dropped frame error, however, the place where the 'hit' is has moved which confirms that it isn't a hit on the tape itself.

I still have the problem, though... :grumpy: it's infuriating!!!!

-- spinner :cool:

Hmm, are you recording to a 7200RPM, 5400RPM or 4200RPM hard drive? If it's a 4200RPM drive, you may be getting errors due to the drive's slow write speeds.

How much RAM is installed on the G4?

Hmm, are you recording to a 7200RPM, 5400RPM or 4200RPM hard drive? If it's a 4200RPM drive, you may be getting errors due to the drive's slow write speeds.

How much RAM is installed on the G4?

Same if it's a 5400RPM drive. Minimum you want is 7200.

[ADDED] This just occurred to me. If you're like a lot of Mac users you have music on your computer through iTunes. How much hard drive space do you have left on your main HD? A good rule to follow is keep 15%-20% of your drive free so files can be swapped instead of the computer having to use RAM.

When I bought my 17in MacBook Pro a few months ago, I spent the extra cash for the 7200RPM drive because this would be my exclusive editing box.

It turned out to be an excellent WoW box too, but editing is a bit more important.

Must... stop... raiding... horde... territory...! :lol:

The OSX 10.4.10 update is the one I e-mailed you about a couple of days ago...it also addresses a dropped frame on import issue. Located under the "Apple Menu" then "Software Update...".

Thanks, you guys!

Well, firstly I don't remember what the hard drive is anymore, I knew when I was buying this thing, but now I'm not so sure anymore. I am really glad that I will have the extra time to become more familiar with all of this. If you can let me know where to look for this, I looked in the 'about' on the Apple icon, but didn't see what you are speaking of.

and secondly, I don't download music anymore. Not since Napster became illegal and then legal and whatever. Anyway, no iTunes on my computer or any other music downloads. Yeah, I know they would slow everything down.

knightly;
I did get the upgrade and I will be looking it over tomorrow. I also think I will get the iDefrag as well. This has been going on for almost a month and as much time as this is taking, I am starting to worry about getting my work done. I am beginning to believe it is a defrag problem especially since initially I had to save my footage onto my hard drive....

...see, once we all become rich and famous, we won't have to worry about not having the necessary equipment anymore... :rolleyes:

-- spinner :cool:

Well, firstly I don't remember what the hard drive is anymore, I knew when I was buying this thing, but now I'm not so sure anymore. I am really glad that I will have the extra time to become more familiar with all of this. If you can let me know where to look for this, I looked in the 'about' on the Apple icon, but didn't see what you are speaking of.

You can find the hard drive information under System Profiler which is located in the Utilities folder. I don't know what type of drives are in the system you have (IDE, ATA, SATA, etc.) but whatever it is you can click on whatever type you have and it will have you the manufacturer, model number and more.

She's got an IDE drive 5400 RPM unless she specifically ordered faster (which I don't think you did spinner). Laptops tend to have slower drives to decrease heat and potential failure due to movement.

I talked her through moving footage off of her main drive onto an external drive (from ~/Documents/Final\ Cut\ Pro\ Documents/Capture\ Scratch) about the time she is reporting these problems starting.

The inital problem was that she couldn't capture new footage. My inital thoughts were that the drive was full (which it was). We went through and moved the footage to an external drive along with other pertinant project files (specifically, the .fcp files for each of the pieces she was backing up). We then moved the main footage to the trash (without emptying) and opened the .fcp files from the external and reconnected the media to verify they worked off of the external. I told her then to empty her trash, which she did.

The next call was for the dropped frames (which I've always seen, so I didn't understand how they were an unusual thing). I talked her through the work-arounds I've used on my system (warn after capture, continue capture, etc...).

She had never cleaned the heads of her DVX until this problem...they're cleaned now.

Her laptop has one FW400 and one FW800 port. She can't capture to the external via FW due to this, she's looking into getting a FW PCMCIA card to give another FW port (and bus). USB2.0 has a higher listed transfer rate (480 vs. 400), but that doesn't hold in sustained transfers as well as FW.

Reinstalled FCP from DVD. I'd like her to find someone else with a camera to see if it's specific to her camera as well. Defrag was mentioned (hadn't known of any affordable software for it, I just downloaded iDefrag, thanks for the link)...as well as not using the main drive for footage.

Her laptop has one FW400 and one FW800 port. She can't capture to the external via FW due to this, she's looking into getting a FW PCMCIA card to give another FW port (and bus). USB2.0 has a higher listed transfer rate (480 vs. 400), but that doesn't hold in sustained transfers as well as FW.

Everything you've instructed her to do is good advice though I doubt you need me to tell you that. :) Even though she has one FW port she should be able to hook the camera up through the external firewire drive since most have an extra port or two. Granted, you generally don't want to have the camera being accessed through the external drive especially if you're capturing to it, but she could try that before buying an extra PCMCIA care. Just a thought.

I'm not sure what else to try if defragmenting, repairing permissions, and everything else you and everyone has recommended doesn't work.

Hey, guys!

Sorry I fell off the radar yesterday, but I brought a doctor's note: anybody ever have a scratched cornea? I was pretty much in a certain amount of discomfort and couldn't get back, but I will be around for a little while today and should be fine tomorrow.

...and thanks for all your help...

-- spinner :cool:

She's got an IDE drive 5400 RPM unless she specifically ordered faster (which I don't think you did spinner). Laptops tend to have slower drives to decrease heat and potential failure due to movement.
..it is an ATA drive....I have to go look for the RPM....

I talked her through moving footage off of her main drive onto an external drive (from ~/Documents/Final\ Cut\ Pro\ Documents/Capture\ Scratch) about the time she is reporting these problems starting.

The inital problem was that she couldn't capture new footage. My inital thoughts were that the drive was full (which it was). We went through and moved the footage to an external drive along with other pertinant project files (specifically, the .fcp files for each of the pieces she was backing up). We then moved the main footage to the trash (without emptying) and opened the .fcp files from the external and reconnected the media to verify they worked off of the external. I told her then to empty her trash, which she did.

...thank you, sensei...:D

The next call was for the dropped frames (which I've always seen, so I didn't understand how they were an unusual thing). I talked her through the work-arounds I've used on my system (warn after capture, continue capture, etc...).

She had never cleaned the heads of her DVX until this problem...they're cleaned now.

I meant my playback camera! I have two, my DVX and my little playback Panasonic, that's the one that hadn't been cleaned.I may have misunderstood...however, I do think that I should probably clean them more often, any suggestions about that would be welcome, too.

Her laptop has one FW400 and one FW800 port. She can't capture to the external via FW due to this, she's looking into getting a FW PCMCIA card to give another FW port (and bus). USB2.0 has a higher listed transfer rate (480 vs. 400), but that doesn't hold in sustained transfers as well as FW.

Reinstalled FCP from DVD. I'd like her to find someone else with a camera to see if it's specific to her camera as well. Defrag was mentioned (hadn't known of any affordable software for it, I just downloaded iDefrag, thanks for the link)...as well as not using the main drive for footage.

...as soon as I can drive I am going to go pick up that pcmcia card you were talking about. Now that I have an external to use, I would like to save my footage to that as opposed to having to move it from my laptop.

As for the iDefrag, it costs: L 17.50, so I am not quite sure what that is in dollars, I think I saw about $30. Pardon me for being alittle confused, this is alot of info at one time, but I am beginning to slowly retain it. I am glad I can ask you all about this stuff....

-- grasshopper :cool:

Okay, new question:

I am planning on purchasing the pcmcia card, as per knightly. I was getting alot of info when this was discussed but I think I understand that this card will give me another firewire port.

So, if I get this card, I think I can bypass my laptop hard drive and save my footage directly to my external. If that is so, would/should I still get iDefrag or will the bypassing of my laptop be enough. Should I purchase them both? (iDefrag is about $30-$35 dollars, relatively inexpensive).

Am I right in this thinking?

-- spinner :cool:

wouldn't hurt to get both, but I think being able to captre directly to your external storage would be more important at this point.

wouldn't hurt to get both, but I think being able to captre directly to your external storage would be more important at this point.


Thanks!

I think I might get this taken care of in a day or so. I don't like not being able to do what I need to do. So long as I can get on with capturing my footage, I will be okay and I'll take on the defrag later...I'll be in touch....

-- spinner :cool:

Okay, here is the result of all of this: :woohoo:

Here's what I did...bear with me, those who already know, this is for us newbies...:D

...as knightly suggested, I purchased a pcmcia card. My PowerBook has a slot on the left side that I never had any idea of what to use it for. That is where the card goes. The card gives you 2 extra FireWire ports.

Connect the external to the computer itself. Open Final Cut and go to system settings.

System Settings already has its settings for the laptop, so I had to add one.

On the scratch disks tab, you will find video capture, audio capture (which is grey), video render and audio render.

There are 4 slots to add a hard drive, don't change the one you already have, it tells you its the Macintosh hard drive. Go to the second slot and click set. Choose folder for your external hard drive. When you click the folder, it will show you that you have added another hard drive and its connected to your scratch disks.

Then click (check) the box on your slot (to the left) that says: video capture. You don't have to click the video or audio render because your computer can handle that part. Click okay.

When you go to capture, connect your playback to the card.

When I attempted to capture, I clicked on log and capture and then capture NOW, the capture window did come up, but I got an allocating files alert and the rainbow pinwheel. After the 'pinwheel' went away, I started the tape and everything captured with no hits, dropped frames or timecode breaks!

Again, I say: Woohoo!

Thanks for everyone assistance, I appreciate it very much! Never even crossed my mind to check the FireWire cable, Spatula, and even though that wasn't the problem I intend to try to remember that from now on. You never know when that might be the problem...

I did change my setup to NTSC-DV FireWire Basic, thanks, LOC, and I may purchase iDefrag, just not right now, Thunderclap, credit card is filling up again....

The best way to learn something is to tell someone how to do it :yes:

I'm sure if I left anything out, you all will let me know... :D

-- spinner :cool:

New development:

when I attempt to capture the footage, in capture now, FCP gives me a 'allocating disk space' alert. This happens once I click 'now' in the capture window. The capture window comes up but it is black and in the grey area below the window it says 'allocating disk space'. This takes quite a bit of time, sometimes long enough for my capture camera to shut off. Again making it almost impossible to capture (I got one clip captured in an hour)

Anyone see this before? I looked through my manual but I can't seem to find this anywhere.

Any suggestions :huh: At this rate, its going to take me a year to get this footage from one tape...(sigh)

-- spinner :cool:

Here's an update...

in the space of 45 minutes, I have only been able to save 4 clips, all no longer than 3 minutes apiece. The 'allocating disk space' alert sits no less than 4 minutes, the longest being about 8 or 9 minutes to just get the capture function to operate...

I did run another repair on the Mac, just to be sure...

I sure would like to know of this computer (or me, blame the operator) is having a nervous breakdown or what :rolleyes:

...the issue is that I have never had these problems on this computer before, when something new occurs, I am not really good at finding the problem, in that it is the first time I am seeing it.

Has anyone else had any issues with Mac & FCP? I would love some insight because I seem to be doing what I should...I really am a good little girl....:D

-- spinner :cool:

Okay, the problem I've been having is that when I attempt to capture I get a:

"allocating disk space" alert.

This is how you fix this:

ANYTHING you want to keep, backup. (I moved stuff to my Mac desktop)

Go To Applications; open UTILITIES; open DISK UTILITIES;

Click on your external icon (mine was WD Combo); At the top you will see a row of buttons (not the row of icons);

Click on 'ERASE';

VOLUME FORMAT is a drop down menu, choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

Under VOLUME FORMAT is NAME. You can name it whatever you will remember, but I just called it what it is on my hard drive, which is WD COMBO.

Then click ERASE. It should only take a second.

When it is done erasing, put everything that you needed (your backed up stuff) back onto your external.

I hope to get my footage into my computer by tomorrow night! Thanks again, knightly!

-- spinner :cool:

problem was that the external HD came formatted in a PC way (fat32 or ntfs - unsure which)...the mac was fine with this, but final cut didn't like it. We reformatted as HFS+ Extended/Journalled.

New Project, new capturing problem.

I have been using my MacJanitor, I have cleared alot of space out of my laptop hard drive, I have emptied the capture scratch files, and cleaned the heads on my camera.

Now when I attempt to capture my footage, it stops in mid capture as though it is hitting a control break, which it is not. The only thing I am getting is the pinwheel. No alerts or anything to give me an idea of why it won't finish a capture. I have also done re-boots.

...any thoughts?


-- spinner :cool:

Have you considered deleting all of your FCP preferences and redoing your FCP configuration? That's usually the first thing I do when FCP gets flaky, and I haven't seen where anyone has suggested that.

Oak;

do you mean delete everything and then reinstall? :huh: I don't think I know how to do that...


-- spinner :cool:

no, no, no ... FCP makes preference files that store all of your settings and customizations. By removing them, you reset everything to default values, so you'll have to reassign scratch disks, etc. I know FCP users who delete their FCP preferences before they start each project. Apparently, they can become corrupted, and strange things happen in Final Cut.
You'll find the preferences files in your Library/Preferences folder. Files include:

com.apple.FinalCutPro.plist
everything in the folder "Final Cut Pro User Data" except your Plugins, if you have any in there. They are in the "Plugins" folder under "Final Cut Pro User Data".

Here are some links with more info:
brief instructions (http://www.geniusdv.com/final-cut-pro/user_preferences_in_fcp.php)
the official word from Apple (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302337)

The LAFCPUG has a great, step by step tutorial, but I can't link it here, because they have a forum and the owner of this forum is afraid you'll discover another forum and never return.

I already have some footage imported into my new project. Is deleting preferences going to mess up that footage or "confuse" my capture scratch files? I hesitate to put everything back to the defaults because of other changes I have made in order to head off other issues.


-- spinner :cool:

You won't lose any project files by removing your preferences.

Considering that the Ken Stone crowd, Apple, and other Final Cut experts all say to do this when FCP gets flaky, I believe your hesitation is simply prolonging your agony. This is the first thing I do when FCP gets strange, and it takes less than 2 minutes to update my scratch folders and easy config.

You won't lose any project files by removing your preferences.

Considering that the Ken Stone crowd, Apple, and other Final Cut experts all say to do this when FCP gets flaky, I believe your hesitation is simply prolonging your agony. This is the first thing I do when FCP gets strange, and it takes less than 2 minutes to update my scratch folders and easy config.

...to that, I say: :seeya: :D

I always feel as though I'm going to mess something up, I'm not where I want to be Mac-wise, computer-wise...


-- spinner :cool:

I'd suggest you read the step-by-step guides carefully. Also, you don't need to delete your preferences, you can just drag the respective files onto your desktop and if you end up having trouble, you can always drag them back.

Do I really want to remove a file that has plug-ins?

What do I do with these files I remove? Will FCP 'replace' them on my next project or should I just leave them on my desktop?

-- spinner :cool:

...okay, so I removed the:

com.apple.FinalCutPro.plist and the Final Cut Pro User Data file.

I reset my capture scratch file and the preferences. I am still having the same problem....


-- spinner :cool:

Perhaps the tape has a problem on it. Can you capture after it stops (from just after the point where it stops)? How far into the tape does it stop?

I am pretty sure it isn't the tape. It isn't stopping in the same place and does capture after. I also made sure that the heads were cleaned. I even changed the tape and it is happening on the second tape I used...


-- spinner :cool:

I know you've tried swapping cables. You said you have 2 cameras, do you have the same problem with both of them? I've experience this problem, but I've always been able to make it go away with a different cable, a head cleaning, or deleting my preferences. It still could be some other system or hardware problem. The next step in Apple's troubleshooting guide is to re-install FCP. I don't know why you should ever need to re-install software, but it's not my idea.

Doug

I do have one last idea that should eliminate any possibility that you've configured something oddly. If you don't want to try this, I won't feel bad, but it's a good way to troubleshoot some problems.

Create a new user account on your computer. It needs to be administrator account, if you're going to capture to external disks, or you'll have to jump through some other hoops with permissions.

Log off of your user account and log into the new user account.

Open FCP, do the setup, again; no need to do too much configuration, just your scratch disk drive and the Easy Setup for DV-NTSC firewire basic.

Try your capture and see if it's any better.

(you can remove the new user after you finished, but you may want to keep it for future diagnostics)

I have checked everything but the firewire cable. Frankly, I didn't think that this cable would be the problem considering I haven't done anything but plug it in. No folding or kinks in it. Do firewire cables wear just from sitting on your desk?

-- spinner :cool:

I've had them go bad with no abuse. I suspect the cable was faulty in the first place; maybe a poorly bonded connector, and eventually the connection worsened. These things can happen just with changing temperature, as the different parts of the cable will expand and contract at different rates, so a bad crimp could come loose while a cable just lying on a counter. Of course, it can also work loose just plugging and unplugging.

However, you are correct in assuming that if a cable is of good quality and constructed without defects, it should not just stop working. Unfortunately, most cables are manufactured quite cheaply.

One more thing about faulty cables. When things won't work and you try everything and nothing helps, then all of a sudden everything works again for a while, but just as quickly the problem comes back when nothing has changed, the cable is probably the most likely point of failure. If your computer were flaky it would crash all the time, but a faulty cable can work flawlessly one time, because the connector just happens to make a good connection and you're not moving it around, then, after being replugged or moved a little, it can just stop working, or go back to intermittent failures.

I thought you had already swapped cables, otherwise, that's the place to start. In cases like yours where "it worked last week", and "oh, that fixed it, it's working now", followed by "oops, it's not working again", you've either got a dirty heads, a bad tape, or a bad connection (most likely the cable).

Short FW cables aren't expensive. If you don't have a couple, I'd recommend you purchase a couple more. Don't purchase the cheapest cables you can find, but you don't need to go overboard, either.

...I have just changed the firewire cable and I still have the same issue. I attempt to capture my video and the picture will freeze after capturing the majority of the clip.

This happened before and what I did was give it a re-boot, but that doesn't seem to be doing the trick today.

I would really prefer not to have to re-install FCP every time I have a new project...

-- spinner :cool:

If I were you, I'd refuse to re-install FCP, as I don't believe that is a fix for anything. I know someone is going to tell me it worked for them, but as a software developer, I'm not sure how software wears out. I had really hoped a cable replacement would do the trick. As far as I know, you've done everything that makes sense to do. You may want to retrace your steps and be sure that nothing got switched around in all of your diagnostic attempts. Go through all of your settings (again), do the Easy Setup and make sure you get exactly what you need. If it used to work, it should still work.

I went to one of the DV sites that talk Final Cut Pro and found that alot of people seem to be having this same problem and that it seems to be an issue with Quicktime. Well, I have edited 5 projects on this system and the Quicktime has always worked. And I also found that this happens when I try to import clips longer than 5 minutes in size.

I think I am just stuck. I am not in a position to put anymore money into this system right now. I always seem to be pressed for time or money right when I don't have either.

I think right now, I will try to keep my clips shorter than 5 minutes until I can re-install my system. It would also seem like I would not have to re-install FCP for every new project. Grrrr :grumpy:

Thanks for the help and advice...I'll let you know what develops...

-- spinner :cool:

What button are you using to do the capture? Capture now? There is a maximum capture time length (hence the question about the length of the capture) which is by default set to 30 minutes. That may have been reset at some point during the troubleshooting process for the other stuff. Check in there some where (either system or AV settings).

I went back into my settings and set that to 45 minutes after I removed the files from the preferences. Yes, I am using the capture now button...

-- spinner :cool:

Try setting the in and out points manually and doing a capture clip instead and see how that flies.

Nope, after about 5 minutes the video stills. I also tried changing my settings for how long the clips can be. I had it set at 20 minutes, but I changed it to 45 minutes (what the default is). No change.

So, for now, I am shortening my clips. I have had to cut certain things in the middle of actions but I think I can figure out how to fix this problem. At least the footage is going in...


-- spinner :cool:

If you have timecode, you can splice 2 clips back together with frame accuracy. I've had to do that before.

True :)

So far I am okay with the breaks, but the project after this will be harder because it will be more band performances. The length of the song is the length of the song. I may have to use the timecode....

-- spinner :cool:

Hey, I just wanted to drop in and comment on something that was said.. well I guess it was said last year. This is sort of beside the point but you practically never need to 'defrag' your hard drive with a Mac. Macs defrag the hard drive on the fly as files are written, so apps like iDefrag are very, very specialized tools. Just wanted to raise awareness on that little issue.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25668

I think the apple defrag defrags the files, but not the whole drive.