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Activity Forums Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy problem with firewire output – help please

  • problem with firewire output – help please

    Posted by Baba Goof on July 20, 2005 at 8:08 pm

    i’m editing on a powerbook g4 system. everything has been working well. i have
    this notebook tied in to my other system for added resources. the setup is now:

    g4 + lacie 250gb
    dac 100 external converter
    ntsc monitor
    hp 20″ for second desktop screen

    until yesterday this setup was working fine. all of a sudden, though, i’m getting
    playback issues. the system either can’t find the external converter or it only
    makes intermittent use of it. if i turn external video off, everything plays fine.
    with it on, the timeline plays back only for a few seconds (maybe 5), stutters,
    and stops with an error message about dropped frames and possible causes.
    the message suggests turning off unlimited rt (didn’t solve the issue), closing
    sequences not in use (didn’t solve it) and some others i forget at this moment.
    the converter seems to be ok as it passes video through its analog side just
    fine.

    i looked at the drive as possibly being an issue. it was down to 7gb free space
    so i deleted all render files and rerendered only the sequences i’m working on.
    i now have over 30gb free and it’s still doing the same thing.

    i’m wondering if this is less a fcp issue than a system issue since it seems tied
    to the firewire port being open: things play fine with external video turned off,
    drop frames and stop with it turned on. also, after refreshing the av devices
    via the so named menu option the system seems unable to find the external
    converter sometimes.

    any advice on how to get this working again is much apreciated. the odd thing
    is that it’s been working fine for weeks now. that makes me think i really
    shouldn’t have to be changing settings that have worked fine up to now. the
    fcp settings seem consistent with what they’ve been. i’m wondering if there
    could be some system settings outside fcp on the g4 that could have gotten
    tweaked somehow and are causing this behaviour.

    thanks in advance,
    BabaG

    Baba Goof replied 20 years, 10 months ago 3 Members · 3 Replies
  • 3 Replies
  • John Sieve

    July 20, 2005 at 8:59 pm

    have you tried updating to 5.0.2 and the apple pro apps update? if so. trash your prefs in final cut (you can find out how to do this on apple site) it is very similar to FCP4) and if that don’t work reinstall FCP5 and then the update.Try that

  • Thew

    July 20, 2005 at 8:59 pm

    MMMM, long post..
    I had a simular problem on Monday, kinda weird.. there must be a bug going around or something..
    I reinstalled my OS and my FCP, Im kinda back up and running but still having trouble connecting to my decks consistantly..
    Any ways thats the best start you can do for a quick fix, check you codec, and extensions too..3

  • Baba Goof

    July 21, 2005 at 6:52 am

    thanks for the tips folks. may have solved it. after much googling and
    gnashing of teeth (and prefs deletions), all to no avail (sp?), i did
    a test by creating a new project from scratch. i imported a random file
    (they’re all 23.98) from the problem project’s drive into the new
    project. lo and behold, the file played flawlessly on the timeline.
    i thought it might have something to do with the new project being so
    small, consisting of only a single sequence with a single file. with
    the new project open, i opened the problem project, intending to copy
    a sequence from the problem project to the new project. i thought i’d
    start copying things across, testing playback as i went to see if there
    was a point at which the firewire out issue appeared. however, the old
    problem project opened and played fine. i then closed the new and
    functional test project. the old project continued to play correctly
    out the firewire from that point on. makes little sense to me but it
    seems to have worked.

    in a nutshell for anyone else who experiences this:

    create a new project at the same settings as the problem project.
    with the new project open, open the old project. then close the new
    project.

    thanks again,
    BabaG

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