• Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy

  PRINT TO TAPE Problems – Loss of a/v signal?

  Posted by Dan Bummer on December 6, 2007 at 6:02 am

  Hi all, this is my first post, so forgive me if this issue has been covered previously. I searched and didn’t find anything…

  I have a MacBook Pro 15″, using FCP HD with two 250GB Lacie Porsche external drives. Typically, I’ve always just output sequences to tape using my Sony GV-D900 clamshell via firewire. Always worked fine, even for long (90 min.) outputs.

  This time, I can’t seem to get it to work. The NTSC client monitor reveals frequent audio and video “drop-outs” (for lack of a better term). Meaning, monitor goes black or blue for up to 3 seconds, losing all picture and sound, then comes back out of sync. This keeps occurring. Alternatively, I also tried replacing FW cables and even swapped out my clamshell w/ my Panasonic 100a as a record device, monitoring output thru the camera, not the NTSC client monitor. Same thing happened.

  However, when *not* using any NTSC to monitor playback and just using the MacBook’s screen and my 2nd Apple Cinema display, no drop-out happens.

  Eventually, I had to abort and make a DVD instead. That worked fine.

  Any thoughts???

  Much thanks!

  Dan B.

  Thaxter Clavemarlton replied 18 years, 9 months ago 2 Members · 1 Reply
• 1 Reply

• 

  Thaxter Clavemarlton

  December 6, 2007 at 1:23 pm

  Sounds like a “FW external drive containing ‘source clips’ while, at the same time, playing the project out via FW” issue.

  Also,

  There is a function in FCP that is often overlooked… and it can help with many audio and video “skipping”, “sticking” and “missing” problems.

  You should “Mixdown” the Audio for playback before you dub out of FCP, or during the edit, if you have audio/video stuttering, drop-outs, sync-slippage, or freezes.

  NOTE: Mixdown has even been demonstrated to help with slipping, skipping problems (or “missing” audio clips) for files being EXPORTED as QT (or similar) files out of FCP.

  First, SELECT ALL of your audio tracks (highlight them) on the timeline, then:

  Sequence Menu > Render Only > Mixdown.

  You should see a dialog box telling you its rendering.

  It might seem to make little sense that “Mixing down” even simple audio tracks will “fix” complex video “freezes” or random audio dropouts to tape or export, but it CAN.

  NOTE: It does not matter of you only have one audio track, if there are random freezes during output, you should try the Mixdown.

Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up