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FCP 6.0.2 suddenly choking with dropped frames
A couple of days ago FCP 6.02 starting choking on playback, on all projects. Even setting an In point on the fly does it! It will play straight video (from an external drive) but add a caption or graphic — stops and reports dropped frames. I had none of these problems before. I’ve:
– closed open sequences
-checked there are no overlapping windows
– canvas set to Fit to Window
– timeline codec matches source clips
– only 4 audio tracks and 5 video tracks (most empty)
-no windows overlap into Screen 2 (DeckLink card)
– Capture clip is on external drive, FW 800
– supered graphics are 720 x 540, on my startup drive in the project folder — but this has never been a problem before
– 23″ monitor set to 1920 x 1200 as normal
– checked sequence settings (all projects do it though)
– trashed FCP prefs
— ran DiskWarrior
— Reinstalled FCP
— tried FCP 6.0 with older projects – same result
– updated to 6.02
— reset VRAM
— zapped PRAM
— reinstalled QuickTime 7.3.1(I did run PowerPoint 2004, viewing a slideshow on Screen 2, and foolishly hit Command-Tab, which scrambled the positions of all open windows — I think PowerPoint tried to switch the slideshow display to my main monitor at a lower res. Could this have messed up QuickTime or some display capabilities? That’s why I reinstalled QT, reset the VRAM, etc)
I’m running FCP 6.0.2 with DeckLink Extreme and latest drivers, G5 dual 2.5 GHz, 2.5 MB RAM, OS x 10.4.11.
But it’s as if I now have a slow G4!
Any ideas? Thanks!
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9 Replies
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Check all of your hard drives and see which one is nearly full… You should never exceeed 10 to 20% free space on any drive.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los AngelesPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.
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Thanks for the tip; I freed up lots of space, but there’s no improvement.
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Richard that sounds like a real drag,
I hope you find a solution soon – just sorry
I don’t have a suggestion.Let us know,
David
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[Richard Day] “I’m running FCP 6.0.2 with DeckLink Extreme”
What does BMD Disk Speed test report on your drives?
Robert Leong / Dulce Tech Support
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[Richard Day] “I’m running FCP 6.0.2 with DeckLink Extreme”
What does BMD Disk Speed test report on your drives?
Robert Leong / Dulce Tech Support
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[Richard Day] “I’m running FCP 6.0.2 with DeckLink Extreme”
What does BMD Disk Speed test report on your drives?
Robert Leong / Dulce Tech Support
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I tested data read speed from capture disk- it was fine.
I think I’ve narrowed my problem down to what must be the worst-case: my copy of FCP itself is damaged and created damaged project files. Here’s more of what I did:
– created new project with ONLY slug — same playback problems! FCP choked on setting an in point on the fly several times fairly rapidly. So was it FCP or a display problem (e.g. QuickTime)?
– Archive and installed new OS X 10.4.11, fresh QuickTime 7.3.1, reinstall FCP. Opening all recent projects crashed FCP. (As opposed to opening them but having playback problems.) Trying successively earlier AutoSave Vault files by double-clicking them also crashed newly-installed FCP. Earlier projects (e.g. a few months ago) open fine.
— deleted render files. FCP still crashed on opening recent projects
– renamed Capture scratch folder to (I hope) “hide” possibly corrupted media files — still crashed on opening.
– rebooted from my backup drive (which still would have the problems preserved), opened small recent project with FCP, exported XML, rebooted into main drive, tried to import XML into a new project — crash.I wonder if my problems started when I updated to FCP 6.02?
I am going to clone my backup drive to a third drive — which will now be a “disaster-recovery drive” — so I can continue to experiment with FCP and project files as they were before my re-install of OS X, QuickTime and FCP, and still be able to backup my regular work as normal on my backup drive.
Other things I may try:
– more limited XML export of •parts• of problem project files (booting from the other drive)
– try to determine on what date I updated to 6.02 to see if that’s where problems beganThis seems to be a case where our normal safeguards, e.g. AutoSave Vault, XML, backups, may not help me.
Thanks for your help, and your patience in reading all these details.
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Any resolution yet?
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Actually, things are now worse. I rebooted into my “disaster recovery” (damaged FCP) drive, exported clips only. These imported successfully into my new FCP on my main drive. Sequences did not, however. Log error was “could not create sequence”. Even a brand-new sequence with Slug only, created on the damaged-FCP drive, and imported as XML, would not open in my new FCP.
Reinstalled FCP Studio on main drive. Compressor would not get past splash screen. Opening Compressor from within FCP got me Compressor’s Settings window, but I could not create a new batch. Performed Apple’s recommendations on removing Compressor, reinstall FCS — no improvement.
Ran FCS Remover to eliminate every damned trace of the suite, reinstalled entire suite with media from 8 DVD’s. Each program gives one bounce, nothing more, except for Final Cut Studio, which was fine. There was no Final Cut Pro User Data folder after running FCS Remover and after reinstalling FCS,so I replaced it from my old drive. Still no improvement.
Removed prefs, reinstalled FCS — now from disk images!! — but without running FCS Remover. Now I get three bounces and nothing more.
Removed 2 innocuous Digital Heaven plug-ins; removed DeckLink drivers. Rebooted. No improvement.
What about that missing Final Cut Pro User Data folder after running FCS Remover? Is this a cause of trouble?
Next on my list:
I will run FCS Remover, do *another* Archive and Install, do *another* complete install of FCS.— Just received Leopard from Apple Canada, Should I upgrade in the hope that totally starting fresh, system-wise, might help? (You can be sure I’d do an Erase and Install!)
I no longer consider Final Cut Studio a stable suite of software. I had a couple of months of misery a year ago involving device control (Panasonic DVCPro 450). Did over a hundred tests. Finally found a new posting from Sweden that solved my problem back then.
And please, Apple, have your software engineers put in an hour’s work and give us an uninstaller. We have work to do.
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