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FCP General Error (88)
Searching the COW and the interweb in general yielded very little info about FCP General Error (88) so I’m just posting what I experienced in case it’s helpful to others … I already got what I needed done via a workaround and just can’t spend the time to further investigate possible causes.
I was trying to Edit To Tape a spot (1080i 29.97 upper field ProRes 422) onto BetaSP (a clean PVW-2800) by downconverting/letterboxing through our Kona-3 exactly the same way as the hundred others I’ve done recently, but FCP kept giving a General Error (88) and wouldn’t Edit To Tape. What’s strange is that I’m just tagging the same spots over and over so all the FCP project files and sequences within them are copies of a master project file and I basically just change the tags and slates. So, the only difference at all between all the others that worked fine and the problem ETT is that I deleted a second spot, slate, etc. from one of the sequences.
I repeatedly tried all the basic troubleshooting steps like restarting FCP, deleting render files, trashing preferences, rebooting, checking all connections between the Mac and the deck, etc., etc. The only workaround that allowed the spot to ETT was, instead of deleting the un-needed spot, slate, etc. from this project copy’s sequence, I left them in the sequence and just disabled the clips so only black would go to tape in their place … definitely no other differences at all, tried it numerous times both ways and it worked out the same … strange.
Other posts suggests it may be a Kona-3 issue, but it really looks like a FCP issue since, in my situation, everything is literally identical except one change to the FCP sequence that should be irrelevant. So, I’m posting in both forums even though double-posting is frowned upon … perhaps it’s ok since the intent is to help others.
By the way, although I don’t believe this has anything to do with system specs or the like, here’s that info:
Mac Pro 2×2.8 GHz Quad Core Intel Zeon w/ 32Gb RAM
OSX 10.5.8
FCP 6.0.6
QT 7.6.6
Dulce 8Tb RAID
Kona-3 -
8 Replies
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If you always export a self contained file, then put it in a new sequence before outputting to tape you won’t have any problems.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
https://www.drwfilms.comPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing and Apple Final Cut Pro forums. Formerly host of the Apple Final Cut Basics, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.
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Thanks for responding Dave … never too many workaround options. Disabling the clips worked fine too and I can just re-enable them if I need them again later.
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Thanks for responding David.
I have what I call “Beta Master” sequences specifically for going straight to tape so they have bars, tone, slate, etc. and I don’t export those at all … I really can’t export those because I tag the same 6 spots hundreds of times and can’t store exports or render files for any of them … just the FCP project files that all reference the same media (except slightly different end screens and slates). I only export the separate sequences that don’t have BTS so I can use those to make digital delivery files, DVDs, web files, etc. … I can’t even keep those exports once all the deliverables are made since it would take copious amounts of storage for 6 spots times hundreds of versions.
I’m not sure I said that right, but it makes perfect sense to me. ;~)
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The project files are already very small … I just didn’t explain what I’m doing very well … I’ve just got a small master project file with 7 sequences … one sequence has 6 spots with bars/tone/slate and the others just have each of those 6 spots individually with a slate and the spot only. I just make a gazillion duplicates of that small master project file and change the end tags and slates for each one so not much for FCP to choke on really.
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I understand… If you can export the main program to use in building your seqs. that will help. Also, though you said that disabling a clip on the timeline helped you with one sequence, in most cases having disabled clips tends to confuse FCP, causing errors when outputting to tape.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
https://www.drwfilms.comPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing and Apple Final Cut Pro forums. Formerly host of the Apple Final Cut Basics, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.
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Good to know, thanks … I’ll use I/O points next time, as Dave L. also suggested. About exporting, the sequences are already made of what are, for all practical purposes, exports … I’m just tagging the spots so the content of each sequence is just the spot exports (pre-edited ProRes 422 MOVs), the tags (PSDs) and some FCP-generated mastering elements (bars, tone, slates, black, etc.).
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Where I’m at, we often export not self-contained files of just the video portion of the final timeline that goes to tape. Then just duplicate the sequence, delete the video, edit in the exported file in its place, and go to tape. That really helps when using 3rd party filters – Tiffen causes crashes like mad, as does disabling clips, but using an exported file takes care of all of all of that. As soon as I’m done with the edit to tape, I get rid of the export and the extra timeline. It takes 30 seconds, which is less than the amount of swearing every time you crash or run into errors.
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On the same page I need some help too:
my videos are 1280×720 I started editing them in a sequence that is 720×486 accidentally. I have completed the edit. I copy and pasted the sequence files to a new sequence with 1280×720 settings and the videos are all small with black around it. I tried to export in QT conversion, but it gives an error. How can I successfully reconnect my cut sequence to native size? Thank you.
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