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Activity Forums Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy General Error Message when using DSLR Footage in Timeline

  • General Error Message when using DSLR Footage in Timeline

    Posted by Dean Longfield on August 26, 2015 at 3:18 am

    I am using FCP 7.03. When I try to bring in footage from the browser into the timeline, it allows me to do it the first time. Then on the 2nd or third clip I bring in it says General Error and the Canvas and Timeline disappear. The footage is from a DSLR.

    When I first tried to make the new project and brought in the DSLR footage, it said I was out of memory. yet when I checked, I still had 12 Gigs of free DDR, which made no sense. So I went ahead and deleted a lot of footage that was already finished and deleted other finished projects,
    and am still getting the Error Message, (but no longer get a message telling me I’m out of memory).

    As usual, the client needs the project yesterday. Has anyone run into this before?
    Thanks.

    Dean Longfield replied 10 years, 11 months ago 3 Members · 7 Replies
  • 7 Replies
  • Nick Meyers

    August 26, 2015 at 4:22 am

    you need to transcode the DSLR footage into something FCP7 is happy with, like ProRes.
    it can choke on h264, or other non-standard material.

    nick

  • Dean Longfield

    August 26, 2015 at 3:09 pm

    Thanks for your reply. Thing is it’s never done this before, and I’ve been editing on this set up since 2008 or so.

  • Shane Ross

    August 26, 2015 at 3:58 pm

    Yeah…DSLR’s shoot H.264, and FCP doesn’t work with H.264 reliably. You always need to convert media to a format FCP works with….ProRes being the best codec.

    I’m sure you’ve edited a lot of video with that setup, but many formats don’t edit natively in FCP…and H.264 is one of them. Gotta convert, then import…then edit.

    Shane
    Little Frog Post
    Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

  • Dean Longfield

    August 26, 2015 at 6:32 pm

    Thanks very much for the feedback. When I said, “this setup since 2008”
    I was thinking that I’ve been editing on this particular Mac with FCP since 2008. With DSLR footage only being incorporated over the past 3 or 4 years, and only in the past couple years have I been making projects with just the H264 footage and not mixing in other formats like AVCHD, (which automatically converts to Apple Pro Res if it’s the first clip in the timeline).

    Right now I’m converting the H264 footage to APR with MPEG Streamclip.
    I’m noticing that it isn’t naming separate clips as they show in the window, but it seems to be calling all the clips the title of the first clip, (MVI_6135.MOV). Will I be able to see these clips as separate when the conversion process ends or will it be one large (in this case 59 minutes) clip?

    I’m wondering if I should just make an APR 422 Timeline and then bring in the H264 clips and convert them in FCP.

    Any suggestions?

    …and thanks again for the advice. Very much appreciated !!!

  • Shane Ross

    August 26, 2015 at 6:50 pm

    [Dean Longfield] “I’m noticing that it isn’t naming separate clips as they show in the window, but it seems to be calling all the clips the title of the first clip, (MVI_6135.MOV)”

    So you are batching with MPEG STREAMCLIP…and it isn’t making separate clips? I’ll admit, I don’t use MPEG STREAMCLIP to batch. When I have a lot of files to convert, I use Compressor. Names retained.

    [Dean Longfield] “I’m wondering if I should just make an APR 422 Timeline and then bring in the H264 clips and convert them in FCP.”

    No…how would you convert INSIDE FCP? Media Manager? Well, that’s one way. But Compressor is better. Convert first, then import…and use a new timeline, APR422…to match.

    Shane
    Little Frog Post
    Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

  • Nick Meyers

    August 27, 2015 at 6:47 am

    you could convert in FCP if the DSLR has an appropriate plugin for FCP’s Log & Transfer.

    “AVCHD, (which automatically converts to Apple Pro Res if it’s the first clip in the timeline).”

    are you using FCPX?
    there’s a separate forum for that, (FCP X Techniques)
    this is for FCP7 and under

    nick

  • Dean Longfield

    September 2, 2015 at 11:48 pm

    FCP7.03

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