Don Greening
Forum Replies Created
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Hi Ed,
Go to the link below and read the short article about how to trash FCP preference files. If you have the time there are numerous other articles concerning Apple computers and the related programming for video, etc. You’ll most likely want to bookmark the web site because the articles there are a must read.
https://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/trashing_fcp_prefs.html
You can also get a free program that will trash FCP prefs automatically. Do a google search for: “FCP Rescue” without the quotes.
Hope this helps. And welcome to the wonderful world of Mac & FCP.
– Don
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You didn’t specify what sort of HD footage you’ve got, since there are numerous variations, but you can try the following articles:
https://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/dvcpro_hd_workflow_balis.html
https://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/24p_in_FCP_nattress.html
https://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/beyond_dv_nattress.html
The first article is workflow-specific for Panasonic HD @ 720p. The second article is an in-depth explanation of the 2 types of 24p and how to use them within FCP. The third article has a segment on 24p towards the bottom of the page. *note – the more time you take to read the articles more info you’ll have to base your editing & workpath decisions on.
– Don
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Disk Warrior is not a defrag program but it is a program that rebuilds corrupt hard drive directories. You are correct that defragging a hard drive isn’t an issue nowadays with the new operating systems like OS X. However directories, especially on media drives, get corrupted over time because so many files are being written to and deleted from them during the making of a project. Disk Warrior will examine the existing directory and will build a completely new one instead of trying to fix the old directory like other programs. It’s a ‘must have’ program for video editors.
If possible you might want to see if your slow down is caused by a corrupt render file. I don’t know if you have access to the original media or not but you could try deleting the render files and have FCP build new ones. Or you could try recapturing the original media. Within FCP you could make the media ‘offline’, delete the original raw media clips and do a batch capture again. That will certainly tell you if there were timecode issues with the original clips. If that’s the case you might be able to use the “Capture Now” command for each of the clips you want to be online.
– Don
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FCP outputs a 16:9 timeline to your monitor, but if your monitor is not switchable between the two aspect ratios then yes, you’ll always see the stretched 16:9 footage on your 4:3 monitor. After you choose to, say, make a DVD of the footage, only then will you be able to have your 16:9 media permanently shown on a 4:3 unswitchable monitor in letterbox format.
If you want to see what your 16:9 footage will be like before your final output from FCP you can reduce the height of your footage by exactly 33.3 percent and then you’ll see the letterboxed footage correctly displayed on your 4:3 monitor. The trouble with that is you might have to render the timeline before you can play the footage properly without fropping frames. I know I would have to do that because my Mac is too slow to play back a squeezed timeline without rendering. Your machine may be faster and will allow you to do it. Go to the motion tab in the Viewer or Canvas windows and reduce the verticcal resolution by 33.3%
Hope that helps you with your 16:9 questions.
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Unfortunately with FCP 4.5 the scratch disk has to be reset every time you change projects. Most of us are hoping that version 5 has addressed this most often asked for change.
– Don
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Rafael,
If you could tell us how long your timeline is, that might be a help in diagnosing your slowdown problem. FCP doesn’t like really, really long timelines and will slow down considerably because it has to find everything scattered over your media drives each time it refreshes/updates after a change.
You can try mixing down your audio tracks. This will consolidate them into a L & R stereo file that’s invisible but faster for the computer to access and play. If you make any audio changes after you use the mixdown command the file is automatically deleted and you’ll have to do it again. Go to the sequence menu/render only/mixdown.
If your media drives are getting full it takes longer to for FCP to access your timeline stuff and that may contribute to the slowdown. Make sure you’re using the program “DiskWarrior” to keep the directories on your drives in top shape.
If all this fails to speed things up you may have a corrupt project file that was copied over from the computer that did the initial editing. Start a new project filename and copy the timeline contents over to it and see if that’s the problem. It may not help but I’m just throwing out ideas at the moment.
I’ll be watching this thread for any response from you.
– Don
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If you already know in advance that there really aren’t any timecode breaks on your tape then I would suspect corrupt Final Cut Pro preferences. I’ve run into this issue before on my own machine where it was trying to tell me it was searching for timecode during the log and capture process. Trashing FCP prefs fixed the problem every time.
– Don
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Panasonic or Sony. They both have a ‘Master’ series of Mini DV cassettes. I personally use the Panasonic 83 min. Master Series. Great tapes.
– Don
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FW drives continue to be prone to more problems than others. Since these drives are built to be used between computers I think most people don’t realize the importance of shutting them down properly before disconnecting them. Often times I think the internal FW bridge chips are being damaged in the process. Then there’s the wear and tear on the connections themselves from being repeatedly connected/disconnected. Your power lead problems could be the result of something like that.
I’ve got FW drives myself but never use them on anything but this one Mac. They turn on and off with the machine automatically and I’ve never had even a hint of a problem with any of them.
– Don
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Very exessive. My Dual 800 G4 running 10.3.4 takes about 45 seconds to start up.
– Don