[Dunwoody Lampton]

Hi again, Kevin!

Do you have Pro or Express? You said you have FCP, then said Express. Which one is it? Also, which version?

You may remember me explaining my own capture problems with Final Cut Express 3.0 HD, due to what I thought was speed conflicts and compatibility of devices like my external firewire drives and my MiniDV camera. After many months of hassle-free capture, the last two months were spent frustrated over video “freezing” every 40 seconds or so.

In addition to device speed and type, I also had to factor different configurations, like my PowerMac with 2 firewire ports versus my PowerBook with only one firewire port, into my troubleshooting.

Along the messy way others also suggested that an upgrade to version 3.5 might address my freezing issues.

It’s with tentative pride that I report SUCCESS after upgrading this weekend to 3.5. After capturing for as long as 20 minutes I sustained smooth video with NO freezes. Also, I am running 10.4.9 on BOTH of my machines.

If you don’t have 3.5, maybe an upgrade might lead to your solution?

Hope this helps or leads to help.

[Dunwoody Lampton]

Don’t know if this helps, but when you say you “enlarged” it, does that mean you grabbed the corner of the player and stretched it to a larger resolution than the one it was processed at?

Remember, if you process the movie (prior to iDVD export) at a low resolution, then export, burn DVD, then open it and look at it in a player that has been stretched to accomodate a larger resolution, then it will look as you described.

Compare the quality by playing it on an NTSC monitor, then make any necessary adjustments. Don’t just go by your computer monitor only for reference.

[Dunwoody Lampton]

Conventional wisdom on this forum and others is to keep your application and your media files on SEPARATE drives, to avoid any potential operational conflicts. I keep the FCE application on my PowerBook at home AND on my G5 at the office. I keep all project material – including media files – on a portable, external hard drive, that travels between home and office, giving me the option to continue projects at either venue. Upon startup at either location, I may be asked to reset my scratch disk. Other than that, it’s easy from there. The portable hard drive becomes your “briefcase.” If I am flying out-of-town for any reason, I copy the current project from the external drive to my PowerBook and take it on the plane to continue editing.

My organization is still a work-in-progress, but I’ve found the overriding key to working quickly and efficiently is KNOWING WHERE YOUR STUFF IS. Sample project folders might be sorted like this: GENERAL MOTORS > VIDEO > FCE PROJECTS > 05-11_2029. The first folder has the client’s name. The next folder lists the type of media. Next is the application folder, such as an FCE project, a Movie project or a DVD project. The numbers for a particular project iteration refer to the month and date, then military time that the project was saved. This way, all iterations of the project will automatically be sorted chronologically by the operating system, and you will know that the last iteration listed is the most current.

Best of luck.

[Dunwoody Lampton]

More guessing on my part:

One week ago I began to experience the freezing-during-capture problem with my LaCie Porsche FireWire drive. Numerous posters suggested the speed of all my devices was inconsistent, and that the Porsche drive was the top offender. I maintained at the time that my LaCie d2 drive had NEVER experienced any kind of freezing problem.

Then, it finally hit my d2 drive a few days ago. So much for my theory.

However, I think I may have figured out a partial cause for the “insufficient hard drive space” issue: after I began troubleshooting the Porsche drive, I also began to screw around with the settings for “Free Space on Scratch Disk” and “Limit Capture” selections under “System Settings.”

Before receiving the “insufficient space” warning while trying to render onto the d2 drive, I reset the minimum “Free Space” values to the equivalent of 92gb. Unfortunately, there were only 89gb of space on the drive, so I believe that, when I started to render, FCE was CORRECTLY reading the setting that I had changed, which showed not enough minimum space on the disk. In reality, 89gb was MORE than enough space to render three effects, but because I had reset the value to 92gb in the System Settings, FCE took that value as reality.

So check your System Settings choices and make sure that they do not conflict with or overrule your actual hard drive space that’s available. Sorry I couldn’t be of more help. Good luck.

[Dunwoody Lampton]

Some of the other concerns you noted do appear “bizarre,” but are well out of the realm of my expertise.

However, as I type, I am experiencing a similar drive space issue.

After numerous capture problems due to what I believe were speed issues with my LaCie Porsche drive and Canon XL2 for playback, I switched to a LaCie d2 drive and had similar freezing every 20-30 seconds, until it finally “cleared up” for unknown reasons, and I was able to successfully capture without intermittent freezing.

However, upon trying to render a very SMALL amount of effects in a very SHORT timeline, I received the “insufficient space” warning related to the d2 drive, and FCE would not render.

I opened other projects and tried to render them, with the same result.

I copied about 80gb of files and projects to another hard drive, then attempted to render again, with the same error message. This, despite my d2 drive showing 90gb free.

I then used Disk Utility to write zeros over all free space on the d2, with the same result – refusal to render due to lack of space.

Finally, I noticed that, in addition to the successfully captured files, there were literally HUNDREDS of reference files with similar file names to the successfully captured files in my capture scratch folder. None of those reference files would open individually. I deleted all of them, thinking this would account for the still-occupied space, but found that FCE, upon re-opening the project, detected the missing reference files and immediately launched an automated search for them. Of course, they were trashed, so they were not found, but the timeline eventually did open and I was STILL unable to render because of insufficient disk space.

[Dunwoody Lampton]

I believe what Enzo told you was:

Even unsuccessful attempts to capture various files end up turning into real files that take up real space. So your many aborted attempts to capture may be stealing valuable space from your hard drive, as well as the successful attempts to capture.

And when hard drive space is used and occupied beyond 75%, the speed of the hard drive begins to significantly diminish. The more room on your hard drive, the faster it operates.

Also, make sure your hard drive, FireWire ports and camera are all operating at the same relative maximum speed. If at least one of the three operate at a significantly slower speed than the other two, then this will have a negative impact on the capture process.

Finally, you said you received an error that your camera was not recognized. This may be a large part of your problem. Check Apple’s website for compatible devices for use with Final Cut Express. Your camera may not be compatible with FCE.

Troubleshoot the speed of your devices, the actual space on your hard drive, and the compatibility of your devices, and forget about the brand or quality of tape you are using.
I am going through some similar issues right now, but they have nothing to do with tape quality and EVERYTHING to do with speed, space and compatibility.

Good luck.

[Dunwoody Lampton]

Thanks, Tom, for speedy assistance!

Through “About This Mac” on my PowerBook, I learned that all three units – the G4 FireWire port, the Belkin hub and the Porsche drive operate at 400mps top speed, so all three would appear to be compatible. Along this line, I adjusted the capture/file size setting in FCE (I guess I forgot initially to mention the program I was using to edit!) to 400mb and found there was still freezing, but it was every 50-60 seconds, as opposed to more frequent freezing when set for unlimited capture size previously. I have not yet performed any troubleshooting on the G5.

Anticipating that the first drive I tried – being used – was bad, I purchased a new one and found the same troubles. So I think it is safe to say that the problems lie between the drives and the G4/G5, not within the drives.

Ironically, not only have I had no such problems using the LaCie d2 drive in the same configurations, but I have even used the d2’s USB port to my G4, since the G4 only has one FireWire port and it is used by the camera during capture. The result? Flawless capture.

I will investigate the products you mentioned. Thanks again.

[Dunwoody Lampton]

flip4mac.com

Basic version allows viewing only.

Upgraded versions allow conversion of Final Cut projects and Quicktime files to .wmv files.

Read instructions carefully.

[Dunwoody Lampton]

This is CORRECT INFORMATION, based on the fact that no “graphics error” was EVER indicated, and the escape key failed to allow the program to run. Different users may experience different results, which is certainly the case in this thread.

[Dunwoody Lampton]

BEWARE.

I tried to install my F.C.E. 3.0 HD on a friend’s MacBook (forgot which model) and it DID NOT WORK, because of something to do with the fact that my software was not “universal” – thus, making it incompatible with her MacBook. We tried looking for a software fix on-line but couldn’t find one. (I use F.C.E. for my PowerMac G5 and my PowerBook G4.) Good luck. Sorry I couldn’t shed more technical specifics on your situation, but I’m confident other veterans of this group will.