[Kevin Hamm]

I ran into this problem last year when I would randomly have my entire system freeze up while accessing files on the RAID. Wanna know the solution? YMMV, but it’s worked for the four others I know that have run into this:

IN System preferences, go to Energy Saver and uncheck “Put the hard disks to sleep whenever possible” On the RAID we use, for whatever reason, the OS was saying “Nah, nothing going on here and telling every “local” disk to sleep. Then we’d fire up FCP, try to access something on the drive, and the RAID would seem to be working, but it wasn’t. FCP would freeze, system wouldn’t work, wailing, gnashing, etc.

Hope it works for you, too!

[Kevin Hamm]

So how do you know something is wrong? Is it because the import stopped or because FCP actually crashes or do you have to check the capture scratch folders for your project’s most recent imports and see what it did with those files?

If it captures 5 minutes of good video, I think I might be able to help. If it captures crap video, I might have another solution.

First, let’s presume the captured footage is good: Dandy, so let’s do this. Set FCP to a non-controllable device and start playing your deck or cam, and then click Capture Now. See if that goes beyond the 5 minutes. There is no timecode, so it just might.

Now, let’s presume the captured footage is crap. Why you wouldn’t get a warning is beyond me, which is why I’m really hoping it’s not this solution, but what the heck, let’s try them all. Swap the firewire port you are using for the camera – if you can, go to the local computer store and get a PCI-x or PCI-express (whichever would fit your computer) firewire card, and try one of those ports. If this solves your problem, you’re not going to be happy unless the new card will cover your firewire needs – it means your firewire ports or the firewire communication bus, or both, are dying. Why would they die? Who knows. I just hope this isn’t it, it’s never a good sign.

[Kevin Hamm]

I can think of several reasons,

Is your disk more than 90% full? If so, you’ll run out of space almost immediately.

When your capture ends, are you getting a warning dialog? Anything at all will enlighten us.

Are you running anything else that could be occupying the disks time?

Have you tried marking the in and out points and still using capture now? I know it sounds dumb, but it worked for me in the past.

The other option is to make sure you didn’t set the Limit Capture Now to 5 minutes – even after preferences are trashed for some reason this can stick around, so it’s something to check. You can also set it to 75 minutes and activate the limiter and see if that clears up your problem.

[Kevin Hamm]

I don’t know what you are using for your subtitles, I’m guessing it’s just a text bit, tho, right? What’s probably happened is that you’ve laid the titles over clips that have filters or something else in them. I don’t know without actually looking at your timeline, but that’s where I’d start. The only other thing that you might have done is turned off RT effects via the keyboard or a mis-clicked mouse, so you might check your settings for that.

[Kevin Hamm]

Well, I have to MM the show that I do weekly, because we import a ton of tape that we don’t use and as it’s a topical show, we don’t really need anything that wasn’t at least interesting enough to get dropped into the keepers sequence (bloopers go there, too, just for fun). So, when we’re running out of space, or I’m just up for a challenge and want to mess with my day, I fire up the Media Manager and clean out the capture bits that I don’t need.

So then, lovely things happen, I leave it be, pet the cat, etc.

And then, a while later I come back, and it’s time to open the file and see what’s happened. Now I have a ton of time remapped stuff, and it’s all because people like replays in slo-mo, and we have “talent” that likes to slow things down to show off how much they know about a sport they can’t actually play themselves. All fun to do.

And amazingly, it’s not ever had a problem for me. But there are a few things I don’t do while the MM is running.

I don’t do anything else on the computer, and I don’t have any other programs open, not safari, not mail, nothing. Because MM is using such big files and working as fast as possible, the fewer things I have touching systems it needs, like quicktime, core data, etc., means it works better.

Try running MM at night when you can leave the computer on, but nothing else is running and see if that helps.

[Kevin Hamm]

Export all the videos to a folder. Have Automator watch the folder by added a folder action to it, and that action that adds the extension. Or upgrade to FCP 6. Like the guy already said.

[Kevin Hamm]

Having no idea because I’m a step behind you, I offer only this advice. Just do something now and don’t let your anxiety stop you. Because, here’s the great thing: So long as you use Log & Capture correctly, and mark the source tapes with reel numbers and all that, you can edit in what you *think* is right, and if you’re wrong, you can simply change the capture parameters of the clips if you are so far off that you need new source footage.

I’m guessing you’ve gotten worked up on this, but now you have to trust that you have a clue – even if you don’t. After all, you never learn to swim if you don’t get wet.

[Kevin Hamm]

I’ve never heard of the gel trick, but it sounds interesting. And since I’ve got the gels, I’ll try it next time.

My only piece of advice is to make sure that the subject is well lit and that you white balance at their mark so you can get a good shot. So long as the background is lit separately, and relatively evenly, and far away, you’ll be fine.

[Kevin Hamm]

So I did a quick google of the medical cameras in HD, and it seems that as they are all being designed to be permanent installations that they are expecting that you’ll have a desktop. The cameras that I checked out are designed to go to a deck, be it tape or HDD based, although direct to desktop works because of those cards.

I would call the company and ask them what they offer for med cameras in non-permanent structures and see if you can divert the purchase that way. But then, I’m a sh*t-stirrer who always wants it my way, so I do things like that. YMMV

However, if you can convince them to get the Io, you’d be in awesome shape if you ever needed to do an outside project or something involving other cameras. Might seem like overkill, but it also might just be a way to get you doing amazing new things.

[Kevin Hamm]

Use a DVI to HDMI cable and send the video out that way, and just route the audio using an 1/8 to RCA cable. Kludgy as all hell, but it’ll work