[Scott Fields]

Seems to be an issue on newer iMacs. Google around. It’s out there.

fwiw I have the same problem and developed the annoying, but necessary, habit of pressing the space bar twice to get the video in sync.

[Scott Fields]

Same issue here. I have FCP on the system drive (SSD) and media on an external FW800 G-Raid.

I even tried putting media on the internal SSD as well as an external SSD but it keeps happening so I’m fairly certain it’s not a drive issue.

Has anyone tried installing 10.6.8 on the new 3.4ghz iMac to see if that solves the problem, because right now, it’s unpleasant enough that I don’t use it.

[Scott Fields]

I now believe it IS a bug. I tried this on three different FCP systems and it’s repeatable.

Sad part is, it USED to work.

[Scott Fields]

Thanks Shane, but I was hoping to avoid that for the simple reason that FCP exports the full audio portion of the sequence (not just a reference like Avid), and I have 24 half-hour sequences. So I’d love to save the extra steps (not to mention drive space) by doing it directly from FCP like I used to.

I have no idea what changed, but I’d love it if someone could confirm that it’s a bug, or that there’s something corrupted in my system.

[Scott Fields]

Fantastic solutions!

Thank you everyone!

[Scott Fields]

I wasn’t clear before: I fully expect to distort it– I just didn’t want to use the only option I’m familiar with: blowing up the image and cropping the top and bottom. I’m looking for a solution that simply stretches the left and right sides to fill the 16X9 frame. I don’t see a filter in FCP that does this.

Ideally, a “smart” stretch that leaves the center of the image more or less intact.

[Scott Fields]

Thank you, but is there any reason NOT to encode interlaced material as progressive for use on a SD DVD?

[Scott Fields]

I recently had almost the EXACT same experience as you. The project was to archive a bunch of 3/4″ tapes using the client’s VP-5040 u-matic player. Playback on the studio monitor looked fine, but the signal to the Kona 3 card (using the deck’s composite output) was black and white.

At first I thought it was the unstable signal, so I bought a cheap TBC (Datavideo’s TBC-1000) which definitely helped stabilize the signal, but it didn’t restore the color. I’d never experienced a monitor being able to display color that the capture card couldn’t so naturally I assumed there was something wrong with the Kona. Many, many tests later I concluded that the card was fine and the only possible culprit was the deck.

I rented a VO-9800 and voila– color!

The captures are as steady and clear as the source material allows.

I recommend trying another deck.