[Stuart Christensen]

Hello Tom.

I have an idea of what might be causing your problem. The best way to handle the reconnection of media is to open your project in FCP and immediately you will see all the files that are offline because they have a red slash through them. The pop-up window will present the option to “reconnect”, choose that option and another window will open that shows which files are offline. Under that box you will see two options, “skip file” and “skip directory”. Do not choose either of those.

Just below those options you will see a small box that let’s you navigate to a “single search location”, which in this case, you will want to navigate to the hard drive that you have the files stored on. Once you have chosen that location, a standard file browser opens and you can then search for the first clip that is listed as being offline. Just click on that first clip so that it becomes highlighted, and then hit the connect button and it should automatically relink all of the media in your project in one shot.

It’s really a manual type re-connection operation so you really have to just seek out the clips and hit “connect”! Usually after one clip, the program is smart enough to figure out that all the rest of the files are in the same location. Hope that helps! STU

I know alot….but not as much as the other guy.

[Stuart Christensen]

Hey Mike…It sounds like you were given the intermediate files to use rather than the real deal HD files which are no longer available because the first editor botched the job by deleting the original files thinking that the intermediate files were all he needed to edit and reoutput. The artifacts you are seeing are because the intermediate file is heavily compressed and will never re-output to full HD if the original source files are not available. There’s nothing worse than trying to fix someone elses botched edit so let your client know that without the original files, not much can be done to save the project. It’s sad, but sometimes that’s the way it goes. STU

I know alot….but not as much as the other guy.

[Stuart Christensen]

Hey Tony, Just check near the timeline for a little pill shaped object that says RT and click on that to set a new resolution setting for your viewer. You should make sure that full quality is checked. Hope that helps. STU

I know alot….but not as much as the other guy.

[Stuart Christensen]

Hey Johnny…You ask a tough question. We need to know if you are using “capture now” or if you are capturing in the traditional mark I/O points capture dialoq window”.

I can tell you from experience if you are using “capture now”, and you press the capture now button, let the tape play and hit escape, and then start the next clip on that exact frame that you stopped on, it can cause some wonkiness in the way FCP references timecode. If I’m using “capture now” I always try to advance a few frames forward or a few frames behind the last clip that I captured.

Also, you could have large timecode breaks on your tapes, which usually comes from reviewing clips on the tape as you are shooting, and not rewinding to the exact “end of tape” position. Your camera should have a “find end of tape” function to relocate the exact frame it needs to be at in order to avoid strange timecode breaks. Hope that helps. STU

I know alot….but not as much as the other guy.

[Stuart Christensen]

Hello Sebastian, You do not need to export your project as a DV file, instead, try exporting the project as a “Quicktime Self Contained” file. This option outputs your project to a “self contained” or “self contained reference” movie. Read the Help section for FCP for more details. The export to DV option will drastically increase the original file size and won’t give you a higher quality video than the self contained options. You can then use your “self contained movie to convert to lot’s of other codec options. Hope that Helps. STU

I know alot….but not as much as the other guy.

[Stuart Christensen]

Hello Chris! Although your question is not really clear, I will tell you what I’ve experienced with this same issue. First, in the dialogue box that pops up when you choose “print to video” Look for a small box to check called “Start recording immediately” and make sure it is checked. If it’s not checked you will experience the black screen/tape issue. Just a guess, Good Luck! STU

I know alot….but not as much as the other guy.

[Stuart Christensen]

You may also want to check that your “capture now “preference is set to more than 1 -3 minutes. After checking and resetting the preference close final cut and re-open the program and create a new project and give it a try. If the tapes are playing in your deck then it’s probably not your tape stock that’s causing the problem. Also, time code breaks, (ie. if you frequently watched or played back footage while recording on that tape, and rewound to the end of a clip and left blank space in between the last clip and the next clip, this could well be your problem. FCP capture now does not like timecode breaks and will abort the capture process if it senses dropouts or timecode errors. For this reason, it’s best to never rewind and look at your footage until you are finished recording on that particular tape. Hope that helps! STU

I know alot….but not as much as the other guy.