[Tom Brooks]

Just got this from Flip4Mac Support:

Hi Thomas,

Download the beta release 2.1.0.70 from http://www.flip4mac.com/wmv_beta.htm We have a fix on 2 pass VBR use Keyframe 5-10, Buffer delay 5, and B-FRAME 3

Best regards,
Ben Brown SR
Flip4Mac Support

[Tom Brooks]

Bob,
After reading your post I went to their site today myself, just to be sure they hadn’t snuck in a fix for the 2-pass VBR thing. Appears as not. I take it you switched to either CBR or 1-pass to get your WMV out? Last time I looked I still got the green goo with 2.1. Thanks.
-Tom

[Tom Brooks]

I find it annoying that Telestream hasn’t fixed it. You can go back to V 1.0.6 and VBR should work in that. You can keep the player at the latest version, but change the encoder plug to the older one.

Final Cut Studio, FCP 5.1.4, After Effects 6.5 Pro, Quicktime 7.1.5, G5 Quad 2.5, Kona-LHe V3.3, 4.5GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce 7800-GT, G-RAID 2x1TB FW800, Mac OS-X 10.4.9.

[Tom Brooks]

This is a known issue with some newer versions of Flip4Mac plug-in. Check out their support site. You can download an earlier version (1.06, I think) that does not have the 2-pass VBR problem, or you can use CBR or 1-pass VBR.

[Tom Brooks]

Jeremy,
I found and fixed the culprit! Thanks a ton for providing the critical clue. There was indeed a Motion project which contained a background for timing purposes–and that background was a reference movie. When the video in that section was later changed, the media for the reference movie changed with it and some named files no longer existed. I simply removed the background layer from every Motion project that contained it (there were several) and put the ref movie in the trash. Annoying Final Cut problem fixed! Back to work, eh?
-Tom

[Tom Brooks]

Jeremy,
Thanks for the insight. I didn’t really have a sense of what type of file could be asking for this item. So, it could be a Motion or Soundtrack project that is trying to reference some sort of media (like a render file) which is no longer there. Probably because I imported a Quicktime reference movie into one of those apps to save time, instead of using a self-contained movie. So, if I delete the Motion project (or other) the need for the reference will go away.

If there is a reference movie WITHIN the project, say a background or someting, can I just delete that element from the Motion project and get back to normal after trashing prefs again?

Thanks a ton for the help.
-Tom

[Tom Brooks]

I have a similar problem and don’t know how to fix it. I must have exported a QT ref movie at some point from a certain project. Now I get an error each time I try to open FCP and multiple times when I open the project. The file it’s looking for is no longer in existence. How do you get rid of the error? The project works fine otherwise and all other projects work fine. Sorry if I have hijacked post on a side issue. I’ve tried copying items from the project into a new project and trashing FC Prefs. Neither helped. Thanks.
-Tom

Final Cut Studio, FCP 5.1.4, After Effects 6.5 Pro, Quicktime 7.1.5, G5 Quad 2.5, Kona-LHe V3.3, 4.5GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce 7800-GT, G-RAID 2x1TB FW800, Mac OS-X 10.4.9.

[Tom Brooks]

If you’re trying to output 10-bit through the Kona, try switching output to 8-bit.

[Tom Brooks]

I’m having a similar problem but haven’t had the time to look into it yet. It looks like the photo clips are being poorly deinterlaced. Look for deinterlacing in your workflow.

[Tom Brooks]

It looks like it occurs on a clip that spanned from card1 to card2 on the fly. Probably is OK, although I don’t know how all this affects media management later on. Can anyone shed a little more light?
Thx.
-Tom