Hey Joe, Ken, and other Macsters,

I recently had to do a reformat and reinstall of everything after having an inexperienced tech load my machine with four...that's right...four...different systems...and then mixed the libraries. What a mess! I just erased everything and started over...easier than trying to sort things out.

Anyway...after that fiasco it took me a long time to get things back to status quo as they are now. Problem is, I just reinstalled FCP 3.0 (from scratch) and now it won't capture from my XL-1.

iMovie captures fine, though. And the FCP log and capture window does control the camera and previews the material. But when I click to capture "Now" the marked footage, the cursor just spins and I get the message "Searching for timecode" and then finally "Unable to connect."

I've set it up as follows:

Sequence Preset: DV NTSC 48 kHz Superwhite
Capture Preset: DV NTSC 48 kHz
Device Control Preset: FireWire Basic (had to make this preset--it wasn't there)
External Video: Apple FireWire NTSC (720 X 480)

Any ideas what's up?

John,
Your control setting look fine. But something clearly got hosed during the turmoil. Since the Firewire port still seems to work (iMovie) you haven't blown that out.

My first inclination, perhaps from the old days of FCP 1.2.x, would be to dump the FCP preferences (located in different folders depending on if you're using OS-X or OS-9). Then see if you can reconnect to your cam.

Report back when you get a chance.

Didn't we have an issue like this before? Try defragging every single hard drive in your computer, even the OS drive. That's what fixed a similar issue with someone else, I believe. I know you just reinstalled everything and fragmentation shouldn't be an issue, but try it anyway. Good luck.

Oh! Also make sure that the "abort capture on dropped frames" or whatever that option is is UNchecked.

Hi,

Have you tried parking the tape at the selected in point? Are you using OS 9.xx or OS X ? What are your prerolls set to and do you have room to perform them? Post back with your OS and I may have some more suggestions.

Jeff Donald

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. So far no luck.

Joe, I'd remembered the thread about unchecking the aborted frames pref (actually, I was one of the contributors on that one) so that was already done. I defragged the disk...still no luck.

Ken, since I'd completely reinstalled both OS9 and OSX versions of FCP, the preferences were new. But I tried that anyway again...to no avail.

Jeff, preroll is set at 3 seconds and there's plenty of room for that since I tried various starting points in the tape. I'm using OSX. Seems to me that having to rewind and find the starting point each time I want to capture would be a major hassle. Hoping to just get back to the point where I can control the camera and capture as normal. But I'll try it just to see if it works.

Hi,

If you have control of the camera you can use Shift>i to go to the in point then tell it to capture now. Have you tried starting up FCP with a DV source already on and feeding the system a signal? I've heard that can help. This may be one of those you'll have to reload FCP. Post back if anything works.

Good luck.

Jeff

John,
Sorry to read that you're still struggling with this nit. What a pain...actually quite a puzzle. FCP can control the camera's roll but can't capture. Things you've probably already tried:

- Do you have another dv camera to test with? At least that might isolate it to your XL1.
- Have you used a different tape?
- Can you log and batch capture (rather than "capture now")? I expect not, but thought it's worth asking.
- Also, if you haven't done so already you might cruise around at 2-pop and at the Apple forums.

John,

I had a similar problem with Premiere once. Try turning on the camera first then booting up the computer.

I do it this way know and it captures perfectly every time. If I turn the camera on after boot up and try to capture I get an initilization fail error. I can still control the camera, but can't capture.

I have run into this problem with FCP. This not a solution but a temp resolution to get you back editing. It's simple. First of all make sure your drives are not full. Sometime when your think you have not captured your computer will build up a lot of temp. files.

When you want to record make sure the deck is already playing. You can't mark you in and out points, but if the tape is playing it will capture when you hit the capture now while the tape is already in play mode.

Thanks for all the input...I've tried everything...including reinstalling...and then retried everything again. But no luck. I've been capturing using iMovie in the meantime.

I'll let you know if the mystery is ever solved.

Hi,

What OS are you using, OS X or OS 9.x.x ? Send a list of all your FireWire extensions. The culprit can usually be traced to an extension being missing. Also check what version of Quicktime your using. Did you reinstall quicktime from the FCP 3 disk or just when you reinstalled the OS?

Jeff

John,
did you install Media Cleaner on your computer? the only problem I had with FCP capturing/playback through the firewire is when I installed Media Cleaner and didn't do a custom install. The easy install installed an extension for a video capture card and that extension screwed with the firwire. Once I took out that extension then everything was fine.

Just checked and the extension is for a Moto DV capture card.

pretty soon I'm getting more hard drives and will install OS X and get FCP 3, hearing about this has me worried, I hope we can figure out what went wrong.

Hi Rik,

Yes, I have Cleaner installed for the Classic environment...but I had already removed the extension you're talking about. It can cause another problem...in FCP, it may cause cross-dissolves to show a white flash. Someone in the FCP forum suggested I pull it out of the extensions folder and I never had any more problems.

You're still having problems, though!? Me, too. I've been so busy lately...I've just resigned myself to capturing with iMovie. I planned on finding the cause of the problem later this month.

Once I get moved and settled in Tokyo, I'll get back with you and maybe we can put our heads together and figure out the problem.

John,
I had that problem last year, but it went away when I took out the extension. My system is working fine now, I'm just worried about when I install OS X and FCP 3 on my new drives later this week if I will run into the same problem you are having. If I do you'll be the first to know.

Very scary not being able to properly run FCP 3 when the video jobs start to come in. I'll leave my orginal 10 gig drive intact until I know my new system is fully functional. A friend suggested I install OS 9.2 on one drive, and OS X on another. Any real need for that, sorry the question is off the track.

Rik,

That's exactly what I did. I have two HDs...I partitioned one for OS9.2 and OSX. I've been migrating over to OSX since it first came out, so I didn't need much room for the classic stuff anymore. I gave 9.2 a 5 Gb partition (way too generous I now realize) and all the rest is for OSX. The other 80 Gb drive is strictly for DV storage.

Not sure if you'll suffer the same fate. In checking around, it doesn't seem to be a huge problem. I'm just lucky I guess.

John,
my friend did the same thing as you, partioned his drive in two, one for each OS, but OS X got corrupted somehow and it started to affect 9 so now he is slowly losing data, having crashes.

I have a Tempo ATA PCI card coming soon, so I'll add two 80 gig drives for video, and use my current 60 gig drive for OS X and the original 10 gig drive the mac came with for OS 9. He suggested using a separate physical drive for each OS as opposed to partioning. If partioning will be fine then maybe I can drop the 10 gig and add another 80 gig for a total of 240 gigs for video.

John,
finally got OS X installed and updated, my friend helped me install FCP 3 and it works okay in X, did a quick batch capture and it worked fine, my friend was surprised it worked, it doesn't work on his system. He still doesn't know why he can't get it to work.

The only thing I did different from him is I have a separate physical drive for OS X, I have OS 9.2 on another drive, right now have 5 drives: 10 gig for OS 9, 60 for OS X, and a 60, 80, and 120 drive for video.

How does June 16th (sunday night) sound for getting together in Tokyo? I'm spending the night there with a friend and then taking the train back the next morning? I'll send Adrian an email and see what's up with him.

HI John...

Check out my new post on dropped frames... Just got my new Mac system, full blown and maxed out, along with FCP.... Having problems....

Let me know what you think...

Daniel,

If you read through this thread (pre your wrangler days), you'll see that everyone has had good ideas for possible solutions...but believe it or not...after all this time...I'm still capturing using iMovie and then importing the clips into FCP 3.0.

Just wondering if you might have an idea how to fix this problem?

HI JOHN....


Been a while since I've been here... Well, got the dropped frames problem solved, at least for myself... Apple refuses to believe this, but they DO have problems with their systems and equipment... OX 10.2 (Jaguar) won't solve it either.... Seems they just don't want to admit that they have ANY problems with ANYTHING...

When I got my new G4 I had monumental problems and they said nothing was wrong and it was all me... Apple again was wrong.. There was a problem with the motherboard and I finally got the computer exchanged after some long arguing and it proved out I was right...

As for the drop frames issue, I refused to give up on it and finally found the solution... Now, after having FCP working for the last month or so without a single dropped frame, I'm sharing it so that anyone out there with the problem can try it for themselves...

The whole drop frames issue stems from the hard drives... Yes! That's where it is... It's so simple that no one seems to have thought of it... I did a lot of experimenting and what I discovered, WORKS... Yes! You MUST have the system and programs on the main drive, and the files on a work drive, which has been known..... BUT, HERES THE KICKER.... Partitions DON'T work either... MUST be TWO SEPERATE DRIVES and THE TWO DRIVES MUST BE IDENTICAL DRIVES IN BRAND, TYPE AND SIZE, no matter what brand, type or size is being used... ie, If an xxx brand ATA100 80G is the main drive, the same xxx brand ATA100 80G MUST be used as the work or second drive.....

I have 2 Seagate Cheeta X15 36G SCSI drives with a 39160 Adaptec dual board, and they work great now... I'll add more of the same drives when I need more work space... I use the ATA100 drive that came with the computer, as a storage drive only, to keep files backed up and for files not in use....

TRY IT, IT WORKS.....

Ron

Hi Ron,

That's an interesting...albeit frustrating bit of news. I can't run out and get matching drives now. So if that's the root of my problem, looks like I'm stuck capturing with iMovie for awhile.

Thanks for stepping up to the plate with info. I guess Daniel is on hiatus or bogged down (I know how that is). I'm guessing this is a problem that won't go away without major backpeddling...so...I'll just learn to live with it.

HI AGAIN.....

Thanks for your reply.... Yes! That may be the problem with all the drop frame issues with FCP.... It makes sense too, what with the same drives running at the same speed and same transfer rates, characteristics etc.... I got the clue from the error messages, but following the advise given, never solved the problem and figured there had to be another answer.....

Fortunately, with the drives I had from my other PC's, which made it a little easier, I started experimenting..... It was a job switching, formatting etc., but my effort seemed to find the solution... The second I put a non-matching drive to the main drive in, I had drop frames... Upon replacing it with a matching drive, the problem was non-existant and FCP ran smooth.... I was not able to find any other solution anywhere...

As I said before, I am not a novice to computers, PC's that is, as I have been building my own for years... I am, however, novice to Macintosh, but am learning.... Now with this solved, I'm able to go back and continue trying to learn FCP... Been using Adobe for quite a while and FCP is very differant, and more complicated.... What with the training films I'm making now, I need the ability to do much more than I have in the past and FCP gives me that edge.... I'll soon be adding Boris Red to my software, for the effects etc....

Can you recommend any GOOD CD burning software for the Mac??? I've been using Nero on my PC, and it's great, but they don't make a Mac version... I had tried Adaptec's (Roxio now) software on my PC before and it was terrible.... Don't know how it is for the Mac, if it's just as bad or not, and hate to go and spend the money if it's no good.... The built in Mac software doesn't allow one to add to the CD or DVD once it's burned.... I use the CD's for backup and film storage and need the ability to add whatever as necessary until the CD is full... Too expensive to use hard drives for permenant storage...

Well, got to get some work done.... Let me know your thoughts.... Nice talking again....

Later.... Ron

Toast (Roxio) is the standard on the Mac. I've been using it several years and have never had a problem. I have heard in the last week though, that Toast (5.1.4) may be having a few issues with Jaguar. However, I've used Toast probably a dozen times with Jaguar in the last week with no problems. I believe there was a version of Nero for Mac but it was generally regarded as a joke, very buggy.

John,

I think there can be more than one solution. My drives don't match and I don't have a dropped frame or sync problem. I think in Ron's case, for his configuration, the matched drives solved his problems. SCSI drives are very fast and can solve some issues because of their speed. When I edit on clients systems with SCSI I never have drop frame or sync issues. How full are some of your drives? How fragmented are they? When you upgraded to OS X did you install new drivers? I would be happy to try to work on this with you. Post your Apple System Profile (or email it to me if you don't want everyone seeing it). Also, exactly the model of drives you're using and how you have the software configured (what's on what drive).

Jeff

My internal drives do not match in brrand or capacity, either. Also no problem. I can see why partitioning would not produce favorable results. A disk partition is a logical construct, versus a physical one. That is, it does not add heads or platters to a drive. It merely divides it and actually adds some extra work during i/o.

That said, adding a clean, fast drive to your system and making sure that you've established it (under FCP preferences) as the primary target for capture/scratch operations will make a very real difference. Many folks forget to do this and then report no difference in their problems, not realizing that FCP is still using their system drive for intermediate operations even though their project is homed on the new drive.