I recently upgraded to Final Cut Pro 3 and have found some quirks that I have been able to work around from my previous version of FCP 2, but this one has got me stumped. While trying to batch capture I get an error message "An error occurred finding one or more of the specific capture scratch volume(s). Verify that both audio and video scratch discs are set in the preferences." I have looked in the scratch disc preferences and everything is checked for audio and video. I have been able to batch capture with FCP 3 prior to this, but something as all of a sudden apparently gone wrong. Is there some place else I need to check the preferences other then in the scratch disc? If someone could please help me alleviate this problem it would be greatly appreciated. I am running on version 10.3.9. I have considered visiting my local hardware store and purchasing a nice, shining, new sledgehammer to help me with my pain, but my wife, the kind-hearted person that she is, has persuaded me otherwise.
Thank you,
Gary Walter

Have you upgraded to the final version of FCP 3? You should be able to find that on Apple's website. There are also issues with FCP and virus software - do you have anything like that running on your Mac? Of course the standard fix for everything in FCP is trashing the prefs file, so that's also worth trying.

Of course you realize you're using some pretty old software. You might consider another upgrade if you plan to stick with FCP. Version 3 was really a System 9 program adapted to OSX, so it runs quite a bit slower than FCP 4 and 5. It is especially limited in realtime capabilities, and can't send realtime previews over firewire. You should see a big performance improvement with the newer versions, even on older hardware.

Also, you might want to take advantage of Apple's upgrade promotion. They are no longer selling FCP as a standalone program, but you can trade in your copy of FCP 3 for the full universal version of Final Cut Studio (to be released at the end of March) for $699. More info here:

http://www.apple.com/universal/crossgrade/

I was not aware that there are different versions of FCP 3. I did think about trashing the prefs but it has been a long time since I have had to do this and have forgot how. Can you give me a refresher?

I believe the last update was 3.0.4 - download it here:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=122008

Hopefully this post is old enough to apply to FCP preferences:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=26728

Also see: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showpost.php?p=310257&postcount=6

I posted this response last month to a similar question on another forum:

While I would be sure you've probably checked this, there is another instigator that will cause this error message: that little foward slash that has gotten me when I edit for periods w/o needing to capture regularly. Then, when I'm in a hurry to capture some footage and to write a description thereof, again quickly, I have erred by occasionally using this usually harmless hyphenation (as above, for "without", or more commonly, "beach pan w/CU," or the likes). In any case, FCP will stumble w/ these clips and this message will appear. Simply remove those offending slashes and things should capture w/o incident.

The other was a slightly different question, (same FCP message), but you might check this...hope it helps.

Thank you Frank! That indeed was the problem. No more /'s for me! I changed the name and it took right off.

Thanks again.

Gary Walter

Hah, that's pretty funny. Coming from an oldtime unix background, I'd never think of putting a slash, asterisk, ampersand, etc. in a filename. In fact, I don't even put whitespace in filenames! :-)

But this is obviously a bug. The software should be fixing this stuff up for you behind the scenes. I remember under OS 9 you had the same problem with the colon, which they used as a path separator just like the unix slash. Most software just wouldn't allow you to type it when entering a filename.