Glenn,

Are you talking about the velocity in the Time Remap? I have tried that, but it won't let me change the velocity % for some reason. If that's not what you are talking about, what is the velocity envelope thingie?

Clay

I get a general error now when I try to capture now. I have always used the capture now feature with this same setup with no problems. All of a sudden I get a general error as soon as i hit the "now" button. I had just captured footage a few days ago with no problems.Havent installed any new software etc. My system had been soild until now. Any suggestions? FCP3 - 10.2.8 - I tried restarting etc. also.

Matt, this thread (http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=23402&highlight=FCP+preferences) should help. If not, post back.

Jeff BIG thanks for the link! I trashed the prefs and repaired permissions and now back to normal!

matt

Another satisfied customer. I'm glad it helped and thanks for posting back Matt.

Is my FCP3 serial # the only thing needed to install upgrade versions of FCP? My G4 is a dual boot and I had FCP2 running in OS9 then got the 3 upgrade and ran in OSX. Now I would like to start out with a fresh install with no more OS9 on the mac at all. My main concern is that I would need the following versions installed on the computer is this true or is the FCPhd upgrade a full version as well?

Thanks

You'll need to purchase the upgrade to FCP 4, then download the free upgrade to FCP HD (4.5). To the best of my recollection, FCP 3 install was a problem for some people without OS 9.x.x on the drive. I would install 9 then FCP, then delete 9 when all the install are done and you're cleaning up your drives.

I upgraded from v1.2 to HD (4.5).

It's a full install but will ask you for your old serial number. You can probably use any of the old serial numbers from your previous versions.

If you get the full shipped version it comes with a DVD full of HD sample footage as well as a quarter-ton of documentation.

Dean Sensui
Base Two Productions

Hi there,


I like to back-up my projects using Media Manager.

Using FCP3, this worked perfectly : images/shots/audio you did not used for your final edit were deleted, so saving a project 'doing a media manager' saves me some gigabytes.


Since I'm using FCP4, this media manager-option doesn't work properly. Wrong audio-tracks are put under images I did not use in my project.
Everytime I end up with a totally new project that is completly useless.


Anyone experienced the same problem?


Eugène.

I'm not sure it works for this, but have you tried trashing the preferences? There is a notice at the top that explains the procedure.

I found a old unregistered copy of 2.0 for a client of mine and then bought the 4.0 upgrade for them all for a whopping 500 bucks.

Being able to upgrade from ANY previous, registerable, version is fantastic.

The word is getting around about the HD capabilities of 4.5. A LOT of buzz is being generated among people who used to dismiss FCP.

I finished editing my movie on FCP3, now I need to do some adjustments and I have upgraded my system to FCPHD. Will I have any problems opening the movie in it? I don't wanna mess up any sequences or have some bugs that might affect it. Am I being paranoid? Any input on this is appreciated. Thanks.

Your project will be converted to be compatible with the current version of FCP. After conversion it may not be compatible with prior versions of FCP.

agreed so if you have any chance of needing to drop this back into FCP3 make sure you back up your project files where they won't get updated.

Hi.
FCP3 Mac G4
I have still images saved as JPGs which wont render in the timeline. A message pops up saying, 'Codec not found'.
I've never had this problem before. Do the images need saving as something else? If so, any idea's?
Regards

What is the source of the jpeg's and in what program were they edited and saved?

Hi
They were scanned into PSP7 and saved as JPgs which is the same as I've always done it with no problems before.

Follow the instructions at the top of the forum for trashing preferences. Make sure you get all three files and repair permissions afterwards.

??

It's the first post (http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=26728) at the top of this forum.

Working with FCP 3 on a G4 running OSX, I should be backing up my project. How does one do this? (I also have a second hard drive. ) And I was also told that it may be wise to back it up to an external hard drive, which I am looking into as they are rather affordable at a nearby Mac dealer. Now if I get the external drive, will the whole project, with all it's files, easily drag into that drive, or is there more to it?

Sure, you shouldn't have any problem backing up to an external drive. Just make sure you've located the folder hierarchy where all the capture and render files are stored, then drag to the external drive. Unless you have changed the scratch disk in your preferences these can be found at:

[your boot drive]/Documents/Final Cut Pro Documents/

Also a note if you're using multiple removable drives and want to be able to transport them between computers (or work on a project that you stored to an external drive). You will need to specifically set the preference to your firewire drive or FCP will put your capture and render files on the boot drive of whatever machine you're using. This has burned me in the past with FCP3. When you plug in the external drive go to the preferences in FCP and select it as your scratch disk.

There is kind of a fast and easy way to backup. I learned this trick from Ken Stone and it saved me on a project someone wanted re edited. What you do is save your final cut file and not the actual video clips. If you need to pull the project in again you just pull the project off of what ever u back up to and open the file in FCP. It will ask you for the media and you will be able to recapture the clips from the tapes you used. It requires that you log your tapes so at least you know what is what but it works great.

I also kind of recall something about saving the EDL but I think thats only if u plan on going to something other than a FCP editing system.

Check Kens site to read the full directions.

www.kenstone.net

Sure, that should work fine too, but if you're in the middle of a big project it's nice to have the security of a "clone" that includes everything needed on an external drive. And large firewire drives are reasonably priced now. It sure saved me from a nightmare last fall....

The Canon website says that the GL2 is only compatible with FCP4... has anyone tried using it with FCP3? Are there any problems? What about with iMovie? Any help? Thanks.

The GL2 is compatible with iMovie, and previous versions of FCP.

Thanks for your help.

Your welcome and thanks for becoming a member.

Greetings---
I have five to six audio tracks (vos, nat sound, music, etc) in my FCP 3 project...
I have added filters (compression. etc.) to the voiceover audio tracks and now wish to ramp down/up music levels accordingly.
However, ANY adjustment to music levels results in always re-rendering voiceovers, because they have effects added, in order to hear the mix. Is there some way to get around this? I hate to constantly be re-rendering every time I make a change in my music tracks.

This might work.

Mute the tracks you want to adjust the levels of (and any other tracks you need to make changes to), leave the VO and all the other tracks unmuted.

Export the audio as an AIFF.

Import the resulting AIFF. Now you have a fully rendered stereo audio pair with the VO (and anything else you exported).

Reverse the mute settings on all the tracks so now the tracks that were exported/unmuted are now those muted.

Place the imported AIFF in the timeline.

Make your adjustments on the music tracks to get the levels you want.

The AIFF file you have in the timeline can be used in the final edit or you can delete it from the timeline and unmute everything. Of course doing the latter will require a full audio rerender.

Other solutions I see:
1- upgrade to FCP4. *You are asking for problems if you wish to go from FCP3 to FCP4. It works for some folks and doesn't for others. There are known issues.

2- Export an OMF to an audio application. If you own virtually any audio software, you can upgrade to Digital Performer cheaply (through the website). There are other audio editing apps out there too.

Greetings---

I need to create a master of my project (created in FCP3, G4-OSX) to hand off to my duplicator. In the past, I have simply made a copy to to miniDV, and they created the DVD Master for duplication from it. I do not have iDVD or any DVD creation software (I hope to at some point). In any case, a recent DVD-R check dub was created from my most recent miniDV master and upon viewing it, I noticed a few hits and a few audio dropouts. I plan to address this with the duplicator this week to see what might have happened, to compare my master against the check dub. My question is, is it possible to somehow save my project, as some sort of file, with all it's media, to my 160 gig external hard drive, take it to whoever creates the DVD Master, and then export it from the external drive toward authoring a DVD master? And will they need to be working in FCP?

Thanks,
Tim

No, you could make a QuickTime copy on your HD and then they would not need FCP.

Good idea...and would the QuickTime copy be at the level of quality of the project when I hand it off to?

There are various options for choices of codecs to use. DV or DVCPRO is certainly an option, as are several uncompressed formats. You replication company will need a way to handle an uncompressed file however. Standard DV will be your best choice for maximum compatibility and good quality.

I generally make my masters using a FCP(QT) file. If that is, however, the best option qualitywise I don't know. I know that they don't need FCP to make a DVD with iDVD, Toast or DVDSP.

It would be great to know what format you pros export to..

I've got FCP 3 and everytime I try to save project as a Quicktime file the result is a white screen with audio only. Basically there's no picture, but audio. I've tried to save a single clip and that works ok, so do a couple of clips budged together, but a full edit, no way. Anyone here with greater experience of FCP than I know what's going on here?

Kind regards

Are you using Mac OS 9 or OSX? I had a similar problem myself a couple years ago, although I think it had to do with exporting stills via quicktime - I got blank white images.

I can't remember if I ever solved this or not, but at the time I was running FCP 3 under OS 9 on a Titanium PowerBook G4/667. I suggest trying the following:

1. Make sure you have downloaded the final version of the FCP 3 update from Apple's website.

2. FCP 3 has some issues with newer versions of QT Pro. If you have installed any updates (which might have happened inadventently via the software update or installation of a new version of OSX) then you should downgrade to the original version which came with your FCP install disks. This is tricky and involves messing around a bit as I recall.

3. I have purposely kept my FCP 3 system at OS X 10.2.8 with its original version of QT pro. It works fine, so I don't plan to upgrade anything until I'm also ready to go to the latest version of FCP - which will probably be when I upgrade my hardware to a G5 :-)

I am capturing material from a DVX100ae (PAL). I noticed that my audio is distorted when I capture it in FCP3. My levels do get pretty hot, though I had the limiter on, but when I listen to the audio through the camera itself I don't hear any distortion. I assume this has something to do with FCP and possibly PAL settings.

Just for the record, the audio was recorded at 48khz and this is also selected in the capture presets.

Any ideas?

Thanks for this Boyd. I thought it might be system issues, and oddly enough I am running FCP3 from G4 867 laptop.

I have a few reoccurring problems that are bothering me:

1. I have become more aware of that my deck and cameras are leaving artifacts or what I call glitches (for a faction of a second see pixelization and a skip in the sound). I first bought a cleaning cassette and found limited results.

The deck was so bad I sent it back to Sony for repair for $200. Which seemed to be ok until I started to get back into video again. Now I notice it’s starting to do it again after very little use. I'm at a dilemma whether to send it back for another repair or demand a new one. This was like $1,000 Sony mini deck.

The cameras (Sony vx1000, vx2000 and canon alura) all leave these glitches when capturing, some more than other you can never tell when it's going to do it until you review the footage and notice it.

You might be asking, how do I know if its the equipment. Today I was capturing a 20 second clip, we see a clip, pop the tape into his brand new camera and bingo its not there.

So my question: Is this a common problem that any of you have experienced? Do the heads have a short life of few years before they start doing this sort of thing? I've got more important projects down the road and I can't afford for this to keep happening. It's making me look unprofessional.

2. A while back I exported a movie for an informational interview and the movie hesitated and wouldn't display any transitions or effects (cross dissolves, fades, etc). A friend later clued me in on those FCP3 only exports as QuickTime mpeg 4, which don't run properly on older DVD players. I recently read FCP3 help file that said if DVD studio pro is installed that FCP will you the option to export as an mpeg 2 which will play on all DVD players. I installed DVD Studio pro2 but I still don't see an mpeg export option. Can anyone help me out?

Pete,
Most people call those glitches dropped frames. They do have to do with the record heads in your camera and deck, and cleaning the heads is a good place to start. I have read reports of switching tape stocks causing horrible dirty heads, so if you used Sony tapes for a while and switched to Panasonic then that could cause the problem (this is supposedly an issue with different lubricants, but I have never found a definitive answer to the tape lubricant question). You might also have to send your camera or deck in for repair to solve the problem. Or, at best, you might just switch to a higher quality brand of tapes. All the DVX users I know who use the Panasonic Master Quality tapes have no problems with dropped frames, and I've had no problems with high quality Sony tapes and the PD-170s I used to use.

As for the MPEG-2 export, you'll find it in FCP under File>Export>Using QuickTime Conversion. Select MPEG-2 from the dropdown menu, and then you can tweak the settings. But you'll probably have better results if you export a QuickTime movie and run it through Compressor, which ships with both FCP4 and DVDSP. By the way, MPEG-4 won't likely run on any DVD player, older or otherwise. DVD-Video is all MPEG-2. Best of luck.

I have a Panasonic Deck. I've always used the same Sony tapes on it (shot on XL1s), and it was super fine. Then one day, I had to capture 5 hours of panasonic tapes; and thats where it got messed up. After capturing, the deck heads were really messed up. Strong noise and glitches. So I ran and got a cleaning tape and ran it in the deck.
Now it's much better. But I get those annoying glitches (a glitch every 1 minute). I know it's not a big deal, but it's really annoying when the glitch appears in a crucial frame. I have to re-capture the tape, or go fix the frame in Photoshop!!
Now I have to send it back to Panasonic to fix it. But from the threads in this forum, it seems that this problem always comes back :S

To wrap up here's my status:

1. For dropped frames: I'll use the cassette cleaner again, return the deck for another repair, buys the high end sony dv tapes, and just live with the results.

2. FCP3 mpeg 2 export to dvd. I looked again and found it in the format list.

thx for the help, you guys are great resource!

I've got a project due this Wednesday (May 18th) and I'm having problems with getting the chroma key right. I showed it to my producer and he said the previous editor was able to achieve a better key than me using the same screen set up. My edges are soft and and have a purple fringe. I'm using Final Cut Pro 3 and the video was shot on a green screen. Does FCP do a good job keying if not plugin or software suggestions?

I uploaded still images of before and after.
http://mydesignbiz.com/download/key/chroma_before.jpg
http://mydesignbiz.com/download/key/chroma_after.jpg
http://mydesignbiz.com/download/key/chroma2_before.jpg

If someone could try keying one of the before stills and let me know if its possible to get a good key with lighting and what settings you used to achieve it. Any help would be greatly appreciated. thx

My Filters settings are as follows:

Blue and Green
color level = 95
color tolerance = 74
edge thin = 62
edge feather = 10

Matte Choker
edge thin = 64
edge feather = 100

Spill Suppress
amount = 73

Was the shot lit the same for the previous editor. That chroma key lighting is HORRID. Lighting the background FLAT AND EVEN are key to a good chroma key especially if your source is DV.

It's been a long time since I used FCP3. FCP4.5 has nice built in chroma keying especially with the added 4:1:1 chroma smother filter which helps keying in "DV" color space.

There are some great 3rd party chroma key plugins for FCP if they can budget for them.

The key material you've been given is NOT GOOD though. I'd love to see what the "previous editor" was given to work with.

I had a feel it was uneven lighting causing the problem, but since this is the first time I've done chroma keying and my producer was so adament it should work I figured it was something I was doing wrong.

Its a low budget production. My producer has a wall painted green in his apartment with two clamp lights at 45 degrees. The subject is around 3ft from wall (it would probably be better if he was farther away but its a small room). Any suggestions to evenly light green screen?

I tried adobe premier (which the previous editor used) and it worked better even though it's older and less sophisticated.
http://mydesignbiz.com/download/key/chroma-premiere.jpg

Hi,

I'm using FCP3 on a 15" G4/1200, OSX. When I ry to capture I get an error:

"An error occurred finding one or more of the specified capture scratch volume(s). Verify that both audio and video scratch disks are set in the Preferences."

My prefs are fine. Any idea what's up?

thanks,
elmer

I thought this problem was specific to FCP 4.x, but it might also affect FCP 3:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=44189

Also see the following info on how to delete corrupted preference files:

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

Boyd,

Before seeing your reply I found I could capture 'Now' but not batch capture.

Thanks for the quick help, I checked it out. No good. Same thing. This has happened before and went away. I'll just shut down and suck my thumb.

thanks for trying.