Help-FCP out of memory error...crash!!!!

[Jonathan Jones]

Okay, I really need some help with this head scratcher. And I suspect that it is something EXTREMELY obvious, but I just can't make it work.

Here is the deal. I started using FCP 4.5 (HD) several months ago, running it on my PB G4 1.25 Ghz with 2GB RAM with almost 2 terabytes of external storage. Things have been absolutetly swimming...running very smoothly and I have completed a number of projects with barely a hiccup (except for the lengthy rendering times). I have used the standard work flow from beginning to end including log and capture, edit, composite, render, output, etc....no problems. Although I don't yet fully understand the intricacies of the many variations of user and sytem settings in FCP, I have been using some simple, standard, basic setups and have had no problems...till now.

This weekend, I tried something different with a new project that involved a couple of tapes that have a lot of different content. The tapes are filled with various clips, some shot with 16 bit audio, and others shot with 12 bit audio. I had understood that FCP is complex in handling clips with varying audio bit rates, so it is best have all the bit rates the same....


...but since I only needed a few select shots in the large muddle of them, I thought it would be easier to just import the whole tape into iMovie, than I can easily see what I need, select them, and then export them as a full-quality dv stream....this way all the clips I need will then have identical encoding for audio and video because this export will render each of them out as

I then dumped all of these newly exported clips into a bin of a new FCP project and began to cut them together. As soon as I dropped a clip into the timeline, it indicated that it needed to be rendered, (the video was low rez choppy, and the audio was that annoying 'non-rendered' beeping alert).

So I tried to render the clip, and after a few minutes, I got the "Error: Out of Memory" message, and the FCP quit. I tried it again, with the same results, altough sometimes it also froze up the whole system. Reboots, dumping renders, changing settings or preferences, creating new sequeces or projects didn't seem to help. It has done the same with each of the other clips I have also imported into this bin.

While this is happening, if I try to do anything else while this project is open, OS X literally slows to a horrible crawl.....

Now I know that I am not really out of memory. I have never had a problem using the 2 gig RAM limit before, and I have loads of storage available.

Just for kicks, I went back to another FCP project I was working on before that is much more complex, containing 18 sequences, 8 video tracks, and alot of image manipulation. It opened fine...I ran a render on a nice long segment...smooth as silk, and all the while, OS X remained alert and snappy....

So I trashed my newer project that was giving me troubles, and duplicated the older project, then cleared out all the bins, seqences, and clips and began fillling it up with the new imports from iMovie...SAME FREAKIN' PROBLEM!!!! It seems to me that all my settings and preferences identical between the projects, but I think that for some reason the iMovie exported clips are really breakin' my brain.

WHAT AM I DOING WRONG? I would love to get this figured out because I will continue to be working on some dv stream exports that others will be giving me from iMovie in the near future, and I need to know if there is some special secret that I am missing.

My preference would be to not have to go back and re-capture directly from the tapes into FCP, because I already have just the clips that I want...and I don't know how to avoid conflicts with varying audio bit rates from within FCP if they are in the same project (probably a separate capture and then a conversion on the audio in post?)

This has apparently come up a whole bunch of times on the Apple support forums, with a million different solutions to fix it...and it seems none of them actually work.

Does anyone know what I am doing wrong with this, who is able to help before I have to bite the bullet, recapture from scratch, hope it helps, and kiss my whole weekend goodbye?

Many many thanks in advance.

-Jon

[Jonathan Jones]

Well. I'm sorry that the previous post was so lengthy...I just wanted to be sure to include as much pertinent info as would be required in case anyone who might be able to help wanted all the technical details behind the problem.

Anyway, I spend today cutting together another project in FCP, and afterwards, I went back to the one that was causing the problems with the imported files from iMovie....so far it seems to be working okay now, and I have no idea why....the caveat being that it is taking a really long time to render each of these imported clips before I can properly view and listen to them before I get into the nitty gritty of cutting and correcting them.

I don't remember ever having to wait this long to render the clips I log and capture directly into FCP, so I think I shot myself in the foot trying to save time and capture first right into iMovie to quickly pick and choose my wanted clips...waiting the extra time seems to have overridden any time I was trying to save by doing the simple capture and export in iMovie.

Don't get me wrong...I am loving FCP, and I love iMovie a bunch for what it is (and its amazing) but am I discovering that the two don't play well together? That's not cool.

If anyone has any ideas as to what was causing my initial 'out of memory' errors as described in the earlier post, I am still open to hearing ideas as until I finish this project next week, who knows, maybe the error will pop up again.

Thanks again.
-Jon

[Glenn Chan]

iMovie and FCP don't play well... you're likely better off capturing with FCP.

iMovie uses the DV stream format, whereas FCP uses something else. So you need to render the audio, and you lose the timecode so you can't re-capture off the original tapes.
Both programs have DV start/stop scene detection if you set the time on the camera.

iMovie has the advantage in that you can trim clips.

[Jonathan Jones]

Thank you so much, Glenn for setting me right.

I'm really bummed about this because I really love iMovie for the ease and quickness of being able to capture and trim various shots without doing the whole log and capture thing...and I wasn't sure what to expect juggling between different audio bit rates.

I guess it was just silly of me to assume that since both versions are full resolution dv, that they would have no problem juggling the files between them...but no dice, the renders from iMovie appear to have been what was causing an incredible problem for me. After going through the whole process again last night with a fresh sequence, etc...it still choked trying to render a 15 minute clip that I couldn't work with until it had rendered, which it said would take 3 hours!!!, but it choked part way through, and I checked the file in the render manager to find that it had thus far built it up into a 26 GB render! No wonder it choked.....I don't even know what it was trying to do.

Anyway, I bit the bullet, and captured fresh into FCP as Glenn suggested, which in the end is the safer solution anyway. As per my expectations, it is running smooth as silk and working with the clips just as it should.

Bummer about the incompatibility issues with the iMovie renders. I'm not sure why that is, but now I guess I know (after blowing a whole weekend).

Looks like all is okay now.
Thanks again.
-Jon