Various questions FCP3

Matt Stahley · December 29th, 2003, 10:43 PM

What do you mean by typewriter text? Text>Typewriter or a specific font style? You can outline fonts in Title 3D. When Title 3D opens you will notice the "T" tabs in the lower left corner and here you will find the outline settings.

Michiel van der Zeeuw · December 30th, 2003, 01:30 AM

yes, I meant the video generators -> type -> typewriter effect, where the letters of the text appear on screen as if typed one by one.
thx
Michiel

Adam Ball · December 30th, 2003, 02:18 AM

I am running FCP 3 on a mac g4 twin 867 processor. If I purchase another card to allow me to hook up a second crt monitor, can I configure fcp to split the display between the two monitors? (example: browser/viewer on one and canvas/timeline on the other)

thanks
---adam

Jeff Donald · December 30th, 2003, 06:24 AM

You may not need to buy another card. Do you know what card is on your dual 876 MHz computer. Most have a dual monitor card built in. You can move the windows in FCP around anyway you like and save it as a default. Many of us here edit on dual monitors. It is quicker and the timeline etc. can be made larger for easier viewing.

Boyd Ostroff · December 30th, 2003, 08:24 AM

As Jeff said, your card may already support two monitors, but you may also need an adaptor cable to hook up the second one. Otherwise you should be able to add a PCI card. The last time I checked the only one of these for the Mac was the Radeon 7000 Mac Edition. I got one a couple years ago and it works fine in my old G4/733 under MacOS 9.2. I'm not sure, but I think there used to be some OSX issues with it however. Perhaps these were resolved, or maybe there's a newer card.

If neither of these options work then you might be able to replace the original AGP graphics card in your Mac, but be careful to research this because I think there are some major compatability issues there. Don't just assume that any AGP graphics card will work.

Jeff Donald · December 30th, 2003, 08:53 AM

Quote:

Perhaps these were resolved, or maybe there's a newer card.

Those issues where resolved when ATI finally (took a year maybe) released OS X drivers. No problems with PCI video cards and OS X today.

Adam Ball · December 30th, 2003, 11:29 AM

Thank you both for your detailed help.

---adam

Craig Weinstein · January 30th, 2004, 01:31 AM

I hope someone can help.

This evening I was experimenting with de-interlace filters and shot a little sequence on a chessboard for source footage. I went to capture the video in FCP3 and I get the error message "ERROR: Final Cut Pro was unable to read the media file just captured"

I tried again-- same error message. I restarted FCP and got the same. Restarted the machine. Same. I did a Google search and only found a website stating that Canopus Firewire PCI cards cause this. I removed my OrangeLink USB2.0/Firewire card and disconnected the Koutech USB/FW hub conneccted to it and rebooted. Same error message again. After reassembly, I did a clean partition of my scratch disk and tried to capture yet again. Same error message. I even reinstalled FCP3 and tried again. (Note: I did try all my firewire ports on the logic board and on the firewire cards themselves-- no difference)

I am at my wits' end. I've had my machine in its current configuration for months and every component has run smoothly and without conflict.

Oddly enough, FCP recognizes that my camcorder is active ("VTR OK" shows up and I can use DV control). I also managed to print video to the camera without a hitch.

Please, if anyone can help with advice I would be very grateful.

-Craig

My system config.
---------------------
Power Mac G4/450 Sawtooth model
2GB ram
OS X 10.3.2
Final Cut Pro 3
Sonnet 1.4 CPU
ATI Radeon 9000 video
Sonnet FW800 PCI
Orange Micro "OrangeLink+" USB/FW PCI
Koutech FW/USB2.0 3.5" hub (external type connectors connected to Orange Micro card)
ACARD 6880M ATA-133 RAID PCI (2ch)
Striped RAID 0 scratch disk: 2x IBM 180GXP 180GB drives

Jeff Donald · January 30th, 2004, 07:18 AM

Have you added any hardware or software lately? If so remove any new software, hardware and try to capture to an internal drive. Until you start to isolate the problem, you could have many causes, including your RAID, ram, OS etc.

Craig Weinstein · January 30th, 2004, 12:21 PM

Jeff,

No recent hardware additions. I did, however, install a DVD player application, "MPlayer" and just before trying to capture, I installed a demo version of Joe's Filters to try out de-interlacing. Other than those, I installed a couple of Nintendo game emulators a couple of weeks prior.

I'm backing up my system to do a clean reinstall of the system drive. Hopefully some anomaly will present itself in step-by-step reinstallation.

Thanks!

-Craig

Jeff Donald · January 30th, 2004, 06:22 PM

If that doesn't do it, then you may have to resort to a more drastic approach. I generally recommend taking the computer back to it's original state. Remove all extras, ram, mouse, keyboard, etc. and wipe the drive clean. Install the OS and FCP only (default location for FCP) and start adding none OEM add-ons one by until you get the problem.

After you installed the Nintendo emulators did FCP work OK? They might have overwritten some key video components that FCP needs. If you knew what they installed you could check for certain files, but it's probably a shot in the dark.

Craig Weinstein · January 30th, 2004, 07:58 PM

Jeff,

I have no idea what the Nintendo emulators might have done but they're self-contained programs without extraneous program files.

I'm just about ready to reinstall FCP now. If I still get capture issues I may just switch to my powerbook 1ghz semi-permanently. I have to have a machine to edit on.

Craig Weinstein · January 30th, 2004, 10:56 PM

I found the problem: a corrupt FCP user preferences file. That's all it was.

I found a website that suggested trashing the file as a first resort when such problems occur. I did, and now FCP captures normally. I've got an alias on my desktop to that file now.

Jeff, thanks for all your help!

-Craig

Jeff Donald · January 31st, 2004, 12:36 AM

That's odd, because reinstalling FCP should have created new preferences. You'll find the directions for deleting the FCP preferences here.

Craig Weinstein · January 31st, 2004, 11:14 AM

My guess is that an updated driver or piece of software (Shockwave? Quicktime 6.5?) created a conflict with FCP. This would explain the recurrance after a complete system reinstallation.

One thing did change, however. After reinstallation, the error message changed from "unable to read media file just captured" to "general error"

-Craig

December 30th, 2003, 02:18 AM	#183
Adam Ball Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Gainesvile, Florida Posts: 41	Dual CRT Display w/ FCP3 I am running FCP 3 on a mac g4 twin 867 processor. If I purchase another card to allow me to hook up a second crt monitor, can I configure fcp to split the display between the two monitors? (example: browser/viewer on one and canvas/timeline on the other) thanks ---adam

December 30th, 2003, 06:24 AM	#184
Jeff Donald Warden Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Clearwater, FL Posts: 8,287	You may not need to buy another card. Do you know what card is on your dual 876 MHz computer. Most have a dual monitor card built in. You can move the windows in FCP around anyway you like and save it as a default. Many of us here edit on dual monitors. It is quicker and the timeline etc. can be made larger for easier viewing. __________________ Jeff Donald Carpe Diem Search DVinfo.net for quick answers \| Where to Buy? From the best in the business: DVinfo.net sponsors

January 30th, 2004, 01:31 AM	#188
Craig Weinstein Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Melbourne, Florida USA Posts: 35	FCP3 Capture difficulties I hope someone can help. This evening I was experimenting with de-interlace filters and shot a little sequence on a chessboard for source footage. I went to capture the video in FCP3 and I get the error message "ERROR: Final Cut Pro was unable to read the media file just captured" I tried again-- same error message. I restarted FCP and got the same. Restarted the machine. Same. I did a Google search and only found a website stating that Canopus Firewire PCI cards cause this. I removed my OrangeLink USB2.0/Firewire card and disconnected the Koutech USB/FW hub conneccted to it and rebooted. Same error message again. After reassembly, I did a clean partition of my scratch disk and tried to capture yet again. Same error message. I even reinstalled FCP3 and tried again. (Note: I did try all my firewire ports on the logic board and on the firewire cards themselves-- no difference) I am at my wits' end. I've had my machine in its current configuration for months and every component has run smoothly and without conflict. Oddly enough, FCP recognizes that my camcorder is active ("VTR OK" shows up and I can use DV control). I also managed to print video to the camera without a hitch. Please, if anyone can help with advice I would be very grateful. -Craig My system config. --------------------- Power Mac G4/450 Sawtooth model 2GB ram OS X 10.3.2 Final Cut Pro 3 Sonnet 1.4 CPU ATI Radeon 9000 video Sonnet FW800 PCI Orange Micro "OrangeLink+" USB/FW PCI Koutech FW/USB2.0 3.5" hub (external type connectors connected to Orange Micro card) ACARD 6880M ATA-133 RAID PCI (2ch) Striped RAID 0 scratch disk: 2x IBM 180GXP 180GB drives

January 30th, 2004, 07:18 AM	#189
Jeff Donald Warden Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Clearwater, FL Posts: 8,287	Have you added any hardware or software lately? If so remove any new software, hardware and try to capture to an internal drive. Until you start to isolate the problem, you could have many causes, including your RAID, ram, OS etc. __________________ Jeff Donald Carpe Diem Search DVinfo.net for quick answers \| Where to Buy? From the best in the business: DVinfo.net sponsors

January 30th, 2004, 06:22 PM	#191
Jeff Donald Warden Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Clearwater, FL Posts: 8,287	If that doesn't do it, then you may have to resort to a more drastic approach. I generally recommend taking the computer back to it's original state. Remove all extras, ram, mouse, keyboard, etc. and wipe the drive clean. Install the OS and FCP only (default location for FCP) and start adding none OEM add-ons one by until you get the problem. After you installed the Nintendo emulators did FCP work OK? They might have overwritten some key video components that FCP needs. If you knew what they installed you could check for certain files, but it's probably a shot in the dark. __________________ Jeff Donald Carpe Diem Search DVinfo.net for quick answers \| Where to Buy? From the best in the business: DVinfo.net sponsors

December 29th, 2003, 10:43 PM	#181
Matt Stahley Major Player Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Waynesboro, PA Posts: 648	What do you mean by typewriter text? Text>Typewriter or a specific font style? You can outline fonts in Title 3D. When Title 3D opens you will notice the "T" tabs in the lower left corner and here you will find the outline settings.

December 30th, 2003, 01:30 AM	#182
Michiel van der Zeeuw Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands Posts: 27	yes, I meant the video generators -> type -> typewriter effect, where the letters of the text appear on screen as if typed one by one. thx Michiel

December 30th, 2003, 08:24 AM	#185
Boyd Ostroff Wrangler Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Mays Landing, NJ Posts: 11,802	As Jeff said, your card may already support two monitors, but you may also need an adaptor cable to hook up the second one. Otherwise you should be able to add a PCI card. The last time I checked the only one of these for the Mac was the Radeon 7000 Mac Edition. I got one a couple years ago and it works fine in my old G4/733 under MacOS 9.2. I'm not sure, but I think there used to be some OSX issues with it however. Perhaps these were resolved, or maybe there's a newer card. If neither of these options work then you might be able to replace the original AGP graphics card in your Mac, but be careful to research this because I think there are some major compatability issues there. Don't just assume that any AGP graphics card will work.

December 30th, 2003, 11:29 AM	#187
Adam Ball Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Gainesvile, Florida Posts: 41	Thank you both for your detailed help. ---adam

January 30th, 2004, 12:21 PM	#190
Craig Weinstein Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Melbourne, Florida USA Posts: 35	Jeff, No recent hardware additions. I did, however, install a DVD player application, "MPlayer" and just before trying to capture, I installed a demo version of Joe's Filters to try out de-interlacing. Other than those, I installed a couple of Nintendo game emulators a couple of weeks prior. I'm backing up my system to do a clean reinstall of the system drive. Hopefully some anomaly will present itself in step-by-step reinstallation. Thanks! -Craig

January 30th, 2004, 07:58 PM	#192
Craig Weinstein Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Melbourne, Florida USA Posts: 35	Jeff, I have no idea what the Nintendo emulators might have done but they're self-contained programs without extraneous program files. I'm just about ready to reinstall FCP now. If I still get capture issues I may just switch to my powerbook 1ghz semi-permanently. I have to have a machine to edit on.

January 30th, 2004, 10:56 PM	#193
Craig Weinstein Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Melbourne, Florida USA Posts: 35	I found the problem: a corrupt FCP user preferences file. That's all it was. I found a website that suggested trashing the file as a first resort when such problems occur. I did, and now FCP captures normally. I've got an alias on my desktop to that file now. Jeff, thanks for all your help! -Craig

January 31st, 2004, 12:36 AM	#194
Jeff Donald Warden Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Clearwater, FL Posts: 8,287	That's odd, because reinstalling FCP should have created new preferences. You'll find the directions for deleting the FCP preferences here. __________________ Jeff Donald Carpe Diem Search DVinfo.net for quick answers \| Where to Buy? From the best in the business: DVinfo.net sponsors

January 31st, 2004, 11:14 AM	#195
Craig Weinstein Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Melbourne, Florida USA Posts: 35	My guess is that an updated driver or piece of software (Shockwave? Quicktime 6.5?) created a conflict with FCP. This would explain the recurrance after a complete system reinstallation. One thing did change, however. After reinstallation, the error message changed from "unable to read media file just captured" to "general error" -Craig