FCP hangs when capturing to firewire HD at DVinfo.net

Stephen Brown · December 2nd, 2005, 11:41 PM

I'm unable to capture video to a new La Cie 250G external FW400 HD (7200,8M). FCP 4.0 hangs every time. Capturing to one of my internal IDE drives isn't a problem. I'm on a Dual 1 Ghz PowerPC G4, 1.5 GB SDRAM, running OS 10.3.9.

The external HD is connected to one of the two standard FW ports. Would a FW card solve the problem? Do I have to upgrade FCP and does that promise to fix anything?

Thanks.

Boyd Ostroff · December 3rd, 2005, 08:38 AM

Hi Stephen, and welcome to DVinfo. AFAIK, the upgrade to FCP 4.5 is free and can be downloaded from Apple's site. I'd do that for starters.

What version of Quicktime are you running? QT 7 does not work with FCP 4.x. See if either of these help:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showpost....81&postcount=2
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=49838

You should not have a problem using an external capture drive, generally speaking. BUT there do seem to be firewire issues with Canon camcorders, and interestingly there also seem to be a number of reports of LaCie issues. OTOH, a lot of people don't have problems with these. Yes, a firewire card might solve the problem, but try some the suggestions above first.

Stephen Brown · December 3rd, 2005, 12:11 PM

I'm on QT 6.4 and a JVC camcorder as a deck. Because capturing to the IDE drives is fine, I'd suspect there's a problem with the rate of transfer to the FW HD. That's why I'd consider a FW card.

Of course, I can simply capture to my internal drives and move files later. But I'd prefer to use the external as a dedicated capture drive.

Boyd Ostroff · December 3rd, 2005, 12:58 PM

Well I find it odd that FCP hangs (crashes?) when you try to capture. Normally those firewire problems result in dropped frames during capture and playback, but not crashes. What happens if you move some files to the external drive, set it as your scratch disk, and then do some editing. Does that work OK? If so then there's probably some other issue.

IMO, 10.3.9 is not Apple's finest version of OSX. It has a bunch of stuff added to make it more compatible with QT 7 and other 10.4 components - maybe not a good idea for an old piece of software like FCP 4.

Did your try updating to FCP 4.5? I'd do that for starters, and apply the "pro app" patches to it as well. I think the software update panel in System Preferences will do this for you although you will probably have to run it more than one time. Otherwise try these links:

FCP 4.5: http://www.apple.com/support/downloa...lcutprohd.html

Pro App update for 10.3.9: http://www.apple.com/support/downloa...acosx1039.html

Over the summer I did quite a lot of video editing in South America on my G4 Powerbook with external drives using 10.3.9 and FCP 4.5. I never had any issues capturing.

December 2nd, 2005, 11:41 PM	#1
Stephen Brown New Boot Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 10	FCP hangs when capturing to firewire HD I'm unable to capture video to a new La Cie 250G external FW400 HD (7200,8M). FCP 4.0 hangs every time. Capturing to one of my internal IDE drives isn't a problem. I'm on a Dual 1 Ghz PowerPC G4, 1.5 GB SDRAM, running OS 10.3.9. The external HD is connected to one of the two standard FW ports. Would a FW card solve the problem? Do I have to upgrade FCP and does that promise to fix anything? Thanks.

December 3rd, 2005, 08:38 AM	#2
Boyd Ostroff Wrangler Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Mays Landing, NJ Posts: 11,787	Hi Stephen, and welcome to DVinfo. AFAIK, the upgrade to FCP 4.5 is free and can be downloaded from Apple's site. I'd do that for starters. What version of Quicktime are you running? QT 7 does not work with FCP 4.x. See if either of these help: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showpost....81&postcount=2 http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=49838 You should not have a problem using an external capture drive, generally speaking. BUT there do seem to be firewire issues with Canon camcorders, and interestingly there also seem to be a number of reports of LaCie issues. OTOH, a lot of people don't have problems with these. Yes, a firewire card might solve the problem, but try some the suggestions above first.

December 3rd, 2005, 12:11 PM	#3
Stephen Brown New Boot Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 10	I'm on QT 6.4 and a JVC camcorder as a deck. Because capturing to the IDE drives is fine, I'd suspect there's a problem with the rate of transfer to the FW HD. That's why I'd consider a FW card. Of course, I can simply capture to my internal drives and move files later. But I'd prefer to use the external as a dedicated capture drive.

December 3rd, 2005, 12:58 PM	#4
Boyd Ostroff Wrangler Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Mays Landing, NJ Posts: 11,787	Well I find it odd that FCP hangs (crashes?) when you try to capture. Normally those firewire problems result in dropped frames during capture and playback, but not crashes. What happens if you move some files to the external drive, set it as your scratch disk, and then do some editing. Does that work OK? If so then there's probably some other issue. IMO, 10.3.9 is not Apple's finest version of OSX. It has a bunch of stuff added to make it more compatible with QT 7 and other 10.4 components - maybe not a good idea for an old piece of software like FCP 4. Did your try updating to FCP 4.5? I'd do that for starters, and apply the "pro app" patches to it as well. I think the software update panel in System Preferences will do this for you although you will probably have to run it more than one time. Otherwise try these links: FCP 4.5: http://www.apple.com/support/downloa...lcutprohd.html Pro App update for 10.3.9: http://www.apple.com/support/downloa...acosx1039.html Over the summer I did quite a lot of video editing in South America on my G4 Powerbook with external drives using 10.3.9 and FCP 4.5. I never had any issues capturing.