Compressor - DOA
 

Hi guys I'm on a Mac OS X (10.4.11) Dual 2.7 G5 with 2.5 GB SDRAM. I'm running FCP 6.02.

Few days ago FCP starts up slow. I get a normal screen, but a beach ball for five minutes. Never like this before, like this ever since. Shut down, restarted - same thing. Once finally going it runs fine - but I have no Compressor anymore. Cant start Compressor from the doc, can't successfully click on a movie in the finder window and choose "Open with Compressor", and I can't export using Compressor because it's grayed out in the FCP export menu. From the doc the Compressor logo just bounces once and it's done.

I searched this forum and followed suggestions to repair disc permissions. I deleted the FCP preferences files, the .plf files (or .pilm or .flim or whatever I really can't remember exactly what it was called but I followed the instructions to a "T"). Then I uninstalled every Final Cut anything file I could find on this machine and reinstalled everything from scratch again. Still the exact same problem. When I reinstalled studio 2 I was back at version 6.0. Same problem. Then I updated everything and we're at 6.02. Same problem.

On the Mac I have 39 GIGs free. On my external hard drives I have 177 GIGs free. I am at a total loss here and would gladly pay someone, "Tuesday" for a hamburger today...

Anyone have ideas as to what I blew up?

Quicktime?
 

One thing you haven't said is what version of Quicktime you have. If you upgraded to 7.4 that might be the cause. There was a lot of discussion on the Apple Final Cut Pro forum not too long ago about this. I'm still on 7.3 so haven't had issues, but 7.4 has caused a lot of problems.
Search the FCP forums and I'm sure you'll find the answer. You have to get back to QT 7.3

Ken

Software Update
 

Try running software update. I did it yesterday and there were 2 new items. One was Quicktime 7.4.1 and the other was some kind of support for Pro Apple Applications (FCP, DVDSP etc.)

Wow that actually makes sense. I haven't been able to figure out what happened - or what I did to what - but now that you mention it I actually did do a recent quicktime update and since about then everything's been a mess in FCP. Thanks I'll go after that now.

OK I got rid of 7.4.1 quicktime and installed 7.3 using Pacifist. Now FCP starts right up, like it used to. But I still can't get Compressor to start.

Thank you for the first part. At least I'm on one right track! Curious after reading through some of your suggestions. Sounds like a lot of people are having trouble with the new Quicktime.

I will investigate before I update next time.

Yes, the Quicktime 7.4 update has caused tons of problems with pro apps. I usually wait before doing any of them until I'm reading some good news.
It seems like there was something else about the compressor problem, but I don't know the details.
FWIW, I have learned a lot from the Apple discussions and Ken Stone's site. Lot's of good info.

Ultimately I had to do a complete ground up clean sweep on this mac. Only problem is now I'm back at FCP 5.1 because now apparently my paid-for FCP 6 upgrade's password is not jiving? I paid full pop for FCP HD a hundred years ago, then upgraded to FCP 5, then to FCP 6 - all legit, no problems before I did the clean sweep last night. Now I've got no FCP 6. BUT, compressor now works back on FCP 5 - with only the earlier Quicktime on the system (denied the update this time around). Hopefully I can get someone on the tele at Apple tomorrow to sort this password problem out...

Thanks for the knowledge!

Upgrade fixed it
 

Eric, I had problems until I upgraded to QT 7.4.1 for Leopard and ProKit 4.5 Now everything works fine with my FCS 1.0 (FCP 5.14)

Maybe that's my problem... I'm not leopard?

My problems started when I upgraded to Leopard because it makes you upgrade your Quicktime. I don't think older versions of FCP like the newer versions of Quicktime. When I first upgraded to Leopard I couldn't use compressor or DVDSP. And FCP wouldn't recognize my camera. I had to use iMove to capture then import into FCP.

Now everything works fine after I did the most recent upgrades.

OK so I went with the Leopard... I also started clean slate all over again. Something liberating about doing that.

Now FCP6 starts right, runs well, and even has compressor. Victory! And thank you guys for your time.

I tell you what though, I'm waiting for the next lunar exploration to return before I update Quicktime to 7.4 again. I managed to keep 7.3 throughout all the rebuilding. Noooooo thanks to that mess. I lost three days!

Cool Eric. Glad to hear everything is running like a good Mac should.

Yeah so was I...

Until I actually tried to compress a video today, rather than just see if I could open Compressor. Everything looked fine until I hit GO. Then it hit another dead end. Suggested I needed to check Compressor's installation, which I did, after re-installing everything all over again - and then I updated to 7.4.1 Quicktime. NOW IT'S COMPRESSING!!!!

It's nice to see a story with a happy ending...

Nice going...


David

yes I have the same problem ! I have tige 10.4.11, and after qt 7.4 compressor didn't work.

but how I turn back to 7.3 ?

thanks