FCP newbe questions

[Jim Vastola]

Hello all,

I am brand new to NLE's and Apple computers and FCP. I have been going through the Apple pro training series book and I seem to have hit a wall on 2 issues.

1) FCP is forcing me to render even the simplest cut from one clip to another. It didn't do this at the start but I must have changed something and now it does. Any ideas where to look?? I will post the specifications of my system at the bottom of this message.

2) I keep getting an "insufficient material to edit " error, even when I am just adding a clip to the end of a sequence. I'm even getting it when I try to add an audio clip onto an empty track. Any ideas here?


My system is as follows:

Mac G5 dual 2.0
2.5gig ram
1000g Xserve raid
one very green very frustrated operator


Thanks

Jim
Litchfield Park, AZ

[Graeme Nattress]

The answer to 1) is that your sequence settings don't match your media - ie if you're editing DV, then your seq needs to be DV.

2) tried trashing your prefs??

Graeme

[Jim Vastola]

Thanks for the speedy reply.

I just checked the Sequence settings and set it for DV, it was set for something else, rerendered and the problem still persists.

As far as trashing the prefs goes, I have only been running FCP for about 48hours. Should I already have to be thinking about trashing my prefs? I'll give it a try and see what happens.


Thanks again

Jim

[Graeme Nattress]

If strange things happen, trashing prefs works well. Look for the FCP Rescue app which does this for you and backs up old prefs.

The only cause for your problem 1) is mis-mathced sequence settings. I'd control click on your sequence and look at it's settings and do the same to your media file and check that everything is identical.

Graeme

[Jim Vastola]

Thanks Graeme,

It looks like I'm ok now. I trashed prefs and at first it didn't work, then all of the sudden it started working.

As far as the sequence settings go. They looked ok until I noticed one tiny thing different, changed that and I'm in.

thanks, I hope I can get the hang of this stuff, I don't have any hair to pull out, so my only choice is to learn it.


Thanks again


Jim

[Bryan Adamez]

Jim,

Using the preset "easy setup" for your source material should keep this problem from happening again. The only problem is that it affects only new sequences and will not help clips in the current sequence.

[Jim Vastola]

Thanks Bryan,

Is it better to save a custom set up now that it's working or stick with the canned ones that come with the system?

Jim

Quickly starting into the school of hard knocks.....

[Bryan Adamez]

Jim,

I would save the setup that you're having success with as a a custom setup. If things start acting up again with that setup, you can always default back to one of the "canned" setups.