Coming along, but slowly.
 

Ok, here is where i am right now. I have Mpeg streamclip downloaded and Quicktime. I have Final Cut Express and am trying to import material from a dvd to edit. After alot of hell I have finally managed to get some footage into FCE.
2 problems I have had. 1st one is after I pulled in the clip, the render time was abnormally high (17 hours). I started again the other day and it only took a few minutes, I have no idea why.

Then, when I went to open the project again, everything I had captured and edited in the timeline had gone to offline. I don't know why either because the icons are still on the desktop even if the dvd is ejected and still play up in quicktime when I click them.

I know my way around editing programs but i don't know my way around the mac.

Lastly, I have an external hard disk 300gb, that I'd like to save my work on, will I be able to retrieve it online or do I have to save all the dvd's I've copied on there first?

Thanks

When you captured the material off the DVD, did you direct it, in the capture settings, to go to the external hard drive?

I try to make my internal hard drive do all the thinking and less of the housing... when I used to cut on FCE (now FCP4.5HD), I found that the more you can use your external hard drive for housing clips, the better the FCE ran.

Another thing, how much memory do you have? Memory equals efficiency on my Mac system.

I have seen clips disappear from my timeline; it is usually related to the fact that I have too many projects open at the same time. You should never, however, loose anything once you've made it a QuickTime.

I'm not a computer engineer, I can't speak to specific technical flaws/adjustments, I'm just an editor... everything I know comes from
trial and error, but I hope my advice helps.

Chris,

Your problem regarding rendering the footage created by MPEG Streamclip is due to incoreect export settings. MPEG Streamclip allows you to take DVD footage and export it to any format FCP needs. I assume you are cutting DV in FCP E. If so, your exported footage needs to be 720x480, NTSC DV/DVC Pro, 16 bit 48kHz audio. If you export in this format (standard DV) you will not need to render it when imported into FCP. If your footage is anamorphic 16:9, make sure your sequence settings reflect this and that your clips are checked as anamorphic before you insert it to the timeline or they will need rendering.

As for a work flow for managing media and all of the files and folders FCP creates, the following is taken from a document I created at work for people new to FCP or FC Express:

Final Cut Pro HD Folder Structure

Non-Media Files (Set preferences in FCP System Settings Scratch Disc tab)

Project Files:
Documents/Final Cut Pro Documents/PROJECT NAME

Note: In the left column of the Finder there is a shortcut to the Final Cut Pro Documents

Auto Save Vault:
Documents/Final Cut Pro Documents/Auto Save Vault/PROJECT NAME

Thumbnail Cache Files:
Documents/Final Cut Pro Documents/Thumbnail Cache Files/PROJECT NAME

Waveform Cache Files:
Documents/Final Cut Pro Documents/Waveform Cache Files/PROJECT NAME

Note: these folders and files are stored in the default location that FCP sets up and should never be put on a media drive because they are constantly being written and re-written and can cause fragmentation of the media drive.

Capture and Render Folders/Media Files (Set preferences in FCP System Settings Scratch Disc tab)

Audio Render Files:
Medea Raid/Audio Render Files/PROJECT NAME

Capture Scratch Files:
Medea Raid/Capture Scratch/PROJECT NAME

Render Files:
Medea Raid/Render Files/PROJECT NAME

Note: Final Cut will automatically make audio render, capture scratch, and render sub folders for any project and use the name that was given to the Project File.

Saving Project Media

For archiving a Final Cut Project, imported media should be saved to the Capture Scratch folder for the given FCP Project. The easiest workflow during editing a project is to save any media such as stills or motion graphics created in AE, LiveType, or Motion, to the Capture Scratch folder for the given FCP Project.

There is no need to create any folders for new projects. As long as the FCP System prefs have not been changed, FCP will put the appropriate capture and render files in the appropriate sub-folders.

Excellent Help!Thank you!

Dave, regarding the rendering of the footage once in the fce, you recommended 720x480, NTSC DV/DVC pro, 16 bit 48khz audio. I am in europe so most likely everything is in PAL, but should the rest be the same?
I am going to go and try exactly what was recommended and I'll post my results later (on this same thread, hopefully it will be of help to someone else in my position)
Thanks

I think the rest is the same for PAL.

By the way, how long ago were you in L'burg?

Thanks for all the help guys, I got it edited and my customer's were quite pleased with the result! This is a great site!

Dave, it was a while back now, I went to EC Glass high school before moving to europe, used to play alot of soccer in Roanoke (they had a good team as well) and snowboarded quite a bit at Wintergreen!

Peace