SUPER BAD FCP 4.5 HD print to tape problems!!
 

Hey folks,

So I scoured both the internet at large and the dvinfo forums for a solution and, after trying many, many suggestions, am just as f****d as I was when I started.

I'm using:
Powerbook G4 Laptop, 1.67 GHz/1 GB SDRAM
OSX v.10.4
FCP 4.5 HD
QuickTime Pro 7.1.3 (had problems with QuickTime and FCP before, have since resolved them but figured it might be relevant)
Canon GL1 connected via FireWire, plugged in to surge protector

Here's what's happened (or NOT happened, rather):
--I started up FCP, turned the DV camera (Canon GL1) to VCR/VTR mode, tried to print... Nothing.
--Read the FCP user's manual, fiddled with Easy Setup and A/V Settings... Nothing.
--Turned on the External Video-->All Frames option. Got audio to play through but video will only show an image when stopped in the Timeline on a given spot.

I suspect I've got something wrong in the A/V Settings. I assume it's something horribly basic that, at 1:22 AM PST, I am not smart enough to grasp. Hopefully someone in Taiwain or Germany or something is awake. Anyone willing to give me a rundown of what your A/V and/or Easy Setup looks like if you're using a DV camera to output? I'm dyin' here.

Thanks!!

Have you hit refresh A/V devices? You need your camera switched on and connected.
I take it you've rebooted everything?
Have you rendered your timeline?
Have you tried 'Print to Tape'?

This is usually what happens when you're trying to output non-DV material out the firewire port.

Are you working with a DV timeline? Did you have DV material on a timeline, but had to render it all to get it to play on the computer monitor?

I'm thinking you might have DV material on a non-DV timeline, which would cause all the problems you describe.

There may be a patch I haven't rendered... But it's towards the end... I wonder if THAT could be it. And Print to Tape is the method I'm trying to use. I tried the cue-the-camera/cue-the-timeline-hit-play-hit-record way as well... No dice.

I think this might be it!! The media I've got is a bunch of quicktime files I outputted from a program called F-Check, which compiles rendered Maya frames into movies. I DID have to render them to get them to play... They're all rendered now, so could that still make a difference?

They need to be rendered in a DV timeline in order to play out to your camera.

Good catch Nate...

Do a get properties on your sequence. If you don't see DV/NTSC 29.97, then that's your problem.

Hey Nate,

GREAT catch. I did a test by animating a bit of text using FCPs text generator and it played back flawlessly. I've rendered the problem timeline and... Still a problem. As for the properties... I'm not sure I've got the right menu but for Time Display it says Timecode and for Time Mode it says Source Time. I don't see any 29.97 anywhere. Ugh. What to do?

Thanks again for your help!!

Rosa, Go to your easy setup, select dv/ntsc, go to your bin create an new sequence, copy everything in your existing timeline, paste it into the new one, and try printing to tape from the new sequence. You may have to render some things that weren't dv 25, once its rendered it should print to tape.