Quicktime And Final Cut
 

Hello. I just bought an MAC BOOK PRO 2.4 Ghz.. I am using a FINAL CUT PRO, SONY FX-7 and WESTERN DIGITAL MY BOOK 500GB USB in my new project.. Today i captured an 44 minutes dv 4X3 directly to my book (on capture scratch folder).. t works very well.. I just captured, close the final cut and after that, i renamed the file on finder... And i had to shut down the MCP. Minutes later i turned on again and this file became corrupt.. I cant open or import. Oddly, this happen the same yesterday. Some clips are becoming corrupt and i dont know why...

Can anyone give an tip?

thanks.

I would try it without renaming the file. And make sure the western harddrive is showing up as a drive on your macbook before you open FCP

There could any number of factors at fault here, so let me ask a few questions to narrow down the source of the dilemma:

When you say you are renaming the file, are you referring specifically to the captured file in the capture scratch folder?

When you say you are capturing into FCP, are you using the traditional log & capture process?

If so, why are you renaming the file via the finder after capture?

If you are renaming the captured file, there is a good chance that you are breaking the link that FCP uses to access the captured file. It expects to see it as its previously named file and FCP will prompt you to reconnect to the file - in which case you will be required to point it to the newly named file.

When you say that you "had to shut down the MBP", is there some type of system error that is forcing you to do this? If so, are you having to apply a force shut down? Or are you able to just use a simple shut down or restart? The method of shut down or restart may possibly be introducing file corruption.

Did you reformat your MY BOOK before using it with your Mac? Although they are Mac compatible out of the box, they are usually pre-formatted as FAT32, which restricts file sizes to no larger than 4 GB. File sizes larger than this will result in errors. The solution is to reformat the drive as Mac OS Extended using Disc Utility as per directions in the MY BOOK user manual or the Western Digital website.

Does your MY BOOK offer a firewire connectivity option? If so, this would be the recommended connectivity option for capture as opposed to USB.

Hope this helps.

-Jon

Marcelo,

My people have complained about using the MyBook and other self-contained "intelligent" HDD enclosures. The issue seems to be that the firmware/controller built into the device is sending conflicting control commands to the drive during the capture/access process from FCP.

I only used one of these at a clients office briefly and we did notice a bottle-neck effect while trying to capture DV25 (miniDV) directly the device. Once we moved the project off to a standard HDD enclosure with just the standard FireWire controller card all was fine.

I don't have enough troubleshooting data to confirm this, but experience tells me that using the MyBook and devices like this are *not* to be used as capture devices. They are in point of fact designed strictly for consumer-grade mass storage, not for interfacing with professional apps that need full access to HDD communication controls.

I formatted MY BOOK for NTFS (on windows) and im using PARAGON NTFS FOR MAC.. The stranges thing happens.. like a few minutes ago.. I captured HDV video.. but i had to move the scratch folder to be more organized.. (all files works on original my book folder on FCP..) i simply copy and past the files to another folder, and few files got error (neither the turmbnail appear on finder...) but the original still works...

I think i will format the my book only for mac use.. i need an stable system, thats why i bought an mac, but since than, my pc is more reliable...

If this my book isnt a right choice for my work, can anyone sugest other.. like an firewire connection, i dont know... (i dont want to capture directly on MCP HDD...) thanks..

When you say you are renaming the file, are you referring specifically to the captured file in the capture scratch folder?
>>YES.. only for be more organized.

When you say you are capturing into FCP, are you using the traditional log & capture process?
>>YES.

If so, why are you renaming the file via the finder after capture?
>>Because i am learning about FCP and i dont want a lots o untitled files hehehe.

If you are renaming the captured file, there is a good chance that you are breaking the link that FCP uses to access the captured file. It expects to see it as its previously named file and FCP will prompt you to reconnect to the file - in which case you will be required to point it to the newly named file.

>>I know, but even when i rename the file, neither the quicktime open the file again... never..

When you say that you "had to shut down the MBP", is there some type of system error that is forcing you to do this? If so, are you having to apply a force shut down? Or are you able to just use a simple shut down or restart? The method of shut down or restart may possibly be introducing file corruption.
>>I NEEDED to shut down the computer for move to place to other.. no problem, i just close every program, ejected the my book hdd and choose shut down on mac... nothing else, no error...

Did you reformat your MY BOOK before using it with your Mac? Although they are Mac compatible out of the box, they are usually pre-formatted as FAT32, which restricts file sizes to no larger than 4 GB. File sizes larger than this will result in errors. The solution is to reformat the drive as Mac OS Extended using Disc Utility as per directions in the MY BOOK user manual or the Western Digital website.
>>The same error occurrs with pre-formatted fat32 than NTFS format (using paragon ntfs for mac to write on hd)

Does your MY BOOK offer a firewire connectivity option? If so, this would be the recommended connectivity option for capture as opposed to USB.

>>I bought this without think very well eheheh, it has only usb 2.0 :( my mistake.

Hope this helps.

-Jon[/QUOTE]

I'll respond to a few of your responses (to my earlier questions) but I cannot assure you these this will lead to a solution. However, there are a number of factors with your answers that indicate potential contributors to your problems.

--This seems to either defeat the purpose of log & capture, or belies a breakdown in your workflow. It appears as though you are making the log & capture process more complicated than it needs to be. Typically, when you begin capturing in a Final Cut project, Final Cut will set up a folder in your capture scratch folder and name it according to your FCP project file name. Captured files into that FCP project will automatically be routed to that folder. (Note: you must ensure that your FCP capture preferences are correctly set to capture your footage to the appropriate drive. - I believe the default is to the user Documents folder on your main system hard drive, but should be set to be captured onto your preferred external drive). As you set up your log & capture, you should be able to name your files as you go. It sounds to me like you are using the "Capture Now" - but log & capture helps keep your content organized as it goes by allowing you to set up your captured file names according to organizational preference.

--I'm not sure why you need to open the captured files in Quicktime if you are intending to work with them in FCP - but in any case, it seems in this case that re-naming the files is contributing to the errors.

--I am not sure why you formated into NTFS, unless you intend to continue to use the drive with a Windows machine. NTFS is a Windows format. Typically, a Mac is only able to read from the disc, but not write to it. As you noted, using Paragon NTFS allows the Mac user to write to this disc, but this is generally considered a workaround, not a solution. As such, its efficacy is debatable. It works well for some folks, but is considered to be 'buggy' by others. And while the Mac OS is able to then write to the NTFS drive, this is no guarantee that some Mac specific applications will function with the same degree of stability. In short, FCP 'prefers' to work with Mac formatted drives (HFS - Mac OS Extended as I noted earlier.)

As before, I recommend simply reformatting the drive to HFS - Mac OS Extended (not journaled) using the OS X Disc Utility. You will find it in your Hard Drive > Applications > Utilities.

If you absolutely MUST continue to use this drive with Windows as well, then you should consider partitioning the drive and format each partition accordingly.


--I think the MyBook drives are pretty cool, but personally, I wouldn't feel comfortable using them for video editing media management. Because your unit offers only USB, I am assuming that it is a consumer grade unit (Home Edition). Check to see at what rpm it runs. If I remember correctly, Home Edition units may possibly run very slowly - possibly even 4300 rpm. Most video editors would probably consider this too slow for solid video capture. If this is the case, the drive speed, along with the limitations of the USB connection may pose a bottleneck that is introducing complications with your file capture.

While each of these specific issues may not, in themselves, be the cause of your FCP problems, when they are compounded (FCP preferences, file management, NTFS, 4200 rpm, USB 2.0 ) they may be adding up to what is making things go awry for you.
-Jon

Jonathan and other:

I just re-formated the my book to MAC OS SYSTEM and looks like it works very well now..

Thanks for your attention :)

Congratulations. I am glad things are working properly now.

-Jon

Thanks.. Now i am thinking in buy an Western Digital Studio Edition for Mac, with firewire 800.. i think will increase the performance...