Thanks, I'll run the head cleaner thru it just in case. Last night, I was at another post house and tried laying it back to tape there. It came thru pixelated. Someone made the suggestion that it might be the firewire drive not playing at a good speed. The only time it's worked is when I've transfered the footage to the hard drive on another computer and laid it back from the project that way. It's an interesting thought that I'll experiment with today. I'm going to put some footage on my hard drive and some on another external and see what happens.

Thanks,
Suz

This is indeed the exact problems I've seen using a slow external firewire drive. But I've never had any problems with 7200 RPM drives that use the Oxford 911 chipset.

Oh my gosh! I have success! I tried cleaning the head, didn't work. I tried laying back from a different drive, didn't work. Then (in addition to the other drive), I went into the Playback settings under options and set the Video Track Pitch to SP mode-DV. I thought I had that checked already, but I guess not. It's always the simplest things that drive you crazy!

Thanks for everyone's help. If this happens to you, I hope you can benefit from my discovery.
Suz

new g5
 

Ok I am so tired of waiting for the newer G5. I called apple today and spoke with one of there sales guy and he said the same thing. They don't know when they will be out. I heard may 18 even so you'll have to wait another month or 2 before you can even get them. Is anyone hearing anything different. I have projects that I need to get started on.

Modify Timcode in FCP HD
 

Since updating to Final Cut Pro HD I have noticed a horrible bug (it had better not be a feature) in the modify timecode. As of Final Cut Pro HD you can only modify the timecode if the playhead is at the start of the clip, while on all previous versions you could modify the timecode at any point in the clip. When working in a production environment, many times I am given clips that have the playhead not at the start, and it is annoying to have to modify the timecode only at the head of the clip! Many of our assistant editors tend to modify the timecode in the middle of the clip, and this can no longer be done!

I am working on something with all sources have Viz Timecode. Well I am working with stems that match up to the Visuals on the tape. The Problem is that there is only timecode on the stems tapes, when it is matching where there is picture on the tape. Otherwise there is no timecode run up. So to capture the entire run of the stems, the head doesn't have any Visual Timecode on it. To change the timecode so it matches, I need to be able to modify the timecode at any point where the playhead is, not just at the head of the clip! THIS BUG REALLY NEEDS TO BE FIXED VERY QUICKLY!

If you have $49 to spare, I recommend Aron Ranen's 2-hour training DVD, "Final Cut Pro 4.0 Basic Training." A complete fast-track course for beginners, from Logging and Capturing to Outputting to DVD.

Diclosure: I'm one of his students in San Francisco, and I really find his methods teaching methods effective.

Available at:

http://www.dvworkshops.com/fcpdvd.htm

New mounted Lacie FW HD now won't mount
 

I hooked up a new Lacie 7200 rpm FW HD to my TiPB laptop.

It's icon appeared and I initialized, set up (HFS+) and mounted it. I captured to it and then shut down.

Returning, I find the icon doesn' t appear and the Silverlining Pro, tho seeing it, can't mount it.

What's up? Why doesn't it recognize the HD? Will I have to initialize again?

thanks,
elmer

Clustered rendering coming to FCP?
 

According to this rumor -

http://thinksecret.com/news/prorendering.html

clustered rendering may be coming to FCP and DVDSP. This is the Qmaster technology currently used in Shake. According to the rumor it could mean something as simple as clustering two laptops together to take advantage of the additional processing power.

Which version of OSX?

What did you do when you returned? Was it plugged in the whole time (firewire - FW)?

When you say it doesn't mount do you mean it asks to reinitialize or do you mean the laptop won't even recognize it?

Some things to try -
Make sure the FW cable is unplugged when you power up the laptop. Power up the laptop, plug in the FW cable then turn on the drive.

Try a different cable.

I'd suggest resetting the FW port but I don't know how you do that in a laptop (in a desktop you unplug it for 5-10 minutes).

FireWire is hot swappable. Turn off the drive, unplug the FW cable, start the drive and let it spin up (about 5 to 10 seconds), then plug in the cable. disk should appear on desktop.

Sharon, did you get your questions answered? If not post back and I'll try to help.

FCP4 Slipping Sync During 23.98->29.97
 

Ok, I am in need of some troubleshooting/workaround advice for a particularly devastating problem with FCP4 sound sync. It is for my senior short film that is supposed to screen this friday. Yikes.

The project is a short 12 minutes on a 23.98fps timeline in FCP4 on OSX. When I play it back using pulldown (the option on the sequence) as NTSC 29.97 (external NTSC monitor displays fine), the sound sync drifts slowly, and by 8 to 10 minutes into the piece, it is pretty noticable. I believe the sound begins to come early, and the video starts to lag behind. If the timeline is simply stopped then started again, things are back in sync nomatter where the playhead is on the sequence.

My problem is I need to get this project recorded onto a beta deck, with sound in sync the whole way through, no stopping. Any ideas on how to fix or where to read about this issue? Anyone even seen this before? I admit I haven't searched too hard because time is so short and I am still doing 100 other things.

Thanks,
Rob

What camera did you shoot the raw footage with? A DVX100? The footage is 24fps?

Yes, the original footage was shot in 24Padvance on the DVX100. It was then captured into FCP4 at 23.98.

Also- the individual clips play in sync fine alone (sound was all manually adjusted per clip), its just gets out of sync after several minutes of continuous playback.

-Rob

See this FCP support page.