It's actually up to 3.5.3 now, which I do have. No one else on the Avid site is complaining about this, so that's why I suspect I'm doing something wrong. Any other ideas?

Jeff:

Hardware wise:
Mac G4 dual 1.25G
Two internal 120G ATA drives
One external 120G Firewire drive - Que QPS-525
Panasonic AG-DV1000 MiniDV deck

Software wise:
OS 10.2.1
FCP 3.0.2
QT 6.0.1

The sources are from two different cameras (Gl1 and a high-end Sony MiniDV consumer model) as well as the usual Photoshop, .wav and .aiff things. The video just flickers a few random squiggles until I stop the cursor on the time line, and then it shows as a still on the video monitor just fine. I tried to correlate the changeover between the unsynced gibberish and clean video with render/RT points but there doesn't seem to be and connection there.

Thanks for your interest.

Jeff:

After reading a few more threads on this forum, I went back and transferred every one of the 32 source clips to the second internal ATA drive, then shut the external firewire drive completely off, relinked everything to the new drive and re-rendered. And voila...this time it worked. Now the video is clean and print to video works fine. Could it have been a firewire bottleneck, or is this external firewire drive a snake in the grass? I've never had any problems with it working with OS 10, either on my G4 or platinum powerbook.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

It could be a couple of things. Try reformating the FireWire drive. If you've had it for a while it could be the wrong format. In the Utilities folder is a program called Disk Utility, run the Erase part and select Mac OS Extended and erase it. You might also try a new FireWire cable. Check the Que web site for any bugs with 10.2.1 and see if there are any patches to download. Do you have anything else on the drive? If so try to keep only FCP media on it. I seem to recall reading something about Que drives and FCP. I'm not 100% positive but I think there may be a problem with the drives and compatability with FCP. I'll dig a little and see what I can find.

Jeff

New PowerBooks and iBooks
 

Oooo...

Apple today announced the new PowerBooks with 1Ghz G4 processors -and- internal SuperDrives (DVD/CD burners). New iBooks were also announced, as well as price reductions across the line (they -were- a bit pricey).

For more information go to:

http://www.apple.com/powerbook/

GL-2 to VHS deck output problem
 

I have just cut my new showreel on imovie and exported it to my gl-2 with no problems.
The trouble started when I tried to dub the mini-dv tape information to VHS with my S/VHS deck.
Tried all of the combos of plugs and settings the GL-2 manual sets forth
and anything else I could think of with no luck. Hoping I am just missing some tid bit someone out there knows about and not have an incompatibility problem that cannot be solved...?!

What exactly is the nature of your problem? No footage being transferred? Footage looks bad? Etc...

Woohoo! More toys!

figured it out
 

thanks for asking Ken. Basically I was getting no image and then blue screens with vague vague hints of the images on the reel. turns out my remote for the deck was low enough on batteries that when I thought I set it to L1, it did not do it and there is no way of setting this on this deck without the remote. anyway, got it working and it looks great. cheers!

Firmware Update to SuperDrives
 

Apple posted an update to the G4's SuperDrive firmware today. Apparently this provides a solution for using 4x media in the drive (previously a problem), as well a few other fixes.

The update is available through your System Preferences > Software Updates facility under OS-X. But I highly suggest reading about this update first to determine if you need it at:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86130

since the process cannot be undone.

which way to go?
 

I am looking to buy a portable hard drive for video, what is the best? I have had 2 Lacie drives crash on me after moving them in my car a few miles, and one was 2 days old!?!?! I need a RELIABLE portable drive. Any suggestions?

My personal recommendation...
 

...is WeibeTech.

http://www.wiebetech.com/

I use both a 120Gb Super DesktopGB and a 40Gb MicroGB for FCP3 work and can say they've been excellent values and very reliable.

Of course maybe you should first check your car's suspension before investing more in Firewire drives. ;-)

...that is cold....

Thanks for the info

I've got the 800mhz powerbook, is it possible to buy the Superdrive and replace my current DVD/CD-R/RW with it. Or should I wait for a firewire DVD-R/RW?

How to rip DVD into Final Cut Pro?
 

Do you know how we can take video & audio from a DVD and use it in Final Cut Pro? This is not about stealing from Hollywood: Someone made a DVD of a business conference and one of the speakers at that conference wants us to excerpt their speech for use in another production. We can't seem to figure out how to get the DVD content into FCP!
Many thanks for your kind advice.
Scott Shuster
New York
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