capturing issue-run out of space after about 5-7 min

[debe]

Originally Posted by MacStef

Ready to buy WinDoze after this BS.

I joked about doing that after the whole, "send in your FCP Install Disks to Crossgrade" debacle.

Then I spent a week wrestling with a Windows machine that was masquerading as an Avid and remembered why we like Apple, even given some of the seemingly bonehead stuff that has been happening lately.

I'm truly sorry for your issues, Stef. Next time, just don't believe Apple when they say they recommend something for "all users". Final Cut & ProApps users are in a different category. They assume we users all know that and that is truly boneheaded on Apple's part. They should never have a System Update that says, "recommended for all users" in my opinion. It simply cannot be true.

debe

[MacStef]

Originally Posted by debe

They should never have a System Update that says, "recommended for all users" in my opinion. It simply cannot be true.

debe

I see the wisdom inn what you say...Hindsight, right? Hopefully Apple will fix this ASAP. I was in the middle of a project that I am stuck capturing 5 min at a time. Then I will have to stitch it all back together.

[debe]

Originally Posted by MacStef

I see the wisdom inn what you say...Hindsight, right?

Yup, hindsight...she's a big ol' mean (w)itch, ain't she?!?

I think at this point because of your deadline you might do best to make a backup of your project file and any other project-related files on your system drive onto a jump drive or other removable media. Then go to a local computer store, pick up a new drive for the computer, take out the old drive or put the new one in a second drive bay if you have it, do a bare-bones install of the OS you were using previous to the unfortunate QT upgrade, & Final Cut HD and any of the apps like Photoshop or whatever you will need to finish just this project and get through this project. This should take you far less than two days, and you don't run the risk of the limp-along work around being only a symptom of a larger issue that won't rear it's ugly head until you get even further into crunch time. Make sure you stop with the updates before you go too far. Only go as far as it was when it last worked for you.

If I'm reading your specs right, you need a 7200RPM 3.5-inch Ultra ATA/100 Hard Disk Drive. Fry's or Micro Center would definitely carry it. Best Buy might.

It seems to me that this may be the lesser of two evils for your current situation.

Now for the copious information that won't help you now, but might help you next time: The general wisdom is to never update/upgrade anything when you are in the middle of a project unless you are having problems and the update is reportedly supposed to fix the specific problems you are having. Even then, each editor should evaluate the risk of the system going wonky versus the problem being solved and decide if it's an acceptable risk. I don't trust anything the internet tells me unless I can verify it, even if it comes from Apple.

Even at their best, any software company can't test under all circumstances, system configurations and old versions of the software for incompatibilites and conflicts. (I think they all could do better in looking for actual bugs, though.)

I usually update my laptop first and test it out before I update my tower, which is my bread-and-butter machine. I also check here, the FCP forum at lafcpug.org, macintouch.com and the Apple website forums for known issues before I install major stuff. It's all so much more complicated than back in the OS9 days. To me, it's not surprising we see more issues, but I think Apple in particular could do a lot better than they have been in the last year or so. I have been doing complete installs on new drives for the past few years, keeping the old drive as a backup if I have problems and need to quickly revert to a system that I know is stable so I can get my work done. It's pretty cheap insurance, what with the drop in the cost of hard drives.

The hitch for you is that FCP 4.5 simply doesn't understand the version of QuickTime that's now installed. It's too advanced for the App. FCP 4.5 is several iterations back, and just does not have the oomph nor the sophistication to keep up with the new QuickTime. Apple isn't going to fix it. I'm sorry. Your version of FCP is simply too old. They are not going to backwards-engineer QuickTime to make a three-year-old product compatible. Three years is aeons in computer-time.

As much as we'd all love our old software to remain compatible until we're done using it, it would severely jack up the price on everything if the software companies kept going back and back and back to test old versions for compatibility. And as much as I cringe every time I have to whip out the credit card because I work for myself and it all comes out of my own pocket, I know from personal experience that keeping current is a lot less expensive in the long run than trying to get mis-matched components to work properly. Well, I mean current within reason. I'm still running FCP 5.1.4 on OS 10.4.11. I won't be upgrading to Final Cut Studio 2 until my clients also start upgrading.

I know this doesn't help you now, but for future reference....

debe

[Fred_Turner]

Originally Posted by debe

The hitch for you is that FCP 4.5 simply doesn't understand the version of QuickTime that's now installed. It's too advanced for the App. FCP 4.5 is several iterations back, and just does not have the oomph nor the sophistication to keep up with the new QuickTime. Apple isn't going to fix it. I'm sorry. Your version of FCP is simply too old. They are not going to backwards-engineer QuickTime to make a three-year-old product compatible. Three years is aeons in computer-time.

I don't think it is quite that bleak. Everything else works fine. I believe that Apple just made a mistake, and that mistake is making FCP4.5 hiccup when capturing more than 5 minutes of video. Perhaps a little feedback to Apple and QT 7.3.2 or 7.4 might have this issue corrected. Anyway, you can get around this problem using the what I posted to the Apple Discussion Forum:


While upgrading FCP to the latest version should fix the problem (since it seems to only be older FCE/FCP4/4.5/HD that are affected), I have been able to get capturing to work again, even on a 10.4.11 system. My video system is a G5/2.3DP w/ 10.4.11 & FCP4.5. I can verify that QuickTime 7.3 is solely to blame for this problem. So, downgrading to QT7.2 is what you want to do...a little easier said than done. I had no success w/ the receipt "trickery" listed above, or on Apple's page:

Final Cut Pro: Restoring a DV device connection in QuickTime 7
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301852

The QT 7.2 installer still didn't recognize my drive as supporting the 7.2 install. So, not relishing the task of Archive & Installing and then cherry-picking all of my supporting Library files, etc, I decided to play around w/ the actual component files for QuickTime. Using Pacifist, I was able to replace files in 2 locations and cure my capture problems. I can't guarantee yet that you won't run into any issues w/ this "hybrid" QT 7.2/7.3 setup, but it did cure the capture issue. Also, if you try to replace all of the QT files using Pacifist, you may run into a problem w/ SystemUIServer repeatedly crashing and causing the items on the right end of the menu bar to slowly blink on and off.

So, here's what I made work for me (it's probably just one of the files that we'll be replacing, but I haven't narrowed it down that far yet!):

1. Download the QT 7.2 installer from http://www.apple.com/support/downloa...e72formac.html
2. Download Pacifist from http://www.charlessoft.com/
3. Use Pacifist to open the package file on the QuickTime 7.2 disk image
4. Select the following 2 folders within Pacifist's window under "Contents of QuickTime720.pkg", and use the "Install Files to Default Locations" command under the File menu:
/System/Library/Components
/System/Library/QuickTime
5. Select to install w/ Admin privileges and give your password
6. Restart your machine, and-- even though your system still thinks it has QuickTime 7.3.x-- you can now capture more than 5 minutes' worth in FCP!
7. <Optional> Go to http://www.apple.com/quicktime/feedback/ and tell 'em they've got a bug on their hands!

Cheers,
Fred

[MacStef]

Nice fix, Fred! Works great for me.

I haven't had a chance to see what else might be messed up from the crack. But I can capture video, which means I can finish this project.

Thank you!
MacStef

[Fred_Turner]

Originally Posted by MacStef

Nice fix, Fred! Works great for me.

I haven't had a chance to see what else might be messed up from the crack. But I can capture video, which means I can finish this project.

Thank you!
MacStef

Glad to help! I have not yet found any downsides to this hybrid system, but if I do, I'll make sure to post. I thought I maybe had a problem w/ iDVD '08 crashing while encoding using Professional Quality onto a dual-layer DVD, but that problem turned out to persist even after updating back to QT 7.3.1. Anyway, please let us know if you find any caveats. And please consider leaving feedback!

Fred

[rmalcolm]

I am on holiday and honeymoon break and will not get a chance to try this out for a few weeks but thanks for the potential fix. I will let you know how it works with FCE 2, which I have. I am considering upgrading everything on my G5 and will post more on that at that time.
BYW, I installed FCE 4 in my MacBook and was able to finish the current project that I was in working on when all of this happened. thanks again to all of you in the forum