Problem outputting to tape

I am beginning to think that there is something wrong with our system, as every corner we turn we encounter a new problem.
This time I cannot output to tape (either edit to tape or print to video...even just playing the sequence into the deck didn't work).
Here's what I did:

First, I black and coded a DVCAM tape. Next, I did the output, on Friday night. Everything went down fine, it did crash once but I reset everything and assemble edited it using the edit to tape function and the rest of my output went fine.
Then, I came in the next evening to output what the editor finished cutting that day, and I could get nothing to the deck. She didnt change anything, we didnt unplug anything etc, but could get nothing to the deck.
I had deck control, I could watch what was already on the tape on my external monitor and on my computer monitor, etc. I thought that it might have been a result of the 23.98 sequence (although the previous night it had worked fine) so I placed my squence into a 29.97 sequence and rendered it out. This worked on to tape once, but it was adding black frames here and there (I assumed because of the conversion...). So that was a no go. And then even that stopped working. No settings changed, just toying with sequences etc.
All of my windows were in a standard Two Screen editing arrangement, all zoomed to fit, like I said, nothing changed from the previous night, except that it does no work anymore.

Does anyone have any idea? My next trial is going to be trashing the prefs, but this is just ridiculous.

Thanks in advance for your help-
Jeff

Try all these:

1) Make sure that the camera/deck is connected and powered on BEFORE you open FCP.

2) In the Final Cut Pro menu select AUDIO/VIDEO Preferences and make sure your signal is being sent out thru Firewire DV.

3) Go to the menu and select VIEW>EXTERNAL>ALL FRAMES.

4) Click in the % box above the image and select FIT TO WINDOW.

5) Go to VIEW->refresh A/V devices

6) Make sure the Log & Capture window is closed

<<<there is something wrong with our system>>>

Let's look someplace else. If you have ongoing instabilities, did you recently upgrade to QuickTime 7 and are still running Panther or Final Cut 4.5?

You cannot "upgrade" between Panther and Tiger. You must do a fresh install.

Panther, FCP 4.5, and QT6 get along. Tiger, FCP5 and QT7 get along. Odd combinations don't.

Do you have slash marks "/" in any of your filenames? that will drive the system nuts. No punctuation marks except dash and underline/underscore.

Koz

Shane-I went through all those steps in the process, all were correct.
Koz-The system is brand new-no upgrades have been done on any software or hardware. No slash marks in filenames, nothing.

The strangest thing is that I was able to output everything Friday night, Saturday night, nothing.

It could be a bad install, but I would try trashing your prefs first since you had a crash that may have done the dirty deed. Also repair your system permissions.

Get a copy of FCP Rescue for quick and simple preference trash and restore. Free here [www.macupdate.com]

I guess I should say dropped frames stopped the output, not a crash. And even still, after it stopped, I started it right back up again, assemble editing the rest of the film right from the point where it stopped.

Yeah, but you did have a crash, and this can corrupt your preferences.

No, it didnt crash, it just stopped the output because of a dropped frame somewhere in the output. I'll check out that program that you mentioned however.

And why would it work after the dropped frames, for another hour, and then the next day not work?

Dropped frames are usually not a consistent problem. A program that drops frames on one output could be fine if you try it an hour later. Usually dropped frames means the data rate can't keep up with the real-time playback.

Some ways to minimize dropped frames:

1. Make sure your drives, including system drives, aren't too full -- 10 per cent free space on each one at least.

2. Make sure your drives are properly formatted.

3. Don't run internet applications or anti-virus.

4. Always, always, always render effects and perform an Audio Mixdown.

5. Export a self-contained, full-quality QuickTime movie file of your entire show. Then quit the project you did the editing on, start a fresh project file with matching settings, import the movie file and output from that. This method will eliminate video render files, complexities of dealing with hundreds of clips, and if there's something wrong with the station, you can easily move to another station for the output.

Also, Final Cut Pro is very sensitive to dropped frames, and it can give you a dropped-frames report that can stop your tape output in its tracks, but the dropped frame(s) may not even be visible. I usually turn off the "Report dropped frames during playback" option in User Preferences, output the tape, and then watch the tape. If you can't see a flaw, then odds are you don't have a problem.

The problem is not the dropped frames...

The problem is that I can no longer edit to tape or print to video.

So I figured out that part of the problem was the firewire cable, but I am still having issues editing to tape and printing to video.

Neither works, the whole process will go through, the deck will start to record, but all that will be sent to the deck (and external monitor) is black with no audio. If you stop it, or it finishes, the picture/audio (before changing the firewire) would not go through the deck anymore. Now it does, but all of this still poses problems down the road for outputs if I have to edit to tape.

Hm...