Intermittant Title Safe Again!

Ok, I'm stumped! The last time I submitted this post was in March and I still have not found a solution. I've tried everything from trashing receipts and preferences to performing a re-install of FCP. Nothing works! Funny thing though, I loaded FCP 5.0 on my PowerBook G4 laptop just to see what would happen and Title Safe functions fine. But on my PowerMac G5 (PowerPC) desktop, nothing doing. The only difference I can see is that I'm running OSX v.10.4.8 on my laptop and 10.4.9 on my desktop. Any thoughts, anyone? Thanks.

GlennC

I remember the posting. Didn't somebody say something that worked? I vaguely remember we resoved it or came up with a work-around.

<<<I'm running OSX v.10.4.8 on my laptop and 10.4.9 on my desktop.>>>

It's never that. If you're going to have problems, it's gunna be the QuickTime versions. I bet they're different.

What happens when you try to turn Title Safe on?

What happens when you turn Overlays on and off? I remember that has to be right for this to work.


Another SWAG (Scientific Wild-Ass Guess): If the Title Safe service truely uses the "Overlays" function of the video card, then having a flakey video card would give you your symptoms.

I have no clue at all how to check that, except a card with those problems will not play video games properly. I think I can find a way to check that........

Maybe.

Koz

Go into About This Mac and find out which video card you have.

One of our machines has an Ati Radeon 9600 Pro.

Koz

Koz,

Unfortunately the problem was not resolved even when I got the chance to re-install FCP after final delivery of my project. By the way, nothing happens when I turn Title Safe on, or Overlays on and off. However, I am running the ATI Radeon 9600 Pro graphics card on my PowerPC G5 and the ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 on my PowerBook G4. Why would I be having a problem now after using both the 9600 card and FCP v.5 for a couple of years now?

<<<Why would I be having a problem now after using both the 9600 card and FCP v.5 for a couple of years now?>>>

You're just a lucky puppy, you are.

Go find the Power Mac G5 Software Install and Restore disk that came with your machine. Load it under normal OSX, open it up, read and print the Apple Hardware Test instructions.

Do it. Follow the instructions, run the test.

That test goes through and at minimum, tests the graphic memory in the display card.

Then, if that passes, there is an insanely painful software package that tests and benchmarks the whole video system, which I still think is what's wrong. The package is called SPECviewperf, and although it's "available" for the Mac, it comes in UNIX pieces and you have to build the tool.

It's not from Apple

It's about as un-fuzzy and un-warm as you can get.

Koz

Ok Koz,

I'll try it and let you know. Thanks.

Glenn

Ok Koz,

I'll try it and let you know. Thanks.

Glenn

Koz,

Once I download the SPEC software, build the tool and run the test, how will the results of the test help me solve my specific problem?

GlennC

<<<Apple Hardware Test
That test goes through and at minimum, tests the graphic memory in the display card. >>>

That's scary. Can we assume that test worked just fine? I know you can tell the Apple Hardware Test to do an exhaustive analysis. Did you do that and let it cook all night or as long as it needed?

Koz

I'm still beating this up in another part of the forum. We keep running into dead ends. There is a way to go into the Final Cut insides and change things around, but any damage there would have resolved when you reinstalled the program.

One question about that. When you reinstalled, did you delete the program first and then put a fresh install in?

Do you have the disks for an earlier version of Final Cut, say 4 or 4.5?

Koz

Also keep in mind that reinstalling does NOT give you a fresh set of preferences, so if yoiu have not specifically trashed them, and they are messed up, every attempt to reinstall will inherit the same problems.

Have you tried trashing preferences?

Scott

<<<I've tried everything from trashing receipts and preferences >>>

From above.

Koz

>>From above<<

I was afraid of that. You know I have a hard time remembering ... um, what?

Scott

I started a new version of this thread above:

[www.lafcpug.org]

Jude brings up an interesting possiblity. Can you blow away the Final Cut preferences and install and temporarily install somebody else's license, or an earlier Final Cut?

No, wait. I'm just reading the thread again. You have a known good working license because you can install it on your other Mac.

S!@#$*&

OK. Not dead yet. Anything else broken? Can you burn timecode into your picture? Does that tool work? Can you do all the other jobs in that Overlay drop-down menu? If you pull a clip from the bin into the Canvas, do you get the three drop-zone windows; Insert, Something, Something (remember, I'm not an editor)?


Without going all the way back through all the threads, do you remember when this first happened?

Koz

Another time zone heard from.

Are either your Viewer or Canvas zoomed in? That will kill off the Title and Action Safe overlays for no apparent reason without damaging anything else.

Koz

Thanks to all for your interest in solving this problem. Here are a few answers to the above questions:

<<I know you can tell the Apple Hardware Test to do an exhaustive analysis. Did you do that and let it cook all night or as long as it needed?>>

I did run the Apple Hardware Test. Everything appears to be fine (with the exception of my Title Safe problem of course).

<<When you reinstalled, did you delete the program first and then put a fresh install in? >>

Yes, I did a complete (or as much as I knew how) uninstall, reinstall.

<<Are either your Viewer or Canvas zoomed in? That will kill off the Title and Action Safe overlays for no apparent reason without damaging anything else.>>

No, most times I use the "Fit to Window" option. Oh, by the way, the problem used to be intermittant, now Title Safe has'nt appeared in weeks. Thanks again. I'll keep plugging away.

GlennC

OK. Here's the solution. Go buy a white wax pencil.

Just kidding - although I have seen this used in many a high quality facility - the title safe areas drawn on the broadcast monitors with white wax pencils. In one of my workplaces I have a 4:3 monitor that has been jimmied to display 16:9, and on this I often draw in the corners of 4:3 safe with a whiteboard marker. It does tend to get wiped off a lot though.

Thin pinstriping also works well.

I really have no idea why yours isn't working though. I know we've covered it, but the only reason I can think of is that the 'overlays' toggle is somehow turned off.

While we rarely lose one of these, it does happen.

You could follow the "Used Car Scenario." Put the machine on Ebay and buy something else. It's possible the new user will not need overlays at all.

Koz