Multitasking while capturing problem

In the old days of FCP 4 and earlier, I had no problem multitasking while capturing footage. Now with FCP 5, once I leave the program to do other things, I can't get back into FCP 5 without Force Quiting. Anyone else?

I've never done anything else while capturing. Capturing video has to be one of the most processor intensive things you can be doing, and the risk of dropping frames increases greatly.

Perhaps FCP made it so that you can't do that now?

Never had any problems with dropped frames in the past.

I'm amazed that there's not a huge outcry about this.

When I capture I like to monitor my capture to make sure that it goes correctly.

Plus it might help that I have a laptop to surf the web while using the G5 tower to capture....

i gotta agree with everyone else here, that if i need to use the machine while capturing, i'll move to a laptop or other machine. capture is just too crucial to risk.

i do agree though, that FCP has become a lot more "eccentric" (might even say somewhat flakey) in the recent versions.

With each new version, you might think that FCP requires more processor overhead as time goes on, not true?

Upgrade your current Mac or get a Mac Mini if you wanna surf as you capture. I myself am with Shane and Wayne in that I don't add excess taxation on the CPU as I capture. Good justification for a laptop. ;-)



Kevin Monahan
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Wayne, With all due respect, I probably would agree with everyone else here too, had it not been working perfectly for years until now.

I have FCP 4.5 on my laptop and I can capture, work in photoshop, render after effects simultaneously and everything works fine on it. And I've never heard my CPU complain once about "excess taxation". It may run a little slower but not enough to warrant buying another computer to do the things one Mac is capable of.

But you may be right Kevin, about the new version requiring more processor overhead.

Better yet, you Shane may have nailed it on the head. It would be just like Apple to limit FCP so I would have to buy another machine to do other things.

weird, I was just captring footage on an old ibook, and searching a filemaker db at the same time in fcp 5.0

i mean its no rendering or working on a high volume program, but still, it's an ibook.



Amateur Teacher

Just to add, I too had no problems on earlier versions of Final Cut, but 5 certainly doesn't like it at all...

But then, I'm one of the spoilt ones too....as I write this on my new MacBookPro while capturing to the G5...

Ahhhh....

Yes expensive way to do it, but worth its (not very much) weight in gold...

J.

There was somebody else on the forum that did things like that. Gaussian Blur in Photoshop, three email accounts, surfing eBay to buy a car--and capturing a DV show.

They claimed it worked first time out every time.

We all nodded sagely--and continued to completely ignore him. It's entirely possible it does work just fine, but you do have to be careful not to fall into the Limited Sample camp. It works for me on my machine therefore it works for everybody all the time. The FireWire Hard Drive argument is a good example of that problem.

<<<i do agree though, that FCP has become a lot more "eccentric" (might even say somewhat flakey)>>>

How about accurate and stable? If there is any reason for a capture to fail, it will fail ahead of time instead of waiting until you're 30 minutes into a 60 minute capture to start dropping frames.

People point to iMovie all the time as the paragon of capture stability. Actually, iMovie sucks because it just doesn't care if all the frames arrive or not. It doesn't matter if Grandma's Trip To The Beach is missing a frame here and there, but it might matter a lot if you're counting frames for a feature film.

Koz

Kids these days....sheesh.
You guys don't know how spoiled you are. ;-)



Kevin Monahan
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yeah, im going to refer again back to my videovision studio / premiere days. when my 4gig scsi array cost $6000 and we were just overjoyed that we could capture video at all.

and we also - walked to school barefoot in the snow, uphill - BOTH WAYS. and we LIKED IT THAT WAY!

Yep, I never had any multitasking problems when I edited with four tape machines and a DVE to one inch. And I never worried about multitasking when I was lugging that TK-76 around. That was years before I bought my first Mac in '86. Yep, I'm a kid and I'm spoiled.

<<<TK-76>>>

You used a TK-76?

[entering stunned mode]

Koz

I'm a old relic. Check out WTVD at:

[www.oldradio.com]

<<<Check out WTVD at:>>>

Cool.

I did the engineering and production demos for the introduction of that camera at NBC/WRC Washington, DC.

First portable ENG-EJ camera that looked pretty good and didn't take four people to operate--and lift.

Koz

-Joey

You make it sound like being politically correct is a good thing.



Johan Polhem
Motion Graphics
www.johanpolhem.com

Very,very cool!

I used to post a show "America's Black Forum" in DC which was shot at WRC and directed by Marion something and Jesse Vaughn.

Ring any bells?

<<<Marion something>>>

Burrows (spelling?)

I seem to recall a piece from the Washinton Post on the wall titled, "Burros Shot!"

It was a piece about the army putting some really old pack animals out of their misery.

No word on the director.

For several years I was the Radio and Microwave God--or at least I was perceived that way. I was one of the few people that didn't approach radio waves as black magic. Dark gray, perhaps, sometimes very dark gray, but not black. That and I could speak Production.

And Southern.

And New York.

The latter came in handy when New York would send their big vans down for inaugurations. I could speak all the dialects without laughing even once.

Koz