Captured Footage to Seagate Firewire Drive Has Gray Pixilated Flashes

Greetings,

I captured some footage to an external Seagate 300GB Firewire / USB 2.0 drive. When I play my footage through FCP large gray pixilated square areas intermittently flash on the screen and appear throughout each clip in the canvas window.

When I play the same captured footage through QT the file appears clear, however, it is now jerky. It plays and stops and plays and stops for the duration of the clip

My footage captures and plays fine to my internal media hard drives.

What is causing the gray pixilated flashes?

How do I make it stop?

Why is this only happening when I capture to a FireWire Drive?

Are Seagate 300GB Firewire / USB 2.0 brand drives not recommended for FCP video captures?

Thanks

Howie

No. USB is not recommended for video w FCP.

Jude

Thanks for the quick reply.

I am capturing via firewire. Is the problem occuring because the drive can be used for both FW and USB?

Howie

Mmm. no - that should be OK. If you're using the firewire port the USB doesn't come into the equation.

Are the grey flashes like big blocky grey squares? I've seen this being the firewire cable or the monitor. How are you monitoring? On an external monitor or on the computer? Do the flashes appear randomly, or in the exact same places every time?

What format are you working with? HDV? Are you downconverting during capture?

Jude

>Are the grey flashes like big blocky grey squares?

Yes, they are big blocky grey squares.

> I've seen this being the firewire cable or the monitor.

I tried three different firewire cables. The same thing happened with each cable.

>How are you monitoring? On an external monitor or on the computer?

I use an external monitor. The flashes appear both on the computer and external monitors.

>Do the flashes appear randomly, or in the exact same places every time?

I can't really tell if they appear in the same places each time. They may be random.

I did notice one time that a clip wasn't playing and the flashes occured. For the most part it is during playback of the captured clip.

> What format are you working with? HDV? Are you downconverting during capture?

The footage was shot on Digital 8. This is straight shoot and capture.

Howie

Try disconnecting your external monitor and see if the problem still happens.

Nick

> can you step thru the clip and see them?

When you say "step thru" the clip do you mean go frame by frame?

Howie

Jude Cotter Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Try disconnecting your external monitor and see if
> the problem still happens.


Jude

I disconnected the monitor and the problem persists.

Howie

Nick

>have you tried shutting down and re-booting?

Yes. The problem still occurs.

>Do the flashes appear randomly, or in the exact same places every time?

For the most part they appear to be random.

> can you step thru the clip and see them?

Yes, I stepped thru the clip and still see them.

> what;'s the QT file like when you:
> open it?
> play it?
> step thru it?

The QT files seems to be ok. They open and play fine. There is not stutter or jerkyness. I was able to step thru without any problem or grey flashes.

The flashes only happen when watching or stepping thru the clips while using FCP.

Howie


Nick Meyers Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> have you tried shutting down and re-booting?
> could fix it.
>
> >Do the flashes appear randomly, or in the exact
> same places every time?
> I can't really tell if they appear in the same
> places each time. They may be random.
>
> can you step thru the clip and see them?
>
> what;'s the QT file like when you:
> open it?
> play it?
> step thru it?
>
>
> nick

What settings are you using to capture? What you're describing sounds like it could be a classic case of trying to use too slow a drive to play back clips. How big and how long are the clips? Did you format the drive properly before using it?


www.derekmok.com

Seems you narrowed down your problem to the drive itself. How much space you got left in the drive? If less than 10% that might be the problem. Also, if you haven't done this, shut down your Mac, disconnect the FW drive. Wait 10 minutes. Start up your Mac. Connect FW drive and boot up FCP and see if its still there.

Michael Horton
-------------------

that the QT plays fine makes it seem like FCP is the culprit, somehow.

and as far as that goes, i'm a bit stumped.
trashing prefs is all i can come up with
read this: [www.lafcpug.org]

but to check,
copy a file from that drive to another.
even the internal will be ok,

then take that copy into FCP and play it.


nick

Michael

I have over 200 Megs free. I've only captures 5 small clips to the drive. Each approximately 10-40 seconds in length.

I've shut down the Mac, reconnected the FW drive and started FCP and the problem still occurs.

Howie



Michael Horton Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Seems you narrowed down your problem to the drive
> itself. How much space you got left in the drive?
> If less than 10% that might be the problem. Also,
> if you haven't done this, shut down your Mac,
> disconnect the FW drive. Wait 10 minutes. Start up
> your Mac. Connect FW drive and boot up FCP and see
> if its still there.

Quote

Michael
I have over 200 Megs free.

whoah!

i hope you have a lot more than 200MB free.

if not, your drive is seriously over-full,
and you have to clear some room immediately.


nick

Correction. I have 279 Gigs free.

Derek

I'm using the following capture settings:

1. Device Control - FireWireNTSC
2. Capture / Input" DV NTSC 48KHz Capture

I formatted the drive by using the finder and selecting Erase. Is there a more efficient method?

The clip files range in size from 26.7 mb to 52 mb. Each approximately 10-40 seconds in length, maybe 60 seconds tops.

How do I know if the drive is too slow?

Howie


derekmok Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What settings are you using to capture? What
> you're describing sounds like it could be a
> classic case of trying to use too slow a drive to
> play back clips. How big and how long are the
> clips? Did you format the drive properly before
> using it?

Nick

I took your suggestion and copied one of the files that I had the gray flashes with. I copied it from the FireWire drive to an internal drive. Then I imported the file from the internal drive into FCP and loaded it into the viewer. The file now plays fine and there aren't any gray flashes.

Does this mean my FW drive is too slow?

Is here anything I can do to speed up the drive?

Howie




Nick Meyers Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> that the QT plays fine makes it seem like FCP is
> the culprit, somehow.
>
> and as far as that goes, i'm a bit stumped.
> trashing prefs is all i can come up with
> read this:
> [www.lafcpug.org]
> 5.html
>
> but to check,
> copy a file from that drive to another.
> even the internal will be ok,
>
> then take that copy into FCP and play it.
>
>
> nick

FYI

The specs for the Seagate FireWire Drive I'm using are:

1. 7200 RPM
2. 16 MB Cache
3. Mac OS 9.2.2 and higher (initialization to Mac OS Extended)

Is it possible the drive hasn't been initialized properly?

Do I need to do something other than erasing the drive through the finder?

Under the Drive Set-up > list of drives > this drive is listed as "Not Supported".

Howie

My final comment for the night.

For this current video project I'm working with an older Mac G4 733 with OS 9.2.2. Drive Set-up does not recognize the FireWire drive and it's listed as "Not Supported".

Therefore, I initialized the FireWire drive with OS X, selecting Mac OS Extended Journaled. I went back to OS 9 and Drive Set-up still lists the FW drive as listed as "Not Supported". I erased the drive again through the Finder and Drive Set-up still says the FW drive is "Not Supported".

Could this be the problem?

maybe.

it's been a long time since i worked in OS9.

what did you do with all the captured media before you formatted?
put it on the internal?

the thing is it seems as if your drive was fine for capturing,
so it should be fine for playing back.


nick

I can't quite remember the OS9 stuff either, but I'm pretty sure it didn't support journaling. That drive should be fast enough for what you're doing.

I know you've tried different firewire cables. Can you try another one in a different firewire port?

> what did you do with all the captured media before you formatted? put it on the internal?

I had been capturing all of my footage to my internal drives.

> the thing is it seems as if your drive was fine for capturing, so it should be fine for playing back.

I agree. The clips are fine after being copied over to an internal drive and play back.

When I copied the clips back from an internal drive to this FireWire Drive I have the gray flashes again.

> I know you've tried different firewire cables. Can you try another one in a different firewire port?

The G4 has two FW ports. My deck is plugged into one port and the FireWire Drive is plugged into the other.

Do you suggest switching the ports?

It still sounds to me like either your drive format is throwing OS9 in for a loop, or your internal drive is fast enough for the clip format but not your FireWire drive. Or you just have a lemon for an external drive. It's been a long time since I ran OS9, but I remember there are limitations (eg. file size, drive size) in OS9 that aren't an issue in OSX.

What other devices do you have connected to the computer? Are you running AntiVirus or any other software at the same time as running FCP? Are you networked?


www.derekmok.com

> What other devices do you have connected to the computer?

I have a video deck connected to the other FireWire port.

>Are you running AntiVirus or any other software at the same time as running FCP?

I do have an antirvirus program running, but this has never affected my capturing footage before to an internal drive.

Should I disable the antivirus?

>Are you networked?

No.

unplug the deck and try again.

switch of all anitvirus and try again