Final Cut Pro 6 won't play back in real time

Recently, I installed FCP 6 on my employer's machines, and it seemed to work normally.

Today, while configuring her Sony HD camera to offload video into FCP at NTSC 720x480 16:9 format, something was changed in FCP so that we can no longer view video playback in real-time.

Now, the audio plays...and the scrub bar/viewer can be moved, and the video follows the scrub...also, the scopes follow the timeline when the playhead is scrubbed in the timeline...but the image in the viewer and canvas windows remain frozen, and only reset to the current frame when the playback stops.

Can anyone give a hint as to why this would occur?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

-- the SASS Man

First check Audio/Video Settings - A/V Devices - Mirror on Desktop. It needs to be turned on to have both External Video and the Canvas play in real time.


www.derekmok.com

Mirror On Desktop is currently configured. However, once the video has been captured, and the camera is no longer needed, can this setting be PREVENTING the video from playing back?

-- the SASS Man

Above the "refresh audio devices" in the drop down menu, make sure that "all frames" is selected. Also, selec the canvas and hit "shift z". This zooms the frame to fit the canvas.



www.strypesinpost.com

Selecting "All Frames" returned an error:

"The specified hardware could not be found. Check your camera connection." This could be a problem...my employer has put away the camera in a locked cabinet. I need to switch FCP to operate independently of the camera, now that the footage has been captured onto the hard drive.

-- the SASS Man

If you have no devices connected, no capture card hooked up to a monitor, then select "none" or "apple cinema display- full screen". Selecting the Apple Cinema display full screen option will allow you to preview your video in full screen when you hit apple F12.





www.strypesinpost.com

Okay, I've selected "None" in that section....the viewer still does not follow the playback. Audio plays, but video snaps to the correct frame only when play stops, or the playhead is scrubbed with the mouse.

-- the SASS Man

Try trashing preferences.

[www.lafcpug.org]



www.strypesinpost.com

Okay...that didn't help either...except that my employer's screen layouts went away. The playback still does not play in real time.

Fortunately, the advice given was to not empty the trash until after FCP was reloaded to see if the problem corrected itself.

Could the manner in which this video was imported/captured affect whether it plays in real time? And if so, is there a way to correct the captured sequences?

-- the SASS Man

UPDATE!

It must have some effect, because the old projects work, and the video plays normally.

I opened a project that was imported as HD 1080i, and that plays on the timeline normally.

This project imported as 720x480 Animorphic will snap to the current frame, but will not play in real time.

What causes THAT?

-- the SASS Man

1. Can you play clips from the capture scratch using QT?

2. What does QT say about those clips (size etc)?

3. Are you sure you are using correct sequence settings for the clips?

4. Create a new project (and double check settings) and import some footage. Does the problem persist?

i have seen this before and a new project worked for me. Also sometimes if you have large pics in fcp it does this.

""" What you do with what you have, is more important than what you could do, with what you don't have."

> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"

In the Canvas View Menu check to see that you are not set to wireframe only. I have had similar symptoms when this gets set. There is a key stroke that sets this mode (CNTRL-OPTION W) that is close to one I use a lot (audio waveforms OPTION-COMMAND W) and I bag myself about once a month

-Vance

nicknasty:

1. Yes, both pieces play perfectly in Quicktime.

2. Finder indicates that both pieces are Quicktime Movie, 720x480. One is 58:22 minutes, occupying 12.36 GB on the disk; the other is 5:59 mins, and occupies 1.27 GB. The codec is listed as "DV/DVCPRO - NTSC, Integer (Big Endian), Timecode".

3. We are using the settings we were instructed to use, but I am not sure those settings are correct.

4. I will attempt it.....

VPiccin:

We never use Wireframe only, but that was one of the first things we checked. We have switched back and fourth between "Video only" and "Video and Wireframe" to no avail.

-- the SASS Man

nicknasty:

1. Yes, both pieces play perfectly in Quicktime.

2. Finder indicates that both pieces are Quicktime Movie, 720x480. One is 58:22 minutes, occupying 12.36 GB on the disk; the other is 5:59 mins, and occupies 1.27 GB. The codec is listed as "DV/DVCPRO - NTSC, Integer (Big Endian), Timecode".

3. We are using the settings we were instructed to use, but I am not sure those settings are correct.

4. Attempted...this did not help. Neither clip will play on the timeline. They just jump to where the playhead stops.


VPiccin:

We never use Wireframe only, but that was one of the first things we checked. We have switched back and fourth between "Video only" and "Video and Wireframe" to no avail.

-- the SASS Man

This is most likely not your problem but is your playback window
set to Fit to Fill -- Jay --

Not sure about that. We worked aroubd the problem, mainly by feeding through Compressor to generate AIF files, and the project is on its way to Seattle now for editing, but....we'll see if that works. Thanks, everyone, for the advice.

-- the SASS Man

This solved my problem! I had ripped a DVD and converted it to MP4. When I imported it into Final Cut, it would play audio but not the video. When I unplugged my external monitor's connector and restarted Final Cut, all of a sudden it worked and played fine! Thank you!