Problems with FCP in Canvas window

I have been using Final Cut Studio 2 for about a year now on my Notebook pro with 2Gb RAM and an external 500gb HD.

When editing a project recently two things started happening. First the screen would blink to blue, flash back to FCP, blink to blue again and then stay on FCP. This would happen at random times.

Secondly when playing from the time line the canvas window would start flickering between the opening shot and wherever the timeline cursor happened to be. When I exported a sample of the time line it would play fine, and the problem was usually resolved by shutting down FCP and restarting.

I was not doing any heavy editing on the timeline, no effects fancy transitions or text, I was just starting a rough assembly of the project.

I have uploaded all the updates.

I am just thinking about upgrading to FCP 7 but want to make sure I have a stable platform before I do so.

Has anyone had this problem, or can make any suggestions ?

Thanks in advance

Steve G

Quote

First the screen would blink to blue, flash back to FCP, blink to blue again and then stay on FCP.

That sounds like a graphics problem with your laptop. You should take it to an Apple Store and have them check it out. I had to have a MacBook (or maybe it was a PowerBook, I forget now) replaced a few years back due to a vaguely similar problem.

Someone else described something like your second problem on this forum a few weeks ago, and it has happened to me as well. Don't know the cause, except that it seems to happen after I have brought a different application to the front for a while, then resumed my editing in FCP (I am using ver 5.1.4). You don't need to restart FCP to clear it, just close the sequence and open it again.

This has happened both on my Powerbook and Mac Pro, but took several months of using this version of FCP without incident before it started happening. Annoying as hell, doesn't seem to cause any other problems. I'd love to know what causes (and cures) it, but I hardly ever see anyone having the same problem. At least they don't talk about it...

Scott

I am having the same issue. It seems to have been brought on by upgrading to 10.5.8 and possibly Matrox MXO 2.1.4.05.

Closing the sequence and reopening fixes it, but this is incredibly annoying and would love to find a solution. If I do, I will post. Anyone else have any ideas?

Separately, I seem to be having issues with the drive the media is on--I can't verify and repair. I am going to get a new drive and see if that might solve the problem.

Yikes!

Thanks to everyone for their response. It is good to know I am not alone !. I can see that this is going to be one of those annoying problems that will always occur when you least want it to (like in front of a client !!) Anyway I will get the graphics card checked out.

I got my new Mac Pro Quad Core Intel and am using FCP 7. The Canvas screen is a red shade. When I play the video the red goes away. How do I fix this problem?

Go to the right button on the center of the canvas window. Change "RGB and alpha" to "RGB".



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