Media Manager Recompress Failed - Error code 34

Hi All,

I keep getting an Error code 34 when trying to run Media Manager on a project.

The original project consists entirely of DV NTSC 48KHZ footage. I am trying to recompress cut sequences into a new project in the OfflineRT NTSC Photo JPEG codec.

My work flow is as follows:

1) First I am duping the sequences to be media managed.
2) I'm selecting the sequence icon and choosing (Make Sequence Clips Independent)
3) I then choose > Recompress (OfflineRT NTSC Photo JPEG) > Delete Unused > Handles (1:00) > No Affiliates > Duplicate project.

Some of the subclips recompress fine, others give me the Error 34. More so than not have a problem.

If I run the same operation and just COPY the DV codec sequences instead of trying to recompress them to OfflineRT Photo JPEG, it works fine. The problem is in the recompress. Unfortunately I do not have the drive space to do just a Copy.

There is plenty of room on my RAID drives to handle the operation, so it does not appear to be a drive space issue. Don't know if this has any bearing on things, but the original clips were captured in FCP 3. I waited to upgrade to FCP 4 before I began any breaking down, logging and editing etc. All has been stable until now.

I am on a deadline on this one... any help would be appreciated.

FCP 4.01 / Dual 800 /OSX

Check your file names, to see if any of them are ending up longer than 25 characters, after the MM adds it's suffixes, when you do a Delete Unused.

I get that same error when my new file names end up over 25 characters.

--Ralph

Ralph,

You-the-Man! - Definitely the offenders were 25+. Again, thank you much for the help.

One question: Have you found any quick way of shortening the logging info on large quantities of subclips. ? To make this work, I have many thousands that require renaming. Keep in mind I will not need to refer to the original clips for anything other than timecode and reel # - The newly created project sequences are just for viewing, no further editing will be done to them.

Marc

About the only way I know is to Export a Batch list into some app with good Search and Replace functionality. Excel might do it, but i don't know Excel.

BBEdit might do it. It has to be an app that works with tab-delimited text.

--Ralph

Thanks Ralph - I will do some soul searching on this one. If all else fails, I may just decide to buy another Firewire drive that can fit the new media in DV resolution - @!#$@#%$@. Lets hope Apple can fix this one soon.

Cheers,

Marc

Yeah, would be much better if FCP could figure out a way to fail gracefully here, particularly since it is often the built-in DV Start/Stop function, and then the Media Manager, that adds the extra characters that cause the problem. As I recall, FCP 1.0 was smarter about this.

The big lesson I guess is to be very very carefully about keeping your clip names under about 20 characters, on large complex projects. Otherwise, you have the unhappy experience of learning the hard way, after it's too late, like you are dealing with now.

I'm having to go through a project I inherited from somebody else now, and re-name all the clips. I've got less than 100. would freak if i had 1000s.

--Ralph