Capture Problems long time to allocate disk space

Question

I have FCPHD and OSX 10.3.9. FCP has always worked well on my computer but is now taking a long time to allocate disk space(if that is even what it is doing) when I go to batch capture or capture now the capture window hangs and sometimes I am left with a large file in the capture scratch folder. Any Ideas?

Answer 1

You need to make sure you have set a time limit in Capture Now. Without that limit, FCP can (and sometimes does) allocate your entire Capture Disk as a potential capture file.
Here's an explanation of what is going on ...
When you use Capture Now, the disk system is being asked by FCP to essentially "keep capturing until we tell you to stop ... and no, we don't know HOW much that will be either." It is stressful on the system to be continually wandering around looking for space to stuff those ones and zeros with out any sense of how many they have to accommodate. One solution available to the system is to allocate the ENTIRE empty space on the disk as the potential capture file. This essentially locks the machine as there is no headroom for basic disk operations.
However if you set a limit on capture now, say 60 minutes, the disk system can allocate the space and may seem to be less confused by the process. It still does not know EXACTLY how much you want, but it knows you will not want MORE THAN the limit and therefor can reduce some of the uncertainty.
Better yet is to capture using timecode. This allows you to log the tape, then use batch capture. When you do this, the system knows EXACTLY how much space to allocate for each file and is very efficient.
Good luck.
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