FCE HD Freezing

Okay, I'm trying to import some footage and at the bottom of the little screen that comes up, it says "allocating disk space". At that point, FCE HD just freezes. When I force quit it, the dock is saying it's still open, and I have to log out and back in to fix. How do I fix these problems?

What drive is your scratch disk? The Internal or external? If your scratch disk is the internal one, you have to make sure there is enough for both OSX and FCE. If it's the external one, try to get it "active" before opening FCE (e.g. open a word document or something simple to get it spinning). The message "Allocating Disk Space" means FCE is trying to find Disk Space on your hard drive that it can use.

Similar Messages

FCE HD Freezes while capturing HD Footage

i have a mac book pro with an external hard drive that holds 120 Gigs. i have roughly 18 gigs left. i'm currently capturing HD footage for a movie and FCE HD freezes while capturing fairly often. What should i do? Do i need a bigger external hard drive?

Exactly what it says. Because of the nature of the way USB drives work they are not suitable for video applications, particularly as the drive fills up or becomes fragmented. What kind of camera or deck are you using? What works for many situations is to daisy-chain the camera through the drive to the FireWire port. This usually does not work with Canon cameras however.

Cannot edit video! FCE keeps freezing video track, running audio only

I am enormously frustrated. My FCE has stopped working smoothly! It is freezing in arbitrary places during clips, sometimes for a bit & then starting at a later point, or just freezing while the audio continues to play. I have reinstalled Snow Leopard and updates, reinstalled FCE 4 and updates. I have installed smcFanControl to make sure nothing is overheating. I have vacuumed air vents. I have prayed, yelled, cried.
My video camera is a Canon Vixia S100 HD, and only the updated version of FCE can read the files. I know that. I've been editing with FCE for a year now. I think it may be a graphics reader incompatibility or bug, or perhaps even related to Flash since the problem began when Apple announced it would not be going forward with Adobe Flash.
I am a videopoet and frankly can't take my iMac in for servicing at this point.
What is most interesting about this problem is that I can edit "blind" -by guess work- and upload to YouTube or Facebook and the videos are absolutely fine. No freezing, no dislocate of video and audio synch.
Also, I tried to watch my latest clip in Picasa, which is on my desktop, and it began freezing in the same odd way during playback.
Since the videos upload fine, it's not the video itself, but the player in the iMac. It feels like a bug to me, a kink, something between OS X 10.6.4 -it didn't happen before that upgrade- and whatever video player the iMac uses... since freezing of raw video clips occurs across two programs, FCE & Picasa.
Because I can no longer edit my videos properly I am quite fairly rabidly mad, as you can imagine, struggling with these issues for many many hours, and today spending the afternoon re-installing my OS and FCE and upgrades to no avail.
I am hoping someone can enlighten me on what is going on, or if there is a patch for this particular issue.
Thanks!
Brenda

Check the item properties of the clips in your FCE project and let us know their specs. Also, if you have any still images in the Timeline, make sure they are in RGB Color Mode - NOT Grayscale, Indexed or CMYK.
Also let us know where the media is stored (hard drive type and formatting and how it is connected to your Mac).
-DH

FCE viewer freezing.....

Hi there friends,
Ok...I have FINALLY got some vision into FCE I am happy with.
But for the first time the viewer is freezing after playing for about 2 seconds...... I have read that it could be a hardware issues but how can I get around this?
I imported vision from DVD using streamclip and exporting that to PAL-DV
Regards,
Chris

cmart7 wrote:
Also, A note that may assist......When I get a clip to bring down to the timeline, There is a warning that my Sequence and External settings do not match, then a yes is offered to fix it...
Where do I fix this?
Regards
Clicking YES tells FCE to make an educated guess, that's all you have to do.
There was a mis-match somewhere in the clips you are bringing into FCE and the Sequence that was currently set, that's why you got that message in the first place.
Al

Dropped Frames and "freezing" during capture

I'm having a problem capturing video....it mostly captures although I get "freezes" where the sound continues but the video frames are dropped. If I leave the Quit capture upon dropped frames I can't capture too much as the freezing happens about every 15 to 30 seconds. Any help?
I'm having the same problems on both computers and also when I try to set the hard drive as the scratch as opposed to my external HD.
MacBook Pro (INtel)
iMac (800mhz)
FCE 2.0
Thanks in advance
Zack

Tom,
Same issue here. I've been capturing well with the same setup months ago and have not had this issue until now.
The video "freezing" happens during writing to the hard disk during capture. Using Activity Monitor, you can see 2 second "bursts" of data written to disk every 30 seconds. The video in the capture window freezes during these bursts.
Activity Monitor also shows zero bytes of data being written to disk in between the bursts, but that doesn't seem right, because I know the video is being captured. (You can play it back in FCE)
The freezing can be seen during capture and when playing the captured clip in the viewer. Audio playback is fine.
I tried 3 different Scratch Disk settings with the same results:
External USB 2.0
External FW 800
Internal disk on PowerMac
Dual 2.0 GHz G5 (Cheese-Grater) PowerMac
10.4.9
FCE HD 3.0
QT Pro 7.1.5
3.5 GB Ram (100% set for FCE in settings)
FCE Easy Setup for DV Converter
Canopus ADVC110 converter
Analog VCR input into Canopus (Default settings on Canopus)
Firewire connection from Canopus to Mac
I couldn't find anything in your FCE Editing Workshop book that could help with this either. Everything worked fine a few months ago.
Dual 2Ghz G5, 12" G4 iBook, Sunflower iMac Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Final Cut Express HD freezes sometimes

Sometimes FCE will freeze during timeline playback on a certain clip. I insert the clip into the timeline and playback and it freezes and when I click something I get the beach ball. I force quit and go back and it does the same.
I delete the clip and then re-insert the clip it and play it it does it again, but if I use a different clip its fine. I have tried to change the in piont of the clip a bit and it still the same.
In one instance I changed the speed of the clip and it worked fine. This clip is like all my others, DV that I shot on a sony pc 101, imported just fine.
I have about 130 gigs of video and about 10 minutes of edited project so far and this has happened with 2 clips. But is is really bugging me. Anyone have any experience with this? Thanks in advance.
John

Tom- At work now so I'll try and get you the detailed specs later tonight.
My set up is very much "plug-and-play", install defaults. The drives I use are assembled by Pacific Pro Audio using WB and some "Oxford 911" chip set. I know nothing other then they are my audio dealers for the studio and I never have any issues with the drives in the recording studio with my dual 1.8, 2.5 gig ram, OS 10.3.9. I gone through easily a dozen of them on various projects.
They format and split the drives into three volumes before they send them to me as I'm told that is a more efficient way to use for Pro Tools. Again, not a techie here but after 15 years with these guys, they've never be wrong yet so I take the word for it.
As for this particular computer, the only add-on apps I run is Aperture, Dreamweaver, Logic Pro, Sountracks Pro and Final Cut Express. The Prosonus is my only add-on piece of hardware besides the drive. All audio and video is set to go to the external drive, all settings are defaults and I haven't had to load any other drivers.
This comp has had very little work since I picked it up a 6 months ago. Mostly email, a few hours of video and some miscellaneous songwriting in Logic. It's darn near "fresh out of the box". I'd be hard pressed to find anything strange in my set up.
20" 2gig imac 2g ram, dual 1.8 2.5 g ram, ibook 640 meg Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Final Cut Express on last legs, it seems.

I am having major problems with my Final Cut Express these days. I can't ever capture more than 10 minutes worth of camcorder footage without the whole FCE suddenly freezing up on me. I then have no choice but to Force Quit & end up losing the 10 or 15 minutes worth of footage captured. Quite often I can't even get that far...when I click on "capture now" it goes into "allocating disc space" and just freezes up again. Force Quit all over again.
I am using a Crossfire external hard drive so there is plenty of space. Even the Macintosh HD has lots of space...so I'm not sure it's related to that. I have made tons of movies in the past, without such trouble....but as time has gone by it has become more & more unruly. More prone to crashing & siezing up. Is there any way I can uninstall the whole thing, and start from new with restored factory settings? Or is there a way to clean up the mess (if there is one) which is apparently clogging up the works? I am using an Apple iMac which I have owned since 2003, with Mac OSX version 10.4.11.
1.25 Ghz PowerPC G4
with 1GB DDR SDRAM.
The Final Cut Express version I am using is version 2.0.2 (from 2004).
Please help ! I used to be able to crank out tons of movies with minimal effort, now it's a nightmare!

Check out Armando's suggestion first but if the problems persist take a good look at this FCE troubleshooting article.
I would particularly recommend trashing the preferences first and if that is ineffective uninstall FCE as described and reinstall it.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TA24195?viewlocale=enUS&locale=enUS

Won't capture more than 5 min

I can't capture video for longer then 5 minutes with out FCE HD freezing on me. My tape keeps rolling but the capture stops. When I try to stop it I get the swirling ball that doesn't stop & I eventually have to force quit. Also it will say a 5-10 min. clip is taking around 40 GB. Something weird is happening. I haven't ever had problems until the last few months.

Hi everybody.
I had this same problem. It ended up being the QuickTime 7.3 undate that caused the problem for me. Check out this thread:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1243747&tstart=0
There are a lot of good suggestions in there to try to correct your problem.
As a last resort, I ended up using "archive and install" to correct my issue. It has been working great ever since.
Brian

Up loading music into final cut express

Hello, I'm new to FCE and have found that I can't use music that I have bought from Itunes in my projects. I have read that there is free program called "hear you music anywhere" that will allow this to work. I have googled this but just get sent around in circles. Is this program still around? If not what are the other options? Also, when I do try to import an itunes song, FCE will freeze my computer.

What's the difference between buying a cd and loading it onto your computer, or buying one song from Itunes?
When you buy a a song from the iTunes Music Store or a CD from any store, you're only paying for the right to listen to that music. Period.
When you want to use a song in a film, video, radio spot, etc, you must negotiate 'synchronization rights' from the copyright holder. If you want to reproduce the song (by itself or in a video, film, etc), you must negotiate 'mechanical rights' from the copy right holder. If you want to perform the song in a publicly accessed venue, you must have 'performance rights' from BMI, SESAC or ASCAP.
Bottom line, you did NOT buy the song, you merely bought the right to listen to it at your convenience.
Like it or not, that's the law.
But wait, it gets even better. When Apple wanted to start selling music online at $.99 a pop, the only way it would be allowed is if DRM metadata was embedded in the music files. So Apple, wanting to sell the songs online agreed to do so. And that's why the songs you buy from iTunes have DRM and the ones on the CD don't. All clear?
-DH

Problem: Still photos exporting transparent

I am having an unpredicatable, intermittent problem when exporting videos containing still pictures.
Sometimes the photos will become transparent after export. You can see whatever is beneath them (as in the case of a still over an interview, you can see the person talking underneath) or they just become dark of there is no video underneath.
Rendering goes well and the still play properly in the timeline.
It doesn't happen all the time and often not to the same pix each export.
They are jpeg images. I export using H.264 compression.
It happens on both my iMac and Macbook which are both system 6.8.2
I am using Final Cut Express 4
Not sure what other details are relevant.
I have used the deinterlace filter on the images before exporting. It seems to help, but still a few images will come out transparent.
Thanks in advance!
Mike

Are these photos that you imported into FCE or freeze frames? If they are freeze frames, deinterlacing is a good idea, but if they are photos, deinterlacing should have no effect on them.
Why don't you export as QT with current settings (not QT Conversion) and see if the problem persists. If you get a good export and you need an h.264 version, you can import that file into MPEG STreamclip.
Good luck.
Russ

FCE4 Crashing when try to import from External

Hello -
I have a brand new MacBook Pro and a fresh installation of FCE4. Using OS X 10.6.4 and have an intel processor which is required for AVCHD video.
I've been importing AVCHD video (1080/60i) into FCE using the log and transfer without any problems. I had been importing it directly from the SDHC card.
I backed up the SDHC card to an external hard drive - a 1TB Seagate. I copied all the folders starting at the "Private" folder just as the instructions directed. Then within FCE and the Log and Transfer window, I created a custom path to the external hard drive.
Now all the clips loaded just fine in the window, but trying to add a clip to the queue or to play one in the window causes FCE to freeze and crash.
I thought I followed all the steps properly, and my FCE Easy Setup is as HD format and AIC 1080/60i so it matches the footage I am trying to import.
If anyone has a solution to why importing from the external is causing the crash, please let me know.
Before I added the external hard drive to the mix everything was working great. Yet the clips still load...so I'm not sure what's causing the crash!
Thanks for any help.
Sarah

Hi -
It's a USB 3.0 but says it's still compatible with 2.0. Formatted in Mac OS Extended (journaled)
My settings in the Log and Transfer were off (thanks for telling me about it though - I didn't know about that part) but even after changing to Plain Stereo and putting it back to Apple Intermediate Codec, I had the same problem.
Also, moving folder to internal disk resulted in the same - the clips all load, but when trying to play or convert FCE quits.
Even more frustrating is that when I plug the SDHC card in and try to import directly off the card, it's doing the same thing. That was how I had been doing it before without any problems.
Any more advice?

Export to DV failure

My thanks to this forum and to Ian Brown off group for helping me produce my first project onto discs.
Strangely I now have a problem at what I though would be the easy bit before moving on to my next epic. I always make a back-up on DV tape in case of any future probs with the discs. My first export had audio synch problem. A search on here alerted me to rendering mixdown audio and that cured it. Just surprised iDVD had produced the discs with perfect audio but I live and learn (sometimes).
I now find I can't output the whole 58 min to DVD. At random points the process just stops with my Panasonic showing no DV input as if the firewire had been pulled. FCE just freezes at that frame. Best I have managed is 35 mins. Any ideas from you experts? Could it be interference from another program running?
Thanks,
Tom.

Normally Mail would not be a problem, but as you are running FCE through Rosetta, it could be the final straw.....
As I mentioned before, it is possible that some of your problems may be connected with using FCE 3.0, which Apple have always deterred people from attempting.
Only when you upgrade to 3.5 will you be certain that problems you experience are your own fault and not created by incompatibility issues.
Ian.

Fce 3 capture freezes approx. 5 minutes in.

Hello everyone,
Grasping for direction or answers. When I am capturing video to my final cut express 3, the video freezes after approx. 5 minutes in but the drive continues to capture until the out point.
Here's the events that led to my situation.
500 gb western digital(2007 model) ext hd dies. Mac g4 powerbook 15" (osx 10.3.9 panther 1ghz ram)reads "drive inserted is not os formatted..)I get the old drive checked out and it pans out that it has died. I purchase new 1tb hd Hitach that is compatible for mac os 10.3.9. I format hard drive to extended (not journaled). I attempt to capture clip longer than 5 minutes and it freezes as stated above. I trash pref and do a repair permission. I use a different playback device. I move the usb 2.0 cable from new hard drive to another port. I attempted to capture with the internal hd. Same results. Had the firewire cable checked out, it was fine. Quicktime version is 7.5 version. I'm missing something but what? Tonight I will go and check my set up choice in the preference folder and play with the fire wire setting if maybe that was changed somehow. All system was working beautifully until the hard drive failure. Thanks for any suggestions.
Update: The old drive was a usb connection, not firewire but I'll check with a firewire based hard drive. I played with the fire wire connections in the system pref of fce last night and that did not work. Made sure that the wave form, thumbnail cache, ect in the scratch pref were the same drives, same results. The old drive was a 500 gb. New drive is a 1 tb. Is it possible the difference could effect the capture command?
Thanks..
A.Moreira

Mac g4 powerbook 15" (*osx 10.3.9 panther 1ghz ram*)
New 1tb hd Hitachi SimpleIII that is compatible for mac os 10.3.9.
I format hard drive to extended (not journaled).
I attempt to capture clip longer than 5 minutes and it freezes.
I trash pref and do a repair permission. I used a different playback device (JVC Mini DV pro-sumer then dvc 80 panasonic cam). I move the usb 2.0 cable from new hard drive to another port.
*I attempted to capture with* *the internal hd. Same results.*
Had the firewire cable checked out,(goes from the camera playback to the computer).. it was fine.
Quicktime version is 7.5 version. What's got me is that the failure still persists even with the internal drive.
Final cut express 3 version.
Media ,mini dv standard def shot with the panasonic agdvc 80.
Firewire setting to both DV-ntsc and firewire basic, same failure.
Was able to capture full one hour video with same footage prior to the situation that started with hard drive crash.
A. Moreira

FCE freezing computer.

I'm using FCE 1 and DVD Studio Pro 2.
Both apps are installed on my boot volume, a hard drive on a PCI controller and my scratch disk is a hard drive on my onboard IDE-ATA socket. I save project files to the scratch disk volume.
When I try to export a sequence to MPEG-2 with Quick-Time Pro, the computer usually freezes before a sequence over 20 minutes long is finished encoding. The only thing I can do then is a hard restart.
I can export to a DV stream and use Compressor, but that makes extra work for man and machine, as well as taking longer to start up a conversion to MPEG-2 for my computer to work on while I'm at work.
At first, I was getting freezes on playback.
I had initially selected the wrong volume as a scratch disk upon installation after my last restore, so I deleted FCE and all FCE app-support, cache and preference files in both library and home/library directories and re-installed and re-serialized the software. This helped some, but it only took me to my current state of affairs.
I suspected it may be vid-card related, but I've tried using a Radeon 9000 Pro card and my current G4-modified Radeon 9600 Pro, (both eBay hardware left over from a failed Quicksilver salvage project) as well as the stock Rage 128 Pro. Same situation.
Anything else I can try?

Processor upgrades are not supported by Apple with video editing applications.

FCE Freezes while importing video

While importing video, FCE freezes, usually within 3-4 minutes of capture. I have to force quit. I am using Capture Now. I have no problem importing with iMovie. In fact I've been importing in to iMovie and then copying the clips into FCE to get around the freeze. I have my clips saved to a 500GB external drive and my camcorder is a Panasonic PVGS-300. I have imported into FCE many times before. This is the first time this has occurred and I haven't changed anything in my setup or added anything to the system. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.

I'm having the same problem.
Yesterday, I captured 45 minutes in 4 minute sections, and spent the morning editing.
It got slower & slower & slower.
I saved all, quit & browsed the internet for a while.
The computer continued to whir for some time.
I went back into FCE & it was back up to speed.
I suspect imminent hard drive failure.
Does anyone have an opinion on my diagnosis?

FCE HD Freezing

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for