FCP/Compressor/MVP-2000 problem...

Hi everyone!
I have a very strange question that is pretty specific to my workflow. I am hoping someone out there has run into the same sort of thing, maybe even using the same gear we do... So here we go.
We are using an MVP-2000 to run our channel. This is a good solution for us. http://www.leightronix.com/mvp2000/mvpmain.htm
We had been editing on our six year old Avid. From there, we would play the file, real time, out to another comptuer with a Canopus Amber Card that would encode it to MPEG-2 form. Using the MVP software, we then send the file to the MVP, and put it in our loop of programming.
With new our FCP machine, we want to encode the MPEG-2 file right from there. After a lot of testing with the MVP, we were able to get a file from FCP to the MVP that works (explaination in a bit). The MVP is very specific in it's settings, requiring the following:
Acceptable stream types:
1. MPEG-1 System Stream or MPEG-2 Program Stream
(consisting of a single elementary video stream with an optional single elementary audio stream)
No Transport stream
2. Elementary video stream
Five picture sizes are allowed. Other sizes are not supported.
1. 320 x 240 (Horizontal x Vertical)
2. 352 x 240
3. 352 x 480
4. 704 x 480
5. 720 x 480
Picture rate must be 29.97 pictures per second.
A maximum bit rate of 4.5 Mbit/s is allowed. Higher rates are not supported.
Variable bitrate is not supported.
NTSC with 4:3 aspect ratio required.
4:2:0 sampling format required. (Main profile at Main or Low level, ( 4.5 Mbit/s)
IBBP GOP structure recommended for best quality.
Encode header information in stream every few seconds to aid in error recovery.
Audio, if present, must be encoded into the MPEG file using Audio layer II.
Audio must be encoded at a 44.1KHz sampling frequency.
MPEG files must be no more than 2 Gigabytes in size.
MPEG filenames must have no more than eight characters (DOS 8.3 format) with [.mpg] as the extension.
Still MPEG file format: Must comply with above requirements. First picture will be displayed. Audio is not played.
So, using our Amber card setup, those are the settings we use, and it works great.
Using compressor from FCP, we select an MPEG-2, One Pass, 4.5 Mbits/sec, Best motion estimation, GOP 7, and all other settings are the same as the Amber card. So essentially, there is nothing different about what we are getting from our Amber card and what compressor is spitting out... EXCEPT that compressor is spitting out a video and audio file. So, researching this here on the boards, I found MPEG StreamClip to mux those two files. Easy enough.
So we now have two files that SHOULD be the EXACT same. Both files play on their respective computers just fine. The MVP will play these just fine, and the both look good. UNTIL... The very end.
The file from the FCP system will lock up at the very end, about a second before the end of the file. And it's only the video that freezes. The audio will finish.
I have tried every setting I can possibly think of. I don't know if the problem is stemming from Final Cut, Compressor, or MPEG Stream Clip. I've asked the MVP tech support, and they don't know because they "don't use Final Cut." Keep in mind these files work fine on the computer they were created on.
SO... This is basically a call for help! Is there anyone here who uses this same sort of workflow? Even if you don't use the MVP, do you have ANY ideas of why this might be happening?
Thanks, and if you're still with me, sorry the post is so long... I tried to make it clear!

I had problems with Final Cut, Motion, Compressor, Batch Monitor and Qmaster - they didn't start after installing Leopard.
I solved the problems with some technical notes from Apple. The one for Final Cut is http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302337.
There are other similar technical notes for the other programs.
After following the advices given in the notes, I could start all of the programs in the Final Cut Studio suite.
/S

Similar Messages

Is Quicktime 10 messing with my FCP/Compressor exports?

Just upgraded to Snow Leopard which included QT10, which is utterly useless.
Anyway, besides my general dislike of the new QT10, I have a feeling the newly installed ProRes codecs associated with the upgrade are messing with my exports from both FCP & Compressor. We shoot HD, and often export cropped 4x3 versions of that HD. I just exported a batch of sequences at Apple Pro Res 422 960x720 from a 4x3 sequence.
When I open that in Quicktime, it has been stretched to be anamorphic. If I import into FCP, it tells me that while the frame size is 960x720, the pixel aspect ratio is HD (960x720). Only when I set this to square do I get the proper 4x3 aspect ratio I desire. Likewise, a batch I sent out from Compressor the other day had the same problem.
The solution I've found is that, in Compressor, I have to force the export to be set to square pixels. Easy enough I suppose. But my question is, why does Pro Res (with the new QT10 and ProRes codecs installed) now default to this HD (960 x 720) pixel aspect ratio and default to giving me stretched footage? If the HD footage I'm shooting is square pixels, why is ProRes trying to do anything else with it other than keep it at square pixels?
Also, will Apple create a Pro version of QT10, because as it is, its useless for video work. QT7 Pro is a pretty helpful utility for those of us in video post-production, I'd hate to see that go away and be replaced with QT10.
Message was edited by: rw-media12

Bumping to see if anyone has any thoughts on the matter or if anyone had similar problems...

FCP quicktime conversion export problem

issue exporting still image instead of video
FCP quicktime conversion export problem
within the last 2 weeks i have exported from FCP studio 7.0.3 as quicktime conversion, the settings are:
export as QuickTime Conversion:
> Options> quality> set to Best>
Standard Video Compression Settings
Compression Type: H.264
Motion:
Frame Rate: Current fps
Key Frames: Every 24 frames
check Frame Reordering
Compressor:
Quality: Best
Encodeing: Best (Multi-pass)
Data Rate:
Automatic
Filter… none
Size>
Dimensions:
NTSC 720x486 16:9
>ok
Sound: (don't change anything)
Format: Integer (Little Endian)
Sample rate: 48.000kHz
Sample size: 16-bit
Channels: (L R)
>Export
the results i get a odd. - the video exports fine, except for the beginning titles, instead a still frame image from somewhere else in the video occupies that intro, until the first transition- in this case- dip to white, then the rest of the video is fine. the portion of the beginning that does not show are composed of: livetype text credits in V2 - in which i have done a manual opacity fade up and down - so the livetype text fades in, over matte color solid in V1. in the exported video -i do not see any of this, all i see is a seemingly random still from somewhere else in the video. i can however hear the audio as it is supposed be.
cant figure out why this is happening. anybody know?
i think the livetype files are 1920 x 1080.
my FCP sequence is 720 p
this has only recently started happening and doesn't seem to be consistent.
im wondering if it has to do with the live type files, or the white solid?…
or the conversion settings above?

Alistair
Earlybird is exporting H264 ... the Key Frames setting is determining the GOP length. This value should really be determined based on the complexity of the video, to my understanding, the actual frame rate has no bearing on it. If you have very complex fast moving content then a low Key Frame rate is advisable to ensure good image quality (although it will adversely affect the filesize) whereas if you have slow moving or static content (like an interview subject) then a higher Key Frame rate will still produce a good image but at a smaler filesize. The default of 24 should be pretty much fine as a catchall starting point.
Earlybird
Corrupted render files (and render references) can be a pain because FCP will use those files and references in place of the original media when building the export. And so it should as it does't want to waste time re-rendering sections that are apparently already rendered. Unfortuantely, as noted, if the render file has gone bad and/or starts referencing the wrong media then you'll get these wierd flashes of completely unexpeced and unwanted footage showing up where it shouldn't be. When you trash those files then QT / FCP will just go back and re-reference the original media ... so it's usually a worthwhile step to take just in case thats the problem. The worse case scenario is that it only that doesn't work and you spend some time unecessarily re-rendering.
As to why these files go bad? That I don't know. Why do Preferences get corrupted? That I don't know either but it definitely happens :-(
Cheers
Andy

3'rd party codecs in QT, FCP, Compressor, Shake

Greetings-
I am having an issue getting 3'rd party codecs to show up in my export dialogs in QT, FCP, Compressor and Shake. The 2 codecs in question are Kona uncompressed and Avid.
When attemtping to export files through FCP, QT, Compressor or Shake these codecs do not show up anywhere in the export dialogs- however they DO show up in the export dialog for Cleaner.
I'd appreciate and all thoughts/ideas
Thanks!

ok... still working on this and believe I have found the answer: the Kona and Avid codecs are PPC, not universal code and therefore don't show up on the MBP (but am now seeing them on the G5)

FCP, Compressor & DVD Studio Pro Settings: Archiving Old Video

Hi.
I'm working with FCS2, a Mac Pro, and a Blackmagic Intensity Pro capture card that allows me to import uncompressed SD video.
I bought that card because I have a lot of old SD video, mostly U-Matic and Beta SP, that I want edit someday. I also have some VHS footage (shot in SP mode on a full-size VHS camcorder) that I want to archive to DVD before the tapes turn to dust.
I can't justify buying a VCR/DVD Recorder combo for this job because I only need to dub 6 hours worth of VHS. And I'm guessing I'll get higher quality with the setup I have.
Since I'm essentially just dubbing here, what settings in FCP, Compressor and DVDSP do I need to adjust to give me the highest quality dub possible?
As far as dividing up the video, I was thinking of using 1 hour of VHS to fill each DVD. Is that a good size, or should I go shorter? Would there be a noticeable quality difference if I went down to 45 or even 30 minutes per DVD?
I'm sure I'll have more questions as you post replies. Thanks for your help!
Fred

I agree with David, rent a Beta SP, then the rental place is responsible for it's maintenance so you are ore likely to get a working unit. Better yet, you can rent a new model with fewer hours on it's heads. Make sure your VHS deck's heads are clean. If you own your own 3/4" deck, clean those heads too. If you are not happy with the playback quality rent one of those as well.
If you are truly looking for best quality, go uncompressed and save it all to a drive, but, to be realistic, how one digitizes the material depends entirely on what format you want to end up with after you do edit it.
I suggest digitizing using the DV50 codec as a good compromise in compression and file size. Here at NBC everything is digitized for air using DV25 codec and it is generally good enough. I also suggest that DVDs, even data DVDs are an unreliable format for long term storage bceauce of their high failure rate.
My advice is to save your money and buy a couple of nice Enterprise quality 1TB drives, mirror them and store all your media there. (of course, get smaller drives if there is less material).
Good Luck!

16:9 problem from fcp- compressor- dvd studio.

Using Compressor 1.2.1
I shot mini-dv(xl-2) in 16:9 mode.
I tried using the widescreen Compressor preset but when I import the my assets to DVD studio 2.0 the aspect ratio is squished to 4:3. Using the display tab I changed it to 16:9, looks fine. But when i try to simiulate, it doesn't work and there an off black 4:3 box in the middle of the 16:9 simulation box. burning does the same. both do not play.
My presets are marked for 16:9.
dvds of the project, burn fine using the best settings of fcp Conversion and DVD studio, but i'm having problems going through Compressor first.
Any ideas?
fcp 4.5, compressor 1.2.1, dvd studio 2.0

fcp 4.5, compressor 1.2.1, dvd studio 2.0
Are you really using DVD Studio Pro 2.0 There is a 2.0.5 update available. You also want to make certain that you have updated to the recommended Pro App Support package.
What aspect ratio do you have set in the simulator preferences (4:3 Letterbox, 4:3 Pan & Scan, or 16:9)?
Also, note the following from the DVD Studio Pro 2.0 help file (PDF):
"The most common error is to letterbox your 16:9 video assets before bringing them into DVD Studio Pro or QuickTime MPEG encoding systems. Once a 16:9 asset has been letterboxed, it becomes a 4:3 asset with black bars along the top and bottom of the video image. If you flag letterboxed source video as 16:9 video when encoding it, you will have problems when you play it back later."
That sounds somewhat like the problem you are having. Have you reviewed the "Preparing Assets" section in the DVD SP help file?<small><hr width="75%"><small>If this suggestion helps in any way, a confirmation or acknowledgment would be appreciated, since that would also help others who may be having the same difficulty. Do for others as you would have them help you.<center>Thanks for sharing, Waymen.</center></small>

FCP to compressor w/cluser problem FCP tmp files.

So I have no problem submitting single video to my cluster.
I use "Never copy source to Cluster" from compressor.
I keep source media on an NFS share on my desktop client.
I am submitting to a 6 machine cluster of G5s.
I recently started attempting to tackle submitting FCP projects through compressor. I have read that there are issues submitting with FIle->Export->Compressor and thus have been attemping to submit right from the sequence file in the browser. The problem that I am having is this.
<mrk tms="254678829.330" tmt="01/26/2009 11:07:09.330" pid="1736" kind="end" what="service-request" req-id="7A5BF634-78FA-478E-B15D-4AB049CA04BB:1" msg='Preprocessing job request error (exception=Source file "/private/var/folders/Jq/JqzDuvOaH6yDxo3jBmBOVk+TI/TemporaryItems/44D666EA-870F-4B47-92A8-5A.fcp" not accessible on the cluster and remote copy is disabled).'></mrk>
FCP seems to be creating a tmp file of the project on my local desktop which is NOT apart of the cluster. This tmp file is not being read by the cluster. I have even mounted the /private/var/folders/Jq/JqzDuvOaH6yDxo3jBmBOVk+TI/TemporaryItems/ location on my desktop machine to all the cluster nodes in addition to already having mounted the root location of the drive that contains the media for the project.
Any ideas would be more than welcome.

It is still possible to submit FCP sequences to Compressor, however, the batch will fail when you try to send that batch to a cluster. What QMaster does is "open separate copies" of a program per instance. For example, if you have a Cluster where service nodes are broken up into multiple instances each, QMaster will expect to open Final Cut Pro (since that's where the source footage is located) on every single instance.
If you want to use your cluster for encoding, export a Quicktime file from FCP and submit that file to Compressor.
Some better explanations:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1099
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=8870118#8870118
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8834921&#8834921

FCP-compressor-NTSC/PAL workflow problems...

Hello there,
I'm writing this thread on behalf of a collegue of mine who is in a bit of a pickle... I've been on the phone to him all morning and i'm stumped...
He's just finished offline-editing a new feature film by Nicolas Roeg (walkabout, performance etc) and needs to churn out a DVD for viewing-update purposes, here is the tech info followed by the problem...
ok... so, in FCP he has the sequence and media at photoJPEG quality.
The editing timebase for the sequence is 24 fps.
The problem is that he wants to make a PAL DVD, but when he goes into Compressor, and applies the relevant settings, it always comes out as NTSC...?
I've been on the phone to him, and we've both had little test sequences open (only 10" long sequence) to talk through the work-flow, and as I'm not an advanced Compressor user, I can't find ANYTHING in preferences that sets the PAL/NTSC option.
I am under the impression that it is a FCP setting that actually maked the difference... ie, he is currently using photoJPEG, 24fps... which should (for a PAL DVD) be at 25fps, DV quality.
So how do we turn a photoJPEG 24fps sequence into a PAL 25fps file that can be squidged in Compressor to make a PAL DVD...
I hope I'm making sense... and HUGE thanks in advance for any help.
regards,
J

Perhaps do an intermediate first? The automatic settings in compressor are designed to choose which frame rate it thinks is best for you, so will make the wrong decision sometimes, in terms of your desired output. Try making a new mpeg2 setting, based on the preset for dvd, and change the frame rate to 25. It will then force it to pal 25. Or if it doesn't look great, change to a quicktime first with the same settings as your mate's sequence output, apart from the frame rate which you should force to 25. Then put this new movie back into compressor with the dvd setting.
Try it on a short clip first (a minute or so), then you won't waste time with something that isn't going to work.

Tough, quirky, hard to figure sync problem with FCP / compressor / DVDSP

OK, where to begin?
I have a dvdsp project. Everything started in FCP. The video, because of poor results in compressor, has been compressed using bitvice. This results in an mpeg2 that is slightly longer than the original, because of the way bitvice handles 24p material (intersting aside, once the track is in dvdsp, its back to the original length)
So, in final cut pro, I took the audio tracks and put them at a speed of 99.9% to make them match. Then the audio went to compressor to make an ac3. The files that compressor output match up with the video, as far as length goes, just fine.
Here's where it gets a little wierd. Out of two tracks, one appears to be just fine on the very first pass through compressor... in sync, proper length etc...
In the other track, I got a delay, in the surround speaker tracks, that got longer as the track went on. I examined the fcp sequences that the individual sound files were exported from... same settings. I looked at the self contained quicktime files that were exported from FCP... all the exact same length. Yet, listening to the tracks separately, I could tell that indeed, a couple tracks drifted later (but still didnt add any length on to the end of the track). The only difference in the workflow for those tracks was that some were exported individually and some were batch exported. (dont ask me how/ why/ if that made the difference). There was also a wierd dropout of audio on some tracks, so I figured maybe just a fly in the ointment, try again.
So then I very methodically started over with the sound and repeated the process. I couldnt repeat the whole batch export making a difference thing. The resulting ac3 was in sync within itself, and matched up in length with the video, but the entire audio track drifted late, out of sync with the video.
My solution has been to encode the audio at 100% which is now in sync, but is actually shorter in length in dvdsp and now ends almost 2 seconds earlier on the timeline (but yet doesnt lose sync).
So, one track worked as expected and one threw me a bunch of curveballs resulting in a fix the doesnt make sense but kind of works. The material in both tracks as far as source, settings etc.. is identical.
Can anyone help me wrap my head around some of this so I can have confidence in a workflow moving forward?
thanks,
sorry for the lengthy post
powermac g4 933

Audio/video timing accuracy is never better than the tool you are measuring it with. Therefore, you can't always trust time measurements based on SMPTE time code with your life, especially when 2:3 pulldown is involved. If you end up with a MPEG-2 multiplex that stays in sync on a set-top DVD player, then you are safe, regardless of what FCP, DVD SP or any other software tool think of it.
Why is that? Because the timing accuracy in MPEG-2 is at least 3000 times as accurate as any SMPTE time code. It is true that MPEG-2 video may contain SMPTE time code information, but it is only optional and even when present it is never used for anything time critical, such as A/V sychronization. It just wouldn't work.
Assuming that I have correctly interpreted your post, that the length of the movie is about 33 minutes and that no further info is required to solve your puzzle, this is my 2 cents guess:
In your paragraph beginning with "My solution" I suspect that that the AC-3 file might have been slowed down by 0.01% even though it "ends almost 2 seconds earlier" according to the DVD SP timeline. Alternatively, the video time code might have been misinterpreted, DF versus NDF, suggesting it being longer or shorter than it really is. This cannot happen in a real DVD decoder, since it does not rely the SMPTE time code at all.
In the BitVice log you can read exactly how many frames there were in your 24p movie. Divide that by 23.976 to get a reliable duration, in seconds, for the encoded file. Note that if you get a reminder (meaning extra split seconds) it represents 1 to 23 extra frames. Roughly, every extra 41.7 ms means an extra frame.
You don't want to go by the 29.97 frame rate, because then (due to the 2:3 pulldown) odd frames will last for 33,37ms but even frames last for 50.05ms.;-)
As you have noticed yourself, different tools like DVD SP, FCP, QT player et.c, may report different lengths of a MPEG-2 video file. But, given the frame count, from the BitVice log, you can always calculate the exact duration, +/- 10 microseconds, because it is controlled by a 90 kHz clock derived from the 27MHz crystal in the DVD player. This clock makes
3003 ticks for every NTSC/29.97fps frame,
3600 ticks for every PAL/25fps frame or
3750 ticks during a 24fps frame.
In comparison, due to its error prone and ambiguous nature, the SMPTE time code system is not even reliable enough to be frame accurate, unfortunately.
Roger Andersson / Innobits AB, makers of BitVice MPEG-2 encoder for Mac.

PLEASE HELP!! Compressor or DVDSP problem

I am trying to finish my DVD project and cannot get around this problem.
I bring my timeline in from FCP.
I add my MPEG2 and Dolby settings.
I compress it and import it into DVDSP.
The audio comes in fine, but I get the following error message for the M2V file:
"NTSC assets cannot be imported into PAL projects."
So when I go back to Compressor and change the format from Auto to PAL and then recompress and import to DVDSP. The clip comes in and I add it to my menu, but there is no preview of it on the menu symbol in the Graphical window. There is also no preview in the end point of the Menu Inspector and when I play the background in the Menu viewer, it plays the first second and then freezes (The audio continues to play).
This is happening to every clip I try to import. I have creted new timelines for the edits in FCP, new droplets in Compressor, new projects in DVDSP. I have shut down, restarted and even uninstalled all the FCP studio and reinstalled it! All to no avail.
My settings in Compressor are the following:
Description: Fits up to 150 minutes of video with Dolby Digital audio
at 192 Kbps or 120 minutes with AIFF audio on a DVD-5
File Extension: m2v
Estimated file size: 2.99 GB/hour of source
Type: MPEG-2 video elementary stream
Usage:SD DVD
Video Encoder
Format: M2V
Width: 720
Height: 576
Pixel aspect ratio: PAL CCIR 601 (16:9)
Crop: None
Padding: None
Frame rate: (100% of source)
Frame Controls: Automatically selected: Off
Start timecode from source
Aspect ratio: Automatic
Selected 16:9
Field dominance: Automatic:
Selected Progressive
Average data rate: 4.1 (Mbps)
1 Pass VBR enabled
Maximum data rate: 4.5 (Mbps)
High quality
Best motion estimation
Closed GOP Size: 1/2 second, Structure: IBBP
DVD Studio Pro meta-data enabled
Hope someone can help??
Thanks in advance

In answer to my own problem and for anyone else's future reference -
having flip4mac or Divx can corrupt the codec is compressor and corrupt your M2v files when you bring them into DVDSP.
You can go into your Quicktime Folder in your HD Library and remove the Flip4mac and/or Divx components (But keep them somewhere else if you intend to use these software applications again).

FCP to STP workflow problems

Hi all, having some real problems with a charitable recording I have done for the kids local theatrical group and wonder if anyone can help. Here is the issue:
Recorded kids play with single cam with onboard mic. Used Sony HDV A1 which has used track 1 for the audio from the shotgun mic and has put the audio from the onboard stereo? mics on track 2. Audio is as good as its going to be with the shotgun mic apart from the times when parents are clapping when it distorts.
Have the whole play in 2 long - 45mins - runs without any stop start.
I then put the sequence on the timeline and use the razor blade to split the various scenes (need to cut some of the play out). Now have the whole play with 2 audio tracks with cuts where I want them. Tricky bit comes next.
I need to loose the audio track 2 as it is too quiet and use the mono track 1 but try to do something with the distorted and too loud sections. I tried to send each cut scene to STP, make the adjustments, send it back etc., but have noticed (after waiting 24-hours for the render down to SD for the DVD) that each of the cut scenes seems to have been treated as a whole 90 minute section by STP with each one coming in at 1.2Gb! No wonder Compressor was taking a long time to do its stuff!
So, I take it there is a better way but any idea how I should do this? Working with the 45 minute clips on the timeline is nice and easy but how do I handle the audio? Just want the one track replicated across audio 1 and 2 plus for STP to just handle each section of the sequence rather than the whole thing.
Many thanks in advance,
Michael

Hi Jim,
Many thanks - this has helped a lot and I can now work on the audio with each clip and the resulting file size has gone down to a fraction of the original.
Any thoughts on the 2nd part of my question around audio tracks? As mentioned my Sony A1 seems to have captured two tracks and I need to discard one (the onboard mic). If I do this by simply deleting the 2nd Audio track in FCP when I open the track 1 in STP I can see it again. I guess by removing it from the FCP timeline does not result in removing the track from the referenced file that is sent to STP.
Tried converting tracks to mono in STP, saving and returning to FCP but then I get a 'reconnect missing media' error as the number of tracks has changed. When I reconnect it works fine (mono audio from both left and right) but the red \ through the file name audio symbol is still shown against the STP file name in the FCP browser. Suppose I can live with this but the red \ is probably telling me that I am doing something wrong!!
Thanks once again for the help so far,
Regards, Mike

Compressor 4 cluster problem

I have just set up my MacBook Pro and iMac with Compressor 4 as a cluster. Everything looks fine, but when I send the file out to render it fails with an error "error reading source.....no such file or directory". The file renders fine when I don't tick the "this computer plus" box.
I've followed the path Compressor is using and it points to the alias in the events folder which goes from the "original media" folder back to the actual location of the .mov files. Sure enough, in Finder, OS X tells me the alias has failed. However, when I try to fix it and browse to the original file, the "OK" button lights up but nothing happens when I click it. This seems to be the case for ALL .mov files in every project I have edited.
The weird thing is that FCP X can obviously see all of these files as everything works fine - I can edit and render with no problem. The issue only arises when I choose "this computer plus" or pick a cluster.
So it looks like the aliases do point to the correct files but cannot be accessed directly from the Finder or when Compressor 4 looks for them in cluster mode.
I hope that makes sense.
Hopefully someone has seen similar behaviour.
Thanks,
Jack.

Hi Studio X, not sure how to do that but I just worked it out. It was (as you seem to have worked out) the alias that was the clue.
I had put together these FCP X projects on a different USB drive. As I wanted to be more organised I copied over all the projects to a new 1TB USB drive which I'm only using for storage and editing. The good thing about this is that I can simply remove the drive and plug it into a different Mac and FCP X sees everything - events, projects, original files. However, there must be some reference to the name of the old USB drive as part of the alias which Compressor doesn't like when in cluster mode. I started a quick project on the new drive and Compressor 4 worked as a 3 machine cluster with no problems.
I can't quite understand why FCP X finds the original video at all if it is looking for the drive name and not just the path to the files, but it seems not to care.
Anyone have any ideas about this?

Finder crush when I select the exported file with FCP/Compressor

I exported an mpeg2 file from FCP using compressor, but when I tryed to select the output file in finder window the application crushed.
Somebody can help me? thank you a lot, carlo

How large was the original file? 7 gigs is an enormous m2v file. Anyway, it sounds like there's some kind of corruption going on. First repair permissions on your startup drive using the drive utility (in applications:utilities). It might be worthwhile to get DiskWarrior and run that on the drive. How much free space is there on your startup drive? If your drive is almost full, this could also cause problems.

Fider crush when I select the exported file with FCP/Compressor

I exported an mpeg2 file from FCP using compressor, but when I tryed to select the output file in finder window the application crushed.
Somebody can help me? thank you a lot, carlo

What icon shows the m2v file? Compressor one? The problem must be in default application for that file and not in the file itself.

FCP/Compressor

I have a project which seemed to be compressing well albeit very slowly (12 hours for an 86 minute video after using the 'export using compressor' command). The batch window says completed successfully yet no sign of a file in my destination. (there is the blank paper icon with the correct file name).
Now when i open Compressor with a view to dragging the clip into the batch window or when i go to file<import, the FCP file is grayed out which leads me to think there might be a problem with the FCP file rather than compressor.
Anybody out there ever had this problem?

The fact that you're seeing inconsistent behavior gets me wondering if you've got some other problems going on. Remember system problems can manifest themselves in all sorts of weird (and intermittent) ways. Do you have plenty of space available on all drives. Experts (whoever they are) recommend leaving a minimum of 10% free on all drives. Are you running the latest versions of OS and quicktime? Have you repaired diskpermissions? Do you run something like macjanitor (or keep your computer on 24/7)? Do you have Diskwarrior (highly recommended) and run it on your drives?
You could be having some sort of quicktime problem. You might try uninstalling and reinstalling the latest version of quicktime (do a search here for proper procedure).
Try creating a new user in your account preferences.
Some people recommend a complete wipe of the system disk and a reinstall of OS and apps regularly. I've never done it, but it does make sense.
Do you want to send me a 5 second clip with your various compressor settings and I'll see if I get the same results? If so, email me offline (my email address is in my profile) and I'll give you my Idisk address so you could upload it.

FCP/Compressor/MVP-2000 problem...

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