Final Cut Express problems galore

It's hard to know where to start with regard to problems relating to Final Cut Express. How about this: the 3 simple steps for importing a project into FCE from iMovie, as set forth in the 'getting started' book, result in nothing more than a message telling me that the File is of the wrong type. And that's that. Not much to go on there. Any suggestions? Most of the other problems with 'getting started' - and there are quite a few - have resulted in masses of 'rendering' issues, complete with hundreds of numerals, decimal points, and acronyms which are entirely meaningless to me. Having spent years on iMovie 06 generating lots of highly edited movies, and enjoying every minutes, I gotta say that FCE is somewhat beyond daunting. Is there, perhaps, a book out there that would be useful to the likes of me? Something that begins: 1. Sit down at computer. 2. Turn computer on. 3. Launch Final Cut Express, and so on?

Hello and welcome to the forum.
FCE is a totally different animal compared to iMovie. It does have a steep learning curve, but there are good resources available and good people here to help you learn it. Once you have the basics down, it gets a lot easier. Here's what I'd recommend for learning FCE:
Tom Wolsky's Final Cut Express 4 Editing Workshop book and Final Cut Express Made Easy training DVD
Izzy Video's Learn Final Cut Express 4 videos (online, free)

Similar Messages

  • Final Cut Express problems with timeline

    I have just purchased Fianl Cut Express 4 and have happily been editing my first movie but have come up against a problem
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    I haven't changed any settings or anything- has anyone any idea how I can sort this
    Thanks
    Mel B

    Hi Martin
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    My Apple is OSX 10. 68 ( Snow leopard) & Quicktime version 10- I update software regularly too
    My video files are all downloaded in FCE through Quick time player and were all working fine and downloading fine into the timeline - sequence 1 - I have rendered 12 mins perfectly fine until yesterday when I came to add more video/ audio clips and a box came up saying  'Operation not allowed'  - I did not download directly from my camera into FCE as the video has to be streamlined into Quicktime movie which I then usually download into Imovie
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    I thought that perhaps I had run out of memory so I deleted some old projects from my HD to free up some space but hasn't made any difference
    Hope you can help as I am very new to this editing programme
    Thanks
    mel

  • Final Cut Express Problem with Snow Leopard

    When I export my movie from Final Cut Express using Quicktime Conversion settings it is taking up to 10 times as long to export than prior to upgrading to Snow Leopard. I have FCE 4.0.1. Mac OS is 10.6.2. This is the only problem I am having but it's a huge one. I use an external hard drive as the scratch disk with FCE.
    Going back and doing a complete clean install of Snow Leopard is not an option. I have too many other programs that would have to be re-installed and no time for all that.
    I have removed and re-installed FCE as someone suggested. No difference. FCE works find until export time. I use it for short on location video clips and need fast turnaround.
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    I can edit the same video in iMovie and export in a fraction of the time but would prefer to use FCE since it has more options.
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    chuckz33 wrote:
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  • Final Cut Express problem after upgrading to Leopard

    I have a Final Cut Express project file (plus all supporting files) on an external hard drive. This project has run successfully on 2 computers, a PPC running OS 10.4 Tiger and an Intel MacBook Pro running OS 10.6 Snow Leopard. After upgrading the PPC computer to OS 10.5 Leopard, it will no longer open the FCE file on the external drive. Other FCE project files work OK. The error message is: File Error: Access Denied.
    Other files on the external drive open successfully (e.g. iMovie and iPhoto).
    The Get Info window of the external drive did not have the checkmark in front of Ignore Ownership on this Volume. Adding the checkmark makes no difference.
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    Message was edited by: Ralphjh

    Hi(Bonjour)!
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  • "Add Selection to Queue" (in Final Cut Express)  Problem

    I have just uploaded Final Cut Express 4 to my new iMac 2.4. When I try to add selected Clips (Add selection to Queue) to the project window it does not add the clips to the project (it has an exclamation mark next to the clip instead of the check mark). The same thing happened to me couple of years ago when I uploaded the same Final Cut Express to my old laptop. That time an apple genius bar guy changed something in the set up of Final Cut Express. It was only couple of clicks but I do not remember what change he has done to the setup. Could anyone help me please?
    Thank you,
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    Hi,
    I downloaded the FCE4 manual
    http://www.apple.com/support/finalcutexpress/
    and did a search for "exclamation". This was the first hit:
    "An exclamation point indicates that the source media
    for this clip may have been unmounted or moved
    since the clip was added to the Transfer Queue.
    Delete the clip and add it to the Transfer Queue again."
    So delete the clip +from the Queue+, not from your disk or media,
    and add it to the queue again.
    Good luck!
    Les

  • Lion et final cut express problem?

    Depuis que j'ai installé Lion, je ne peux plus utiliser la fonction importer des fichiers dans les chutiers.
    Le programme se ferme.
    Y-a-t-il une solution?
    Merci de votre aide.

    Get a free copy of MPEG Streamclip and convert everything to QuickTime using the DV codec.
    There's a link to the software and a tutorial, [here|http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2070861&tstart=0].
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  • Final Cut Express Problem...HELP PLEASE!

    I have installed Final Cut Express HD and when I try to open the app it gives me this messages:
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    Have you used a lot of music applications on your computer... Midi etc,
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  • Canopus 110 with Final Cut Express Problems.

    Alright, so I've had my converter for a couple years now and the 6 switches on the bottom used to be set just right. Now somehow they got all switched and I don't know how they're supposed to be. I can get a little tiny bit of the video. It looks terrible, barely visible, black and white and no audio. Right now 1 is the only switch on. 2-6 are off. The status light won't come on at all. I've used it a thousand times before so I know everything I have is compatible. I just need to get those switches right and don't know how to do it. Can anyone help me out?

    Hi Martin
    I am using Final  Cut Express 4 - I have had  ayear but have just got around to using it
    My Apple is OSX 10. 68 ( Snow leopard) & Quicktime version 10- I update software regularly too
    My video files are all downloaded in FCE through Quick time player and were all working fine and downloading fine into the timeline - sequence 1 - I have rendered 12 mins perfectly fine until yesterday when I came to add more video/ audio clips and a box came up saying  'Operation not allowed'  - I did not download directly from my camera into FCE as the video has to be streamlined into Quicktime movie which I then usually download into Imovie
    FCE is reading the video/ audio perfectly but has stopeed me suddenly adding clips to the sequence project
    I thought that perhaps I had run out of memory so I deleted some old projects from my HD to free up some space but hasn't made any difference
    Hope you can help as I am very new to this editing programme
    Thanks
    mel

  • Final Cut Express problems

    In Final Cut Express, appear this warnings: One or more frames were dropped during playback:
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    I don´t know how to do it can some one help me.
    I have this waning - Dropped Frames very frequently

    Al
    Thanks for answer, I now did what you told me and find the RT,(I dont know what is that for)
    I put in Safe RT and Dynamic as you told me .
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    I dont know to much about my mac. the only thing is that is Mack Book Pro,2.6GHz, Intel 2 Duo, Memory 4 GB.
    The clips I imported form the memory card.
    I have a sony HD AVCHD

  • Final Cut Express Problem

    I just closed my canvas in Final cut and didn't save the project. Is there any way to get my project back?

    There isn't anything there. The timeline is gone but all of the clips are there. Is there any way to get the timeline back? Thank you for helping me out w/ this.

  • Final Cut Express problem w/ Daisy-chained Firewire

    I have recently encountered an issue with attempting to capture video from a DV camera daisy-chained through drive on a 24" iMac.
    I have two drives attached to my 24" iMac - a La Cie d2 Extreme by FW800 and a generic FW400 drive. I would like to run my camera daisy-chained from either drive (so the drives themselves are plugged directly into the iMac). However, when I do this it tells me there is no video (all the VTR functions work though). If I unplug the FW400 disk from the iMac, daisy chain it off the FW800 drive, and attach the camera directly to the FW400 port, it captures nicely.
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    Any fix for this? If this is expected behavior (it shouldn't be -- even my old Linux box didn't have this issue), will I experience similar problems if I get a FW hub? If this is not expected behavior, is there a fix?
    I have another problem in that sometimes FCE stops tracking the timecode. What happens is that at some point, FCE stops capture and jogs the video saying it can't find the time code -- then it gives up and tells me it can't capture because there's no video. I can't even rewind and capture the chunk of tape I captured earlier. I have to quite FCE and try again.
    Again, iMovie doesn't have this problem (though, if I understand correctly, it doesn't deal with the timecodes like FCE does). Any fix for this one?

    I was just a bit confused with the capture bug. The same camera has been used dasiy-chained off the same physical drives under Windows and Linux without a problem -- not even a single dropped frame. iMovie can capture in the daisy-chained configuration, only FCE (3.5.1) has a problem (finds camera, VTR works, says there's no video).
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    I've been playing around a bit, and it appears that FCE only has timecode errors when capturing to external hard disks. If you shutdown the external disks and set the capture scratch to the internal HD it works fine.
    If you use any application other than FCE to capture from DV, the daisy-chain configuration works. Only FCE has an issue with this configuration.
    I don't think it has anything to do with the camera, either. It's not only an approved camera, but I've borrowed a couple of others of different brands and noted the same problems.

  • Made a 2 minute edit on Final Cut Express but at the 30 seconds (after I exported), there's a clip showing up that is not in my project, a clip i don't want in there, a glitch, how can I correct this problem? I don't want to start over again :(

    Basically, I have 2 problems:
    1) When I export it shows this clip that's not in my normal project and it ruins my project by having this clip in there; it's like a glitch. I tried to change the clip, and and still doesn't make the project normal again. Tried a new sequence and dragging the project into HD Mode and to no avail.
    My camera:
    HD: 1080p
    Settings: At Hd
    2)
    Also, it's only displaying black bars above my project, even after exporting at 720p. I just don't want this random clip in my project or the black bars. I'm using Final Cut Express. Does anyone have any possible idea what this could be? Any help woud be much appreciated! I'm clueless on this.
    IS ANYBODY OUT THERE?  : )

    1) Is it a video clip? Something you recognize?  To be clear, it's displaying at a point in your exported movie but doesn't appear at all in the sequence?
    2) What are your sequence settings?  Right-click your sequence and choose "Item Properties" to verify.

  • Problems with converted .MTS files in Final Cut Express 4

    I have a hard drive full of video shot and a consumer grade HD camera in the .MTS format.
    After struggling with finding an acceptable converter, I finally bought iSkysoft's Video Converter.
    I've been using the converter's output preset of "MP4 Format for Final Cut X" and "High definition MP4 format" settings and they both yield the same results.
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    I can take the footage and set i/o points in them but when I drag clips into the timeline, it often hangs up, locks up, FCE is unresponsive and it's even crashed.
    This is on a 2 x 3.2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Mac running 10.6.8.

    In order to use .mts video in Final Cut Express, you need to convert the video to QuickTime/Apple Intermediate Codec before importing into FCE.   .mts video files are typically H.264 video, highly compressed and is not something that FCE can edit.  Ditto for "MP4 format for FCPX or HighDef MP4 format".  If iSkysoft cannot convert to QT/AIC then I suggest Clipwrap
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  • G4 and Final Cut Express installation problems

    Thank you in advance for any help you can send my way. Any will be greatly appreciated.
    I have a PowerMac G4 (gray) tower. Recently, under the advice of a Mac tech, I installed a 200GB harddrive and a Sonnet's Tempo ATA133 PCI card so that I could successfully install and run FinalCut Express. Now not only do I have the previous installed but I also have 1GHz CPU Speed, 1GB of RAM, DVD/Superdrive, Mac OS 10.4.3 and more than enough memory for the installation.
    So now for the two strange parts:
    1) When trying to install Final Cut it says that I cannot install the software because I lack the hardware.
    2) And now I noticed in my System Profiler it says that my Machine Name is "Power Mac G3 (PCI graphics)" which I know it is not!
    Do I have the wrong PCI card? Did I install it wrong? Am I missing something?
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    Minimum Hardware Requirements
    • A Macintosh computer with a 500 MHz or faster PowerPC G4 or G5 processor (550 MHz for PowerBook G4, 450 MHz for dual-processor Power Mac G4 or G5) and an AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) graphics card compatible with Quartz Extreme
    • 384 MB of RAM (512 MB required for RT Extreme and Soundtrack)
    • For HDV: A Macintosh computer with a 1 GHz or faster PowerPC G4 or G5 processor and 1 GB of RAM
    • 1 GB of available disk space for application installation
    • 5 GB of available disk space for Soundtrack content
    • 9 GB of available disk space for LiveType content
    • DVD drive for software installation
    Minimum Software Requirements
    • Mac OS X 10.3.7 or later
    • QuickTime 6.5.2 or later
    Thanks again.

    HI Coyote,
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    So, you have several glitches. Limited drive space, limited memory, insufficient VRAM, and no DVD burn capability. You wouy also need a camcorder that is compatible with the iBookG4.
    I wish I had better news... here is a link to Apple's information for minimum requirements for iLife 05: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306338
    Carolyn

  • Problem with picture in burned DVD from Final Cut Express quicktime file

    I use Final Cut Express HD to edit. On more than one occasion, I have exported a movie using quicktime conversion and then used iDVD to burn it to a DVD. Every time I do this, the DVD's picture is shaky, especially when there is fast motion. I have tried burning with both the best performance and best quality settings in iDVD and it doesn't make a difference. The same problem occured when I tried to use a friend's computer to do the same thing. We both have the new 20" iMacs. I am not sure if it is Final Cut or iDVD that is the problem, but quicktime files that are not from Final Cut Express are not a problem. I have a feeling it is a setting somewhere that needs to be changed. Thanks!

    Greetings.
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