Problems with Soundsticks & FCE

I returned to an editing job recently and found that the audio would not play through the Harman Kardon Sound Sticks. Most other things work fine with them - Quicktime movies played direct (even the same ones I have in the FCE project), iMovie HD, iDVD, Safari and so on. But not Final Cut Express (or Garageband for that matter). The audio can be heard through the PowerMac G5 internal speaker (not loud and not really any good for editing), but will not play through the Soundsticks.
Have done the usual, checking the Sound System Preferences, unplugging / replugging the USB connections, zapping the PRAM etc. I would expect this to be a binary problem - i.e. they just work or they don't, with this it's not so simple. The odd thing is that presumably Safari, iMovie HD & iDVD are all using Quicktime to access and play the sound. So why not FCE?
Any ideas?

Sorted. Ditched the FCE prefs & that cured it.

Similar Messages

FCE problem with Snow Leopard

I upgraded when it came out and have been have trouble ever since. I did not do the clean install, which would more than likely fix the problem but I don't want to resort to that just yet because I've got a few programs which I don't have the install disks anymore, and I've also got a big project in the works (feature film) and I don't want to risk losing anything... I know, I shouldn't have even upgraded in the middle of such a big project.
The problem is that FCE freezes up ALOT. It makes it very difficult to get a decent editing session going. It does the thing where the audio keeps going but the video freezes, and I can't stop it til it stops on its own. When I try to stop it I just get the color wheel. Sometimes it helps to restart FCE, or restart the computer but sometimes it doesn't.
I reinstalled Snow Leopard 3 days ago and it first it seemed to take care of the problem but now its at it again. I've got a brother with an identical computer (editing the same feature with me) who also upgraded from the same disc (family package) and he hasn't had a single problem.
I've talked to Apple and they recommend reinstalling FCE, then doing the clean install as a last resort. Is there anything else I can try first before going to the extreme measures? Maybe adjust my render or playback settings?
Scott

Hi(Bonjour)!
Reinstalling FCE is a simple way to solve a such problem, but trashing preferences files worth a try:
http://www.fcpbook.com/Misc1.html
*You have to keep your project file, capture scratch, render folder* etc.
Look at this link about FCE uninstall:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TA38198?viewlocale=en_US
Ignore files for Soundtrack and livetype.
Michel Boissonneault

Problems with FCE viewing on TV monito

I've used an ADVC-300 converter for several years to monitor and edit my FCE canvas. But today I am not getting real movement on the TV monitor. Just bumpy stills as I click the mouse. I've checked all cables and everything is the same. So what's happening and how do I resolve the problem?

Hi
Free space on Start-Up (Mac OS) Hard Disk. How Much ?
Else read.
NO CAMERA or A/D-box
Cable
• Are You sure that You are using the FireWire Cable - USB-Cable will not work for miniDV tape Cameras
FireWire - Sure not using the accompany USB-Cable but bought a 4-pin to 6-pin (or 9-pin) FW one ?
• Test another FW-Cable very often the problem maker.
Camera
• Test Your Camera on another Mac so that DV-in still works OK
• Toggle in iMovie pref. Play-back via Camera (on <-> off some times)
• Some Cameras has a Menu where You must select DV-out to get it to work
• Camera connected to "charger" (mains adaptor) - not just on battery
• Camera set in Playback mode - NOT Recording mode
Does Your Camera work on another Mac ?
Sorry to say it is to easy to turn the 6-pin end of the FW-cable 180 deg wrong.
This is lethal to the A/D-chip in the Camera = needs an expensive repair.
(Hard to find out - else than import/export to another Mac ceased to work
everything else is OK e.g. recording and playback to TV)
A/D-box
• Is the dip-switches set right ?
• Set to same standard as recorded/editing e.g. NTSC 29.97fps or PAL 25fps
• Try resetting it
Connections
• Daisy Chaining most often doesn’t work (some unique cases - it’s the only way that work (some Canon Cameras ?))
Try to avoid connecting Camera <--> external HD <--> Mac but import directly to the Mac then move
the Movie project to dedicated external hard disk.
• FireWire-port - Can be re-setted by - Turn off Mac and disconnecting Mac from Mains/Power for 20-30 minutes
External device’s (hard disk’s)
• Should be FireWire as USB/USB2 performs badly and so does Airport or Net-work connected ones too.
• MUST BE - Mac OS Extended formatted - UNIX/DOS/FAT32/Mac OS Exchange - DO NOT WORK for video due to 4Gb barrier.
Mac
• Free space on internal (start-up) hard disk ? Please specify the amount of free space.
(Other hard disks don't count)
I go for a minimum of 25Gb free space for 4x3 SD Video - and my guess is 5 times more for 16x9 HD ones
after material is imported and edited.
• Does Your Mac have a FireWire Port
• White MacBooks - don't
• MacBook-Air - don't
if not then a few Mac’s has a PCM-CIA slot and there are FW-Cards that makes a FW-port this way
else - NO SOLUTION
Only option as I get it is either
• Use another Mac to Capture material (to an external USB2 - Mac OS Extended formatted hard disk - or -
• Change to another Camera that can be used with Your Mac (no there are no miniDV tape Cameras that can)
• If Your Mac-Book has a PCM-CIA Card place - then there are FW-port-Cards and then
You can import via this - but I've not seen this on more modern Macs. My PowerBook G4
has one and this FW-Card-port works greatly.
SoftWare
• Delete iMovie pref. file may help sometimes. I rather start a new account, log into this and have a re-try.
• Any strange Plug-ins into QuickTime as Perian etc ? Remove and try again.
• FileVault is off ? (hopefully)
• Screen Saver - OFF
• Energy Saver - OFF
Using WHAT versions ? .
• Mac OS - X.5.4 ?
• QuickTime version ? (This is the heart in both iMovie and FinalCut)
• iMovie’08 (7.1.?), 09 or 11 ?
• iMovie HD 6 (6.0.4/3) ?
Other ways to import Your miniDV tape
• Use another Camera. There where tape play-back stations from SONY
but they costed about 2-4 times a normal miniDV Camera.
• If Your Camera works on another Mac. Make an iMovie movie project here and move it
over to Your Mac via an external hard disk.
(HAS TO BE Mac OS Extended formatted - USB/DOS/FAT32/Mac OS Exchange WILL NOT DO)
(Should be a FireWire one - USB/USB2 performs badly)
from LKN 1935.
Hi Bengt W, I tried it all, but nothing worked. Your answer has been helpful insofar as all the different trials led to the conclusion that there was something wrong with my iMovie software. I therefore threw everything away and reinstalled iMovie from the HD. After that the exportation of DV videos (there has not been any problem with HDV videos) to my Sony camcorders worked properly as it did before. Thank you. LKN 1935
from Karsten.
in addition to Bengt's excellent '9 yards of advice' ..
camera set to 'Play' , not rec/computer/etc.?
camera not on battery, but power-line?
did your Mac 'recognize' this camera before...?
a technical check.
connect camera, on, playback, fw-connected...
click on the Blue Apple, upper left of your screen ..
choose 'About . . / More . .
under Firewire.. what do you read . . ?
More
• FileVault - Secure that it’s turned off
• Network storage - DOESN’T WORK
• Where did You store/capture/import Your project ?
External USB hard disk = Bad Choice / FireWire = Good
If so it has to be Mac OS Extended formatted
----> UNIX/DOS/FAT32/Mac OS Exchange is NOT Working for VIDEO !
mbolander
Thanks for all your suggestions. What I learned is that I had a software problem. I had something called "Nikon Transfer" on my Mac that was recognizing my Canon camcorder as a still camera and was preventing iMovie from working properly. After un-installing Nikon Transfer and doing a reboot, everything worked great.
I never liked the Nikon Transfer software anyway--I guess I'll get a cheap card reader and use that to transfer photos in the future.
No Camera or bad import
• USB hard disk
• Network storage
• File Vault is on
jiggaman15dg wrote
if you have adobe cs3 or 4 and have the adobe bridge on close that
or no firewire will work
see if that helps
DJ1249 wrote
The problem was the external backup hard drive that is connected, you need to disconnect the external drive before the mac can see the video camera.
MaryBoog wrote
Maybe your problems is solved in the meantime, but for all others this might help as I had the same problem, also have the Sony HDR-HC7, but the 7e (Europe, PAL). I found this link today and it works perfectly
//support.sony-europe.com/tutorials/dime/videotransfer/vtransfer.aspx site=odw_en_GB&sec=DVH&m=HDR-HC7E
What I exactly did.- put camera in play mode - open guide - choose connection guide - choose comp./printer (where to transfer movie to) - select connection.- i-link (on my camera) but equal to firewire - OK - choose HDV - choose NO for conversion of i.link.
Settings are shown then (VCR HDV/DV.- HDV and i.link-conv..- OFF), press OK, OK, END.
Switch camera off. Connect firewire cable to camera & Mac. Switch camera on, in play/edit mode.
Open i-movie, choose import from camera. On screen below the camera connection is shown.- DV (HDV). Now you can import, automatically or manually.
This worked perfectly for me. Took me 2 days to find out. Could not find any clear thread explaining what I had to do on the camera and the manual was not clear either.
Yours Bengt W

Any known problems with FCE-HD and "Capture Now" or edits

I've been working with FCE for almost two years now. I've had the same problem ever since-- The SPINNING PINWHEEL OF DEATH when: playing back edited video from the timeline and the playhead passes over various edit points, usually cuts. Is it a CAPTURE problem, or camcorder RECORD problem, or something else? I use a SONY DCR-TRV38 with firewire; FCE-HD;
Any thoughts on why I get this problem so often, and what I can do to avoid it in the future? should I just switch to Avid or Premier??
Thanks for any help...
Shawn

Hi Shawn.
I don't think there is a "known problem".
I assume your HDs are not more than 75% full or fragmented?
If you have not already done them, try the old chestnuts of Trashing the Preferences and Re-installing FCE.
1. Make sure you trash all 3 of the Preference Files as detailed in this article:-
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93690
2. If that does not work then re-install FCE but make sure you delete all the old FCE files first as shown in this link:-
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301182
Good luck.
Ian.
PS. When you write in with a problem, remember to give all possible APPROPRIATE details eg.
Computer model and external Hard Drive.
Operating System.
FCE version.
Camera type.
Did the problem suddenly occur or has it NEVER worked?
Have you recently loaded new Software or Upgraded ANY programs, Operating Systems etc.
Have you moved or altered your source files?
Have you captured the clips from a DV camera or an A/D Converter etc.?
Is it Standard or High Definition Video?
What type of files are you using?
Also include details of exactly what you were doing before the problem occurred.
Is your film hours long and filled with numerous transitions and effects etc.?
THIS IS A GENERAL LIST. SOME OF THEM WILL NOT APPLY TO YOU.

Transfer video problems with FCE and Quicktime 7.6?

Are there any problems tranferring video with the new Quicktime (7.6)? I stopped downloaded upgrades to Quicktime last year when I could only transfer 5 mins of video at a time with Quicktime 7.3 (or 7.1.3).
Apple makes these upgrades so now I can't use iTunes or new Pages without upgrading Quicktime. However, i've heard there are still problems with digital video transfers etc.

Just for your info: I bought FCE HD3 in 2006, I had Quicktime 7. But when Quicktime 7.1.3 came out a year or so later - that's when I had to go back to using QT 7. Which meant I had to spend several days rebooting the entire system back to what it was when I bought it.
That cost me a lot more than what the Xpress was worth.
But I really do appreciate your advice. It saves me doing the same again. My complaint is, why can't Apple answer these questions themselves? My dealer could not even get an answer.

Problem with image on timeline

Hi,
This problem happened out of nowhere. I have been working with FCE for a few months now. All the sudden, when I put the image on the timeline, it automatically zooms every image to the upper left hand side.
I have already tried the button "always scale clips to sequence size" in the user preferences, as I was told to do. But didn't help.
Actually I can see the image in the viewer, and if I export what I edited, it is exported in the normal size. The problem is just in the timeline, but with that I cannot work, because I hardly see the image.
Any suggestions on what I should do?
thanks a lot...

Hi Tom,
let me tell you what happened. I am not able to capture videos from a DV Camera, using the firewire. I was told that it may be a problem with the iMac firewire connection. I haven't been able to take it to technical support yet and I had to edit the images from a Canon VIXIA HV30 (HD CMOS) I asked a friend that works with Avid on a PC to capture the images for me on a DVD. I took the DVD and using the Cinematize, imported it to FCE. (I had done the same thing with images from a regular mini-DV camera and it had worked... I don’t know what happened to get to the size of a web video...)
The item properties from those clips are the ones I sent you earlier:
Type - clip
Creator - Quick Time Player Launcher
Size - 1.3 GB
Vid Rate - 29.97 fps
frame size - 352 X 198
Compressor - DV/DVCPRO - NTSC
Data rate - 3.6 MB/sec
Pixel aspect - square
The item properties for the sequence are the following:
Size - 294.6 MB
Vid rate - 29.97 fps
Frame size - 352 X 198
Compressor DV/DVCPRO - NTSC
Data rate - 3.6 MB/sec
Pixel aspect - square
I will try converting from the MPEG Streamclip, as you told me, but should I also change the properties in the sequence and how would I do that? I would like to work with the best quality possible, so if the option is to leave the image small with black around, that’s what I will do. But since the original image comes from a HD camera, I should be able, even using the DVD strategy, go get a better quality image, shouldn’t I?
Sorry for bothering you, and thank you very, very much for your help. I really appreciate it...
Best regards,
Luciana

I've had a problem with previewing rendered video files

Hey guys, I'm Justin,
thanks in advance.
so when I render video files in fce, the video usually renders fine, but on the canvas the video just replays the first and last frame of the rendered video, making it look like a jumbled mess. but, when I export it as a quicktime file it runs just fine, I think the problem is in my canvas and I don't know how to fix it.
Also I recently upgraded my system from 2gb of ram to 4gb of ram, can fce recognise this or do I need to do something fancy
Thank you so much,
Justin

Hello, Justin, and welcome to the forum.
Where is the video coming from and how are you getting it into FCE? Almost always, your best bet is to convert your media into a format with which FCE works natively before you bring it into the program. If you do that, rendering and lots of other issues are minimized.

Connexion problem with Panasonic DV-PAL camcorder

Hi,
I have a problem to have FCE HD 3.5.1 or iMovie 5 recognize my camcorder since I updated to MacOS X 10.4.11 from 10.4.10. At the startup of FCE the message "cannot find the Apple FireWire PAL (720x576) driver" appears and the application does not recognize the camcorder. iMovie cannot recognize it either.
I have read on the forum that some people already had this kind of problem with the firewire when they switched to 10.4.11. Do you know how to solve it ? May it work better with Leopard?
Thanks for your answers, Christophe

I don't have another firewire device connected to the computer. From the history of updates I can see that the first one for QT was an upgrade to version 7.0.3 in November 2005 (together with an upgrade to OS X 10.4.3), but I can't remember whether it was an upgrade from QT 6 or 7. The update of OS X was from 10.4.0 because it was upgrading from the original PowerBook G4 CD install.
When you say reinstall QT, do you mean removing it and reinstalling it completely?

Could not complete the last command : problem with toast 10

Hi, I am trying to burn blu ray content with Toast 10 Pro (blu-ray content burned to DVD). I have created the content (Quick Time movie) with FCP 7 (into an MOV file). And then added it to Toast 10. Then I tried to create disk image. It gave me this error:
could not complete the last command because there is a problem with the source material: Error code - 18771.
I tried to directly burn DVD also, and also not successful. Anybody has the same error and how to solve it?
Thanks a lot, and happy new year.

I posted some more experiences with using TOAST on Roxio forum. I thought I'd share them here.
1. 98 video clip limit. I have been helping my parents and some friends to produce un-edited videos after their vacations, etc. And I quickly ran into this 98 video clip limit, to the point I had to produce multiple DVDs for them.
2. Error 18771 issue. This happens if the individual video clips are too long. If I edit the video using FCP or FCE, and produce, say, half an hour of video, put it into a MOV file. Then add it into Toast. It will encounter this issue. So, the way I dealt with it, was to produce shorter video clips. So far it has been working out for me.
3. Between video clips, I am not sure how to do transition. So far, between clips, there is this annoying pause. I would rather, either it just immediately jump to the next clip. Or, out of my own choice, insert some kind of transition. Not sure how to do that. If fellow toast users can point me in the right direction, that will be certainly appreciate it.
4. I have not been able to get the Chapter Markers from FCP to effectively show up and be reflected in Toast as it defines the menus and chapters. Again, this may be because of my own lack of knowledge. If somebody can give me the pointer to do it, again, very much obliged.
Message was edited by: seantshen

Problems with imported mono audio with stereo HD video FCE4

This is with Final Cut Express 4.
So here is what I am doing: I am recording video of my flight lessons inside my airplane with a mounted Panasonic HDC-TM90 HD camera. Since it is noisy inside the plane, I am using an Olympus VN-4100PC digital voice recorder to pick up the Air Traffic Control and Intercom within the airplane (between me and my instructor) which is 22 KHZ mono. I am doing this because I want the sound of the airplane and also the communication so everything works together and you get the best of both worlds (otherwise you would hear one or the other and that's pretty boring). Ok, enough with the intro.
Here is what I am having problems with -- when I get the video, stereo audio with the video and the mono audio all lined up in FCE in my timeline, it starts to get out of sync about 10 minutes or so into the film. And it gets worse as the film goes on. This is driving me nuts and I have NO idea out to fix it.
The only thing I can think of is that my Digital Voice Recorder is recording at a slightly faster speed than the camera's audio and this is why it gets out of whack.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to fix this? Or at least give me an explanation why it is happening?
Thanks for any help!!

Thanks for the reply. I did this and it still doesn't seem to be matching up properly. Tell me if maybe I missed something.
1. I took the original .WAV file from my Digital Recorder and imported it into iTunes and then converted it into an .AIFF.
2. I took the .AIFF file and imported it into MPEG Streamclip and exported it as another .AIFF file that was Stereo and 48kHz.
Is there a step I missed?

Final Cut Express malfunctions completely with older FCE projects

Hello,
I have a fairly major problem with FCE (computer and software specs below). About 3 years ago I edited a documentary in 14 separate FCE projects and saved them with many backups.   I returned to editing this recently and was disturbed to see that none of the old projects will load properly and I tried a number of the back-up copies. Here's a rundown of what happens --
- Load a project in FCE, first a warning message "The file format of this project is from an earlier version. Would you like to update this project file?" The only way to proceed is by choosing "Yes". There is a further warning about saving all of your old projects if you want to retain the 'older' version formats.
- At this point there are a number of things that malfunction:
1) FCE has lost the connection to the source files.   This should not be an issue b/c I did not move or touch any source files.
2) Some projects are completely missing the timeline that was built (kind of important) as well as the canvas.
3) It appears that when I attempt to reconnect projects to source files the edit points have changed or the project is using the wrong source file.
I'm guessing one possibility is that in the 3 years since I created the original projects I may have allowed Apple to do an update to FCE which caused FCE to become corrupted . . . I can't imagine an update would cause 3 year old versions of projects to fail so spectacularly though.
In the last couple of months I have created and completed a couple of video projects with FCE without any problems.
If you have knowledge about this particular problem, suggestions for solutions or other forums I would be most grateful. I think it's possible that an uninstall and reinstall might do the trick, please feel free to weigh in on if/how this should be done so that I don't make things any worse.
Thank you!
-Rob
Specs:
Hardware: iMac 10.5.8, 2.4 GHz, 4 GB RAM -- Original specs
Software:   Final Cut Express -- Original CD: 4.0 (Purchased from Apple) Current Version is: 4.0.1

Hi Al,
Thanks for writing and the suggestions, I appreciate it.   I've got a question and some comments about what I've already tried:
When you say 'Trash the FCE Preferences', should I go to the Preferences panel in FCE and reset everything or are you recommending something more direct like going into the filesystem and completely erasing a FCE Preferences file or folder?
Permissions for all the files are the same as before. Source files were always read/write for 'user', and read-only for 'group' and 'others'.
All projects were saved in .FCE format so I can't open them in QuickTime. I've noted that QT has likely changed so I may experiment with that a little bit.
> 1. Have you moved any files with the Finder that FCE uses or changed names?
I didn't move any source files or anything related to the projects. I was very meticulous about this as I had to leave the project for some time and wanted to make sure everything was in place so I could re-commence without inconvenience.
I have opened an old project and done a 'Save As' and re-opened. The only problem is that the problems still remain -- disconnected source files, misplaced edit points -- all the problems that I had before are still there and the project is essentially unusable.
I may have a follow-up question in another day or so, hopefully I can get things working. I'll need a little time to try all of the options . . . I'm walking on eggshells with this one as I don't want to lose anything or make things worse than they are.
Thanks again for your thoughts.
Best Regards,
Rob

Quality problem exporting from FCE

Hi,
i have a quality problem exporting from FCE. I have finalized a 30 minute movie and want to send it to friends on DVD or CD-ROM. when i use "export as quicktime movie" the file has 6.5 GB and won't fit on a DVD-ROM. when i use "export with quicktime conversion" and choose quicktime movie with H.264 compression and highest quality the movie goes down to 4.2GB. Now it would fit on a DVD-ROM, but the quality is not good. The picture looks blurred and i see some type of interlace-effect.
which type of export format do i have to choose to avoid the interlace and blurred pictures? is there a magic format that does not cost that much quality and reduces the movie by 30-40%? or would a video DVD work better? how do i create a DVD? with iDVD?
thanks for your help!

or would a video DVD work better? how do i create a DVD? with iDVD?
That's what Id do.
Export as QuickTime Movie (reference file is OK) and drop the export to iDVD.
You will get 1 hour of FCE Timeline on a single sided disc using Best Performance (iDVD setting).
Two hours using Best Quality (iDVD setting)
Al

I have a problem with the keyboar.when i push the key enter it doens't work

i have a problem with the keyboar.when i push the key enter it doens't work

Final Cut Express was discontinued about 18 months ago, before the release of Lion (10.7). It is no longer a supported product and was never supported on Lion, nor on Mountain Lion.
While some FCE users have had success running FCE on Lion, many have reported problems including problems with chroma keying. I do not recall any solution to the chroma keying problem, but you might try searching this Forum to see what others have discovered or tried.
Final Cut Pro X is the app supported on Lion & Mountain Lion, and the future direction Apple has taken. Since your computer lab has already moved to Lion (10.7.5) and presumably will move to Mountain Lion in the future, you should begin the process of moving to Final Cut Pro X. I appreciate there are implications for cost, training, inconvenience and re-doing lesson plans. But technology moves on and at some point we need to move with it too.

USB portable ext. HD for use with MBP & FCE????

I've seen a 120 GB USB portable external Seagate HD for $117. Would this be usable as a scratch disk for use with my MBP 2.0 and final cut express HD 3.5. Are there problems with using USB externals? FW external hd's seem to be a good deal more expensive.
This may belong in the FCE forum but I thought someone here that uses an MBP might have specific experience with it.
Thanks.
Maurice

I use a Seagate 160GB 2.5" 5400 external as mirror/scratch partitions and it works OK however, if I'm capturing at high res I usually write to the internal drive (that's running at 7200) to avoid any frame loss ...

Audio Problems with Final Cut Express

I exported a video to wmv format and when I play it back I have a problem with the audio at the end. At the end the sound seems to go into a loop and the the last words are repeated 3 times with a static sound. It plays fine on my MAC the problem only happens on a PC. The audio file was imported as a wma.

FCE does not export WMV without third party support. You should contact whoever produced the WMV export module.

Problems with Soundsticks & FCE

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