Troubleshooting
Chapter 3, "Presets and Preferences." You can't establish a device control connection with your camcorder or deck. Make sure the FireWire cable connecting your computer and DV camcorder is connected properly. Verify that the camcorder is set to VCR mode. If your device has a Local/Remote switch, be sure it's set to Remote. Turn the device off and back on and then restart Final Cut Express.
You can't control certain functions of your camcorder or deck. Make sure the FireWire cable connecting your computer and DV camcorder is connected properly. If you are using a device with FireWire, try switching the device control protocol from Apple FireWire to FireWire Basic. If your device has a Local/Remote switch, make sure it's switched to Remote.
You see a "Missing scratch disk" warning. Make sure your scratch disks are powered up and mounted properly. You should see your disks on the Finder Desktop. Make sure your designated Capture Scratch folder is in its proper location. If you are sharing Final Cut Express with other users on a multiuser system, make sure you are logged in as the current userFCE creates a separate set of preference settings for each user.
You don't hear audio on your computer's speakers when playing video from your camcorder or deck. Make sure your audio cables are connected properly. When you enable your external video output to monitor video externally (by choosing Apple FireWire from the View menu), your audio and video are routed to your external monitor or video device, and your computer's speakers do not receive any audio. Make sure your external monitor and speakers are on and that the volume is turned up. To disable external video output, choose View > Video Out and select Canvas Playback or Digital Cinema Desktop Preview.
Video is not visible on an external NTSC or PAL monitor. Make sure your cables are connected properly and that your monitor is on. Verify that the camcorder is set to VCR mode. Confirm that external video output is enabled by choosing View > Video Out > Refresh Video Devices to re-scan all your input/output busses. Then choose View > Video Out and make sure the Apple FireWire option is checked. Make sure the Capture window is closed.
You notice dropped frames on your NTSC or PAL monitor during DV playback from the Timeline. Like the common cold, dropped frames are frequently a symptom of an overworked system. Refer to Appendix A, "Solutions to Common Problems and Customer Support," in Apple's Final Cut Express Help PDF for a comprehensive list of possible causes of dropped frames. Here are a few easy things to try first: In the Canvas, choose Fit to Window from the View pop-up menu to ensure that the image area displays the entire frame. Reduce the Canvas or Viewer view size to 50 percent. Disable Show as Square Pixels in the Zoom pop-up menu. Set Audio Quality Playback to Low Quality and reduce the number of Real-Time Audio Mixing tracks specified on the General tab in the User Preferences window. Turn off AppleTalk and file sharing. Make sure your media drives are fast enough to feed media files to FCE and that the drives have not become so fragmented that their performance is impaired.
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