Visual QuickStart Guide [Electronic resources] : Final Cut Express HD for Mac OS X

Troubleshooting Capture Problems

If you experience problems during video capture, you may see an error message. Final Cut Express monitors the state of controlled devices and reports an error if the problem is due to a camcorder or deck malfunction. Cancel the operation before proceeding and consult your camcorder or deck manual for troubleshooting information. Here are some basic troubleshooting tips that may help you get back on the road.

If a "No Communication" message appears in the Deck Status area of the Capture window (Figure 5.36):

If you experience problems controlling your camcorder or deck:

• If your deck has a Local/Remote switch, be sure it's set to Remote.

• If you're using the Apple FireWire protocol, try Apple FireWire Basic instead. Switch to an Easy Setup that includes FireWire Basic (Figure 5.37 ).

  Figure 5.37. If Apple FireWire doesn't provide reliable device control, switch to the Apple FireWire Basic protocol by switching to an Easy Setup that uses FireWire Basic.

• Check Apple's Final Cut Pro web site to download Apple's Final Cut Express Device Qualification PDF. This document lists all qualified cameras and their recommended device control settings (

  Figure 5.38. Check Apple's Final Cut Express web site to download the latest Final Cut Express Device Qualification PDF.

  [View full size image]

If you encounter a "Bus Error" message when you try to capture:

• Something went wrong when your captured data crossed the bus, the data delivery interface between your computer and the outside world. Bus errors can be caused by a number of things, but you can try making sure that your cables are hooked up completely and that any hardware cards in your computer are seated properly.

If you encounter a "Time Code Break" error message when you try to capture:

• FCE does offer automatic capture across timecode breaks, but if your tape's timecode track contains a lot of breaks, reliable recapture becomes more difficult. Is there anything you can do to salvage a tape with timecode breaks? Certainly. You can dub the entire tape onto a tape with continuous timecode and start your logging and capturing process with the dubbed copy.

If your captured audio and video play back out of sync:

• The video displayed in the Viewer and the Canvas will not appear to play back in sync if you are monitoring your audio through external speakers connected to your camcorder or deck. The audio from the external speakers will be synchronized with video displayed on the video monitor.

• The audio sample rate of your original source tape must match the audio sample rate of your capture settings. Check the source tape's audio sample rate against your capture settings.

• Your FCE system may be dropping frames during capture or playback. See "Is Your System Capture-Ready?" earlier in this chapter for a list of possible causes for dropped frames.