Apple Final Cut Express HD: Getting Started - Manual (Page 147)

Appendix D Solutions to Common Problems and Customer Support 147
• Another reason could be that you’re using Mac OS X version 10.3 and FileVault.
Dropped frames can occur if you’re capturing or playing back video to a FileVault
encrypted directory. FileVault can be turned off in the Accounts pane of System
Preferences. For more information, see Mac Help.
• The hard disk drive you’re capturing to is inadequate for capturing video. This could
be caused by slow hard disks, incompatible drivers, or configuration issues. For more
information, see Final Cut Express Help, Chapter 2, “Setting Up Your System.”
• Another source of dropped frames on capture or playback may be fragmented hard
disks. In general, it’s preferable to capture to disks that are specifically reserved for
video. To avoid fragmentation, you should avoid filling up your disks with numerous
files unrelated to the projects you’re working on.
If you’re editing a long project where some clips are captured, others are deleted,
and then more are captured, and so on, even the cleanest storage volume may
become fragmented. You can diagnose this with a hard disk utility. Should your
capture disks be seriously fragmented to the point of impeding performance, you
have three options:
• Quit Final Cut Express HD, back up your project file, and delete all the clips from
the affected volumes. (Delete only media that can be recaptured; do not delete
graphics, audio, or project files.) Upon reopening your Final Cut Express HD project,
you will find that all of your video clips are now offline. Simply recapture them and
performance should improve.
• Copy all the files from the fragmented volume to a blank volume with enough
space. Copying files defragments them on the volume to which they are copied.
Then delete the files from the original, fragmented volume; now you’re ready to
capture more clips to it. Upon reopening your project, Final Cut Express HD will
automatically begin the process of reconnecting your media.
• A more time-intensive solution is to back up your project file, and then use disk-
defragmenting software to defragment your volume.
• Another potential cause of dropped frames during output is having too many
sequences open simultaneously in the Timeline. Especially with complex sequences
with numerous edits, having more than one sequence open at the same time can
affect playback performance. To resolve this issue, close all sequences except the one
you want to output to video.
• If you are playing sequences with numerous short edits, you may also have dropped
frames. Projects with a large number of short edits (for example, an experimental video
made up of several hundred ten-frame clips) can sometimes overwhelm a hard disk’s
ability to jump from one clip to another. In this case, you can try to split a single long
sequence into multiple short sequences, outputting them to tape one at a time.