Can't open HD project in FCP!

[Jeff Ray]

So I'm editing this short film and cut together about 3:30 minutes worth of footage last night. I'm working with footage that I have been importing off an external harddrive and I have my capture scratch on a second external harddrive.

Everything was going fine until I closed the project out for the night and now I can't open it up. It will start to open or "load" the project until it gets to about 50% and then it just shuts down and a window comes up saying "Final Cut Pro has quit unexpectedly". Also, when I click to open the project, my computer gets REAL loud. You can hear the fans inside the computer kick into overdrive.

Any suggestions?

I'm working with a 1.6 GHz PowerPC G5 with 512 MB of memory.

[ericcosh]

Jeff, it could be several things. 512 of memory is really short.

Here are a few suggestions. First, trash your preferences. You mentioned that you cut together 3:30 worth of footage. Hopefully you're talking 3minutes 30 seconds, right?

Tell us what you have your settings on in FCP (av settings).

I'm just on my way out and won't be back until later tomorrow. Hopefully if what I suggested didn't work, someone else will be able to walk you through.

eric

[ericcosh]

Jeff, here is the best site that I'm aware of for problems in FCP.

The guy is Ken Stone. He is great!
http://www.kenstone.net/cgi/discussions/general.cgi

[cinemakinoeye]

[...] can't open it up. It will start to open or "load" the project until it gets to about 50% and then it just shuts down and a window comes up saying "Final Cut Pro has quit unexpectedly" [...] 512 MB of memory.
I've had this happen to me twice over the past three years with FCP (but not with the fan thing) and here are my troubleshooting suggestions. #1 is the most likely solution, it's what has fixed the problem for me both times, however, I've had other issues that were the result of damaged disk leading to currupted render files.

(1) delete FCP preferences (see http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93832 for step-by-step instructions)

If that does not resolve the problem, the next step would be

(2) run "Repair Disk" within Disk Utility (found in the Applications/Utilities folder) on the volume that has the media and render files as well as the start-up volume. Running Repair Disk on the Start-Up volume requires booting from another disk or the installation disk.

If that does not resolve the problem, the next step would be

(3) Delete all render and cache files, the location of these are determined by your FCP preferences, in a folder called Final Cut Pro Documents (search for this folder name with Finder or Spotlight) and make sure to only delete Cache and Render files, leave your files in Capture Scratch alone (these are the actual media files).

If that does not resolve the problem, and you have a backup copy of your project file, try launching that, and if that does not work, or you don't have a backup copy of the project file, then as a last resort, try

(4) Reinstall Final Cut Pro.

512MB is really lean for FCP, at least 1GB is recommended (more is not really needed, FCP runs fine on a 1GB PowerMac).

Good luck, and let us know what happens...

[BenB]

I can tell you right now, as an FCP cert'd trainer, FCP isn't going to be reliable on only 512MB of RAM. Get a minmum of 1 Gig, 2 Gigs if you're working with DVCPRO-HD material. Remember, this is HD footage. Apple even says on their site, "1GB of RAM for HD features (2GB recommended)" And with your CPU speed, don't expect a lot of RT editing HD footage. You can do it, but you're CPU is minimal requirement for HD.

Basically, get more RAM, PERIOD. That'll fix your problem. I also hope you're editing to a secondary internal hard drive that's fast enough.

As for trahsing FCP prefs, get "FCP Rescue 5". Any good FCP editor should have it!