Playback problem with 17" g4 Powerbook anf FCP 5

ksteiger

Well-known member
I am using a new 17" g4 Powerbook (1.67ghz, 120 gig drive, 2 gigs ram) with all media files on a separate 300 gig Seagate FW800 drive. I am working in 720 30PN on FCP 5.0. I am having two problems...

1. When viewing playback off of the timeline (without a second monitor using "Cinema Display") I get random stuttering and horizontal "sync lines" in the image. (I am viewing the "Canvas" in as close to full screen as possible).

2. About once every two to three days my system freezes during timeline playback (no cursor movement or keyboard response) and I have no alternative but to force power down the laptop. (OUCH !!)

I have erased and reinstalled my system software...
I explained the problem to Apple and they checked it out for a week and returned it with a clean bill of health...
Any ideas?
I was told by several people at the Bootcamp here in L.A. that I should be able to expect full motion DVCPROHD playback at the DVI output providing that everything on the timeline has been properly rendered. I can't even get that on the laptops' own screen. I have also tried exporting my timeline to a QT file and viewing it with QT player. Same results.
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

The basic quality of the images looks great, though. (THANK YOU HVX!!) The DVCPROHD codec takes color correction quite nicely.
Thanks.:badputer:
 
Which version of os x are you using? Which version of FCP? You should be at os x 10.4.5 or above and FCP 5.0.4 or 5.1. Do you have anything else running on the machine? If so, it may be best for troubleshooting purposes to only install OS X and FCP on the machine, nothing else, to see if there's a conflict, but I doubt there is. If you're using 5.0, update it, it's free.
 
I have all the latest except FCP 5.1. I am using FCP 5.0.4 I have the usual stuff Apple supplies. itunes, imovie, idvd, idunno...

I juist realized that I have Protools 6.9 installed on my system drive...Damn I better lose that piece of...software.
Thanks
 
I had the exact same problem. I upgraded from 1.4.1 to 1.4.6 and my Book started to playback DVCPROHD files terribly, and started to crash. Solution? Reinstalled 1.4.1. Reinstalled the FCP 5.04 upgrade, the Panasonic p2 card PCMIA software, and QT 7.04. Everything is OK. I'm not going to upgrade my OS anymore :) !
 
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