Final Cut Pro 6 crashes whenever i put a video onto the timeline

[equalsabracket]

When i put the first video onto the timeline or into the preview monitor and either press play or start to skim through it, the program just crashes and i have to start it up again. This happens every time which actually makes doing anything impossible.

I'm using a Macbook Pro. It doesn't slow down when i open the program and doesn't show any signs of lag. I can play spore on it on perfectly good settings so i don't see why simply playing a video on the timeline in Final Cut Pro would be a problem. It has no problem doing that in iMovie or Adobe Premiere Pro (which has it's own problems) so I don't think it's a question of lack of RAM.

The videos i've used are .mov files.

Any ideas?

 

[-DH]

The videos i've used are .mov files.

That really doesn't tell us anything. The .mov file extension merely means that the video and audio inside could be made from any number of QuickTime codecs. Open the file in QuickTime Player, then hit Command j to see which codec was used to make the video and audio tracks.

-DH

 

[equalsabracket]

It uses a H264 codec. I just tried with an .avi video with a Cinepak codec and it worked fine.

 

[Chaos123x]

Whoa Cinepak thats a old codec, thats what the Sega CD used for video.

 

[-DH]

It uses a H264 codec. I just tried with an .avi video with a Cinepak codec and it worked fine.

Do you have an aversion to using a QuickTime codec that works natively with FCP?

-DH

 

[equalsabracket]

Do you have an aversion to using a QuickTime codec that works natively with FCP?

-DH

I don't understand what you mean? I have the mpeg-2 quicktime codec from apple, if that helps. Can you explain that more please?

 

[-DH]

I don't understand what you mean? I have the mpeg-2 quicktime codec from apple, if that helps. Can you explain that more please?

I'm pretty sure that if you didn't understand what I meant, it would do no good to try to explain it to you.

Best of luck,
-DH

 

[LethalWolfe]

What DH means is that you keep putting codecs into FCP that aren't designed to be used in FCP.


Lethal

 

[filmweaver]

equalsabracket

May I suggest a good book, Final Cut Pro 6 by Apple Pro Training Series.
Available from Peachpit Press, see Apples website. I just finished it and it is great.

 

[JoeJITSU]

also are you using the new generation Mac Pro.? I had the same problem trying to rung FCP6 with my MacPRO 2.0 dual core. I built a hackintosh i7 and now it just screams through like nothing. Once the new Mac Quads come out this march it will be a big improvement.