Renders need Re-rendering

Do your renders in FCP's Timeline suddenly seem to un-render themselves? A friend called me a few moments ago in a panic saying that FCP was freaking out and un-rendering, seeming at random.

To make a long story short: he didn't realize that a previous project's test Render Files folder was still being used by FCP...while it was in the Trash.

Solution: Drag it out of the Trash or tell FCP to use another folder (stay organized, though).

Jump Forwards in the Timeline Without the Mouse

Control + 8 will "Go to Next Edit" in the Timeline, not terribly exciting since it's an additional key press compared to apostrophe key or down arrow, but instead try:

Control + 9 for "Go Forward 2 Edits". I use this a lot when sipping tea while looking over a project's color consistency.

Shift + right arrow or left arrow will advance the playhead 1 second forwards or backwards respectively.

HDV Capturing Hassles

I've never liked HDV for many reason so here's one more straight from Apple:

When you capture footage from an HDV camera using Final Cut Pro, the image displayed in the capture window may lag slightly behind the image displayed on the camera. This is normal and does not indicate any issue with Final Cut Pro or your camera.

What do you do to solve this hassle? Nothing really...other than stop using HDV...

This inconsistency is related to HDV's Long-GOP (Group of Pictures) MPEG-2 format. With the data structure for this format, Final Cut Pro must assess information about several frames in a row before it can accurately display them all.

When you need to make decisions about where to place in and out points for clips you wish to capture, the time reference point on your camera is more accurate. However, with HDV it's a good idea to give yourself an extra second or so on each side of the clip when marking in and out points for Log and Capture or when using Capture Now.