Apple MA261Z/A User Manual - Page 1072

 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 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, then use diskdefragmenting 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, close all sequences except the one you want to output to video.  Another cause of dropped frames is playing sequences with numerous short edits. Projects with a large number of short edits (for example, a 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 there are two things you can try:  Write out a single file using the Export QuickTime Movie command.  Another solution, particularly in the case of long sequences, is to split a single long sequence into multiple short sequences, outputting them to tape one at a time. 1072 Part XIII Appendixes