More About Audio Playback Quality
Sample rate conversion occurs when you use clips with audio sample rates that differ
from the sample rate in your sequence’s settings. If the sample rate of your media
files matches the sample rate of the sequence, this pop-up menu has no effect.
Transitions between rendered and nonrendered portions of audio clips are also
affected by the quality setting chosen in the Audio Playback Quality pop-up
menu. For example, if you choose Low Quality and you play a partially rendered clip
that contains a reverb, you won’t hear the tail of the reverb when the playhead
crosses the boundary from a rendered to a nonrendered section of the sequence.
However, if you choose Medium or High quality, you hear the reverb even when
crossing the render boundary.
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IV
Interface Options
 Show Tooltips: Select this option to automatically display descriptions of interface
elements and their corresponding keyboard shortcuts, called tooltips. Tooltips appear
in small yellow boxes when you move the pointer over a control and pause briefly
(without clicking the control). When you move the pointer away from the control, the
tooltip disappears.
 Bring all windows to the front on activation: When this option is selected and
Final Cut Pro is in the background, clicking one Final Cut Pro window brings all
Final Cut Pro windows to the front at once.
 Open last project on application launch: This option determines whether Final Cut Pro
launches with a new, untitled project, or the last project or projects that were open
when you last quit the application.
Autosave Options
 Autosave Vault: The Autosave option saves a copy of each open project at regular
intervals. For more information, see “
Using the Autosave Feature
” on page 20.
New Project and Sequence Options
 Prompt for settings on New Project: When this option is selected, the Project
Properties dialog appears when you create a new project. For more information
about setting project properties, see Volume II, Chapter 5, “Working with Projects,
Clips, and Sequences.”
 Prompt for settings on New Sequence: When this option is selected, a dialog appears
asking you to choose a sequence preset whenever you create a new sequence. This
can be useful if you regularly work with several different video formats. If you always
edit the same video format, you’ll probably want to deselect this option.
The tooltip (interface element
and keyboard shortcut) that
appears when you place the
pointer over the Play button
in the Viewer.
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Part IV
Settings and Preferences
Capture and Playback Options
 Sync audio capture to video source if present: Select this option in the following scenarios:
 You have an audio interface that has a video genlock input, and the genlock input
is receiving a proper video signal.
 You are capturing audio media that you intend to synchronize with video, such as
sound recorded on a separate audio recorder during a film or video production.
For more information on genlocking a device-controllable audio deck, see Volume 1,
Chapter 12, “Connecting Professional Video and Audio Equipment.”
 Report dropped frames during playback: If you select this option, a message appears if
any frames are dropped during playback from the Viewer, Canvas, and Timeline, or
when outputting using Edit to Tape or Print to Video. When Final Cut Pro drops
frames, it is usually because there is a hardware or setup problem, such as scratch
disks that are too slow compared to the media data rate. For information on what
you can do if Final Cut Pro reports dropped frames, see “
Problems During Playback
”
on page 438.
 Abort ETT/PTV on dropped frames: If this option is selected, a message appears if any
frames are dropped during playback from the Viewer, Canvas, and Timeline when
outputting using Edit to Tape or Print to Video. Playback drops are almost always
caused by a hardware setup problem. For information on what you can do if
Final Cut Pro reports dropped frames, see “
Problems During Playback
” on page 438.
 Abort capture on dropped frames: When this option is selected, capture stops
immediately when a dropped frame is detected. All media captured before the
dropped frame has frame-accurate timecode and is preserved. The resulting media
file is saved and a clip for that media file is placed in the Browser.
 On timecode break: This pop-up menu gives you several ways to avoid capturing
media with timecode breaks.
 Make New Clip: With this choice, Final Cut Pro creates a new media file (and
connected clip) each time a timecode break is encountered. This is a good setting
if you are batch capturing an entire tape at once.
 Abort Capture: If this option is selected, capture is stopped whenever a timecode
break is detected. All media captured before the timecode break has frame-
accurate timecode and is preserved. The resulting media file is saved and a clip for
that media file is placed in the Browser.
 Warn After Capture: If this option is selected, only one media file is captured, even
if there are timecode breaks. Timecode breaks are reported after capture, so you
can be aware that the media file may not contain trustworthy timecode. It is
unwise to use media files with timecode breaks unless you have no choice,
because you can’t accurately recapture the media files.
For more information, see Volume I, Chapter 17, “Capturing Your Footage to Disk.”
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Text Size Options
 Browser Text Size: This pop-up menu allows you to choose how small or large text
appears in the Browser and Timeline. You can also adjust these settings by choosing
View > Text Size or control-clicking in the Browser and choosing Text Size from the
shortcut menu.
Auto Render Options
 Auto Render: The Auto Render option allows you to take advantage of idle computer
time when you’re not editing—such as during a coffee break or lunch—to render
open sequences in the Timeline.
For more information, Volume III, Chapter 29, “Rendering and Video Processing Settings.”