Kbase Article of the Week: Final Cut Express 1 and 2 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) →

It’s mostly forgotten now, but for years, Apple shipped Final Cut Express, a video editor that lived somewhere between iMovie and Final Cut Pro. It was discontinued in 2011 when Final Cut Pro X was released. Here are some FAQs Apple of the past thought may be helpful to users of the application:

  1. Why isn’t my serial number accepted by the program?
  2. Why can’t I hear audio while capturing?
  3. Why can’t I hear audio during playback from the Timeline?
  4. Final Cut Express doesn’t recognize my camera. What’s wrong?
  5. Where can I find the product manual?
  6. How can I prevent out-of-sync audio on long clips?
  7. How do I transfer my project to iDVD?
  8. I hear beeping when I play audio. Why is that?
  9. How do I set keyframes?
  10. Why don’t I see real-time effects and transitions?

The answer to question 10 really puts things into perspective:

Answer: Make sure you choose View > Video > Real-Time. Available real-time effects appear in bold type in the Effects menu and Effects browser and will vary based on the performance of your computer (a G4 processor is required). Multiple video layers can also prevent real-time previews from appearing.