Constantly dropping frames

I am randomly getting lots of dropped frames when recording with OnLocation on lengthy recording sessions (1-2 hours). Like, several seconds will be missing. Sometimes this happens frequently, sometimes (but rarely) not at all. And sometimes recording even stops, as Windows says its lost the connection to the camera.
I'm using OnLocation on a MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo. I've used it under new installations of XP and Vista with Boot Camp. I've tried recording to a 3rd partition setup as FAT32 or NTFS, as well as to the Macintosh partition with MacDrive. And I've tried two different firewire cables.
Sometimes the buffer bar will be full, or it will say the hard drive is not fast enough, but I want to say this isn't always the case (but I'm not 100% positive as I can't watch OnLocation the whole time I'm recording).
What could be the problem??
Thanks
Zach

Wow, Ultra on a MAC,,,, Are you recording to tape or direct to disk? Are you recording HDV? m2t files have a long GOP structure, only 2 I frames per second. this means if you drop one I frame you loose a half second of video. I would try using new tapes made for HDV and cleaning the tape heads. If your doing regular DV, then I'd say it would have to be the MAC, Bootcamp not working right with Ultra as almost any computer these days will record DV direct to disk or clean tape heads and new tape. Danny

Similar Messages

Dropped frames on multiclip playback - possible solution

so I've got a project with 2 streams of 1080 30p material and fcp is constantly dropping frames when I try and do a "live switch." Playing the material off an external glyph drive connected via Esata. Tried connecting via fw800. Same problem. Also have the same material on another external glyph. Same problem.
Tried booting off an alternate startup drive. No problem.
restarted off my primary startup drive. Went to system preferences: accounts: log in items, Found an item there called "simbl.osax"
Did some googling and found that it was probably installed by some third party app. Deleted it. Problem gone.
I hope this helps someone else. Installing apps that install this kind of thing without warning you is a constant danger.

3 drives in RAID 0 on the Xserve RAID is likely not sufficient for 3 uncompressed SD streams. In fact, it's almost certainly insufficient.
I also can't imagine that you're striping the 3x500 RAID 0 with the 3x250 GB RAID 0, as it would give you less space than just using the 3x500 RAID 0 on its own

Dropped frames on MultiCam editing with Canon XF305 Footage

Hello,
I recently purchased three Canon XF305 series cameras and have been conducting a series of tests to determine the best recording format and editing workflow. First, does anyone have experience with these new Canon cameras?
Using the log and transfer utility, I've been bringing the files into FCP natively using the canon codec (which is actually mislabeled as a Sony codec). Once in, the footage looks good to edit, without requiring rendering.
However, when I setup a multiclip sequence with the three cameras, the render bar turns green and I'm getting all kinds of dropped frames on playback. Is this a computer processor issue, drive speed, or codec? The multiclip is the only time I have trouble -- once I collapse the multiclip, I can edit fine without any drop frames.
I've done tests using 5400x and 7200x drives using both firewire 800 and eSata, no changes. I believe that rules out drive speed.
Is this a processor issue? What can I do to resolve this, as our workflow involves 100+ hours of footage from 3 cameras.
Thanks in advance

but my experience with the 305's in ProRes is that it makes it a bigger file(more than double)
Of course it will. XDCAM is a highly compressed format. ProRes is a larger file type, higher data rate. It will be larger. Did you not notice that the ProRes footage from the 5D were also about 5 times larger?
and still needs to render.
If you worked in a ProRes timeline, then you shouldn't need to render. If you still do, than something is wrong. Create the file...make a new sequence, cut this into that sequence...FCP will make the settings match. If it does this, and you STILL need to render....you did something wrong.
when I actually converted to ProRes, it seemed like it was more taxing on the computer, took up twice the hard drive, and more than three times the time to transcode compared to native.
It is less taxing to actually edit with. GOP formats require the computer to constantly process the GOP footage to show you frames...since there are no real frames in any GOP format. Well, there are 3 frames every second, then a bunch of pictures, and the computer has to guess what is next by looking at the frames, and then the pictures, and make up the in-between. PRORES is a full frame format...no guessing, no computing. And larger files are not more taxing on the computer...they might require faster hard drives...and larger ones, but they are less taxing. Yes, longer to convert than native, but when that is done, things are easier.
But, do what you want. I just gave a suggestion.
Shane

Dropped Frames During Playback

So I'm new to Final Cut Studio and have been trying to ingest footage from a SANYO digital file based camcorder. It records in several HD modes including full 1080i and in MPEG-4 file form. I've had trouble getting the files into Final Cut on my MacBook Pro and editing without constantly having frames dropped. I'm not sure what to do. Is it a problem with my computer (which is brand-spanking new)? Also, I get a warning when trying to Log and Transfer the footage telling me I have un-supported media. Any insight I can get on the issue would be excellent.

FCP works best when the media you're importing or capturing matches the Sequence settings. Check your Sequence settings in FCP and see if they exactly match the settings of the clips you're trying to use. If they don't match, it may be best to convert them to match PRIOR to importing them, or use Sequence settings that match the clips.
FWIW, when you get dropped frames during playback, it's an indication that the effort to read and display the clips is exceeding the ability of your system. This can be due to a number of things or a combination of things. Some of the conditions that can contribute to the problem are (in no particular order):
• data throughput problems due to hard drive connection, buss speed or drive speed
• using media made with a codec that isn't fully supported in FCP
• using corrupted media files
• RT settings not right for your system
There are other conditions as well, but those are the most common.
-DH

FCPX green frames/artifacts and dropped frames

I have been trying to use FCPX for a couple of weeks now, but haven't been able to. I constantly get green frames/artifacts and dropped frames during playback AND export regardless of using optimixed or proxy media. I am importing mp4 quicktime files, in case that is important.
I am using:
MBP (mid 2009)
OSX 10.6.8
Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.26 ghz
2 gb ram
Nvdidia GeForce 9400M w/256 vram
I know that it is reccommended I have 4 gb ram, but I meet the minimum requirements and cannot even use the program! Would upgrading to 4-8gb ram resolve this issue? Or is my processor the culprit?
Any help is greatly appreciated.

You DEFINITELY need to upgrade your memory to 8GB, etc. Otherwise you will not likely be able to get much real work done at all ... but ... that is likely not exactly the problem you are experiencing now . Since you are talking about bringing in MP4 files, I am thinking you did not get them from a tape-based camcorder. If you did, then they were converted to MP4 afterwards somewhere. Can you play the MP4 files in Quicktime and not see any green screens? If so then have you tried using the FCP X File/Import ... Files command to bring them into FCP X? I have used this with MP4 files without a problem. If Quicktime can play them okay without green frames, and FCP X cannot then the problem does seem to be in FCP X. Are your preferences set to use optimized media? If so then FCP X will convert the files to ProRes and the timeline playback should be okay. There are other "green frames" discussions here that you could also reference. These are just some thoughts.

Unable to capture files into external hard disk because of 'drop frames '

I haven't been able to capture footage from my DV camcoder thru firewire to an external hard disk in FCP because i get a message saying 'drop frames were detected'.
This happens when i selected this external hard drive as the scratch disk in FCP.
When i deslect it and select my user hard disk as the scratch disk, the capturing works perfectly. But i just want to capture all my capture files into the external hard disk, not my user hard disk.
The external hard disk's speed is 3500 - could that be the problem? Is it too slow? Its connected thru USB and it is Mac Os Extended Journaled. Its got 250gb of space, so that's not the issue.
Can anybody help me?
Thank you.

No, its a Panasonic gs180, a really good camera.
The camera itself is connected to my computer through firewire. Its the hard disk enclosure that is connected to my emac through USB. Anyway, i'm sure that's not the problem, casue like i said, the capturing works fine when i use my user hard disk as the FCP scratch disk.
The problem i have is when i try to capture footage from my camera to the external hard disk enclosure. When i press 'capture now' and press play, the playback stutters and a messsage appears saying, "drop frames detected" and the capturing stops.
I feel like i need to adjust something in FCP itself - like a preference or something - just not sure what.
Thnx for your suggestion though and if you know what i should do, please let me know.

Export Quicktime = stalling / frame rate / dropped frames

Firstly this issue isn't news. It appears it has existed since 2002 at least on these forums and Apple has done nothing.
Exporting to Quicktime:
1) Keynote makes up what seem to be consistent random frame rates on export
- Codec doesn't matter. Photo JPG, Intermediate, 8bit 422, H264
- You can set the frame rate in export / custom / settings it doesn't matter
- Having no video on a slide or having video on a slide doesn't change the problem...
- The last two items do have more information to complete their story
- If you do have a video on slide at say 25fps and export (at same rate) the random will stabilise
but it will stabilise to something bizarre, such as 23.69.
- So Keynote can wreck your frame rate it will drop frames, or even add frames while dropping
others. It is deeply sophisticated in how it destroys stuff on export.
Result
- is a stuttering output if embed video on a slide with a wrecked frame rate
- and a random frame rate if you don't have a video embed
2) The video stalls between slides
- Keynote seems to play a trick by making a single frame span multiple frames
- At the start of the first slide this seems to vary. The first frame can be between 7 and 33
frames depending on some strange internal logic only known to Keynote
- Between slides it will hold the last frame of the exiting slide usually for 7 frames and hold
the first frame of the entering slide for usually the same amount.
- No amount of change to settings such as transition delay, adding a transition, self play etc
will effect this stalling from what I can tell.
- You can analyse the reality of the issue by dropping the resulting file into Quicktime 7 and
changing the video window "time code" display to frames by clicking on it and single framing
through the video. I have Quicktime Pro for the record.
Notes:
- I have every update installed and am running 10.6.2
- I have tried it on two machines, one a clean build, server or client
- Playing the presentation direct in Keynote does not present any of the noted issues
- I have spent the better part of two weeks on the issue trying all sorts of combinations
- Video of different frames rates, sizes, codecs. All useless, don't bother.
Outcome:
- Keynote is completely useless unless you just want to play a presentation in it
- Dropped frames, stuttering video, stalling, mangled frame rates, fake frames
Solutions that aren't:
- One suggestion for video embeds is to enter a strange custom frame rate. For example a
24fps original turns into a 23.69 export, if you up the frame rate to 24.3 the resulting export
is 24fps.
This is a truly hit and miss affair and will require a lot of testing to nail it. Unfortunately I
tested the resulting video frame count in Quicktime against the original video and...
The amount of frames is not the same. Part of my assumption is that the stalled pad frames
are being considered by Keynote and it drops some frames to fake the same length, that at
least -seems- to be part of the result, but it doesn't account for all the lost frames.
- I have also tried just having one slide and exporting that. The same things happen regardless
How Al Gore managed to make "inconvenient truth" using Keynote is a complete mystery. Maybe on Tiger with some old version it used to work, yet from the forums it would appear it has never worked. This piece of software is a clear case of "it just doesn't work"
I hope you find this and stop hurting yourself trying to make this. I might hurt on a bit longer yet.

I can't answer in detail (I started with version 6, which I haven't used in years, so don't know what v5 did) but... a general comment
Software that old is very likely going to struggle trying to edit a VOB/MPG file copies from a DVD
If you are digitizing by playing the DVD through a conversion device you should end up with DV AVI which should edit well
Just what kind of files are you trying to edit?

How do I read the number of dropped frames in a 1394 session?

I'm using a C program to acquire image data using the imaq1394 library. I am dropping frames at 30FPS and want to use the imaq1394GetAttributes call with the IMG1394_ATTR_LOST_BUFFER_NB parameter to read the number of dropped frames. I am doing this at the end of the acquisition before the camera is closed. The value always comes back as 0. What is wrong? Here is the line that makes the call:
imaq1394GetAttribute(Sid, IMG1394_ATTR_LOST_BUFFER_NB, (unsigned long *) &lDroppedFrames);
Thanks in advance...

Hello spcmicro,
Thank you for the email.
For the IMAQ 1394 driver (version 1.0), the lost buffer attribute does not work properly.
- The issue is not known to the developer lead, and it will be investigated for the next release of the IMAQ 1394 driver.
Please let me know if you have any additional questions,
Alan Hagler

Dropped frames issue on a G5 2.7DP w/DV footage

Let me first tell you my setup:
G5 2.7 DP
8 GB RAM
WiebeTech TrayDock eSATA 4-bay drive enclosure w/Sonnet 4+4 eSATA PCI Card
(2) 400 GB Seagate Barracudas in the enclosure RAIDed in a striped config using Apple's Disk Utility
10.4
FCP 5
At seemingly random times, playback from the timeline will stutter and stop, thus throwing up the dropped frames dialog box. If I re-play from the same point, it will normally play. This has happened on several current projects in which I'm working in DV. I've also worked on a project in 8bit uncompressed using my Kona LS card with the same drives, and had the same error.
I've had this issue ever since I setup this system--from the first install of FCP5 to the most recent update of 5.0.3, as well as from 10.4.2 to 10.4.3. I've tried turning off the internal Airport card in the G5, and quitting all other programs.
There is a little utility that came with the Kona card to test data rate of your drives. I'm getting well over 100 MB/s Read, and slightly less write rates, so it seems like drive speed isn't an issue.
What is the weak link here? WiebeTech was nice enough to send me a replacement eSATA PCI card, and the issue hasn't gone away, so it wasn't a bad card, although I guess there could be some flaw inherent in all of the cards.
What other steps should I take to try and isolate/solve this problem? This is kind of embarrasing that I can't play DV footage on the timeline without the possibility of dropping frames--even when working with only one layer of video.
I'm capturing video to the eSATA RAID, and my project files/graphics reside on an internal SATA drive in G5 (not the boot drive--I added another seagate 250 gb). Seems like there should be enough throughput in this thing to handle basic edits, but I'm beginning to have my doubts....
Your ideas?????

Clay,
Regarding your statement "My thinking initially about my workflow was to not keep them on the same drive as the footage because my feeling is that the RAID isn't as "safe" as the single 250 GB drive I have inside the G5".
I store all of my media, GFX and project files on whatever FW drive I happen to be using for a project. I NEVER have media for a specific project on two or more drives. For safety's sake, I ALWAYS have my Autosave Vault set to my internal drive, with a relatively high save rate (every 10 min). That way if the FW drive ever failed completely, I'd at least have a recent copy of the project file to work with (even if I have to redigitize the footage or redo the GFX). All I can say is keep all of your media (per project) on one drive - it's been kind of the Bible in this industry for years, and as far as I know it hasn't changed.
As far as RAID's go, I'm no expert. But if I remember correctly, back in my old Avid days we also used to avoid having the media on different striped partitions - something else you may want to try if you're media is spread across a few stripes.
It seems like I've run across more than a few posts here regarding the same problem happening on Dual 2.7's. You may want to do a more thorough search here to see what you come up with. All I can say is I'm running FCP 5.0.3 on a G5 Dual 2.0 with only 2.5 meg of RAM and have had no dropped frame issues.
Try Matt's suggestion of playing some footage off of your boot drive (NOT recommended for everyday use!). If it works then it's got to be a problem with your RAID and not FCP.
Good Luck!
jeff

Warning: Sometimes Final Cut exports a non-drop sequence as drop-frame

Just a heads up. This has been maddening for me. On occasion I will export my program for compressor and it will be drop frame when it should be non-drop.
These are sequences which have exported fine before. There is no rhyme or reason to it. Tonight I've lost about 2 hours because of this. At least I knew to check it before compressing the file and sending it out to our contractor because it has happened in the past.
By the way shutting down FCP and opening it up again seems to cure the problem.

System req's for fcp 5
General System Requirements
Macintosh computer with 867MHz or faster PowerPC G4, PowerPC G5, Intel Core Duo processor, or Intel Xeon processor
HD features require 1GHz or faster single or dual processors (authoring HD DVDs requires a PowerPC G5, Intel Core Duo processor, or Intel Xeon processor)
512MB of RAM; 1GB of RAM for HD features (2GB recommended)
Display with 1024-by-768 (or higher) resolution
AGP Quartz Extreme or PCI Express graphics card (Final Cut Studio is not supported on systems using the Intel Extreme Graphics 950 GMA)
Motion requires the standard graphics card found in any Mac Pro, MacBook Pro, iMac Intel Core Duo, Power Mac G5, iMac G5, a 1.25 GHz or faster PowerBook G4, or a 1.25 GHz or faster flat-panel iMac.
Mac OS X 10.4.4 or later
QuickTime 7.0.4 or later
4GB of disk space to install all applications
Additional 42GB to install all optional templates, loops, content, and tutorials (may be installed on separate discs)
It would seem that you've been reasonably lucky thus far running 10.3.9

Capture on the fly dropped frame aborted capture - clip gone forever???

I foolishly set up my Macbook pro to capture the video feed live from an HVX200 camera via firewire... THE clutch interview for a client... Lo: what happens but halfway through the interview, capture aborts and error message reads "capture aborted due to dropped frames".
It's an investigative journalism project, with a hostile interview subject, so no do-overs possible.
Clip not showing up in capture scratch or anywhere else.
My question is: has anyone had any luck rescuing an incomplete clip like this? The hard drive was churning, doing computerlike things, writing, so the information is there somewhere. It's just that the "pointers" or "handles" of the clip are gone. I know with IBM/Avid there's an attic where you can get to weird and/or incomplete files - is there anything like that with MAC/Final cut? Or is this setup "all or nothing"?
Maybe someone knows about a program that can recover incomplete data, good for MAC?
I know, shame on me for capturing straight to computer - I'll never do that again.
thanks!
Jeremy

has anyone had any luck rescuing an incomplete clip like this?
Nope. The file failed to complete...QT/FCP didn't get a chance to write the end code for the clip, so it is unusable.
I know with IBM/Avid there's an attic where you can get to weird and/or incomplete files
The ATTIC in Avid terms is the same as AUTOSAVE in FCP...it saves a backup of the project bins, not the media. Not sure about the IBM attic...
I don't know of anyone having luck recovering a file that has been aborted like this. And this happens to more people that we'd like to see. Capturing one-of-a-time events straight to computer with no backup. Bombout.
Shane

How to tell if video is drop frame or non-drop frame in Encore? Need info to use correct SCC file.

Hi,
Thanks in advance. I am using Encore DVD 2.0 to add closed captions to video. I have both a drop frame SCC file and a non-drop frame SCC file. How can I tell which one to use? Can I tell from the way the timecode looks on the timeline? Do I look at the timeline timecode or the source timecode? For example, in a random area of video the timeline says 00;02;50;24 while the source says 00:02:50:20.
Thanks.

Thanks jbowden and Jim for your help. Although I'm still not real clear how Encore notes DF vs NDF (more on that below), I got my problem solved.
Regarding DF vs NDF in Encore DVD...There doesn't seem to be a real consistent method of identifying which is which. For example, Jim suggested that I look in the Project panel for the colons vs semicolons. There, the video file timecode was shown as xx;xx;xx;xx with semicolons, apparently suggesting that it is DF. However, the timeline and audio file listed in the project panel also showed semicolons in the timecode. Then, down on the timeline, the timeline was shown as xx;xx;xx;xx while right next to that it said "Source xx:xx:xx:xx" with colons! So, if I go by the project panel, the video is DF. If I go by what it says down in the timeline, the video is NDF. As it turns out, subtitles and CC only match up if I use the NDF versions of them, not with the DF versions, which indicates that my file was NDF. So, in the end, I'd say that the way the timecode is represented in the project panel didn't mean anything, at least not in this case.

Full screen preview drops frames

Hi all,
A continuation of the thread I opened here (with hardware specs for information):
http://forums.adobe.com/thread/657008?tstart=0
Whilst I resolved the tearing issue secribed in the previous thread I still can't get smooth playback on the third full screen preview display and I'd like some basic advice as to what I could do:
A couple of things I have tried - firstly I tried a basic sequence with a spinning graphic (in order to rule out any issues with disk/network access), and then also tried two screens rather than three (so only one graphic card was in operation), a 60p/30p project with screens set to 60Hz and a 50p/25p project with screens set to 50Hz.
All to no avail - the full screen preview drops frames, especially with 50p content - 25p is better but every 20 seconds or so frames are dropped. Audio is always fine, regardless of the source, BTW.
As a reminder, this is a 12 core i7 with 2 x Quadro FX3800, all unnecessary services disabled, 12Gb RAM, CS5 5.0.3, latest WHQL Nvidia drivers.
Not sure if 5.5 improves this in any regard as I'm still waiting for my licence key.
Video playback outside of premiere is perfect, 1080p50 plays fine full screen on any display through windows media player/VLC.
Any suggestions please - again I wonder if a Blackmagic Intensity or similar would help?
Has anyone else seen this behaviour? Could anybody have a go a reproducing the issue (a simple spinning or sliding jpg demonstates the issue easily and simply)
Thanks all
Sacha Goodwin.

There exist no 12 core i7's. The max is hexa-core, but in your previous thread you said Xeon X5670. So what is it?
Well spotted, my bad - it is indeed 2 x hexa-core X5670's - which of course is 12 cores in total.
I still suspect your Editshare NAS.
I'd say unlikely since - we've replaced it with something else, also:
I tried a basic sequence with a spinning graphic (in order to rule out any issues with disk/network access)
and at any rate I tried it as a local project on local disks and it made no difference.
For graphic read plain color matte and basic SD res JPG (same results with either)
What happens when you increase memory to 24 GB?
No idea as I don't have access to any - strikes me as odd though to think anyone would need 24Gb or RAM just to display a rotating still smoothly.
Premiere is showing 300Mb of RAM, total RAM in use when everything is loaded and running is 3Gb, 9Gb free sitting there twiddling it's virtual thumbs.
BTW I should also mention that this happens even on SD projects, not just HD ones. Also watching the task manager shows virtually CPU usage, no disk and no network access during playback (as I would expect). No peaks in any graphs correllating with the dropped frames. Also enabling/disabling MPE Hardware assist makes no difference.
Sacha.

"Capturing drop-frame media into a non-drop frame clip" error message

I've logged tapes from what will partly be a 3-camera multi-clip project, and have begun to batch capture.
Logged all but one tape some weeks ago, and captured one tape at the time.
Went to batch capture the balance, today. First tape capture went fine. On trying to capture the next tape in the batch I'm getting this message as FCP begins the process:
WARNING: You are about to capture drop-frame media to a non drop-frame clip. If you proceed, you may experience changes in logged in and out points, problems relinking media, or removal of master clip relationships.
In analyzing the situation, the only reason I can think of for the error message is that some of the reels were logged on a DSR-11 that had been set to NON drop-frame, and for which I didn't have the remote control to change the setting.
I haven't run into this while capturing other clips, but those may have been captured via a different deck that does only drop-frame.
So, I'm looking at next steps:
1: Capture anyway and possibly regret that I did that.
(One person on another list reported the same problem, that he had ignored it without any obvious complications.)
2: Relog all the problem clips using my current deck, speeding up the process by using the "go to" window to drive the tape to the existing in and out points and then marking i/o's...
Or...
Suggestions?
Thanks,
Ted.

We've been seeing this stupid error message since v3 and it's never mattered in the slightest. It is always incorrect, anyway. The clips are always drop and the sequences are always drop. It's an FCP programming glitch/bug/screwup. Someday they may or may not fix the mechanism that triggers the warning.
bogiesan

I have Snow Leopard 10.6.8 on my MacBook. Constantly dropping internet connection or message "error connecting to the network" comes up. No wireless connectivity issues with windows 7 laptop or iphone.

I have a MacBook with Snow Leopard 10.6.8. The last few weeks it has been constantly dropping internet connection, and one of these messages appear on the page: "Safari cannot open this page because the server where this page is located isn't responding" or "Safari cannot open this page because you are not connected to the internet" comes up. I will check Wifi and I am connected. No wifi connectivity issues with iphone or windows 7 laptop, this doesn't happen with either of those devices. I have unplugged and reset router, cleared cache, still happening. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

Hi BCLor!
Try using the suggested steps in the following article to help you troubleshoot this issue with your Wi-Fi connection:
Wi-Fi: How to troubleshoot Wi-Fi connectivity
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4628
Thanks for being a part of the Apple Support Communities!
Regards,
Braden

Constantly dropping frames

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