Dealing with dropped frames and out of sync audio

Hi!
I'm using Final Cut Studio 3 and I'm trying to record some video from a pretty old MiniDV-camera. The problem is that a have some dropped frames and when I record the whole thing it gets out of sync.
By default Final Cut aborts the capture (without saving) when it finds dropped frames. That won't work for me. I start recording, it records a couple of minutes and then it just aborts without saving anything.
I tried to record the entire tape when using the option of not aborting on dropped frames. I recorded the entire video but not it gets more and more out of sync later and later in the video.
So, do you have any suggestions on how to deal with this? Maybe I can use an external application for this cause I haven't found a way to deal with this in Final cut.
Best
Felix

Hi(Bonjour)!
Did you shoot in DV or HDV ?
Did you try to capture HDV with Apple Intermediate Codec 1080i60 (or 50 for europe)?
Does you downconvert HDV shooted to DV upon capturing from camcorder ?
DV-NTSC 48 kHz is the way to go with downconverted material.
Does your DV audio setting is 16 bit on FX1 ? (HDV is a fixed one).
Michel Boissonneault

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Dropped frames or out-of-sync audio

Using Sony HDR-FX1 and FCE-HD is set to DV-NTSC. I've also tried DV-NTSC Firewire Basic. I've been trying various suggestions I've found in the Discussions to cure dropped frames that prevent me from capturing and out-of-sync audio making footage I do capture useless. Mac is running 10.4 with 5.5 GB of RAM and dual 2 GHz G5.
I'm capturing to my main hard drive which has plenty of space - when I'm done editing, I archive old footage on an external drive.
"Abort capture on dropped frames" is currently checked. Lately, this means I can't get more than a few seconds without the capture stopping. This never used to happen, now it happens all the time no matter what tapes I'm capturing from.
If I uncheck it, the audio on the captured footage is out of sync. Over time, as I've been trying to trouble shoot this using the Discussions, my projects remain unfinished and deadlines are looming sooner and sooner.
If someonce could please help me I'd be very grateful.

Hi(Bonjour)!
Did you shoot in DV or HDV ?
Did you try to capture HDV with Apple Intermediate Codec 1080i60 (or 50 for europe)?
Does you downconvert HDV shooted to DV upon capturing from camcorder ?
DV-NTSC 48 kHz is the way to go with downconverted material.
Does your DV audio setting is 16 bit on FX1 ? (HDV is a fixed one).
Michel Boissonneault

What's the deal with Drop-Frame / Non-Drop-Frame Timecode?

I'm having trouble with 30fps Drop-Frame and 30fps Non-Drop-Frame timecode formats! I thought 29.97fps means 30fps Drop-Frame, but now I'm all confused.
I'm working with DSLR footage filmed with a frame rate of 29.97. For example, this one clip is listed as (in Project panel)
Media Start: 11:16:11:23
Media End: 11:22:42:22
Duration: 00:06:31:00
Frame Rate: 29.97fps
If I open this clip directly in Source Monitor, the timecode display (yellow, on lower left corner) says 11:16:11:23 at the beginning and 11:22:42:23 at the end. OK. But if I right-click on the timecode display, the pop-up indicates "Non-Drop-Frame"(!!). If I manually change that to "Drop-Frame", the start and end timecode would become 11:16:52:11 and 11:23:23:23, and the duration display (white, on lower right corner) becomes 6:31:12.
Now I create a new sequence of 1080p30, which has a 29.97fps time base. I right-click the yellow timecode display on the upper left corner of the Timeline, it says "30fps Drop-Frame". I drag the said clip onto the sequence. It occupies a length of 6:31:12. If I double-click the clip to open it in Source Monitor, now the Source Monitor timecode display indicates "Drop-Frame", and the start/end timecodes are 11:16:52:11 and 11:23:23:23. Huh??
Now I apply the "Timecode" effect on the clip. The timecode burn-in says 11:16:51:11 at the first frame and 11:23:23:22 at the last frame. I then go to the Effect Controls tab and look at the Timecode effect. It says
Format: SMPTE
Timecode Source: Media
Time Display: 30 Drop Frame
Just playing around, I switch "Timecode Source" to "Clip" - now the timecode burn-in goes from 00:00:00:00 to 00:06:31:11 - and then I switch it back to "Media". Now the Effect Controls tab says:
Format: SMPTE
Timecode Source: Media
Time Display: 30 Non-Drop Frame
And the timecode burn-in says 11:16:11:23 at the first frame and 11:22:42:22 at the last frame!
HUH??
Just for kickers, I switch "Timecode Source" to "Clip" again... Now "Time Display" stays on "30 Non-Drop Frame", and the timecode burn-in goes from 00:00:00:00 to 00:06:30:29.
What's the REAL length of this clip? Is it drop-frame or non-drop-frame? What are the REAL timecodes for it?
Also in a general sense, since I can change the "Time Display" field in the Timecode effect at any time, and change the Timecode display format of the Timeline at any time... How do I avoid creating mismatching timecodes??
Thanks in advance for any clarification!!

So obviously, only one of them could be "correct" in terms of reflecting what actually happened. The other one is slightly sped-up or slowed-down. You might say "oh that's a tiny difference, it doesn't matter".
Zooropa75, just for matter of clarification I want to make sure you understand that no matter which you use, it won't actually speed up or slow down your video. TC, wether it is non-drop or drop, is only a counting system. For that reason, it doesn't even matter which you use to reference edits, so long as everyone editing uses the same TC basis.
If you want actual time accurate TC, as was already mentioned, use drop-frame.
I'm going to kill two birds here. The "drag clip to new sequence button" action I was referring to in my earlier post is dragging your clip to the icon seen below. It should create a timeline using your videos format.
Also, remember I recommended looking in the manuel for "actual" time used? You can see below a snapshot I took from your cameras manuel. You're not shooting in whole numbers for anything unless you're using the 50hz system and shooting at 50p. That is the ONLY exception. ...and this is good for everyone to remember. Very few US digital cameras shoot frames per second in whole numbers. If it says you're shooting in 24p, 30p, 60p, etc. ad nauseum, you can bet your biscuits it's actually the multi-decimal NTCS counterparts like you see below And that should be your final answer. *chuckle*

I use a Canon VIXIA HFM41 camera with bluetooth WM-V1 mic and receiver. Audio drops in and out.

Trying to figure out why my audio kept dropping in and out while recording a 90 minute presentation this past weekend.
I just recorded 90 mins today in my office of a TV monitor screen and audio - no audio problems. Batteries were fresh and camera was fully charged over the weekend before I had the audio problems. Bluetooth? Could there have been some sort of cellphone interference with the bluetooth audio signal that caused the problem? I was with a group of about 25 people when recording the event - and I was the only person recording video/audio. My camera was about 15-20 feet from the microphone, which was close to the house mic and sound system - but no interference at all with the audio I did capture.
The audio didn't just drop out - it faded out, and would fade back in after several minutes. Video was complete, no interruption or distortion. HELP!

Yes, you can use the 85 watt adaptor. You cannot use the new adaptors because your computer is not equipped with the proper MagSafe connector. But you can use the older MBP adaptors as well as a 60 watt replacement adaptor. All can be found at Apple's Online Store.

Trouble with audio dropping in and out?

I had this problem for ages.
Apple TV3 was connected to monitor via HDMI. Monitor audio out was connected to hifi system. The audio was dropping in and out. Fix was to go in the monitor settings and set the HDMI audio to 2.0
Hope this helps someone, as I couldn't find this info anywhere on the net.

an update, switched the G4 laptop out with a G5 tower, keeping the rest of the setup the same, and the music played fine. Switched back to my laptop and the music played choppy. Noticed the CPU was bouncing around quite a bit on the laptop while playing music and that is when the music would cut out. So must be my laptop? Weird as the laptop worked fine for years and that is when it only had 512MB RAM. I did just update the laptop to 10.5 from 10.4 so perhaps 10.5 is the problem?
However I am running Twonhy Media Server on the laptop to stream video from the same server the music is on. I stream it to a PS3 and it streams perfect.
I would seem that iTunes does not efficiently stream music via mounted servers?
Message was edited by: David K Oberlin Jr.

Video runs slow on firefox and out of sync with audio with abode flash 12.

Ever since I installed adobe flash player 12 my videos run slow and out of sync with the audio it is like it pauses for a couple seconds and starts back working and keeps doing that.

Hi jth10,
The troubleshooting steps provided by Adobe can be found here: [http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/video-playback-issues.html#main_For_Windows_users]
* Are there any settings in the Flash settings manager that changed when you updated? [http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager03.html]
*These are the recommended settings for specific resolutions [http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/poor-video-quality-flash-player.html]
You can also try to disable hardware acceleration in the Adobe settings menu.

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I have a audio clip that was recorded seperatly from video. I add the audio track which is voice to the video that I have of a person giving speach. I line them up where speach begins and is in sync but say 10 mins into it the clips are out of sync! They should both be in the same time but they are not, how do I fix this?

Once you've determined answers to David's queries,
you will have a better idea of ways to fix
this...i.e. if the audio rates are not aiff and
exactly 48.0Khz/16bit, you could export the audio
into a new file with those parameters and replace
current audio with this file.
Actually, I tried that last night as well after reading this forum. I sent the good audio (aif) to SoundTrack Pro and resampled the file at 48khz to match the sequence settings. Unforunately, this still did not fix the problem.
I also looked at changing the base timing rate from 29.97fps to 30, but I coudn't see a way to change this. I tried changing it from the Advanced settings from the Sequence Settings Dialog, and I can change to 30, but it then gives an error message that it cannot do that.
The idea of a speed change is one I hadn't thought of, but I am doubtful of the results. I seem to be either stuck with bad audio or arduously cutting up the audio every 5 minutes to get it back in sync at those intervals.... I wish I understood why this is happening. It doens't make sense to me.
I still think it has to do with drop frame/non-drop frame, since I was told the whole point of 29.97fps was t solve an audio sync problem. When the audio isn't coming from a video source recorded or captured at 29.97fps then we are going to have sync problems. The question is, now to get it back into sync with these external audio source files, without a lot of headache.

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I use FCE HD and edit HD video off my Sony camcorder. Recently I've got rid of my old Imac G5 and have a newer 2GHz PowerPC G5 with more RAM (2GB) off a friend because my old mac wasn't fast enough and was incapable of playing back some of my edits.
At first when i got my new mac things looked faster and it was playing transitions without dropped frames etc. However now i've started editing again and imported new projects, i've got a big problem with dropped frames during playback and rendering. I get dropped frames during unedited clips let alone at transitions and for some reason, fce will no longer render video. Unedited clips from my latest project need rendering, which i've never had before, but when i try to render them the 'writing video...' pop up flashes, but nothing happens and the video is not rendered!
Now i can't watch and edit some of my projects without dropped frames stopping playback every other clip and i can't do anything with my new ones because the video need rendering but can't be rendered!
Can anyone help me out on either topic?

Hi Ross,
Well, most people, myself included, would say you should consider yourself lucky if doing video via USB ever worked at all for you. Overall, USB is not up to the demands of video, and that is most likely why you are getting your dropped frames problem.
The solutions would be either use your internal HD or get a good external FW drive. I know this is frustrating, as it has been for many people who look at the raw specs where USB 2.0 appears faster than FW400 but in real life, for video especially, it is not.

XMPSES file extension and Out of Sync issues

I captured a VHS tape to an AVI. If I watch this file using Windows Media player, the audio and video are in sync. I then imported the AVI into PE11 and created a video project. I selected the MPEG option for Computer under Publish+Share. I did not change any settings. The preset is NTSC DVD Standard. When the project was complete, I now have two files
FILENAME.MPG
FILENAME.MPG.XMPSES
Also, when I play the .MPG file using Windows Media player, the audio and video are out of sync. The audio is delayed by a couple seconds.
I am using Windows 8.1
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thanks,

uberjaeger
That .xmpses is an informational file attributed to Adobe and described as a Premiere Elements DVD Marker File (has information about DVD marker project, chapters, titles and scenes). I can confirm its existance. I do not suspect that as the source of your out of sync audio in your Publish+Share/Computer/MPEG with NTSC DVD Standard export.
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What were the properties of this import into Premiere Elements 11 - 720 x 480 4:3 @ 29.97 interlaced frames per second or something else? What did you use for Add Media?
What was the project preset of this Premiere Elements 11 project? Did you set the project preset to NTSC DV Standard manually before the Add Media or did you let the program automatically set the project preset based on the first video drag to the project's Timeline? If the program took charge, what did it set? Please see Edit Menu/Project Settings/General and the readings for Editing Mode, Timebase, Frame Size, and Pixel Aspect Ratio (even if grayed out).
If you take your Timeline directly to Publish+Share/Disc/DVD disc, does the DVD-VIDEO standard on DVD disc play back with out of sync audio?
By the way, do you have the VLC Player and does your mpg play back with audio out of sync there?
Let us start here and then decide what next.
Thank you.
ATR

Dropped Frames and Sluggish Performance since 10.0.6

Hey all, I am having a rough time since the latest update and I can't seem to figure out what to do next. I am working on a project and it seems that I am stuck on how to proceed. I was working fine with my set up until a couple days ago..
I have a high end 27' iMac quad i7 3.4 with 16gb of ram and a 1gb graphcis card and mountain lion
I run my media off of a Drobo S via firewire 800, which had two 3tb bay to start with and just recently added another 2 3 tb drives.
All of my footage comes from a Canon 7D DSLR and when imported is checked off to optimize media to make things run faster and at better performance.
After running the latest update it seems that everything in fcpx just crawls. I can play a clip in the event browser just fine, but when I try to play a timeline that I had made just days before it chokes and starts dropping frames immediately. I cant edit with the dropped frames and sluggish reaction that im getting.
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iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, all have no issues at all with my Airport Extreme Base Station. Can stay connected throughout my living room, bathroom, bedroom, no issues whatsoever.
My 5 month old MacBook Pro 2.66 GHz Core i7 Airport is sometimes perfect, able to connect, DHCP, and browse without issue. Then, for no reason, I won't be able to join my wireless network, or when I can join, I can't pick up an IP address. And then it will connect, pick up and IP, and then it won't browse. No real rhyme or reason to when this will happen, or when it works.
I thought that it was an issue with my MacBook Pro, but then my sister visited with her brand new MacBook Pro 2.26 Intel Core 2 Duo, and while a month ago she was able to connect, DHCP, and browse without issue, this weekend she had all of the same issues I was having.
My XBOX 360 and MacBook Pro have absolutely no issues with the wired connection. Only my WAN seems to have this issue.
Did you ever find anything more to this?

Problems with dropped frames in FCP 4.5 Log & Capture

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Basically, the video and audio are fine while playing back in Log and Capture and I can control the device, but any attempt to capture, whether Capture Now or Clip result in a very jerky picture and aborts with dropped frames after a few seconds. The sound is ok for the few seconds before it aborts. There do not appear to be any problems with the timecode.
My capture preset is DV Pal 48hz.
Any advice or pointers gratefully received.
Thanks, Ally

Well quite. I have just tried it in the internal hard drive and it works fine now. I am going to have to capture everything to my small hard drive and move it across to the external. Then, when I have finished I am going to bang my head against the wall and buy an external HDD with Firewire.
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I made a short film recently (7:00 mins) and once completed and burned to DVD using iDVD and DVD Studio Pro about 20% of the clips have out of sync audio. Just slightly out of sync. Some more noticeable than others.
Playing off the timeline syncs perfect, the exported prores 422 mov file syncs perfectly, and if the finished DVD is played on my mac or my pc the sync is perfect, but when played on a standard dvd player to my TV I get the syncing problem, but only at certain points through the film. As I said, about 20% of it. The rest of the film is fine.
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I am STUMPPED
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Should I convert just the clips which are out of sync in the DVD, or all of theclips in the FCP timeline?
If that is the issue, wouldn't I have the problem in the final prores mov as opposed to just when its played dvd to tv?
Ill try it though. Its an odd problem so its likely to have an odd solution. Willing to try anything at this point.
Thank you.

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My setup:
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My Airport Express was streaming audio fine (using the Remote application on my iPhone) however within the last 4 or 5 months music has been playing back choppy dropping in and out every 5-10 seconds or so for about a half a second. Does not matter what music I am playing. Cannot get iTunes to output audio locally on my laptop (only via Express) so think there is something going on.
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Any thoughts?

an update, switched the G4 laptop out with a G5 tower, keeping the rest of the setup the same, and the music played fine. Switched back to my laptop and the music played choppy. Noticed the CPU was bouncing around quite a bit on the laptop while playing music and that is when the music would cut out. So must be my laptop? Weird as the laptop worked fine for years and that is when it only had 512MB RAM. I did just update the laptop to 10.5 from 10.4 so perhaps 10.5 is the problem?
However I am running Twonhy Media Server on the laptop to stream video from the same server the music is on. I stream it to a PS3 and it streams perfect.
I would seem that iTunes does not efficiently stream music via mounted servers?
Message was edited by: David K Oberlin Jr.

Dealing with dropped frames and out of sync audio

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