Drop Frames & No RT Effects

I'm just getting started with FCP and I'm wondering why I'm getting dropped frame on something as basic as an cross fade transition between two short (35 seconds each) clips (from a 5d MkII). Also, I'm not seeing any real time effects or transitions (bold menu items).
Here is my system:
Mac Pro 8 Core (1st gen 2007)
ATI Radeon X1900 XT
16GB RAM
WD VelociRaptor 600GB OS Drive
Kingston SSD 64GB Scratch Drive
G-RAID 4TB Content Drive
OSX 10.6.4
Final Cut Studio 7
Thanks!

1957Goldtop wrote:
So the scratch disk is not a performance thing as it is in Photoshop?
Correct, for the most part. The scratch disk keeps people from putting all their footage from their projects on their system drives, which does help performance.
This means that I shouldn't keep it on a 64GB SSD drive otherwise I'll run out of space as I start more an more projects.
Correct.
I guess from my thinking the render files, autosaves, etc should be going on my content drive and not the scratch drive. So, does that mean I have to manually delete past project's files on the scratch drive?
Yes. You can do it from within FCP by making files offline, or just do it in Finder.
I did get the EOS plug in and installed it. The problem is the error message I posted previously. I can't select the folder that contains my raw video and I never get the chance to use the EOS plugin.
With Log & Transfer, you basically want to go to the top folder on the drive, for example:
Card>CanonFolder>Folder>Folder>files files files should be copied to your drive as:
NEW NAMED FOLDER>CanonFolder>Folder>Folder>files files files
And you navigate to NEW NAMED FOLDER.
You must copy all directory information from the card, as it contains files that tell FCP what is what.

Similar Messages

Why does Premiere Pro stop, or drop frames when using the Timecode Effect.

The Timecode Effect is gpu accelerated, the render bar is yellow and it still drops frames.
If it drops frames on a yellow bar, how can I ever trust it to print to tape? It wouldn't be a problem if I could say render the yellow sections of my edit, but it won't because the bar is not red. Very frustrating!
Running 64bit windows 7;
gtx470 graphics card;
12GB of memory (9 reserved for Premiere)
Raid 0 _ Speed Tested Excellent
working with uncompressed black magic 1080i AVI's
It seems to happen when I have overlapping clips with the Timecode Effect on one or both. Plays fine if just a single clip with the effect.
Any help would be great, hopefully I'm just missing something simple..

Harm,
Here is a capture of my speed test. I do have 4 disks on a raid 0, very little data on the drives. I have run 3 tracks of HD with different levels of opacity with no problem. I do crash the drives when I add the forth. So I would like to think that two tracks with accelerated effect should be fairly simple to playback. Am I wrong to be thinking that way? Also only working with 8 bit, This test is for 10 and up.
The read comes in above 500 mb/s. It was on the way up when I captured it.

KB Effect dropping frames

The KB effect is consistently dropping frames on the render, with a black frame or a bunch of black frames appearing in the final rendered clip. Is anyone else experienceing this?
When I first started used '06, it happened about every other time I did a KB, and it could be fixed by making a slight change in the KB setting and re-rendering it by hitting 'update'. Now, it seems to be getting worse. I just re-rendered the same clip with slightly different KB setting 5 times in a row, and got dropped frames iin different places on every single one. What a pain.
Is anyone else experiencing this? Does it sound like an iMovie bug, or an issue with my system? (PS, this never happened until I upgraded to '06. Other than the software update, everything else has remained the same. I also use a scratch HD for editing). System specs: Dual 867 MDD powermac, with 4 internal HDs for scratch space, 1.5 GB RAM (Well within the specs recommended for iMovie).
Thanks
PS - I am really having a hard time not getting negative about Apple. iMovie was a big part of why I switched to Mac 3 years ago, and ever since iMovie2, this app has gone downhill in terms of bugs and usability. Apple should be embarrased at the number of glitches in this.

Do you have any third-party QuickTime add-ons installed? Users have reported lots of weird problems associated with any of these: 3ivx, Divx, Flip4Mac. If so, remove them and Restart your Mac.
They may be located in the Hard Disk>Library>QuickTime folder, or your User>Library>QuickTime folder.
And remove any third-party iMovie plug-ins too.
PS - I am really having a hard time not getting negative about Apple.
iMovie was a big part of why I switched to Mac 3 years ago, and ever
since iMovie2, this app has gone downhill in terms of bugs and usability.
Apple should be embarrased at the number of glitches in this.
Couldn't agree more. Please tell Apple about the problems:
http://www.apple.com/feedback/imovie.html
Karl

Drop frames on a DV timeline- no effects- why?

I am running a Dual Quad 3.0 GHz Intel
10.6.1
16 gig
FCS 3
ATI 4870
FW 800 capture drive.
The same system I ran under Leopard.
Ever since I installed Snow leopard- I am getting dropped frame warning like crazy???
On dv timelines with no effects.
If I try to adjust the audio volume using the audio mixer I get dropped frames.
This is something I did all the time without issue.
Now I get a warning to turn off unlimited (which BTW is off) lower compression rate, increase speed, etc.
Please- what can be happening?
I suppose I could turn off the warnings- but should I really be dropping frames for something so simple - with this kind of maxed out of hardware?
I did a fresh install of everything.
Snow leopard- FCS3 - all my third party plug-ins....is there something in some folder that needs to be deleted (which always seems to be the case with software upgrades)
repair prefs, ect.
Is anyone else having issues since switching to SL
or am I the only fool and I should revert back until it's really ready to handle FCS3?

I just posted this to another, similar, thread. I neglected to mention that my G5, on which I'm having no problems, is running 10.4.11.
Your problem may be related to mine: in FC7, dropped frames during play of very short and simple Std DV projects, occurring only when canvas is synced with viewer in video tab mode (same exact scenario on my G5 running FC5 results in no dropped frames whatsoever). Considerable troubleshooting and consultation with technicians at Apple, during which the problem was duplicated on their own machines, led to their determination that a bug exists in either FC7 or Snow Leopard 6.1, and the issue was sent to Engineering for further analysis and resolution. This was a week or so ago, and I assume this will be fixed in a future update of FC7 or SL. Meanwhile, I've turned off "Report dropped frames during playback" in User Preferences. It's done its job for now.

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?

Can't Get Rid of Dropped Frames in FCP 7

Hello all,
I am editing in FCP and have only gotten as far as laying down a music track (MP3), and some b-role. I have given myself some space at the beginning of the track, and as soon as the video kicks in I get the dropped frames message. There are no fancy edits or effects, just the video. It happens with both .MOV files taken with my Canon 7D, and with footage I had converted from .MTS.
The RT drop-down menu in the timeline only offers the following options:
Play Base Layer Only
Use Playback Settings
Full Quality
I have gone into Playback Control under System Settings and adjusted the options to the following:
RT: Safe
Video Quality: Low
Frame Rate: Quarter
I am still receiving the dropped frame message. My footage is stored on a 500 GB external Rugged LaCie drive, and is connected using 8-pin FireWire. The footage is being edited in 1080. Everything is up to date.
Much appreciation for your help.

Thank you both for replying.
I converted the audio file (but still getting the error message) to AIFF/16bit/48kHz using iTunes. I had converted the .MTS fils to .MOV with iSkysoft Converter to the following settings:
Resolution: 1920x1080
Frame Rate: 23.97
Bit Rate: High Quality
Channel: 2 Channels stereo
Sample Rate: 44100
Bit Rate: Medium
I did not convert any of the Canon files to Pro Res. What do I need to do with those files? and is there something I can do during capture to help save a step in post?
Thanks again to you both!
Warmest regards,
~Shawn
Message was edited by: ShawnSpitler

Dropped Frames During Playback, How Much Hardware Should I have

I have a Mac Pro Dual Xeon 2.66 with 1 gig of ram and the Nvidia 256 meg card, I added a second hard drive which is a Seagate Barracuda 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s and that is my scratch disk. I was trying to play a sequence that is from the tutorial disk in the Final Cut Pro 5 book by Diana Weynard. For those who know the book it is the "adding text" sequence from lesson 15.
I can play most of the sequences on the book's dvd in real time fine except for this one. With this one as soon as I get to the clips that have a lot of audio channels as well as a lower third text effect I get the dropped frames message. I can render the whole sequence and watch the whole thing fine. Really my question is this: I thought having spent what I did on a mac pro that would be enough hardware power to play back almost anything in real time, but do I need something else like more memory or the faster ati video card to play back this "heavier" sequences?
I've tried various solutions like deleting my pref file, reducing the number of real time audio mixing tracks to just 2. I even deleted the audio tracks in teh sequence so there were only 2 video tracks that had to play - a person speaking with just one outline video effect on the track above, and still it drops frames.
Thanks.

I can play most of the sequences on the book's dvd in real time fine except for this one. With this one as soon as I get to the clips that have a lot of audio channels as well as a lower third text effect I get the dropped frames message. I can render the whole sequence and watch the whole thing fine. Really my question is this: I thought having spent what I did on a mac pro that would be enough hardware power to play back almost anything in real time, but do I need something else like more memory or the faster ati video card to play back this "heavier" sequences?
Some of those sequences are HD. A single 7200 rpm drive will only deliver one or two HD streams without choking. My 7200 rpm internals will only deliver 4 streams of DV before skipping. If I move some clips to another drive and segregate my render files to another drive I can get up to 6 DV streams but it's not reliable.
Processing the audio requires significant overhead as does recovering the audio segments of the files. I rarely have more than 6 tracks open.Lowering the playback quality will increase the numbers of tracks you can play in realtime.
History note: Older NLEs required audio and video to be captured to separate drives, unnecessary with DV.
bogiesan

Dropped frames during playback and Record To Tape

Mac G-5, OS X 10.4.4; 4 X 2.5 GHz; 4.5 GB DDR2; NVIDIA GeForce 6600 w/256MB.
G-Raid 1TB, Format Mac OS Extended; External FireWire 800 port.
Maxtor 300GB Internal, Format Mac OS Extended (journaled)
Tape deck, Sony Mini DV GV-D1000 NTSC FireWire 400 port used for digitizing and mastering.
Have searched forum for solution to dropped frames. Based on other suggestions, set Final Cut Pro 5 RT button to SafeRT; Playback quality to High; Playback Frame Rate, Full. Compression rate at 75%. Sequence > Render All-Video Needs Rendering;Audio, For Playback Render Only-Mixdown.
System Settings--Scratch Disk Video Capture and Audio Capture set to RAID. Video Render and Audio Render set both to Maxtor or RAID. Either case dropped frames.
User Preference--Real-Time Audio Mixing, 2 tracks (have also tried 4 tracks, which equals # of tracks actually used).
In spite of changing all the above settings, I still get dropped frames. Am I missing yet another setting that will fix the problem?
Kerwin

Any heavy filtering and/or effects?...including audio, since you've specified the same number of audio tracks in your real-time audio prefs that you're working with...
...and yes, please explain 75% compression...
K

Dropped Frames...

I am editing using Premiere Pro for CS4. I edited some footage on a sequence with the incorrect settings and am now having major troubles exporting the video.
I shoot HD footage (1280x720, at 24 fps) with a Nikon D90.
What I did wrong initially was to edit the footage with a frame rate of 25 instead of 24/23.976 . When I realized my mistake, I copied this footage into a new sequence with the correct settings and frame rate.
However, now the footage is very jumpy and drops frames after it is exported. I looked for a feature that would allow me to remove the distortion due to copying the edited footage between sequences with different frame rates (like Final Cut's "remove attributes", "distort"). However, so far I cannot find anything.
If this is not the main problem, I am guessing that I am exporting the video incorrectly. The only preset that allows me to have both HDV and 1280x720 (the size of my video) is H.264. However, this same preset only allows for 23.976 fps, not 24 fps (which is what the D90 records in). Could this be the issue?
Any ideas? I would love some help!

OK, I downloaded the video from Vimeo, and while it's more than likely a reencode of your encode, it did reveal something interesting. First off, the info pulled from the file using MediaInfo:
General
Complete name                    : E:\_COMMON_\Test Clips\4137274.mp4
Format                           : MPEG-4
Format profile                   : Base Media / Version 2
Codec ID                         : mp42
File size                        : 34.1 MiB
Duration                         : 2mn 28s
Overall bit rate                 : 1 921 Kbps
Encoded date                     : UTC 2009-07-01 05:37:03
Tagged date                      : UTC 2009-07-01 05:37:03
Video
ID                               : 201
Format                           : AVC
Format/Info                      : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                   : [email protected]
Format settings, CABAC           : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames        : 4 frames
Codec ID                         : avc1
Codec ID/Info                    : Advanced Video Coding
Duration                         : 2mn 28s
Bit rate mode                    : Variable
Bit rate                         : 1 800 Kbps
Maximum bit rate                 : 4 506 Kbps
Width                            : 1 280 pixels
Height                           : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio             : 16/9
Frame rate mode                  : Constant
Frame rate                       : 23.976 fps
Resolution                       : 24 bits
Colorimetry                      : 4:2:0
Scan type                        : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)               : 0.081
Stream size                      : 31.8 MiB (93%)
Writing library                  : x264 core 67 r1171 2c7cb4c
Encoding settings                : cabac=1 / ref=4 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x133 / me=hex / subme=6 / psy_rd=1.0:0.0 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / chroma_qp_offset=-4 / threads=16 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / mbaff=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=1 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / wpredb=1 / keyint=120 / keyint_min=24 / scenecut=40 / rc=2pass / bitrate=1800 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / ip_ratio=1.40 / pb_ratio=1.30 / aq=1:1.00
Encoded date                     : UTC 2009-07-01 05:37:03
Tagged date                      : UTC 2009-07-01 05:37:04
Audio
ID                               : 101
Format                           : AAC
Format/Info                      : Advanced Audio Codec
Format version                   : Version 4
Format profile                   : LC
Format settings, SBR             : No
Codec ID                         : 40
Duration                         : 2mn 28s
Bit rate mode                    : Variable
Bit rate                         : 124 Kbps
Maximum bit rate                 : 139 Kbps
Channel(s)                       : 2 channels
Channel positions                : L R
Sampling rate                    : 44.1 KHz
Resolution                       : 16 bits
Stream size                      : 2.20 MiB (6%)
Encoded date                     : UTC 2009-07-01 05:37:03
Tagged date                      : UTC 2009-07-01 05:37:04
What makes me think (positive) that your file is reencoded is that the "Writing Library" is listed as a fairly old build of the open source x264 encoder--I imagine you used AME to export this file originally. In any event, this is only interesting if, well, you're interested in looking at this kind of stuff (I am, anyway!). Ahem...
After I downloaded the file, I played it back in MPC, and it played pretty much the same as it did on Vimeo... this is more or less to be expected. However, I noticed something interesting during playback, which I explored a little more in the next part.
Finally, I imported the MP4 file into Premiere, where I'd have frame-by-frame playback control. This is where I confirmed what I thought I saw in the MPC playback. If you load the clip (at least this reencoded version--I have no idea whether this is happening on your original or not, so you'll have to experiment) into the source monitor and step through one frame at a time, you'll quickly see something odd: after 23 frames, the 24th frame is a repeat of the 23rd! This happens over and over, every second: 23 changing frames followed by one that is the same as the frame immediately preceding it. Now, I can't tell if frames are being dropped, because I have no way of knowing what's missing; you'd have to confirm that by comparing the encoded file to the originals in the timeline as I described previously.
So, what does this all mean? I really can't say, unfortunately. Something fishy is going on. Did you by any chance accidentally export from the 25p timeline to a 24p destination file? That could have the effect I'm seeing, but then again, maybe not.
Do a little bit of tinkering with your project and the encodes, and see what you can uncover. I believe it's a simple thing; it's just hard to get to the bottom of it without looking directly at the issue.

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*

Dropped Frames in the Xsan environment

Hello Everyone, I have just setup a SAN network and have been experiencing dropped frames when capturing HD Pro Res 422 on my two client computer at the same time. I have been successful capturing on one computer at a time and playing the same capture scratch footage on both systems at once with 5 streams of video playing on both system with effects, opacity changes and have experience no problems with that.
Let me backup and give all the information I can about our setup.
We did a clean install on a G5 with the latest version of Leopard and 3Gb of Ram for our primary MDC. We have 2 client computers (1 acting as the backup MDC) These computers are both Brand new G5's with 6Gb of Ram and Dual 3Ghz processors. All CPU's are Running the latest version of Leopard.
We are using Xsan 2.1 for the admin, a 16-drive Vtrak Promise RAID system for storage, and qlogic 5600 Sanbox for the Fiber Switch.
For RAID'ing the storage together, we following the Apple spec's for setting up our arrays in conjunction with the Promise Drives. We have 2 drives in RAID1 for our metadata LUN with additional drive tasked as a spare to this LUN. We then RAIDed 6 drives together in RAID 5 (3 from each RAID Controller), we then repeated this process to create 2-6 Drive LUNS. Out last drive was tasked to be the backup for both of these LUNS.
We setup our volume with the RAID 5 Drives Arrays to be Our Data (Video Capture) and the RAID 1 drive to store our Metadata and Journal Information. If any more info is needed to help you answer my issue, please let me know and I'll answer you as best I can.
In my testing of the system, I setup our two client computers to capture as we would in a Real World 2-editor project. Everything was going fine until I tried to capture on both systems at the same time with the PRO Res 422 HQ codec. Am I pushing the system too hard? I wouldn't think so as two streams of that footage should be topping out at 50-60mb per sec, and with my AJA speed Test I am getting write speeds of 300mb per sec and read speeds of 400 mb per sec.
Also in my Vtrak Promise Logs, I see a "Entering Critical Mode" warning just as the dropped frames occur.
There is also no consistent point at which the dropped frames occur, sometimes it's 30 seconds in, sometimes 15 minutes in, and both systems drop the frames at the same point one system never keeps on going if the other drops frames.
In my Xsan Admin I have the folders that I am capturing to set to the "Video" affinity so I know that the footage should be headed to my Raid 5 drives.
Sorry about the long post, just wanted to give as much info as I could on the first go around, any help is greatly appreciated! I'll be working this problem all day tomorrow, Hope to have the system up and running next week, but I want to really test this out as much as I can in the meantime, thanks in advance!!
-Casey

Just wanted to report that the dropped frames issue has been solved for the time being.
I contacted Promise Support and in viewing the logs discovered we had a faulty drive, even though we had a backup drive tasked to the array where the bad drive wasm we had PDM enabled on each array so the Promise Tech guy said that would lead to performance issues.
So even though the SAN would work, if you put a lot of stress on it, it would fail. So here's what we did:
1. Initialized the fauly drive and tasked it as the spare to the new Metadata LUN
2. Disabled PDM on each array
3. Hook up fiber connectivity between previously empty ports on our Promise Box to our fiber switch.
I have been capturing 2 streams of HD Pro Res 422 HQ for the past 30 minutes on both systems with no issues,
I really want to put the system through the wringer and make sure our current setup can handle some demanding stresses. Is there a good test that anyone can recommend? We only have 2 clients on our SAN.

Drop Frame being read as Non-Drop Frame

Hey,
I'm working in FCP HD 5.1.4 and our guys are shooting audio at drop frame, and video at drop frame, and yet when we import the media into FCP, the Video is in Drop frame, but the audio appears to be Non-drop so we're getting BAD sync (some clips 30 seconds, others up to a min.). We're using TOD T/C and it's really important that we convert it cuz we'll shoot 8 hr days, and the first few clips arn't that bad but after so many hours, the sync gets worse and worse.
We're using XDCAM Sony PDW-1500 deck for the video transfer and the audio is BWFs from an external Audio receiver, then it's backed up on lacie drives (prob using compressor) then we're syncing in FCP.
Any thoughts?
Fraser

FraserPost, according to Apple in the Late-breaking FCP news PDF on pg.4, Broadcast Wave Audio Files imported will always be interpreted with non-drop frame TC.
Highlight the clip in the bin, choose Modify Menu option and choose Timecode. You can then change it to drop frame in the options panel.
Then your material should synch up.
For future reference but still notable, if you import an aiff, mp3 or another type of audio file without TC, the file will create TC dictated by the Sequence preset setting. This I found out the hard way. One has to shut down FCP and start it up again for the change to take effect on material imported.
Macbook Pro 2.16G Intel Core Duo Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Drop Frame video (29.97) with Non-Drop Frame Time Code

Howdy All,
I understand that DF TC & Non-Drop frame TC are numbering issues and not frame
count issues, That said,
If I have an encoded file captured from an analog Beta Cam SP that has NDF TC
and that file has been encoded as 29.97, so that the resulting file has
a Frame rate of 29.97 with NDF TC from the source tape,
1) Does this constitute an error?.
2) Will this cause problems for the next guy?.
(having been "The Next Guy" in the past I prefer to handle such things on this end if it requires handling)
I have been looking for a straight answer but this specific cause/effect
is tough to track down.
Thanks in advance for any assistance,
KA

Well, starting as a linear editor I can tell you jam syncing and converting to DF will really screw up the TC. Every 10 seconds you'll have a TC number that's incompatible with the DF counting sequence.
If these are source tapes, you have nothing to worry about. I actually prefer NDF source while editing (I'm very old school) beacuse if I trim 5 frames on a mark I can calculate in my head where the new point would land regarding TC. With DF, I trim and often have to do a double take because the math didn't make sense.
Do NOT ever alter the time code on any source material unless you have a capture failure that you have absolutely no other way of working around.
Anyone can mix DF and NDF source time code on any system without any issues. The only problem with NDF is determining EXCACT running time of a completed program when delivering for broadcast.

Dropped frames during playback from timeline...help asap!

I'm running Final Cut Express 4.0.1 (I've checked and installed latest updates) on a 24" Intel iMac (2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB ram) which I purchased on August 2009.
Before I purchased my new iMac I would use FCE on my 15" MacBook Pro (purchased April '08, similar specs to my iMac) and it would work just fine.
Now here's the problem with running it on the iMac...Everytime I playback any video from the timeline, it would immediately drop frames in less than 3 seconds (even without any effects or filters) and reveal an error window:
"One or more frames were dropped during playback
If this occurs frequently, try:
-Turning off Unlimited RT
-Lowering your compression data rate
-etc..."
However the video in the "Viewer" window plays back videos just fine. I've tried changing scratch disks from an external drive to the internal HDD (both of which are more than 70% free) to no avail. I used to always use Unlimited RT without a problem when I used FCE on my MacBookPro with an external drive. Am I missing a setting that I used with my MacBookPro? I've even opened FCE projects I made using my MBP, and the iMac drops the frames when I play them back.

Here are some screen caps of the item info windows:
http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/1696/screenshot20100608at115.png
http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/1696/screenshot20100608at115.png
I'm using an external HD, an Iomega 1.5TB - Mac OS Extended (Journaled). However it's USB and not firewire (which again wasn't an issue with my MBP). I've also switched to the iMac hard drive and the problem persists.
Let me know of any other info you'd like me to pull up for you.

FCP UB iMAC Dropping Frames, playing stops!

It's fine (new here with this program so be easy on me) also a recent swither, after beta testing Vista, I said, that's it. Even though I have thousands invested in software for PC...
Anyway, FCP 5.1
If I use the arrow tool, and move across timeline, the part plays fine with effects.
If I hit space bar I get error, it stops.
Media on second FW drive.
Not sure how to turn off/down compression?
RT set at unlimited, otherwise I wont see the effects.
What is wrong?
Thanks!

Render files are never seen or accessed by the user.
If you want to convert a bit of media, cut it into
your timeline, render it, export it using Export QuickTime Movie...
(keeping it on Current Settings...), import the clip
you created and use that for your source. No more
need to render.
make sense?
Patrick
Ok, I tried this, check it out...exported a 3 second clip, imported back in, no problem, played great!
Added one (as in "1") zoom effect and got a dropped frame rate warning, now, sure, I could turn it off, but surely there must be a way to see this FX in the chain to see how it works or not without an error (2 GB DDR2).
I noticed you can double click the FX than use the time line to see it, but it's a far cry from realtime speed.
Surely there is hope for me yet!
Thanks again

Drop Frames & No RT Effects

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