Dropped Frame Count

I am using Premier Elements 11 on Dell XPS 500, 8GB memory, I7-3770 CPU 3.4GHz, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. I have encountered one clip that reported dropped frames. Where can find how many frames were dropped? I have transferred several hours of video with no reported dropped frames. I am using a SIIG Firewall card with ADVC55 connected to VCR to transfer some home videos to DVD.

When you use a DV bridge, you'll often get reports of dropped frames because the program is not receiving timecode information from the camcorder, as it would be if you were capturing DV footage.
So you can ignore the message.
But meantime, if you're going to capture through your bridge, open Preferences (under the Edit menu on a PC) and go to the Capture page. Make sure that all three boxes (related to timecode and dropped frames) aren unchecked.

Similar Messages

How timecode counts in 720p24 drop frame ?

This might be a slightly OT question, since it doesn't apply just to FCP, but its more general.
As any +drop frame+ timecode, also p24 drop frame (actually running at 23.976 fps) must have some timecode numbers dropped; I guess about 14 (14,4 in theory) in 10 minutes or about 29 in 20 minutes.
My question is: which timecode values are dropped in this case?
To clarify my question: in the case of p30 or i60 +drop frame+ (actually running at 29.97 fps) I know that 18 timecodes are dropped every 10 minutes, and they are exactly 2 timecodes each minute, except minutes 0, 10, 20, etc. So hh:01:00;01, hh:01:00;02, hh:02:00;01, hh:02:00;02, etc. are dropped; but hh:00:00;01, hh:00:00;02, hh:00:10;01, hh:00:10;02, etc. are NOT dropped...
Then, in case of 24p +drop frame+ which values area dropped ?
Thanks
Piero

THis isn't just FCP. 23.98 is non-drop period. On tape, on FCP, on Avid, on Premiere. 23.98 DROP FRAME code does not exist.
So when it plays from 00:10:00:00 (and say you started at 00:00:00:00), it will read 00:10:00:00. But in ACTUAL time it will be 00:10:00:14.
Getting proper ACTUAL time from 23.98 is tough. That is why I use the Timecode Calculator. It has a 23.98 DROP FRAME setting ONLY for timing out the show. Type in the number in 23.98 non-drop, then switch to drop to see the actual time.
Shane

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?

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*

DV NTSD drop-frame vs. non-drop-frame??

My impression has always been that DV NTSC is non-drop frame. I'm having to capture a 100 hours of DV tapes from a Sony WV-DR7 deck. FCP capture is giving me this warning:
"You are about to capture Non-Drop Frame media from a device currently detecting or configured for Drop Frame media. If you proceed, you may experience changes in logged in and out points, problems relinking media, or removal of master clip relationships."
The Sony is all in Japanese, and the rough translation manual does not mention drop frame \ non-drop frame setting choices on the deck.
Would anyone have any suggestions or recommendations?
Ben

Sorry to be confusing~~~~
What I meant was, since I wasn't sure if the VTR you are using actually shows the timecode window, or just a timecode counter (the Sony DSR-11's display does not show the colon/semicolon difference in the display that is supered on the non-digital video outs), I thought the quickest way to assess what flavor of TC you had was to play the tape and use "Capture Now" to capture a few seconds. Then you can look in the bin, check the media start column and see if there are semi-colons or colons. This would be helpful particularly if FCP is balking at capturing from your logged marks.
The other thing I was talking about was a case where I had been given DVCam copies of camera masters, to use for a rough cut. Because these tapes were work prints, they used old DVCam tapes. One of the tapes had originally had DF material on it. When the tape op made the workprint, he started recording the new NDF material about 10 seconds into the tape, he therefore left 10 seconds of DF bars at the head of the reel (the old material). I put the tape in a DSR-11, fast wound up to picture, and started logging. When I was at the end of the reel, I hit rewind on the machine so it would rewind while I was clearing up spelling errors, etc. The machine backed all the way to head of the tape, into the DF area.
So when I hit batch capture, the machine reported back to FCP that it had a tape with the correct name loaded, but the time code was in the incorrect format - the message you received. It took a while to figure it out, but when I wound the tape forward, so that it was in the picture portion of the reel, the machine was then outputting the code that FCP was expecting. So by "parking" the deck in the picture portion of the tape, it would cue correctly from the logged point.
Hope this explains it. hope you have a simple solution, too.
Message was edited by: Meg The Dog to fix typo

Drop frame video to non-drop frame clip warning (again)

So my most recent search of why this warning comes up reveals no good answers (unless someone can point me to a thread I overlooked...cuz I can't narrow it down without getting threads about folks who have gotten dropped frames during capture, which isn't the same situation)...
I shoot on an XL2 (drop frame) and capture with a DSR-11. Once in a while I will finish going through log and capture (in the log and capture window), setting ins, outs, etc. but I go to batch capture and it gives me the warning. All my ins/outs have semi-colons, I haven't changed the setting on my camera since I started using it more than 18 months ago, and it doesn't happen all the time. I do have the "abort capture on dropped frames" box unchecked as well (if that matters).
99.99% of the time, I've captured and there's no problems with syncing or anything. Thoughts?
Thanks,
Jonathan

If I recall right someone suggest to have your tape playing while opening Log and Capture, but I might recall wrong
I already have the "Abort on dropped frames" and "report dropped frames" unchecked.
Don't be mistaken: Dropped frames are a totally different issue from non-drop and drop frame timecode.
Drop frame timecode drops (or better: skips) timcodenumbers while counting the videoframes. That is a system to compensate for the 29,97 frames per second in order to calculate the correct length of a clip.
Dropped frames (as in "Abort on dropped frames" and "report dropped frames") is an error. Due to some reason the hardware isn't capable to record/digitize every single videoframe to your harddisk. e.g. Your captured file will have 2000 frames, while your footage on tape had 2003. Three frames were dropped then during capture. And your video will noticeble stutter at these points.
So I'd strongly recommend to do check the "Abort on dropped frames" and "report dropped frames"-options. You don't want stuttering video do you. So if your hardware couldn't handle the videofeed somehow, it would resp. abort capture or warn you that it happened.
Rienk

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.

Drop frame errors?

I'm using Final Cut Pro 6.0.2. When I bring up the log and capture window it controls whatever device or tape format I'm using (mini DV or DVC Pro). When I set in and out points the counter shows the time code info and it agrees with what the VTR is showing. When I click on Clip and say OK it tells me that it's having "trouble reading the data on my tape source." I have tried four different tape devices. I have tried to capture on the fly and I get a similar messages. I can Log and Transfer from my P2 cards without any trouble. Is there a drop frame setting that could cause this and where would I find the setting.

Thanks, but no I've tried several tapes both Mini DV and DVC pro that were recorded on the same VTR. I think this only began when we updated Final Cut 6 as I've been using my P2 cards for editing and I have no issue with them. Some setting some where but I don't have the experience to know where to begin.

Drop Frame or Non Drop Frame in HDV format

Hello folks,
I am still learning all new things about HDV, so I am wondering what is the correct frame setting when shooting in HDV. In DV I have always used drop frame, because 29.89 frame rate. But what about HDV? Is that the same idea, or is the frame rate different? And how does FCP recognize this?
Thank You,
K.

It doesn't matter. Shooting DF or NDF doesn't matter. The frame rate is the same, just the way the frames are counted is different:
http://www.csif.org/html/dropframe.html
This doesn't really matter when shooting, AFIAK.
Shane

Dropped frames on the timeline... why ??

Hi everybody,
This is my first post here... i'm French, so please excuse my english
I have a little but very annoying problem on Final Cut Pro 7.
I work with a Canon HV40, HDV 1080 25p.
The FCP project is set on HDV 1080 25p.
When i play the imported footage from the browser in the viewer : everything's fine.
But then, when i take a clip, put it on the timeline, and read it in the canvas, some frames seem to have disappeared. Like 1 or 2 times per second (i haven't really counted), one frame is missing. I have no error message for that, as if it was perfectly normal...
I read like half the internet to find out about this problem, but no answer seemed good enough for me.
Some clues to solve the puzzle :
1/ every other program was shut down.
2/ the very same frames are missing, every time i play the timeline. So i guess it doesn't seem to be random.
3/ When i use the left and right arrow keys to play the timeline "frame by frame", i can see that the frames are really missing. My conclusion is that it's not a problem of power, or ram or whatever. The frames really seem to have disappeared. When i export the project, the frames are missing in the created film too.
4/ Again, playing clips in the browser is absolutely fine. No dropped frames. The problems appear when the clip is on the timeline. Maybe the timeline has properties that i haven't coreectly configured ?
5/ This is the very first time i use FCP... this means the solution can be very simple (I used to work with Pinnacle Liquid Edition, on PC)
If anyone has an idea...
Thank you very much for your help.

Here are some new elements !
I decided to hunt every missing frame, and the answer is : one missing frame every 25 frames. Which means 24 frames are normal, 1 is erased, 24 normal, 1 missing, and so on.
This confirms :
- it's not a random bug
- it's related to the number of frames per second
- I am the one who did something wrong... Final Cut is probably innocent !
I zoomed on the time line. The timecode goes :
00:00:00:00
00:00:00:01
00:00:00:02
00:00:00:22
00:00:00:23
00:00:01:00
This would mean 24 frames per second ?!
I thought i had set everything i could on HDV 1080p25 or 25 fps everytime FCP asked... turns out i was wrong.
When I click "Sequence", "Settings", i can see Quick Time Compressor is set at "HDV 1080p25", but Timebase says 23,98.
I guess it could be the problem... do i have to change the Timebase ? How do i do that ?
Thanks again for your help.

29.97 Drop Frame Broken?

Hey all,
I'm trying to lock Pro Tools up to Logic 8, like I've been doing in Logic 7 for years.
Strangely, it only works if I put PT into 29.97 (non drop). Whether or not I put Logic into 29.97df or not, PT locks up if it's in 29.97 non drop.
This suggests that Logic 8 is putting out 29.97nd when i set it to 29.97df.
Am I missing something? Can anyone confirm this?
Thanks for help!

It is the same old story with the same old confusion. and I don't even know where to start:
* If you are setting the sample rate on your DAW or any digital device, you are setting the CLOCK FREQUENCY, or CLOCK SPEED, i.e. 44kHz, 48kHz. You determine a speed on how fast the ADC cuts the analog wave form into discrete samples or how fast the DAC puts each sample back together.
* If you look at SMPTE timecode you see number like 24fps, 30fps, 29.97fps. This is called the Frame Rate. However here is the big difference. *The Frame Rate tells you TWO things*. Yes 2TWO ! If you are not aware of that, then you might have difficulties understanding frame rates like 29.97df or 23.976
_The two informations are:_
1) The SPEED or FREQUENCY or RATE. How fast do you take samples (in this case picture frames), or how often you take a picture snapshot: 24 times per second, 30 times per second or an uneven number 29.97 times per second. This is called the "FRAME RATE" measured in "fps" frames per second. Again just a clocking information. How fast the frames where taken and therefore how fast (at what speed) do you have to put the frames back together to get everything back into sync.
2) The second information in the Frame Rate number deals with LABELING. Now this is important. It tells you how to label each frame, or how you count them. "0 to 29 and start again" or "0 to 29 and start again, but at specific minutes you start counting from 2 to 29". You see these are just rules how you label each frame. The reason for some of the rules have to do with history and how some not so smart engineers came up with bad compromises.
_One Example;_
The Frame Rate 29.97df tells you that the clock rate is 29.97 frames per second and the numbering of the frames follows the "drop frame" rules. If you sync two devices, you only send the clock speed. In order that the slave counts the frames exactly the same way, you have to make sure to to set the Frame Rate on the slave to the correct number. Now it counts the frames in the same way as the master.
Everybody outside the USA who doesn't have to deal with NTSC video standard is lucky and might not even be aware of that dual information in the Frame Rate setting because with 24f (film standard) or 25f (PAL standard the clock speed and label convention is the same, i.e. sampling the picture 25 times per second and labeling the frames 0 to 24.
One major feature addition to L8 was the 23.976 frame rate. Whoever had to work in the past with animation, feature film output from an Avid or HD production was faced with 24f picture clocked to 29.97 fps. And selecting that new Frame Rate in the Synchronization Setting lets you do that. I clocks Logic with 29.97 fps but counts the frames from 0 to 23.
_My little rant:_
With the transition to HDTV, engineers had the chance to get rid of that 29.97 nonsense clock speed. But guess what, they carried it over. Of course they saved money by keeping their house clock in their facility at 29.97 but if you think of all the continuing errors based on those clock speed mismatches for all the future projects you will see that the monetary damage will be much bigger, it will just be equally spread to everybody involved in the project. If you work with film, just think on how many hours of troubleshooting you are wasted just to deal with video sync issues (most likely 29.97fps related)

Drop frames

Hello,
Cann somebody tell me how to configurate the drop/non drop frame setting and how to know which is the best setting?
Because I made a video dvd and there are red spots/frames on, this has something to do with the drop/non drop setting.
Please let me know.
Regards,
Mischa

Mischa.
Drop Frame or Non Drop Frame has absolutely ZIP to do with these flashes you are seeing.
Nothing at all.
For a quick & dirty explanation of Drop/Non Drop:
>What's drop frame timecode?
Fortunately, those of us in PAL-land don't have to worry about such things :-), but for historical technical reasons NTSC broadcasts 29.97 frames per second. If you round this to 30 and number your frames accordingly then timecode will no longer correspond to elapsed time, so to correct this drop frame timecode skips over certain frame numbers. The frames themselves aren't dropped, just the numbers. To understand what's going on better it might help to think it terms of simpler numbers. Imagine a system using 9.5 frames a second, say. You might label frames by counting 10 frames one second and 9 the next. You haven't lost a frame, just skipped one number every 2 seconds in your counting sequence to keep things in step. Drop frame timecode is the same, except it skips 2 frame numbers a minute, 9 minutes out of 10 ((10 minutes - 2*9) / 10 minutes = 17982/18000 = 29.97)
Hope that makes sense.

Dropped frames during playback & must render everything & tried everything

This is an updated question. My last posting for some reason did not include everything, such as my System Settings, A/V Settings, and View Settings. There also was no Preview option. Hope it works this time.
I am editing a multiple camera project with a lot of color correction (to get the cameras to match up), and photo montages with motion and image compositing.
I am getting way too many dropped frames during playback, and I have to render every little thing, even simple dissolves. It's taking forever to work like this, and is extremely counter productive. I have tried all the obvious things, but nothing seems to be working. Please help.
I have a 17 inch Mac Book Pro, using OX 10.4.8, processor 2.16 ghz, Intel Core Duo, memory 2 gigs, 667 mhz, DDR2 SDRAM.
Using FCP 5.1.4, and Quicktime 7.1.3
My external hard drive is a 300 gig Maxtor One Touch II, firewire 800, 7200 rpm, which is divided up into 3 partitions of 100 gigs each:
First Partition - 12.79 gigs left (did not use for this project. Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
Second Partition - 44.53 gigs left. Currently using now. MAC OS Extended.
Third Partition - 47.75 gigs left. (Used earlier - had another project on it and ran out of space so I switched to the second partition. The other project is now deleted which left me 47.75 gigs.) Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
Here are my current settings that may be applicable:
- Tried variations of playback control: safe and unlimited
- Tried variations of playback video quality: dynamic, high, medium and low.
- Tried variations of playback frame rate: dynamic, full, 1/2, and 1/4
- Record to tape is at full quality.
- Play Base Layer only: Tried on and off
- Monitor Color LCD 1280 x 800 millions, NTSC/PAL 640 x 480 60 hertz NTSC. There is only one ntsc setting which is 60 hertz, so I am unable to increase it.
- User Prefs - Real time audio mixing is at 2.
- System Settings
Memory Usage
Application 100% (1820 MB)
Still Cache 10% (167 MB)
Thumbnail Cache
Disk 8192 k
Ram 512 k
- A/V Settings
Sequence Presets
Frame size - 720 x 480 pixels
Edit timebase - 29.97 fps
Field Dominance - lower even
Pixel Aspect Ratio - NTSC-CCIR 601/DV
Anamorphic - Off
Video Processing - YUV allowed (8 bit)
White Point - White
Compressor - dv/dvcpro-ntsc
Millions of Colors (24 bit)
No Date Rate Limit
No Keyframes Set
Quality - 100
Audio Settings
16-bit 48.000 kHz stereo
View
Video Playback - Digital Cinema Desktop - Full Screen
Sequence
Render All - Everything is checked.
I haven't increase my memory aloted to fcp yet, cause I'm not sure how do it with this version. The article that I found was for the older version. Would that help? If so, could someone tell me exactly how to do it?
Well, that's it. Hope one of you experts out there will be able to help me out.
Thanks
Anneita

Even if you use Dynamic as your playback setting, depending on the complexity of the edit or composite, you may still get dropped frames. Keep in mind that the weak link in this chain is the FW800 connection. You also mentioned that you using quite a bit of color correction as well as motion effects. Depending on the color correction, the more that you add to your sequence as far as effects are concerned, the more processing is required. The dropped frames that you are experiencing is most likely the computer trying to maintain realtime playback at the expense of the quality of the picture. In order to really judge the final result, you'll need to render.
The official definition of Dynamic Playback:
This option allows Final Cut Pro to automatically change between high,
medium, and low quality as necessary to maintain real-time playback. In this case,
the quality of the video resolution can change frame by frame.

Trackpad drops frames?

I finally got my MBP today. I installed FCE and started testing some effects and render times. Everything was going well, till I started getting dropped frame errors (Safe RT, dynamic quality). Eventually I realized that it happened when I moved the cursor with the trackpad during playback. It's pretty consistent in that it plays fine until I move the cursor at anything but a slow pace.
Is this common?

I find it a bit counter-intuitive, but try selecting Unlimited RT.
This is from the User Manual. "The Safe RT mode guarantees that effects are played back at the quality and frame rate you specify, and that no frames are dropped during playback."

Jumping frame counter and thumbnail offsets in PE3

I've been creating thumbnail offsets for my DVD markers in PE3 by subtracting the DVD marker placement from the current frame counter. One was off by two frames, and I couldn't figure out why, until I stepped frame-by-frame. The frame counter jumps from 00;31;59;29 to 00;32;00;02! Why is this? The first number is where the DVD marker and transition are, but I've never seen this before.
Also, is there an easier way to compute the thumbnail offsets than doing the math? I know you can slide the offset with the mouse, but that's rather small and difficult to control. Is there a way to tell it to "use the current frame"?
Thanks,
John S.

Steve,
Thanks for the reply.
No, my source video is all dv-avi over firewire from a minidv camcorder. If the transfer hiccupped and dropped two frames, could that be the cause? I figured PE would count the frames and do its own numbering, rather than rely on the data encoded in the dv-avi.
Your method #1 is what I meant by "doing the math", since the timecode of the dvd marker has to be subtracted from the timecode of the frame to get the offset. That is of course absolutely precise -- provided the timecode in PS isn't missing any frames! And dragging as in #2 can get tedious when the offset is minutes long. Not that I'm averse to some math, but I was just wondering if there was some way of putting in the current frame directly.
Thanks,
John S.

Dropped Frame Count

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