Dropped Frames During Capture

FCE HD is dropping frames during capture when I'm taking video from my Canon Video camera and the three DVD players I've been using. Any suggestions or ideas?
Here's my info:
- Didn't work for either of these setups:
- Canon to my iBook G4 via firewire
- DVD player to DVD converter via RCA cables to ibook via firewire
- My external Harddrive (LaCie 230 GB) is hooked up to my laptop via USB Drive.
- Easy setup configured to DV-NTSC or DV-NTSC-DV Converter dpending on capture device
Thanks in advance for the help

Hi Lisa,
Well, for starters you probably have less free space on your internal HD than you did a year ago - rule of thumb is keep at least 15%-20% free space on your drives, especially your system drive; more free space is better. Couple that with the fact that USB really can't keep up with the demands of video and it's easy to get dropped frames.
There's also the question of what else you've put on your machine since last year, whether or not you updated OSX or QT since then, if you have anything else running when you capture ... there could be lots of factors.
Have you ever run a maintenance utility on your Mac - eg. MacOSXCocktail, MacJanitor, Onyx, etc ?

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Help Please? Dropped frames during capture!

Hello everyone, I am capturing from a mini DV camera to FC Express HD using a fire wire. I've been doing this for a year and all the sudden I'm getting a "dropped frame during capture" message.
I have read many many discussion boards and tried all of your suggestions...
Using different camera's, different tapes, different firewire cables. I've uninstalled and reinstalled FC EX HD and Quicktime. I tried turning off my external drives and using the internal drive to capture to and created a FC project within the internal drive. I have plenty of space on all drives.
Does anyone have any other ideas? Nothing seems to be working. I appriecate your help!!!!!
G5 Mac OS X (10.4.9) final cut express hd

maybe you switch off the warn dropped frames during
capture option... after that watch your clips... is
there any problem still?
I'm really worried now. I turned off the "warn dropped frames" option. After capture, when I playback, I get a warning that there are dropped frames, and then picture freezes. Help! I don't know what to do!
G5 Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Dropping frame during capture

Hi
I keep dropping frames during capture. A message say "switch off unlimited RT" How do I do that and are there any other options. It had a new hard drive with bulk space still remaining

No, "Safe RT" plays everything at the highest quality therefore if your computer is not fast enough you drop frames.
Unlimited and Dynamic will reduce the quality of the played back video so that the computer can usually cope. (Note that when you output your finished project it will be at maximum quality).
If you are struggling with FCE, download a couple of hours of free video tutorials here:-
http://www.izzyvideo.com/learn-final-cut-express/

Dropped frames during capture attempt

Hi,
I keep getting dropped frames during my capture attempts. I am using a Canon Elura 70 as my playback deck which I realize is not ideal for log and capture. Can anyone one give me suggestions as to how to solve this problem?
Thanx,
John

I'd try to borrow a friend's camcorder and see if that works which would isolate the problem to your Canon. As you're probably aware, it's very possible that the Canon is the source of the problem - especially if you're experiencing the problem with both the G4 and the MBP - I assume you're using at least FCP5.1.x?
Are you daisychained through an external FW drive? Are you capturing to the system drive? You don't have any other apps open?
Have you successfully captured with this set-up before? Have you tried changing the firewire cable?

Can't figure out why I'm dropping frames during capture

I'm dropping frames when capturing 1-hour Mini DV tapes and I can't figure out why.
I'm capturing on a Mac Pro (Early '08) with 8 GB of memory running FCP 7.0.3 and OS X 10.6.6. I'm capturing to a 4 TB G-Speed eS (eSATA) formatted as RAID 5 (Non-Journaled Extended) with about 750 GB of remaining space. I'm capturing via FireWire with a Canon GL-2. This should be a breeze for this system.
I've run Apple Disk Utility, Disc Warrior 4 and Techtool Pro 5 on the drives and they seem to be fine. I've unplugged all USB and FireWire devices besides the keyboard and mouse. No virus protection or background utilities are running. I've trashed preferences. AJA System Test shows a 286 MB/s write speed and 254 MB/s read speed. Blackmagic Disk Speed Test shows a 312 MB/s write speed and a 379 MB/s read speed. No other applications besides FCP are running. I edit 1080p HD footage on this system all day long with no issues but when I try to capture DV SD footage, I run into issues.
The dropped frames error does not ever occur in the same place on the tapes. The tapes are brand new and don't seem to have any time code issues. The only thing I haven't done is to defragment the hard drives. I wouldn't think that capturing simple DV video would be that demanding; the defragment for a 4 TB RAID would likely take 2 or 3 days.
Any other ideas on what's going on and how to try to fix it? Thanks!

Thanks for the prompt reply, Studio X. Yes, I'm using FireWire Basic and no other FireWire devices. I've switched FireWire cables, although I doubt that's the issue as the cable I was using was brand new and fit snuggly. Unfortunately, I don't have an alternate playback device right now. Would switching to Non-controllable device capture settings be worth a try?

Dropped Frames During Capture! Please Help!

I have tried capturing numerous tapes and I still get the same error message. "Dropped frames were detected during last capture attempt". I have only recently had this problem and I have read other threads saying that QuickTime could be the problem but I am running on QT v7.3.1 and Final Cut Pro HD 4.5
I have my capture scratch set to a G-Raid 750GB external hardrive and I don't know what else the problem could be. Can anyone help

could be the problem but I am running on QT v7.3.1 and Final Cut Pro HD 4.5
That is your problem. QT 7.3 and FCP 4.5 are incompatible. The best version of QT for that version of FCP is QT 6.5. Unfortunately you cannot simply revert to the older version, as components and system files are installed all over. What you'll need to do is an Archive and Install of the OS...and DO NOT upgrade to QT 7.3.
Shane

Dropping Frames During Capture; Noticed QT Update.

Dear Friends,
I have Final Cut 4.5, Lacie 500gig drives, use for DV industrial projects, typically capturing 1 hr tapes in 15 min clips. Then, at 5min30sec +/-, capture freezes and an error msg tells me frames were dropped during capture. I have tried every config to troubleshoot, including erasing one of the drives. Right now I can batch 4min clips, any longer and I get dropped frames.
My last successful capture was on 10/22/07; QT updated to v7.3 on 10/23/07. I'm running OS10.3.9 and use a DSR-11.
Everything else seems to be operating fine. If the QT update is the culprit, how do I fix this? Or is there a different solution? I just want my perfectly-running Final Cut system back!!
Regards, Matt Alcorn

QT updated to v7.3 on 10/23/07.
Why did you do that? The most stable version of FCP 4.5 is with OS 10.3.9 and QT 6.5. Heck, even 7.1.6 works. BUT, why did you mess with a good thing?
NEVER mess with a good thing:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1275141&tstart=50
Shane

Dropped Frames During Capture but no Warning

Hello!
Set up: iMac 20" (early 2006) with 512RAM, Acomdata 250GB External FW HD, Canon GL1 as FW Deck.
When I capture video the process always seems to work, no error messages and yes the dropped frame error boxes are checked in User Preferences, and I always receive the "successful" message when the capture is done. But when I play the video there are numerous dropped frames.
The source tape is fine.
Both external devices are plugged into the iMac's FW ports, not daisy chained. The HD is brand new with no data on it and formatted as Mac OS Extended
I guess what bothers me most is the system does the captures regardless of dropped frames or not - and without any warnings.
What can I do to fix this?
Thanks!

As a normal workflow you may have to capture to the
internal hard-disk.
Generally, as a rule, a drive other than your system drive, if connected and formatted correctly, should be more reliable for capture and output than the system drive, but when the job needs to gets done - whatever workaround works, eh?
I'm with andy though that the thing that scares me the most is that FCP alsmost never seems to abort on dropped frames on either capture or output. I have seen my output freeze for 10 frames at a time, audio disappearing, huge multi-frame digital glitches in DV capture with the scrambled rainbow video and loud screeching audio hit. An output of a 1-hour doc - Uncompressed to DBC via our AJA Io from the RAID - opened up a 6-frame black hole in the output - playback just topped for 6 frames. The only way I knew to even look for it was because I checked a match frame at the end of the tape and my video was out of place by 6 frames. If that's not a "dropped frame" I don't know what is. I've seen this on 3 different workstations, from 4 different decks, using several combinations of input/output hardware, and in all cases, FCP just glitches away without ever aborting or alerting about dropped frames. I'm so paranoid now about my masters (some of our output is for broadcast) I keep reviewing them over and over.

XSAN and FCP5 - Drops frames during capture

We are trying to capture video directly to an XSAN volume from FCP, and we get dropped frames usually within 5 minutes. Capturing to local HD works fine.
We've been dealing with these problems on and off ever since we got the XSAN. We've 'tuned' our fiber switch, reinstalled 10.4 and FCP and the XSAN software from scratch, ran all the updates to the latest stuff, and still no loving from the SAN environment.
I'm coming to the conclusion that this just doesn't work - does anyone else capture from a DV deck directly to a SAN volume successfully? If so, any hints or tips about what / where I might turn to get this working??
Thanks!

Derrick,
I have successfully captured from SDI with 8 Channels of Embedded Audio through the AJA I/O into the DV Codec (which ends up being 4.5 Mb/S) for more than an hour without a problem (directly to Xsan Volume).
If you are hitting a wall about 5 minutes everytime, it sounds like the cache in the controllers on the Xraid are filling up (1 Gig = 5 minutes of DV) and not writing to the drives properly.
I might sound far fetched, but just a though.
Kalagan

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I am capturing 63minute mini-dv tapes, and I am dropping 5-8 frames every 10 minutes and 1 second.
I am running Premiere Pro 2.0, win XP SP2 on a hpxw4300 workstation with pentium 4. I have had this system for years, and have recently put new hard drives in, which is when the problem started. The new drives are Seagate 500GB SATA.
I have also tried capturing with windows movie maker - same problem. Tried capturing through matrox capture card and through the in-built firewire port - same result. Have tried changing the scratch disks which didn't help.
Any ideas? Really desperate to figure this out because i edit a lot of seminar footage and i'm sick of having to re-capture the dropped frames and splice them in.
Justin.

Two possibilities:
1. The tape you are capturing from really has dropped frames. Nothing you can do about it.
2. Your PC is not up to capturing, which I think is unlikely, unless you are running an old P4.
You can try to see with Process Explorer what processes are running. If there are more than 40-50 processes running, kill all extraneous activities.
Look here: Sysinternal Utilities

Dropping frames during capture

I touched on this topic months ago, but have found no solution.
I am running CS4 on a Windows 7 64-bit machine with 12gb of RAM, twin 1500 gb hard discs, Intel Core i7 chip, ATI Radeon HD5870 graphics card.
When capturing video from my Canon HV30 camera, or from my Sony miniDV tape deck, roughly every 90 seconds or so there is a second or two of interference Little flashes of light appear in the capture window, often frames are dropped, and a quick burst of interference appears on the sound. This also occurs if I am not capturing, but just playing, or indeed just pausing, the video in the capture window.
It's not the FireWire cable: I've tried two.
It's not the camera or the Sony deck; they work fine capturing onto my lap-top
I've tried shutting down every programme I can on my desk-top
I've tried changing screen resolution
I've tried saving to a different hard disc
I've updated drivers for my graphics card
I don't think it's interference in my room, as again I can capture, via Windows Live Movie Maker, onto my lap-top
The same problem occurs when I use Windows Movie Maker on my desk-top, so it's not CS4 itself
The only things I can think of are: graphics card fault, or a fault with the 6-pin firewire slot. But I only have one firewire slot.
Can anyone suggest any solutions, please?

Thank you, Bill and Jim.
The interference is only roughly every minute or 90 seconds, but I agree the probable cause is some process. Bill, if I close down everything I possibly can using Task Manager, won't that also include the ones started at boot/startup?
I have only one FireWire slot and therefore the camera is the only FireWire device I will have plugged in at the time.

Dropped frames while capturing

Out of the blue I'm having problems with dropped frames during capture, and no video whatsoever is being digitized to my scratch disk after I "abort" the capture with the escape key (after an endlessly spinning pinwheel indicates the failure, but the tape in my Canon GL2 keeps running anyway). I have a 2nd Internal Drive with 120GB of storage (45GB available). I have already successfully captured three complete DV tapes with no problems, and suddenly Tape #4 started dropping frames. So does Tape #5. Could a Quicktime update be causing this problem? What's up? Final Cut Express 2.0.3.

has anyone really solved this yet? the apple advisory mentions upgrading to fce 5, but i don't see that that exists yet.
i have a sony dcr-hc96, fce 2.0.3 (willing to upgrade), os 10.4.9 and having the 5-minute "dropped frames on capture" freeze problem. i've bought defrag software and a spanking new lacie 500Gb drive for my project. no luck. i've "hid the capture scratch folder from spotlight". no luck.
i was having the issue, then, before reading the forum, unfortunately updated QuickTime to 7.3. but I was having the exact same problem in 7.2 or whatever I upgraded from anyway. I haven't tried to go back to 7.2 yet because it sounds complicated.
does anyone know the answer to this: will the QT 7.3/dropped frame problem be solved with an upgrade to FCE 4 (the newest one for sale at the Mac store)? Or, will the QT 7.3 problem be fixed with an upgrade to OS 10.4.10? [unfortunately, i can't do the latter without saying goodbye to my Pro Tools 6.9.2 and having to potentially upgrade that software, too.)
thanks.

Dropped frames on capture from miniDV camcorder

Can't capture as I'm instantly gettting 'dropped frames on last capture' error message. I can control my sony DCR-PC5E PAL camcorder remotely though using Firewire.
Any suggestions as to how I overcome this please?

Dropped frames during capture are typically caused by:
· Bad tape
· Dirty or misaligned playback heads
· Defective Firewire cable
· Poor data throughput - using a Firewire hub; capturing from a Canon device; capturing to a USB hard drive; capturing to an improperly formatted hard drive; too many Firewire devices sharing the same Firewire bus
-DH

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

Dropped frames during playback due to "slow disk"

I work off an external Rocstor 160gb firewire drive; suddenly as I started to edit a project I get constant dropped frames during playback. It says it's due to "slow disks" and I wondered if my hard drive was dying. But I opened other projects on the drive and they play just fine. Why just this one? It's shot on the same format, captured the same -- nothing's different from my older projects. Maybe the captured media files got corrupted? I've never seen this. I've tried using the Rocstor on three different machines (first a 17" PB, then two different G5 towers) and it happens on all of them. I have FC5 on the PB, but FC6 on the G5s -- doesn't matter. I'm stumped here.

How full's the drive? The fuller it gets, the slower it becomes. If it wasn't a superfast FW drive to begin with (especially a 400 device) You're gonna have problems as it gets fuller... starts slowing down big time around 70% capacity. It's always something... if the drive's not in a fast enclosure, and is also a fastish drive has a least 8mb disk cache, it will behave like this with DV footage.
One thing I've seen and learned from reading a few posts on this is that the better/faster stuff suited for FCP use is worth the investment. G-Raid, Grainite Digital, OWC all sell really nice FW800 setups... they are up to twice as fast as older/slower FW 400 drives. and NEVER buy any more than you need now for storage. It's half the price and twice the speed next time you need more it seems.
eSATA should be considered by any pro. laptop or not.
Jerry

Dropped Frames During Capture

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