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

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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 & 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.

Ran Software Updates and Now Drop Frames during Playback

I updated all of my Software back in late December. Since I have updated, all projects (old and new created ones) within Final Cut drop frames during playback. I had no issues with drop frames until I ran the Software Updates. Currently running Leopard 10.5.6, Final Cut 6.0.5, Quicktime 7.5.5. Any suggestions on how to determine why I now have drop frames. Is there an easy way to revert back to software that was in place prior to me running Software Updates on 12/22/08?
Thanks in advance for your comments and suggestions.
Jim Bob

ZRose:
First, you should have an up-to-date tested reliable backup. The best way to do it is to get an external Firewire HDD, clone you entire computer to is using SuperDuper, then keep it up-do-date.
Next, get in the habit of doing regular maintenance procedures. Here are some links to help.
Macintosh OS X Routine Maintenance
Mac OS X 10.3/10.4: System maintenance
Maintaining OS X
For the probably immediately at hand
Repair Disk
Insert Installer disk and Restart, holding down the "C" key until grey Apple appears.
Go to Installer menu (Panther and earlier) or Utilities menu (Tiger) and launch Disk Utility.
Select your HDD (manufacturer ID) in the left panel.
Select First Aid in the Main panel.
(Check S.M.A.R.T Status of HDD at the bottom of right panel, and report if it says anything but Verified)
Click Repair Disk on the bottom right.
If DU reports disk does not need repairs quit DU and restart.
If DU reports errors Repair again and again until DU reports disk is repaired.
If DU reports errors it cannot repair you will need to use a utility like Tech Tool Pro or Disk Warrior
BGreg's suggestion to install the Combo update is a valid fix. Remember to Repair Disk Permissions before and after installation.
Please post back with further questions or comments.
Good luck.
cornelius

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.

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 During Playback in Viewer

Hi All,
I'm new to Final Cut, and I'm having a problem playing back my footage in the viewer and timeline. I shoot on a Sony HDR-AX2000. I have Final Cut Pro 7. In my Audio/Video Settings, I put my sequence preset to Apple ProRes 1440x1080 24p 48 kHz and my capture preset is HDV-Apple ProRes 422. My footage is stored on Lacie 2TB d2 Quadra, which is hooked up to iMac through a USB 2.0 connection. Every time I try to play my footage, I receive a message saying: RT Extreme has determined these dropped frames were caused by slow disks." What am I doing wrong? Thanks.

Hi Themightydro,
Welcome to the forums,
if you look at the right hand side of this pages there is a search tool that allows you to
look for answers to thousands of posts. You'll find out that editing with a drive connected through
USB is a bad choice, ProRes require much more speed than the weaker and intermittent one provided by USB connection. You'd need at the very least a FW (i.e 800) connection or better RAID and eSata for multiple streams.
Try to use a FW connection to start with to see if you get the same problem.

Question about dropping frames during playback

Ok... granted my system hardware is a little outdated but... My system was running 1.5 without any problems... all I did was wipe the hard drive, reinstall the os, install CS4, install the drivers for my blackmagic SD card. But now when I render a project and try to play it back I getting drop frame errors all over the place. My video drives all check out runnning the blackmagic speed tests, I've made sure they are defragged and there is plenty of room... so the only thing I can think of is that there must be some setting in 4 that I am overlooking. I'm just shooting on DV and I chose blackmagic DV for my project settings (al playback is set to BM) and everything seems to be pointing to the video drive... any ideas what I might have missed? I've had a stable edit suite (well as stable as an edit suite can be) for so long I must be a little rusty at all those sneaky little settings.

Glad you got it sorted out, albeit with a reformat. I watched your thread, in hopes that someone could address your issue with another workaround.
As for the display (GUI and also media files), it does seem that CS4 is slower in some aspects, than earlier versions. However, with really top-line gear, most folk do not complain. I'm waiting to upgrade the workstation and the OS, before I upgrade to CS4 myself.
Hunt

Dropped frames during playback in FCP 7

I have searched high and low, asked every FCP expert I know, and noone can help me.
So I turn to this forum and you the users for help.
I just upgraded from an old DVCAM to a new Canon 60D, which shoots full HD. Usually I never have problems editing with or without text, but all of a sudden I got dropped frames when I put text on my project. No warning of dropped frames though. Just some skipping and pausing before the clip continued.
I was running FCP 6 but upgraded to FCP 7 in hopes of it removing the problem. It just got worse. Now I can't even playback video or text by itself (I am testing with 5-10 second bits). Whenever the screen should go blank I instead get the unpleasant warning of dropped frames. The same thing happens when I play text by itself or over the video. When I try exporting it (to see if it is just a playback error) QT and VLC Player both show the most hideous grey, green and pixellated versions of my (still very short) clip.
And if anyone suggests changing RT options - where do I find those options? The RT button on my timeline only shows the options: "play base layer only", "use playback settings" and "Full quality" - and the problems keep showing up in all three selections.
Could my settings be off? I am not sure I have found the right ones for the footy from a Canon 60D.
I hope someone is able to help me with this. It is the most frustrating experience I have ever had through my many years with FCP.

Switching from DV to HD can be a nightmare if you were 'getting away with things' using DV material that you really won't be able to in HD.
First - Where is the media? If it is on the system drive of the macbook pro... get it off of there!! It should be on an external drive - FW800 will get you going better than anything else...
Second - simple fix, but make sure... are any of your windows overlapping? is your canvas window set to FIT TO WINDOW? If there are scroll bars in your canvas or viewer that would be bad too.
Third -- let's figure out what and how you are converting the material off the 60D.
What is the workflow you are using? You should probably be editing in some form of Apple ProRes... I like the LT setting - minimal quality loss with max gain in bit rates.
http://library.creativecow.net/articles/rossshane/tapeless-workflowfcp-7/video-tutorial
Check out that video and see if it doesn't answer a few questions...
Good luck,
CaptM

Dropped frames during playback. Dumb question but I'm just starting to edit again with a new comp. and FC 7

Hello out there,
It's been three years since I've used Final Cut Pro and I"m just getting back in to it. I'm working on my first project editing footage from my Canon 5D markII.
I'm trying to do a simple cross fade on the video track but when I watch the playback I'm getting a dropped frame message. I am using the highest video quality on my cannon but it seems like my computer with a 3.4 Ghz prossesor and 32 gigs of ram should be able to handle a simple cross fade.
Could it be that I need to change a setting somewhere to make FCP handle my canon's video better?
Thank you so much!
I appreciate the help.
Mike

Please tell me you converted this footage...the native H.264 format the camera shoots...to ProRes. Because FCP doesn't work with H.264 well at all.
I have a workflow for this and other tapeless cameras here:
http://library.creativecow.net/ross_shane/tapeless-workflow_fcp-7/1

Dropping frames during playback.

I've exported a 36" clip of animation from AE as a .mov file using the Animation Codec and imported it into FCP. The clip is about 330 MBs. I'm on a G5 w/ 4 GBs Ram. These are my settings:
720 x 480 NTSC DV (3:2)
NTSC - CCIR 601 / DV (720 x 480)
29.97 fps
Compressor: Animation
Quality: 100%
The clip plays perfectly until I add a slug or a cross dissolve at the beginning or end. At the beginning, a 2" slug plays through and then playback stops before the first frame of the clip and I get the Warning - Dropped Frames alert. If I place a slug or dissolve at the end, the clip plays all the way through and then stops right before the first frame of the ending slug or cross dissolve and I get the same alert. Anyone have any idea what I need to do to correct this problem?

Shane, thanks for your reply. I did try (before I saw your post) not changing Final Cut's sequence settings to match the imported file (which it asked me to do) and the clip appears to play w/o a glitch now. The compressor setting for my default FCP sequence settings is DV/DVCPRO - NTSC. I understand now that the Animation Codec is only for intermediary use. Is this an approved way of converting from it so that I can work w/ the clip on FCP's timeline?
Jack

Dropping Frames during Playback with AVC Intra 50

I work in TV News and we recently switched from DVCPROHD 720P 60 to AVC-Intra 50 720p 60. The DVCPRO HD worked great with Premiere. When video was placed on the timeline the clips had a green line over them and everything played glitch-free, with no dropped frames. The AVC-Intra 50 is a different story. On the timeline it comes in with a yellow line over the video, and the drops frames when played in the timeline. Rendering the sequence changes the yellow line to green, but it still drops frames. We feed out via the thunderbolt connection to an AJA i xt breakout box, and I'm getting video and audio glitches when feeding. This was never a problem with the DVCPROHD. The sequence settings are set correctly for AVC. I tried changing resolution of program monitor to 1/2 and it had no effect.
I'm editing on
Macbook Pro OS X Version 10.8.4
Processor 2.7 GHz Intel i7
8GB 1600 Mhz DDR3
Latest Version of Adobe Premiere CC
These are my sequence settings for video previews

Wow, lots to think about -
some quick responses (it's half 1 in the morning!)
*Not running any other apps at all (no virus software)
*Really hope there is nothing wrong with £149 brand new drive..!!
*Energy Saving Options never put HDD or computer to sleep
*No Camera or deck or anything plugged into drive. Graphic Tablet in USB.
*Most interesting thing is what Brian Conner said about the actual project file, I will try moving this as when I got the new drive I dragged this .fcp file onto there as well... Where should I put this on my Mac HD? I think the default is in Documents? this is the very small 'pointer file' right?
J
PS: As well as the project file - should the Waveform Cache, Thumbnail Cache and Autosave Vault be on the Boot Drive??
Message was edited by: jfss

Still more Dropped Frames during playback

i imported an iMovie project into FCE HD. I rendered several minutes of video, including several edits from the iMovie project. none of the windows overlap. i have Safe RT, low quality, 2 audio tracks, etc. etc. i.e. all the lowest, least demanding settings i can think of for my system. still, i get only a few seconds of playback before stuttering to a halt.
in the warning screen, it says something about lowering my "compression data rate". i don't see anywhere to change that.
i've maxed out the ram on my machine (1GB).
any other ideas?
PowerBook G4 Mac OS X (10.3.9) 667 Mhz

how to convert a .dv file to a Final Cut friendly
one
Let me quote from Simons i5m site the instructions
for doing what you need, using QuickTime Pro:
- Open your iMovie .dv file in Quicktime Pro.
- Extract the audio track
- Export the audio track as a Quicktime Movie, Linear
PCM format, Channels Stereo (L R), 48kHz, 16bit
sample size
- Delete the audio track from the .dv file
- Open the exported audio file, select all and copy.
- Select All in the .dv file
- Add the exported Audio file using Add to Movie
- Export/Save As the .dv file as a self contained
Quicktime Movie
- Import this movie in FCE
I already used this procedure and works well. The
main point is to create a separate PCM audio track in
the file, as expected by FCE. This avoids the audio
rendering. Video is already in the FCE native form
(DV) and does not need any processing.
If you do not have QuickTime Pro (strongly
recommended though) another possibility is to first
import the .dv file in FCE, then render audio at item
level, then export/QuickTime Movie - Self-contained,
and finally import the new file into FCE for
editing.
Piero
I've done my own version of these instructions which take advantage of QT Pro 7's ability to directly export an AIFF soundtrack. If anyone has any issues with these, let me know.
One other thing is the instructions seem to imply the output file will still be a .dv file, but it is .mov, which made me think I was doing something wrong at first.
Exporting an iMovie file to a Quicktime .mov file for Final Cut:
1. Right click (or control click) on your iMovie project, chose "Show Package Contents," open the Media folder then open the .dv file enclosed in the Media folder.
2. Choose File > Export from the pulldown menu and chose "Sound to AIFF." Click the Options button, then the following options Format: Linear PCM, Channels: Stereo (L R) (or Mono, depending on your project), Rate 44.100 kHz, Quality: Normal, Sample size: 16 bits.
3. Choose Window > Show Movie Properties, select the Sound Track, then click on the Delete button.
4. Open the exported soundtrack .aif file. Choose Edit > Select All, then choose Edit > Copy.
5. Click on the .dv file's quicktime window to make it active. Make sure the play head is at the very beginning of the track. Choose Edit > Select All, then choose Edit > Add to Movie.
6. Choose File > Save As. Click on the Save as a self-contained movie button. This will save as a .mov file, not a .dv file. This file can then be imported into Final Cut.

Dropped frames on playback doesn't replicate in a new user account

I have been using FCP 4.5 for some time without any problems. Recently I have not been able to play clips in the Timeline without an immediate error message of dropped frames during playback. If I double-click the clip it will play in the Viewer perfectly. This will happen even if the only sequence open contains a single audio track.
I tried the same thing in a new user account and everything worked as it should, so the problem appears to be a conflict confined to my original account. I've tried moving prefs files for FCP and Quicktime but no joy. All source material is on a separate internal drive to the OS & project files.
Any ideas?
Ivan
PowerMac G4 Sawtooth 400MHz Mac OS X (10.4.8) 120 & 250GB HDD 640MB RAM

It seems that I did not remove all the necessary prefs files - I have done so now and all is well, thanks to Ken Stone. He has a thorough description of exactly what to trash here:
http://www.kenstone.net/fcphomepage/trashing_fcpprefs.html
cheers,
Ivan

Dropped frames during playback due to "slow disk"

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