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

Similar Messages

Retaining date/time when capturing from miniDV camcorder in PRE8

Has anyone a solution to the following problems observed when capturing
video/audio from a miniDV camcorder with Premiere Elements 8:
1) Even if "Split Scenes" is deselected in the capture dialog box - the captured video IS split into separate .avi files
2) When inspecting the .avi file metadata only the date is captured correctly from DV - time is always 23:00Z...? I have used other capture tools to verify that correct date/time is actually available in the captured video.
Thanks!
- Jan Anders

No known solution for PRE:
Timecode in AVI-Files
View video clip recording date in PRE7?
Cheers,
Neale
Insanity is hereditary, you get it from your children

Dropped frames in Capture: Express vs Pro

Hi, I'd been using Express for a year and a half; last week I bought and installed Studio Pro2, partly because of the following experience which surprised both myself and my lab instructor.
I had a Standard Definition miniDV which resulted in many dropped frames while capturing at my house with Express on my iMac. Subsequently, I successfully captured the entire tape without any dropped frames on my university's computer which is a tower (G5? Intel?) running Pro (Pro6? Pro5? Pro4?). Out of curiousity, I tried capturing the same tape from the same camcorder using the same tower, except this time I did it with the tower's Express instead of the tower's Pro (yes, the tower has both applications installed). The problem of dropped frames returned, just as badly as they had been at my home. We are very surprised!
Is there a reason that Pro does a better job of interpretting potentially bad tape than Express does??? I would have assumed the Capture algorithms to be the same, but that no longer seems likely. Does Apple know that there is a difference between the two applications in the success of Capture? Should they be notified, or am I being naive to consider that they don't know the difference?
Thanks; have a great year...
20" iSight PowerPC Mac OS X (10.4.9)
20" iSight PowerPC Mac OS X (10.4.8)
20" iSight PowerPC Mac OS X (10.4.8)
20" iSight PowerPC Mac OS X (10.4.8)

I just discovered my ''subscription'' response was off:-(( couldn't figure out why nobody's answered my last 2 posts:-)) I'm not rude enough to ignore people who help me, I'm just stupid!
It cost me; two months ago I purchased Studio2 as a direct result of my ''problems'' with FCE; tonight I read your post and realize the problem was actually 10.4.9 + 3.0.1. Needless to say, I'm now on 10.4.10. Lucky for me, I get Studio2 at academic prices, and I will actually benefit from DVD Pro as I now own an HD camera, and Compressor, but I still feel stooopid.
I have not been able to verify the school's versions of FCE and FCP (lab's closed in August), but it makes perfect sense that their FCE is 3.0.1, whereas their FCP was probably one of the earlier (non-offending) versions.
Thanks, and have a great year,
Harvey

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)

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 ?

Dropped Frames on Capture/ Adding extra USB buses to a G5

Hello,
I am having trouble with dropped frames on capture. It is a problem I have dealt with many times. I always try to capture my media to some sort of external drive; It always seems to work fine until the drive fills up(to about 20 GB left), and then I start to get dropped frames problems. I've tried freeing up space on the drive, but once it starts it seems that even freeing up space doesn't fix the problem. I was told that adding a USB bus can fix this problem -OR- You can add an extra internal storage drive to the G5. Once upon a time I did the latter and it worked, but now I can not even capture onto my extra internal drive?
My capture attempts seem to get about 5 minutes before I get dropped frames.
Do you think that installing an extra Bus could fix this problem? If so what kind of Bus should I look for for a PowerMac G5?
I am running FCP 4.5, Mac OSX 3.9, Quicktime 7(In the past this has not been an issue), I am using a Power Mac G5- two 160GB internal drives.
Much Thanks in Advance, the Help is always fantastic around here,
Justin

A USB bus or a FW bus?
Because USB drives are not fast enough to sustain capture.
Adding a PCI Firewire card from a place like Sonnettech may work.
http://www.sonnettech.com/product/allegroexpressfw400.html

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.

Suddenly: Dropped Frames on Capture

I've NEVER had a problem with dropped frames. I installed the FCP 5.0.3 upgrade, then had massive problems with dropped frames. In fact, I can't digitize anything: DSR-11, VHS with non-controllable device, nothing. I did the entire troubleshooting routine, then finally trashed my prefs file. Problem solved! I captured everything to my heart's content yesterday. Shut down the G5 last night...turned it back on this morning. Problem is back. Trashed prefs file. Problem won't go away. I can't capture anything.
In troubleshooting, I tried my G5, my G4 Powerbook...all had the same problem. What gives?

Hi Jerry
I have the same issue with FCP 5, (dropped frames on capture.)
My setup is a brand new G5/Quadcore.
OS was installed from the factory and updated online to 10.4.3
FCP 5 Studio, (installed from the Suite disk set) updated online to current updates for the entire suite, Pro Apps updated, etc.
Memory in G5: 2GB
Storage: Xserve RAID 3.5TB, with Raid Admin 1.5 and drivers 1.5 on RAID. All fibre channel connections are via an Emulex switch, (12 port.)
Source Deck: Betacam UVW-1800, connected via component video.
Capture Device: AJA Io, (original Io) updated to 2.1 drivers.
I'm still having dropped frame, right from the get go, during capture.
I also have a G4 with FCP 4.5 HD, (OS X 10.3.9) which I also connect to the Io box, (but not at the same time) which has no issues with dropped frames.
Do you have any ideas why the G5 drops frames but the G4 doesn't?

Why does my FCX program quit suddenly when I try to capture from my camcorder?

Why does my FCX program quit suddenly when I try to capture from my camcorder?
When it opens it says "no codec found". I used HDV Apple intermediate codec 1080i60. What codec should I use?

Do you mean Final Cut Express or FCP X?
These are two different apps.
Al

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 when importing from sony dcr-hc52

hey all,
i'm getting a lot of dropped frames when importing from my sony cdr-hc52. anyone had this experience? is there a setting i'm missing that would correct this?
thanks in advance,
filmgrrrl

Hello kellyfromkenley, Depending on how you move the video or share the video from iMovie to iDVD it can make a big difference. One way is to go to the Share Menu > Share to iDVD. But the better is to Share to Media Browser instead. Try this:
Go back to iMovie and open your Project in Project Library.
Go to Share Menu > Share to Media Browser
Choose the Large size and let it run until it finishes
Quit iMovie and open iDVD.
In iDVD click on the Media Button, then click on the Movies button and look for your project under the iMovie star icon in the Media Browser itself.
Drag that project icon into the iDVD project window and burn another disk
I think you'll see an increase in the visual quality using this method.
The reason this has an effect on the visual quality is there's a whole different set of operations performed on the video when you first Share to Media Browser. The side effect of those changes in steps is a much better looking DVD from your iMovie project.

Dropped frames on capture to SCSI Raid

I am getting dropped frames on capture to a partitioned clean scsi raid coming in thru FCP 5.04 via SDI. The clip will run for about 10 minues (digitising to DV) and then the picture will freeze on the FCP monitor but the VTR doesnt stop (even tho I have 'stop on dropped frames' selected). I then hit esc but the FCP goes into a coloured windmill hang and then I have to force quit. Anyone have any suggestions? Yours deperately!!
J

Thanks for closing the thread with your solution; hardly anyone does that around here.
bogiesan

Is my comp. screwed up? Use to work, now drops frames on capture.

is my comp. screwed up? Use to work, now drops frames on capture.
OK.
My G5
mac osx 10.4.9
processor 1.8 GHZ
Memory 1.75 GD DDR SDRAM
started to be unable to digitize footage.
It says there are dropped frame or problems with the source tape. The same tape, using the same deck, same firewire (400-800port) work FINE on my husbands G5
So I think it has to be my computer. I was working on FCP 4, and thought maybe when I installed FCP 6 it would magically get better.
So I got fcp 6 and I still have the same problem....
any help would be much appreciated.

99 times out of 100 it's that your scratch disk can't keep up with the captures... what are you capturing to? Should be a disk other than your internal startup disk. Is this DV material?
Jerry

Interlacing in capture from miniDV now occurs with upgrade to Win7 x64

Hi there...
this is my first attempt to post a question on the forum, so thankyou in advance for any help or advice.
I used to run Prem Pro CS4 on a Windows XP (32bit) system with no problems at all.
I since upgraded my OS to Win7 x64 and a perculiar thing happened - when capturing from MiniDV the capture preview is very interlaced -with camera motion. With capture complete and clips placed in the timeline, the interlacing is not at all evident. - it is only apparent at the capture stage.
Thinking it was my Nvidia 8600GT graphics card, I upgraded to Nvidia 9800GT (1GB) - still the same problem. RAM was also give an upgrade to 8GB.
I understand the concept behind interlacing - what has me puzzled is why with win7 this capture interlacing has happened and for the sake of clarity would love to have it rectified.
Otherwise Premiere runs smooth as silk.
Any thoughts or advide would be greatly appreciated
Cheers
Matt
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3P (rev 2.1)
Intel Q6600 Quad core
DDR2 - 8GB
Video: ASUS EN9800GT (1Gb)
HDD: sys.150GB + 2 x editing / authoring

Can't tell you why it happens. Can only suggest it's not really an issue. Ignore it and keep on editing.

Dropped frames while capture

Hey guys i have a 15" powerbook with 1 GB of RAM (No external drives) which i use pretty much soley for FCP 5. its only about 6 months old and has recently started dropping frames while capturing? anyone know what the problem could be? its been driving me crazy. cheers.

Hello again Michael,
Thanks for your comments but I was simply passing on my own experience and what I've personally been told by G-Tech here in the UK.
Are you suggesting it's OK for users to move, allow to overheat, or switch the power off while using external HDs?
I don't think so . . .
As I said in another post, G-Tech were courteous and efficient with me and I have no grudge against them.
I understand your discontent and we all get cross if we feel we've been let down, but I wonder if it's wise to use other people's posts to vent your feelings about one manufacturer when so many others clearly speak very highly of them.
As far as your "I made enough noise to attract the attention of the ceo" (of G-Tech) is concerned, as I recall, you completely crashed my topic:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=2840390#2840390
and poured out your vendetta against G-Tech until you attracted Jerry Hoffman's attention and he suggested Creative Cow might be a more appropriate place to do it as the G-Tech ceo posts there.
(Or did I misunderstand what was going on)?
I can't help feeling that a polite post of your own on this forum - about your frustrations with G-Tech, might have attracted Jerry's attention more quickly and you could have posted on CC much without wrecking someone else's topic.
But here we go again . . . (Do we?)
Andy
G5 Quad. 8 GB. 250 & 500 GB Internal HDs. G-Tech G-Raid 1 TB. FCP 5.0.4 (Studio) Mac OS X (10.4.7) Sony HVR-Z1E.
You can't educate pork . . ..

Dropped frames on capture from miniDV camcorder

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for