Dropping frames capturing to external hard drive

When I attempt to capture video from my Powerbook G4 using my Lacie External drive as my Scratch Disk, I get the 'dropped frames' error message. However, when I capture through my IMac Desktop G5 onto the very same Lacie External drive I have no problems. Both the Powerbook G4 and the IMac Desktop G5 have about 20G of free space on each of their 80G Hard Drives. Any suggestions? Many Thanks!

There is a good chance that your problem is caused by
using the HD in USB 2 mode.
Most people consider USB 2 is unsuitable for video
editing.
DV needs a drive capable of a consistent high speed
that can only be provided by FW.
Although the claimed speeds of USB 2 appear to be as
high, they are not because they are the MAXIMUM
speeds achieved and are not sustained. In the real
world USB 2 is barely half the speed of FW.
When using your PowerBook you could try
daisy-chaining your camera to the HD to the computer
- by FW of course.
Ian.
Thanks! Great Advice!

Similar Messages

Capturing to External Hard Drive

I am editing my video on a MacBook Pro with a 120GB hard drive which is not anywhere near big enough. However I have an external hard drive that is 500GB that I am trying to capture the video to. I set it up in the Final Cut system preferences but when I go to capture now it says allocating disk space and then freezes. I think the problem is that I am connecting to the drive via USB as opposed to firewire. But if Im importing video at the same time through the only firewire port how do I avoid this? Thanks.

Re: External HD ports: eject the drive, power off, switch the cable to the adjacent port, power up the drive then see if the computer recognises the drive. If it does both ports work. If it doesn't...
If ports are okay (it seems cables are fine as both camera and drive are currently recognised via firewire aren't they?). Shutdown laptop. power everything off and then power all back on and then startup. Make sure camera is in right mode and startup FCE.
If that doesn't work just out of curiosity you could open up iMovie and see if your camera is recognised through the HD there.
You could try connecting the camera directly via firewire to the computer and reminding us that it works that way (you were using USB earlier were you not?)
Keep us posted.
(ps I'm off to bed!)
M.

17" MacBook Pro freezes after Capture to external hard drive!!!!!! HELP!!

Ok, so i just got my new MacBook Pro and Final Cut Studio last week, and i was so excited, until this happened. I was trying to log and capture a clip to my 500GB LaCie Big Disk and everything seemed to be going fine until the clip got to the end of it's alloted time and then the computer just froze. When I closed the lid and let the laptop sleep and opened it again the clip is in place and everything seems fine. I tried capturing then w/ the LaCie plugged into the FW8oo port and my miniDV Deck plugged into the FW4oo, and it froze again after capture and then worked fine after closing the lid. Thinking I was crowding my Fire Wire bus I hooked up an external USB 2.0 drive and my deck to the fire wire , but the same thing happened. So then I tried capturing to my internal and it worked fine. I've captured to an external on my 17" iMac G5 w/ Final Cut HD for years and never had a problem. Any tips? This closing the lid thing just isn't going to work.
MacBook Pro 17" Mac OS X (10.4.6)

nope, david is right on the mark. powermacs with one firewire bus choke like this. i can't understand why apple continues to design with one firewire bus but i'm not a designer. anyone, ANYONE who uses firewire harddrives and firewire tape machines/cameras for editing NEEDS to invest in a seperate sort of firewire card (pick your flavor) and then we'd see this behavior go away. then there will be those that will whine "this never happened before!" it's happening now, firewire cards a cheap insurance against these issues.

Sound out of sync when capturing to External Hard Drive

I've been trying to capture my short film footage (5 - 60 min. mini dv tapes) on FCP without the audio getting WAY out of sync. All the footage is off. Any ideas? Here's some more info: I capture the whole 60 minutes of the tape at once. (And then I was gonna split it up later.) It all looks fine through the LCD monitor as it plays, but when I look at the footage after capturing, it's way off. I have a G-Raid, 500 gig ex. h/d that is empty. I have a PowerBook G4.
Can you capture it on your external h/d without this happening? Or do you have to capture on your internal? (which I believe, I don't have enough memory there.
Help, please, please, please.
- Michael

The best solution would be to use a DV capture utility and then import the resulting file(s) into final cut.
Aplle itself offers capture utilities, which can be found in the Developer Firewire SDK:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305924
You need a free Developer account and to download the SDK there. After installation you will find a new folder on your harddrive called "Developer"
There are several capture utilities in the program section of the SDK. You want to use the one called "VirtualDV". It´s very simple, but powerful though. It does capture without sync loss, compared to capturing via the Quicktime framework, like Final Cut and iMovie do. It simply grabs the raw DV stream coming from the Firewire interface.
After the capturing you have a Quicktime readable raw DV file, which easily can be imported to be worked with in any DV capable software.

Can I drag and drop entire hard drive into and external hard drive?

I want to back up my MacBook Pro before I send it in for optical drive replacement. However, the Time Machine back up app wants me to erase my external drive and reformat before it can back up my files. I already have information from other computers on the external drive, so erasing and restoring is out of the question.
Can I just drag and drop my hard drives (Macintosh HD and BOOTCAMP) into the external hard drive?
Will that transfer everything?
As a side note, can anyone tell me why Time Machine doesn't work with the external drive? My dad has files on it from his Mac and I have a couple movies saved on it from this one. Is it possible to maybe partition the external drive to accommodate both and reformat only one partition without losing the other saved files?

Hi
+"So does reformatting make the external hard drive only usable by Macs/Time Machine?"+
Not really. If the external drive is formatted as FAT32 you can read/write to that drive from any Mac as well as any PC. If the external drive is formatted as NTFS you can only read from it but you can read/write from any PC. You can write to an NTFS formatted volume if you use a 3rd-Party Utility such as MacFuse. If the drive is formatted as Mac OS Extended you can read/write to it from any Mac. Unless you install a 3rd-Party Utility (I don't know of any offhand) you won't be able to read/write to it from any PC. PCs don't know what a Mac OS Extended format is.
As already mentioned TimeMachine will not work with any other format other than Mac OS Extended.
+"Will I be able to use the same external hard drive to back up multiple Mac computers with Time Machine?"+
Yes but only if that external drive has been formatted as Mac OS Extended. If there is existing data on that drive that you don't want to lose back it up first.
+"Will I still be able to drag and drop movies into the external hard drive for basic storage?"+
If you leave the external drive exactly as it is - ie no formatting - and you have already drag/dropped files to it from your mac or any other mac then you will be able to continue to do this.
Tony

Files moved to external hard drive - now nothing playing in iTunes...help!

*Hi guys,*
*Just wondering if someone can give me some advice really. I think / know I've made a bit of a botch up of my files :-(*
*Here's the story - I'll try to be brief...I have done a number of different things to try and sort this mess out and this is the latest...*
*- Laptop storage full, with over 5000 music files saved on it. Laptop unhappy - says needs more space. I try to accommodate.*
*- Already have all music files backed up on external storage drive. Nice. Delete music files in C:/Program Files/iTunes file. Laptop happy - has enough space.*
*- Delete current iTunes music files. Drag and drop music files from external hard drive into iTunes window. Transfers music. No problem.*
*- Add new files to external hard drive - try to update in iTunes. iTunes not happy - shows exclamation marks by most songs, which then won't play.*
*- iTunes only opened with external hard drive connected and working.*
*- Me now not happy.*
*- Try changing path where library is saved. Does nothing useful.*
*- Only available option is to click on each track and manually locate it. Not fun when there are 600+ files.*
*- Decide to drag and drop files into iTunes window again.*
*- Now ended up with 12000 tracks in my iTunes, half of which are duplicates with exclamation marks that won't play.*
*- Now at end of my tether. Takes hours to move tracks and now using up unecessary room with unplayable tracks.*
*Does anyone know a. where I went wrong (given I've faffed around with it so much...I just want it organised once and for all...) and more importantly, b. what I can do to sort this mess out.*
*Is it actually possible to have all your music stored externally but to have them play through iTunes to transfer onto my iPod???*
*Also, if I used my iPod as a disk drive, and copied the files straight onto there from my hard drive, would they actually play, thus ruling out iTunes altogether?*
*Many thanks in advance.*
*Frustrated MP3 wrangler*

*Also...is there any way I can filter out all the tracks with the ! so I can delete the unplaying copies as they're taking up room in my iTunes? I know how to find duplicates, but then I have to go and delete each one individually...*
*Thank you!*

External Hard Drive does not show any of my movies or my music

I originally had a MacBook currently i have a MacBook Air. I'm using a Seagate external hard drive for my files. Before i transferred my files to the Air i had everything on my hard drive. I just dragged and dropped them in the external hard drive icon. And now when i plug my hard drive into my Macbook Air i see my movies, music and pictures folder but when i click on them they are blank and have nothing in them. The only files the movies have in them end in .nfo and i don't know what that means. I don't know why i can't see anything in my folders. Help please!

I am having the same problem, but on a Mini. Hard drive space is used but my old stuff is gone. I hope someone answers this for us.

How to find movie file from external hard drive in imovie?

i shot 29 gig of video on the road. i imported it into my macbook to the desktop. then i drag and dropped it into an external hard drive. now i have since dragged and dropped the file to my imac at home to work with it in imovie, but imovie cannot find any mpeg or any such movie file. i then tried to put it back to the canon hg10. after i plugged in the canon, i dragged the movie folder to the canon and it imported 29 gig. but the canon does not show any new movie files in the video mode. when i open import options in imovie, no new movies appear. any ideas?

For iMovie to see your file, it must be either on the internal drive, or it can also be on an external drive that is formatted as Mac OSX Extended (Journaled). (Not FAT32).
For the internal drive, your clips must be stored in a folder inside the Movies/iMovie Events/ folder.
For the external drive, your clips must be stored in a folder within the iMovie Events folder at the top level of the drive. Move your files there and then start iMovie, and it should see them.
Message was edited by: AppleMan1958

How do I backup without an external hard drive?

Well, the first time I asked this question it was deleted as a "rant."
Seriously, how do I backup my iTunes library without an external hard drive? My HD is hanging on for dear life and I've been trying to backup my library. For years, I just used the DVD ROM backup incrementally and it worked well. iTunes 10.xxx decided to delete that option and I'm hosed.
So, how do I backup my library, purchases and apps (without dropping $100 for an external hard drive)?
Secondly, how do I restore my backup DVDs?

Press the eject key, or open a program like iTunes and eject it, or drag the desktop icon to the trash.
https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks/macbook_pro?view=documents

Spotlight search not working on external hard drive

Hi all,
The spotlight search doesn't seem to be working on my external hard drive.
It is also not working as part of Time Machine, I cannot retreive anything via the spotlight search that has been backed on on the external drive.
I know I have the files on there but it's not picking it up like it used to.
Any ideas???

Solution:
1. System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy
2. Drag and drop or add your external hard drive in the Privacy window. This will reset the old preference.
3. Then remove the external hard and close the System Preferences.
4. Wait for 30 seconds. Spotlight will start indexing of your external hard drive.
Update: It's supposed to scan for 8 hours but it took only 15 minutes and stopped. I tested the search and it's still not working. It's strange that it works on my other two external hard drives (USB and Firewire) but not this particular one (USB). I have three external hard drives.

How to get iMovie HD 6 to save automatically to external hard drive?

And now: With regard to iMovie:
To get it to save automatically to my external hard drive, do I do it the same way that I would do it for iPhoto, by finding MOVIES in that left-hand vertical panel under "Computer"?
Is it that I take that little icon of the movie board and drag and drop it into my external hard drive? And the same with the Pictures folder? Drag both the icons of Picture and Movies to the External Hard Drive? Or what? I am assuming that I have to take it away from the Internal Hard drive or iPhoto and iMovie will find it there and place files there.
The thing is, can iPhoto and iMovie find the Pictures and the Movies folders in my External Hard Drive without being given a map in the form of a toggled set of instructions, like for iTunes? Are the programs like bloodhounds in that they can just smell where those folders are even if they (the bloodhounds) are blindfolded?
I have ideas for the little videos that I want to shoot, and I need iMovie to automatically put those files in my Big Dog 500 gig external hard drive.
— Lorna in Southern California

When you first create a new iMovie Project you're
asked where to save it.
Choose the external drive to store the Project and
all the files will be stored there.
Thank you, QuickTime Kirk. Now I understand why there is no generic "Save Files To" in the Preferences.
This brings up another question now but I have not experimented with it in my iMac: I had old video clips from 2001 in my hard drive and yesterday I moved all my Photo and Audio files from Small Dog Ext. HD to Big Dog 500 gig Ext. HD. Since in 2001 I, of course, must have designated my old INternal hard drive as the place to save my work, does this mean that those clips are now "invisible" unless I manually go into Big Dog Ext. HD to see it?
In other words, by moving those 2001 video clips from my old iMac internal hard drive to my Small Dog 125 gig Ext. HD and now, last night, to my Big Dog 500 gig Ext. HD, is there no pathway from the iMovie application to the clips where they now are stored?
I didn't realize that such questions would ensue if I shift files from the internal hd to one external hd to another ext. hd.
— Lorna in Southern California
Edit to say:
Well, now I know the answer. I clicked onto iMovie and clicked onto "Find An Old Project" (or whatever), and rather than finding my old 2001 video clips, I was given a window in which to identify where those clips are now stored. I clicked "Big Dog 500 gig" and was taken there, and from inside there I found my old 2001 clips.
So the answer is: The old clips that were moved from Site A to Site B were invisible at first request, but the option of defining the road map was presented. This presupposes that the person knows where they actually are, and since I do, there is no problem.
But of course in the future when I Save To Big Dog 500 gig, I can immediately access my new clips when clicking "Find Old Project."
— Lorna in Southern California

OK, Dropped frames due to firewire+external hard drive+camcorder?

I have an iMac 2.4GHz , 1G Memory (I know this is less than ideal). I have a Firelite Smartdisk 120G plugged into iMac firewire. I am daisychaining my CanonZR500 into the external drive. When I capture video I have lots of dropped frames.
Anyone tell me why? Do I need a better external drive?
Thanks

Not all Canon cameras have connection issues, but hanging around this site I've come to recognize their ability to connect in FCP is the most problematic of all the camera brands. If you have a Canon camcorder, and can not get it to connect up with FCP, the following is a way to sort through the issues and get it to work. Some are elegant - some are ugly.
Before we go any farther -
• You should be using 'Firewire Basic' as the control protocol. If you aren't, go change it and try again.
• Also, verify that you have a solid installation of Quicktime. You may want to reinstall it using the 'delete receipts' method. Do a quick search here on the site - it is mentioned daily if not hourly.
With some confidence that the software installation and camera settings are correct ... the most direct solution is to purchase another, non-Canon device to use as your capturing machine. The Sony DSR-11 is highly recommended for DV work. A deck will save wear and tear on the camera's lightweight drive mechanism and will allow you to permanently connect a NTSC/PAL monitor for proper viewing. If you are working with HDV, you may have other issues ...
Beyond that, the path you take depends on the model of computer you own.
1. If you have a G5 tower or a MacPro, capture to a second internal drive with only the camera attached. If you need to move material to firewire drive, disconnect the camera. A second internal drive is quite inexpensive these days if you do not already have one.
2. If you have a G5 tower (PCI) MacPro (PCIe), G4 powerbook (PCMCIA) or MacBookPro (Expresscard 34) with an available slot, purchase the appropriate firewire card for the slot. Connect your camera to the card and you should be good to go. The new card creates a unique bus and will avoid collisions with the external drives.
3. If you do not have a slot or a second internal drive and you are stuck with the camera, welcome to the camera/drive shuffle.
• shut down and remove the external hard drive(s) from the system
• connect the camera directly to the firewire port of the computer
• start the camera then the computer
• capture to your internal (system) hard drive
• shut down the camera and computer
• disconnect the camera and reconnect the external hard drive(s)
• start hard drive(s) and computer
• move captured files to external hard drive(s)
• edit
If you output back to tape or wish to view your work on an external Video (NTSC or PAL) monitor, you need to set up the camera to use the firewire out as the A/DV converter or VTR - which means reversing the steps:
• copy the file back to the internal drive
• shut everything down
• disconnect the external drive(s)
• connect the camera to the firewire port (and the TV to the camera if needed)
• start the camera then the computer
• play the file.
One caveat here - You may have difficulty getting the file back to tape without dropping frames. Playing files off of the system drive is very demanding and they may have a hard time keeping up.
All in all, if you do not have the option for second bus (i.e. iMacs, eMacs, iBooks, MacBooks) you may want to think about a computer with expandable options next time.
There is the option of capturing using iMovie, but that brings on it's own set of problems and is not recommended.
Good luck.
x

My external hard drives are causing problems when i capture DV in FCP

We have external hard drives (2 different brands lacie and WD) are causing dropped frames when I capture DV in FCP. This only happens when they are connected via firewire 800. When I connect them using USB everything works great. Any ideas why this could be? We have 2 of each drive and 2 older mac pros and they both have this issue with every combination of drives I try. I've also tried reseting the ports with no luck...

Connecting your camcorder to even 1 FW drive constitutes daisy-chaining. Even if you have two FW ports in your Mac, connecting a drive to one port and your camcorder to the other is the same as daisy-chaining as far as your Mac is concerned.
Try capuring from your camcorder with no exernal FW drives attached. Verify that works before trying anything else.
Also, I noticed your profile says you have a Mac Pro. You might consider adding a FW card in order to get extra FW ports that are not on the same FW bus as the built-in FW ports. Then you could connect your external FW drives to the card; and your camcorder to the built-in ports and it should work.

I am trying to get space on an external hard drive which has some old time machine back up files that I do not need but can not eliminate, even by going into the time machine, clicking on the backup file to be eliminated and using the drop down eliminate

I am trying to get space on an external hard drive which has some old time machine back up files that I do not need but can not eliminate, even by going into the time machine, clicking on the backup file to be eliminated and using the drop down menu with the gear box symbol to eliminate

I cannot find this 300GB "Backup" in the Finder, only in the Storage info when I check "About This Mac".
You are probably using Time Machine to backup your MacBook Pro, right? Then the additional 300 GB could be local Time Machine snapshots. Time Machine will write the hourly backups to the free space on your hard disk, if the backup drive is temporarily not connected. You do not see these local backups in the Finder, and MacOS will delete them, when you make a regular backup to Time Machine, or when you need the space for other data.
See Pondini's page for more explanation: What are Local Snapshots? http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
I have restarted my computer, but the information remains the same. How do I reclaim the use of the 300GB? Why is it showing up as "Backups" when it used to indicate "Photos"? Are my photos safe on the external drive?
You have tested the library on the external drive, and so your photos are save there.
The local TimeMachine snapshot probably now contains a backup of the moved library. Try, if connecting your Time Machine drive will reduce the size of your local Time Machine snapshots.

Did my first back up today using external hard drive and time machine now i can't drag and drop

Hi, i did my first back up today using time machine it all went onto my external hard drive fine. Now i cant drag and drop anyhting. I assume ive cahnged some settings in time machine but cant figure it out what to do can some one help ?
thanks

Brandbasher wrote:
Thanks Pondini but i have closed time machine, removed external hard drive.
Did you eject it first?
Now i cant drag and drop anything on my desk top, or mail or any other application. Ive tried moving folders, documents none of it works. Even moving around documents within a folder, it wont let me chnage the position of files.
That shouldn't be related to Time Machine (especially if the backups aren't mounted).
What happens when you try those things? Do you get any messages? Anything you can post a screenshot of?
Have you tried a Restart?
Does it happen in another user account? (If you don't have one, create one via System Prefs > Users & Groups.)

Dropping frames capturing to external hard drive

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for