Dropping Frames in FCE 3

Im using FCE 3 and have a G5 tower running OSX 10.4.11. I import from a JVC GR-DV800U and a Canon XL-2 with a firewire cable. I haven't had any trouble, and after doing no video work for a couple of months, I suddenly am dropping frames when trying to capture from either device. It always happens right around 5 and a half minutes, and then Final Cut freezes up another five minutes as it works out the Dropped Frame message. Is this the result of a software update I have done?

Thank you very much. I tried looking in the forums for the answer originally, but if you don't know the cause, you don't really know what to look for. I've found it, with your help. Thanks so much!

Similar Messages

Upgrade to FCE 4.0 results in dropped frames

I just upgraded to FCE 4.0 from 3.5HD and now key-framed motion clips that worked fine before die repeatedly with dropped frames. I've set RT to safe and dynamic and the memory cache to 80%, and while FCE is resident on my hard drive the files are on the G-Raid linked by firewire (not USB) where the scratch disks, waveform and thumbnail caches, and autosave vault are pointed.
Will upgrading RAM to 4 GB help? How about a new 7200 rpm hard drive with 16 meg cache?
What else should I do?

Hi(Bonjour)!
Install the FCE 4.0.1 update via software update.
Try to render for playback.
Michel Boissonneault

New Intel iMac, FCE 3.0 and dropped frames on capture

Just got a brand new 20 inch iMAC running 10.4.9 with 2G of RAM and over 200G of space. Can't capture more than a minute or two of footage to the hard drive without a dropped frame abort.
Have no problems capturing the same tape to a nearly full Lacie external drive through my 4 year old inverted bowl G4 running 10.3.9 with only 512 MB of RAM.
Does anyone know if it could be because I am running FCE 3.0 on the new iMAC? I've read that 3.0 is not made for the Intel and that the machine has to do some behind-the-scenes tricks to make it work.
Might upgrading to 3.5 solve my capture problem?

I think that article is misleading. It seems as if that if you have 3.0 or earlier (FCE, of course), combined with OS 10.4.9, no matter WHERE you capture to, you will get dropped frames. There are three (3) solutions, and they are as follows:
1. Archive and Install to 10.4.8
2. Buy the upgrade to 3.5.
And the newest one, though not tested by many people:
3. Drag and drop the drive that you capture to in Spotlight's Privacy window. That's in System Prefs.>Spotlight>Privacy.
I can't test the 3rd one as I have 3.5.
- Craig

New FCE 4.0 User - "Warning - Dropped Frames"

Okay, so... I've captured some video that I'm trying to speed up significantly (1000%+). When I play it back I get a warning after 4-5 seconds of play that reads -
"One or more frames were dropped during playback"
Then it says to do one of the following:
-Increase Disk Speed
-Decrease # of RT Layers
-Limit RT Bandwidth in User Preferences
The dialogue also suggests I turn off "Unlimited RT" & lower the compression data rate. Sadly I'm not exactly sure what to do or what all this means. Is this even really a problem? What should I do?
Also... I'm using a Sony DCR-TRV22 MiniDV Handycam. I have FCE set to DV-NTSC. I wasn't sure what the differences between that and the 32KHz variations were. Could someone explain?
Thanks.

The AUDIO can usually be recorded as either 12bit or 16bit.
If it is 12bit you use the "DV-NTSC 32KHz" Easy Setup otherwise you might get sync problems.
However, this is unlikely to cause dropped frames.
Usually you are taking the computer to its limits. Try rendering your clip and it should playback OK.

The FCE, 10.4.9 dropped frames issue.

Hello All,
After spending a couple of hours this morning with the FCE (3.0.1) and 10.4.9 issue I finally exhausted all troubleshooting and came here.
The last thing I did was to bootup into my older cloned drive which is running 10.4.7 and have had no problems with the dropped frames. It was happening about 20 seconds into capturing when running 10.4.9.
The newest threads on this are from early April. Is there a solution to getting FCE 3.0 to work under 10.4.9 now? Fix, upgrade app, etc.? I'd hate to have to be stuck in an old OS just because of tape capture.

You can upgrade to 3.5 to fix the problem. If you search the forum you'll find a solution using Spotlight privacy.

Dropped frames - iMovie vs FCE only from Canon, not Sony

I have tapes shot on my new Canon Elura 100, SD, that import without complaint into iMovie but show lots of dropped frames in Final Cut Express. Imports from by onld Sony TRV never have a problem. Any idea what is going on?
Note - I used a Sony TRV-30 for years without a problem. I just picked up a Canon Elura 100. Now I get dropped frames all over the place on FCE import for tapes shot with the Canon. Out of interest I tried importing the tape shot on the Canon using my old Sony and I get the same problem. Tapes shot on the Sony have no problem. So evidently there is something on the Canon recorded tapes FCE does not like. The playback appears fine. iMovie import goes without a hitch. FCE I get a dropped frames notice and there are pauses in the playback of the imported video.

I rechecked and saw I was also starting to get dropped frames with the Sony, something I had not seen in years. Evidently there is something in my system now (perhaps 10.4.9?) that FCE2 does not like. I rebooted to an older installatioin of 10.3.9 and now both cameras are coming in without dropped frames.
Note: there were other Firewire devices connected, but not powered up.
I did not try changing the setup. Once I was in 10.3.9 everything came in.

Dropping frames from photo project in FCE

Hi, I have a MBP with OS X 10.4.11 2.33 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo w. 2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM.
I pit together a 5 minute photo collage with music on FCE and it is dropping frames. I didn't think doing a simple project like this would be a problem on a Mac Book Pro. What settings should I look at in my system to make sure they are how they need to be. And, how do I restore the dropped frames to the video? Do I just re-insert the photos they were dropped out of?
Also, as you can see I'm a bit new to Mac and FCE. So far when I've run into problems this is the first place I come, I do a search and if that doesn't answer my question I will then post the question. Let me know if there are any other valuable resources (sites, discussion boards) for Mac/FCE newbies like myself. Thanks.

Hi(Bonjour)!
What do you mean by dropping Frame ?
Try to render your sequence before playback.
Michel Boissonneault

FCP 4.5 & FCE 3.0 may drop frames with Mac OS X 10.4.9

Hi:
I thought it could be a good idea to post this information for thos users of FCP 4.5 that still haven't upgraded their systems.
This information comes from this Apple doc:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305284
====================================
Issue
If Mac OS X 10.4.9 is installed, Final Cut Pro 4.5 and Final Cut Express 3.0 may drop frames when attempting to capture video to some FireWire-based storage devices. Final Cut Pro 5 and Final Cut Express 3.5 are not affected by this issue.
Affected Products:
Mac OS X 10.4.9
Final Cut Pro 4.5
Final Cut Express 3.0
Solution
Capture media to an internal ATA drive.
If FireWire storage is a requirement for your workflow, update to Final Cut Pro 5 or Final Cut Express 3.5. If necessary, you can archive and install Mac OS X to revert your operating system to Mac OS 10.4.8.
This document will be updated as more information becomes available.
====================================
Hope it help someone to avoid some headaches !
Good luck
Alberto

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=929465&tstart=0
Alberto

How to overcome "dropped frame" issues on my project

Hey reader,
I have a MacBook Pro 2.4GHz with 250GB hd (85GB free just now) running 10.4.11, FCE HD 3.5 (and QT 7.5.5) and using a Sony Handycam DCR-HC96 (which is works BEAUTIFULLY with iMovie 08 and 6 and is always used with Sony tapes) and I am not able to "capture" the tape content to my MacBook Pro because of the "dropped frame" issue.
The camera is connected to the external hard drive chain via Firewire cable to the MacBook Pro and I was trying to capture to the internal hard drive. I am in the UK and am still struggling to get my head around the different frame rates but initially I got the dreaded "dropped frames were encountered during the last capture attempt" and it just wouldn't work, so I unselected the report dropped frames tab and abort capture in User Preferences as was suggested on here.
Now I get "Capture encountered a problem reading data on your source tape. This could be due to a problem with the tape. Capture has been aborted and your clip has been saved" but the tape is fine (heads are also clean) as I had to (under time pressure, me) use iMovieHD 6 instead and it worked like a CHARM.
What can I do to use this software?
I KNOW I can import the iMovie footage but the disadvantage is the eternal rendering, I guess. I only ever used it once (because of its difficulties) and that was for pre-existing footage from iMovie and it was OK if not perfect. Just had to have a few hours extra for the constant rendering in preview...
Should I try to capture to one of the external hard drives? I read that the internal might be a problem as it is busy with the operating system jobs.
Please and thank you.

I got some dropped frames last night and posted this before noticing your post:
There can be a number of reasons for getting dropped frames during capture.
Yesterday I videoed a relative's wedding (in HDV) and on getting home late I captured the footage into FCP 6.0.3 only to find in a couple of places I got an abort on dropped frames.
This morning I decided to recapture and did so without a single dropped frame.
Why ? ......... there are several possibilities.
It could be that there was some physical problem with the tape or camera heads but I believe it was most likely caused by my camera's power supply.
Last night I used the battery whilst this morning I plugged in the power connector.
I feel that this provided a more constant supply of full power and helped prevent frames from being dropped. (The fact I was using FCP is immaterial as the dropped frames would almost certainly have also occurred in FCE).
From now on I will always use the power connector during transfer to and from the camera.

HD erasure to prevent dropped frames.

I know I am not alone on this dropped frames thing. I have received a lot of great info and areas to consider. Here is my little situation.
I had a HD replaced on my PB G4. I have 2 GB of memmory... I reinstalled all my apps... but my new project is still dropping frames when I try to play it in the timeline. I am backing everything up to a different external Maxtor HD. I am now going to completey erase my LaCie HD which is 2 years old (and thus probably too defragmented thus adding to the dropped frame issue.) I have never used a 3rd party app like Diskwarrior because Mac tech support doesn't provide assistance on it.
Once I complete the erase... does it seem as if it is reasonable to expect this problem to go away seeing as how I have a brand new HD allocated for video projects and use a PCMIA card for the camera? And all the software is up to date and permissions checked???
Thanks for the continued help.
D

Hi(Bonjour) Daryn,
It's always a good idea- in video editing world- to devote one drive (preferably the external one) to media (video, music, still etc) storage.
Your applications must be installed on the same drive that hold your Mac OS system.
Hard disk fragmentation is a major concern when we talk about dropped frame, but HD speed, buffer cache size and connection with the computer are important factors too.
I know that formating a drive (at low level) and reinstall your backed up files and programs is a good way to defrag your drive. But a dedicated piece of software (I use techtool Pro) is a simpler way to go from day to day usage.
One another way to avoid dropped frame is to set FCE to playback file with a lower quality and frame rate settings (realtime capability relies on your mac's own performance and spec).
Try a such test before thinking about formatting your external HD.
Michel Boissonneault

Dropped frames or out-of-sync audio

Using Sony HDR-FX1 and FCE-HD is set to DV-NTSC. I've also tried DV-NTSC Firewire Basic. I've been trying various suggestions I've found in the Discussions to cure dropped frames that prevent me from capturing and out-of-sync audio making footage I do capture useless. Mac is running 10.4 with 5.5 GB of RAM and dual 2 GHz G5.
I'm capturing to my main hard drive which has plenty of space - when I'm done editing, I archive old footage on an external drive.
"Abort capture on dropped frames" is currently checked. Lately, this means I can't get more than a few seconds without the capture stopping. This never used to happen, now it happens all the time no matter what tapes I'm capturing from.
If I uncheck it, the audio on the captured footage is out of sync. Over time, as I've been trying to trouble shoot this using the Discussions, my projects remain unfinished and deadlines are looming sooner and sooner.
If someonce could please help me I'd be very grateful.

Hi(Bonjour)!
Did you shoot in DV or HDV ?
Did you try to capture HDV with Apple Intermediate Codec 1080i60 (or 50 for europe)?
Does you downconvert HDV shooted to DV upon capturing from camcorder ?
DV-NTSC 48 kHz is the way to go with downconverted material.
Does your DV audio setting is 16 bit on FX1 ? (HDV is a fixed one).
Michel Boissonneault

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 ?

Timecode break, dropped frames

Hello Hello,
When capturing into Final Cut Express HD 3.0 an error appears that either says--dropped frames were detected, or timecode breaks.
In easy setup I switched over to DV-NTSC_DV converter and manually operated the camera. Dropped frames were detected.
I teach at a highschool that has a mac lab with two types of mac computers. The problem occurs on both computers.
The computer specs. Emac-osx 10.4.9
1.25 GHZ pwr pcG4
mem 512 MB
Intel Imac 10.4.9
1.83 GHZ core duo
mem 512 MB
We are running all computers with
quicktimepro 7.1.2
On one computer we updated to
quicktimepro 7.1.5
Problem still occured.
I am using both sony and canon mini dv to digitizing.
any suggestions
trouble in highschool

Oh man,
I read the previous posts, and the archive users and install trouble shoot looks like the fix to the problem, but with 30 computers and many highschool student users and projects on each of the computer, I cant do it. Please please apple do a patch for fce 3.0!
dopi

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

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.

Dropping Frames in FCE 3

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