External Drive = Dropped Frames in Playback

Hi there Al--
Here's the gear I have...and the problem I'm NOW having.
Gear:
PowerBook G4 with OS X 10.3.9 and 45GB disk space
768 RAM
LaCie D2 160GB Harddrive
Panasonic MiniDV cam and Sony PD 150
Final Cut Express HD
Problem: I can capture to my internal HD fine, and playback sequences on projects located on my internal HD fine. BUT I cannot capture to my external Lacie drive using either the Panasonic MiniDV cam or Sony PD 150 cam. That's not such a big deal, as I can capture to the internal hard drive and transfer the captured footage to the lacie external drive--however Final Cut won't let me do anything from the external HD. Whenever I try to view footage on a project from the external drive I get a "dropped frame" message from Final Cut (I can't even just play an individual quicktime file from the external drive). I'm a bit baffled...as the lacie drive i'm told is the "pro" drive for editing with final cut.
Thoughts?

That's great news !
Regarding the format - I'll admit that I stand by Will Rodgers' advice (If it ain't broke, don't fix it) ... if things are working fine now you probably don't have to worry about the format ... but you might want to check it just to know what it is (I suspect it's Mac OS Extended, anyway)
cheers !

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External Drive Dropping Frames

Hey,
I am in a Post Production class at GSU and I am having some tech problems here. I am running Final Cut Pro 5 on a Mac G5. We are required to have External HDD, but everytime I play a sequence I keep dropping frames. My HDD is a 160 GB, 7200 RPM, Western Digital in an Adaptec enclosure connecting via FireWire. Any ideas?

Search here for dropped frames.
There are dozens of possible explanations. the most likely is user error and that can be caused by dozens of simple things. You start with the simple things and try to eliminate one at a time. Cable, card, system prefs, FCP setup, FCP prefs, FW pathway. It's all in the manual, what you can and should not do.
Your post production class instructor should be able to help you much more rapidly than we possibly can.
bogiesan

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.

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.
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Dropping Frames on playback on brand new Mac

Ok, I just this week recieved my new MacBook Pro, and I have a problem that i think I know the issue but I just need some simple confirmation from the pros. I Am experiencing dropped frames on playback no matter what settings i change So I am going to assume that I need a faster Harddrive than USB 2.0 (500 Gigs 65-70% capacity). Am i Correct? should i spend the money on a Firewire 800, will that make the dropped frame problems stop, because all I am doing is changing a clips speed and it continues to drop frames aqnd barely play. Thank You all in advance

The cards are made by several manufacturers, and i don't think there's much difference between one and the next except for the number of ports it adds.
http://www.weibetech.com sells external SATA drives and arrays, and if you go with an array, I'd look at http://www.caldigit.com for those...
http://www.g-technology.com also sells some external SATA drive setups.
firmtek also sells a dandy, it's reviewed here: http://www.barefeats.com/hard71.html
You'll need the express 34 card adapter, and they are sold by cal digit, and others like: http://www.sonnettech.com/product/temposataexpress34.html
That should get you started...
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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.
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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

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for some reason i keep getting dropped frames on playback after upgrading everything to tiger and fcp 5...
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has anybody else had this problem? perhaps i'm missing some optimization i should have done in tiger??
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thanks.

thought i'd post some of what i found out...
1) turning off my airport card has seemed to help a bit
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Final Cut Pro dropping Frames on playback

I am editing a multi cam video in final Cut Pro. I have set playback to proxy media. I have 250gb free hard drive and 8gb ram. I have an IMac that isnt a year old yet.
I have previously completed a music video, excactly the same composition of 3 camera angles and a soundtrack and no issues at all.
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Model Name:
iMac
Model Identifier:
iMac12,1
Processor Name:
Intel Core i5
Processor Speed:
2.5 GHz
Number of Processors:
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IM121.0047.B1E
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1) IF the clips are playing back fine without the effect. It is NOT the drive speed causing the drama... The effect is.
2) FCPx is NOT a real time application like PPRO when effects are applied. Sometimes if your GPU is strong enough and if the effect has been properly coded you WILL be able to achieve real-time performance... But in most cases not...
3) FCPx has BIG problems playing back video in real-time as it is. Even if its ProRes and residing on a super fast SSD... FCPx HAS problems which are hopefully being worked out as I write...
Solution to your problem is to render the timeline if you have effects on any clips. Also, make sure that your project is NOT residing on the same disk as the event library which it is using. The project ALSO need to be on a fast disk because ONCE you render the timeline, the video is being played back from a file in your project folder and NO LONGER the event library
Hope this helps

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

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 on Playback" - when playing back FCP's Bars+tone

We've been having a problems with one of our edit suites dropping frames when playing back to tape (Edit to tape).
In checking it out, I created a new project and added DCP's PAL Bars and tone to the default sequence. FCP is stopping playback with the "Dropped Frames on Playback" error after 13"-15". I've tried all the usual stuff - trashing FCP prefs, zapping PRAM, repairing preferences etc.
Has anyone any further suggestions??
RT is set to Safe, with dynamic frame rate and video quality.
The Mac is a Dual 2.66GHz Dual Core Xeon, 4Gb RAM, with an AJA kona lhe card, connected to an XServe Raid via fibre. The tape deck is a DigiBeta M2000.
I've read all the posts I could find, and checked Shane's stock answer #12.
Cheers
Steve

Try creating a new user, log into that and test FCP.
In my case, a new user worked, for awhile.
Through a lot of trial and error and a reinstallation that was ineffectual - properly surmised by a very learned friend of mine, Mr. Sheffield - I found a project to be corrupt. So thoroughly corrupt that it would corrupt FCP and any projects opened downstream which is why my new user worked for awhile. Took me some time to figure out the proper order to open things after a system restart. Looks like I'll be doing a rebuild of the project through xml which shouldn't take to long.
In your case, if a new user doesn't help and you go the reinstallation route, uninstall FC Studio with this jewel of a utility. Many thanks to Jon for writing and distributing. http://www.digitalrebellion.com/blog/posts/fcsremover_1.0.6released.html
Zeb

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 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 in playback....HELP!

Hey guys, we are working on a HD project in 720p. All my footage and music is on my external SCSI drive. We have a couple differnt edits, one with one audio track, and one with numerous (efx, vo, music). And when we play back the one with numerous tracks, we almost always get the 'dropped frame' window at least once in playback. But if we play back the one with one track it is completely fine. This is the only project open, and the only timesline. We have 8GB of Ram so i think we are alright in that area. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance.
Rhyno

Thoughts:
In User Prefs, make sure that you've got 'Lower' quality audio set, and a reasonable number of tracks (10? 12?). This only affects playback preview audio quality - your final output will be full quality, so don't worry.
Ensure that all your audio is rendered.
Ensure all your video is rendered.
Are all your audio clips at the same rate? i.e. in a 48kHz timeline, all the audio should ideally be at 48kHz. Often, you will import audio (music, sound effects) from a CD, but that is 44.1, and therefore FCP is doing the sampling rate conversion on the fly, which it can do, but will add quite some overhead to the CPU's workload. The ideal way to work with CD material is to rate convert it FIRST, before editing it into your timeline.

Dropped frames - jumpy playback

I just moved an old FCP3 project to an external drive and opened the project in FCP5. I'm getting dropped frames and generally jumpy playback in the canvas. This may have nothing to do with FCP3 > FCP5 conversion- just thought I'd mention it. Perhaps just a simple oversight in one of my settings. Any ideas would be extremely helpful.

#12 Dropped frames on capture/playback
Shane's Stock Answer #12:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58640
1) Do not capture to your main system drive. Since it is busy reading the operating system and application files, it will intermittently drop frames during capture.
2) Do not under any circumstances run any anti-virus/filesaver software. Including Norton and Virex. Sure, Apple doles out Virex for free, but FCP doesn't cooperate with it very well.
If you absolutely feel you must keep Virex installed on your system then use Kevin's script to shut it off before you use FCP:
http://www.pistolerapost.com/viewing/virexhalt.zip
3) Check the format of the drive you are capturing to. It should be Mas OS Extended, jornalling off. If it isn't, copy your files from it and re-initialize it. If it is any other format, you will encounter problems. If not at first, then eventually.
4) Trash the FCP preference files. Use FCP Rescue available here:
http://www.pistolerapost2.com/fcprescue
Shane

External Drive = Dropped Frames in Playback

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