Frame drift on hdcam sr

Hi
I am playing out an HD sequenece at 23.98psf on to a hdcam sr deck from fcp 6.0.1. Although the timecode of the first frame on the sequence drops in at the correct tc on the tape, the end frame is one frame late. This drift seems to occur somewhere at the beginning of the playout after many tests and although sometimes it seems to resolve itself there seems to be no solution as to why as once I think I have found the cause the next playout does exactly the same. I have changed settings such as non drop frame mode and the vtr settings but nothing seems to work
does anyone have any suggestions
if you need more info let me know
thanks

I'll bet if you look at it closely, you will see that the first frame of the output is being laid to tape twice, thus making everything thereafter one frame late. I have run into this problem intermittently when outputting 1080 to HDCAM. I've actually run into it at three different post houses. I was told by a vender that Apple is aware of the issue, and that it is actually a Quicktime problem. I'm surprised I haven't found more about it on the internet, considering the number of times it's bitten me.
-Jonathan

Similar Messages

Small frame rate variation between Motion output and reference video

Hello all,
Here's really wonky sort of question for all you Motion/post-production wizzes out there.
I have a 1920x1080 lower thirds project that I am trying to synch up to a HD up-res of the same dimensions. The problem is that the up-res has a frame rate of 23.976 and Motion only allows for a frame rate of 23.98, so the output synchs up ok at the begining of each act (I have the projects split up into acts), but the further down the time line you go, the more it drifts.
I've done the math and, for this particular project, the last title begins to appear at 00:20:09:11 in Motion, but appears in FCP at 00:20:09:07, a drift of 4 frames, 3 short of the 7 frames it is supposed to drift if you multiply the timecode in secconds by 23.976 and 23.98, but none the less, very annoying.
Is there anything that can be done to remedy the situation besides going back after the final Motion output and resynching manually? A three or four frame drift isn't a huge deal, but the largest act I have is 32 minutes, which sounds like a 6 or 7 frame drift. Again not really a huge deal, but I do have several lower thirds that need to be frame accurate (and really, it would be nice if they were all that way).
Thanks ahead of time.
-G
1.6 GHz G5 1.5GB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.3) Final Cut Studio

Yeah. It kind of stinks when you have to swap platforms just to finish a project. AE is also a pain for longform, so I don't want to mislead you.
I would imagine that Motion would be fine as long as you break the Project up in sections. My workflow is usually like this:
Generate a matte or slug in a layer above the footage to fill the area where I need the Super or Composite. This should be fairly short (below 1 minute if possible) I may also have to RAZOR out the footage below the matte to match the matte timing. Select the Matte and footage below it if you wish to see the footage and sound in Motion.
Select File/Send to/ Motion Project
Create a new Motion Project. Name it for the section I'm editing.
Add overlays and animations, filters, etc.
Save project
switch back to FCP and view/render from FCP.
then move on to next section of timeline that needs overlays, repeat the procedure. Just copy paste the layers from one Motion project to another if you want to maintain certain layer continuity.
This way, the Motion projects are managable size and you don't have to re-render the whole FCP project at once. The clips are not long enough for sync issues to appear. And Motion performs much better when the footage is short enough to load into RAM (sub 20seconds for most people).
Also, to get the most out of Motion, you might want to turn off one of your monitors if you use 2 of them. Motion can use far more VRAM from your graphics card if only one monitor is active.

Audio drift when exporting and non-native playback

Hi there,
We shot some footage with the HPX500 and recorded sound straight into the camera. The audio is 48kHz at 16 bit and the video is 720 at 24PN.
The footage is recorded in P2 and then transferred to hard drives and digitized through Final Cut Pro. We are currently using FCP 5.0.4.
Everything is fine with editing and playback on the sequence timeline.
The problem occurs when we start to play it outside the native timeline.
When I pull out the nested sequence into a DV/NTSC 23.98fps timeline, the audio experiences a 3 to 4 frame drift.
When I export the file as a native quicktime, the audio drift occurs too.
Same thing happens when I export and convert a DV/NTSC quicktime.
All the audio settings completely follow its HD source.
Am I missing something?
Thanks.

Did you ever get a solution to this? This happened to me as well, and now they're even off in FCP as well as the export. They used to be all fine.

Audio Synch from Color back to FCP

I am sending a short sequence with 8 clips or so to color, adding a color fx to half of the clips, rendering all of the clips, inc. the ones without an effect added, and sending back to fcp. When I open the new color sequence, the audio is out of synch by a few seconds. Any ideas why?

Any ideas why?
Not really, but it has been a continuing problem. You're sure it is the audio that is out of sync, and not the video? (Just checking) There are a lot of complaints, especially with HDV about frame drift.
Best solution is to lift the audio from the previous timeline and paste it into the graded (from COLOR) sequence. Even when a mixed stereo final is part of the workflow, it almost never comes back the same, so most, if not all, users avoid sending and retrieving audio as part of the COLOR roundtrip. In my experience, even if it somehow mysteriously lands back in sync, the pan settings are all slammed over to one side.
So we all just pull the original audio forward from the previous sequence and Apple can go onward in its delusional mindstate.
jPo

Reconnected audio out of sync (2-part question)

Hi. I'm reconnecting media on a sequence I imported into my project as an xml. Most of the media relinks fine, but some comes up as having different "media start and end." Why? Also, when I switch timeline setting from 8 audio outputs to 2 (because my system can't always handle 8), some of the audio shifts and is no longer in sync. I'm on FCP 6 and the audio format is 48 khz 24-bit integer; audio files are wavs. Any advice much appreciated. Thanks, -jk

I figured out part of the problem. It's reconnecting the wav files at 30fps but they were originally 24fps, as is my project and all my media. I realized my easy set-up was at 30fps and I changed it to 24fps. So now it's importing the wavs at 24fps but still giving me attributes error when I try to reconnect media, and they're still off by a frame or two. In some of those clips that frame drifts! Some reconnected auio clips sound fine on audio output of 8 channels but go out of phase by that 1 or 2 frames when I change sequence settings to 2 channels. Ideas? Thanks, -jk

Syncing audio/video

I have a project that has gone through a whoop or two and now I finally got it. But the problems was: I had to recapture deleated media into a fcp hd project file and when I reconnected them they were a few frames off. I have gone through and corrected all this manually, with all clips being off either 3,5,18,21 frames off, random. My question is how do I know what went wrong, audio or video. when correcting it seemed like both were off at times their are about 10 tracks on the timeline so it is hard to tell. also wondering if there is a fix to prevent this from even happening? I captured with the same camera too.

You need to post details about your system for anyone to be able to troubleshoot your problem. But... Here are a few basic things. Make sure "abort capture on dropped frames" and "create new clip on timecode break" are enabled in the user preferences. Also, firewire control is supposedly not frame accurate so you may see a few frames drift. But nothing to the degree you are reporting.

How to account for shifts and time zone differences in an EPC simulation?

BPA EPC Simulation results add up processing times and wait times, without regard to shifts or time zone differences between tasks. Does anyone have a technique to deal with shift work or time zone differences? For instance if a task takes 6 hours to complete, the worker can do it in one shift if the task is received within the first two hours. However, if the task arrived near the end of the work day, the worker may work on it for the balance of the shift and then continue the work the next day. The value of a Static Wait Times then depends on when the task is received by the worker. Any ideas on how to realistically model this?
Similarly, if workers pass tasks between them in difference time zones, static wait times may or may not accurately reflect the impact on thru put time. Any ideas on modeling this?
thanks
Rodger Martin

Thanks Michael -- you've helped me with the project before (back in May of this year).
I started this project as a newby back in 2010 and was a bit overwhelmed (i.e. just happy to get everything into FCP and be able to edit.)
I'll try the media manage solution, but if that doesn't work I think I'll live with the one-frame drift. I'm assuming
the only other alternative would be to go back to all the original video and audio files; transcode using Compressor, and then re-synch with Plural Eyes and go back in to match up the edits?
Thanks to your continuing help, I should know how to set things up correctly from the get go for the next one!

How to resolve audio sampling and bit rate differences before sound mix

I'm editing a project where an additional recorder (Zoom H4n) was used and synched to the camcorder track with Plural Eyes. Some of the sampling and bit rates don't match within the Plural Eyes synchronized clips and I need to send this out for a sound mix. Could I use Compressor to transcode the audio? Would I have to go back to my original separate tracks, transcode in Compressor and then re-synch using Plural Eyes? Next time ProRes from the beginning -
but if there's an easier fix for my current problem it would be much appreciated.

Thanks Michael -- you've helped me with the project before (back in May of this year).
I started this project as a newby back in 2010 and was a bit overwhelmed (i.e. just happy to get everything into FCP and be able to edit.)
I'll try the media manage solution, but if that doesn't work I think I'll live with the one-frame drift. I'm assuming
the only other alternative would be to go back to all the original video and audio files; transcode using Compressor, and then re-synch with Plural Eyes and go back in to match up the edits?
Thanks to your continuing help, I should know how to set things up correctly from the get go for the next one!

Workflow question - film to AppleProRes or intermediate codecs

This is a followup to an earlier post from a few days ago. I'm looking for a little help with a post workflow and would appreciate any input.
Super 35MM to HDcamSR - no problem. But for offline, I'm looking for best quality while being able to edit on MacBookPros without rendering headaches.
I'm thinking HDV tape backups while having footage digitized to Apple Pro Res or Apple Intermediate codecs during telecine - are these, especially the proRes codec, too heavy for the laptops?
Thanks guys!

What was wrong with the answers given? DVCPRO HD 720p at 23.98 is the best way to go. ProRes is VERY heavy compared to DVCPRO HD. That is intended as a replacement codec for Uncompressed HD...not as an offlining codec. Feature films cut on FCP all pretty much use DVCPRO HD. JARHEAD, ZODIAK, BENJAMIN BUTTON to name a few.
DVCPRO HD is the offline HD codec of choice. And works grand on a Powerbook, and even better on a MacBook Pro.
HDV would be the WORSE decision to make as an offline codec. It isn't an I-Frame format like HDCAM and DVCPRO HD are.
I don't see what was wrong with the initial advice you were given.
Shane

The Magic of Auto Audio Sync!

I am a very sceptical person and when I heard about FCP X's auto sync feature six months ago I expected the worst.
Last week I bought a Sony Voice Recorder to use as a "poor-man's radio mike" and tested it with an 11 minute video shoot.
I synchronised the audio and video manually and after discovering that it had lost sync by 2 frames during the 11 minutes I retimed it to get it spot on.
Today I decided to do the same test but leaving all the work to FCP X . . . . . and I was not too optimistic!
I needn't have worried as the auto-sync feature worked perfectly, and it even appears to have retimed the audio so that there was no 2 frame drift at the end.
So it looks like the fabled Auto-Edit button is one step closer!

I read your question about doing it with AVCHD and just finished testing when Tom's answer came in!
I can confirm that Tom is correct as you can see from the screenshot of the AVCHD clip and its audio together with the voice recorder's audio.
It took just over a minute on my slow iMac to sync the 11 minute sequence.
I started my recorder running several seconds before the camera and FCP X has very cleverly inserted several seconds of black video at the start.

My Frame Is Drifting (zoom in) And Blowing Edges Off The Viewer

How do I prevent this from happening.
Premiere Elements 11, MS Windows 7
I am working with 8 mm movies converted to HD (1920x1080) at 15 fps. As I proceed along the timeline with my various editing tasks, I notice that the image is more and more zoomed in and the upper and lower edges are getting pushed out of the view. Eventually the right and left edges get pushed out of the view.
What am I doing to cause this slow zoom in on the image and how can I prevent it from happening?
I have: done some pan and zoom on various clips, imported some still images, and made exposure adjustments on some of the clips.

I did pan and zoom of both stills and videos. The problem shows up for videos. However, I do not have any stills (yet) very far down the timeline.
I did pan and zoom via Menu Bar, Tools, Pan and Zoom.
Yep, 8 mm is 4:3. That is what my images first show up as when imported. Apparently over editing steps, the images down the timeline get pushed to a higher and higher zoom rate pushing the top and bottom out of the frame and eventually the right and left out of the frame.
The conversion from my 8 mm film was done by a “service” for me. I went to HD to give me flexibility for freeze frame extract of single frames. The 15 fps is a close match to the original media speed (16 fps) and works well with the 29 fps of Premiere Elements.
The source media is AVI:
Frame Width      1920
Frame Height     1080
Frame Rate         29 frames/second
In 8 mm image does not occupy the entire frame since it has a 4:3 aspect ratio
The Project Settings are:
Editing Mode                     HD 1080i
Timebase                            29.97 frames/second
Frame Size                          1920 vertical by 1080 horizontal
Pixel Aspect Ratio            square pixel (1.0)
Timeline content does not have the problem before any editing is done. However, as I do editing early in the timeline, unedited content down the timeline has the problem.
It’s possible that inserting content into the timeline results in the problem. I have inserted things and also slowed down the speed (via Time Stretch) of some video segments.

Sych drift using edit to tape

FCP is running perfectly in all areas except for edit to tape.
This is a new issue since upgrading to 5.1x and I've been using FCP since version 1. Audio drifts about a frame per second from the assemble edit point and i cant figure it out. Either the sound is dragging out by a frame per second or the pic is going down faster than 25 fps.
Is there a preference or setting that I'm supposed to alter?

That is a BIG offset. Typically mine run from 20 frames to 9 frames. Figuring out just WHAT the offset is tricky. If you have it figured out, and it is ALWAYS that same amount...then that is good.
Another freaking oddness with FCP. I don't have this issue when outputting to Digibeta...only HDCAM. WOnder if it is a deck/NLE communication issue.
Shane

Unable to capture HD 1080 video from HDCAM deck using Decklink HD

I have an original decklink HD capture card with SDI I/O. I have a rented Sony HDCAM F500 deck for the weekend. I can not get FCP to digitize even a frame. All my QT, FCP, OSX and Decklink software is up to date and compatible with one another acording to Decklink's website.
The capture tool shows no video input. I am conecting via SDI from the HD output of the deck to the SDI input on the card, the capture settings are set to the HD format I need to work in, 23.98 PsF. I get the error mesage when I select the setting I want: Unable to locate the capture device Blackmagic HDTV 1080. Your system config may have changed or your deck/camera may be disconnected or turned off.
The system will work in SD using the downconvert output of the deck, but this does me no good on this job. I hope someone has experience with this problem and can help because I am out of ideas!

sorry mate, if I was in the office I would try to help troubleshoot this thing, but here at home its a bit pointless.
other than suggesting you check that you really do have an Declink HD card an not the Declink SD card, or th epossiblity the card may be faulty, the best I can offer is to point you to the Decklink forum at the Cow.
http://forums.creativecow.net/cgi-bin/newviewposts.cgi?forumid=124
have you tried to capture any other HD flavour with this card? how about capturing via the downcoverted SD and using the card to upconvert to HD? (this is not a suggested workflow, just trying to ascertain whether the card is working in HD at all)

Audio sample rate does not match (HDcam to dvcam)

I'm trying to import clips and keep getting this message:
"The audio sample rate of one or more of your captured media files does not match the sample rate on your source tape. This may cause the video and audio of these media files to be out of sync. Make sure the audio sample rate of your capture preset matches the sample rate of your tape."
Footage was originally shot on HDCAM and transferred to DVCAM elsewhere. Using FCP 5, am importing via firewire from a Sony DSR-11 deck. Using DV NTSC 48kHz Anamorphic as capture settings (though I've tried everything that I thought might possibly work with no success). The audio does not seem to drift over the course of several 5 minute or so clips. Clip settings show audio at 48 kHz (don't know if that's from capture settings or from actual data). Seems to me all audio should be 48 kHz 16 bits, so can't figure out what's going on. I have to export an EDL for the project to be finished in HD. Read some similar threads that ended in December, seemingly without much resolution. My broader concern is why this is happening; my immediate concern is do I need to worry about this right now since the media files will need to be recaptured in HD anyway. Any thoughts?
Thanks

A little more info. I'm having this problem on 4 tapes (from different cameras) that were transferred to DVCAM in a squished format to appear full screen on a 4x3 monitor. Video that was letterboxed and I can bring in with the standard DV NTSC capture settings does not have this problem. Still have the problem if I try to import the clips from the squished video with standard settings. Any thoughts?

Trying to output HDCAM...

So i have several QT clips that were shot with various frame rates....ranging from 24 to 60 frames. Some were shot using DVCPRO HD 720p 60i (see below):
1. DVCPRO HD 720p60, 960X720 23.98 fps
2. DV 720X480 29.97 fps
3. DVCPRO HD 720p60, 960X720 59.94 fps
I have built a sequence using the DVCPRO HD 720p 30 in FCP. Using Media Manager.....could i theoretically output this to APPLE PRO RES 422(HQ) 1920 X 1080i 30p to HDCAM? Keep in mind i am only using FCP 6.0.2 with no additional hardware. We are trying to build 1 QT to have a post house output to HDCAM. Hopefully we are doing this correctly.

NO need to transcode to anything. Just export out a self contained QT file, take that to a post facility with a Kona 3 card, and they can output your 720p 23.98 to 1080p 23.98 HDCAM, upconverting on the fly thru the card.
I have done this many a time.
Shane

Frame drift on hdcam sr

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for