Re: Why Am I DROPPING FRAMES!

Hi Ken and Anyone else who can help,

Since I transferred my project files and media to my new LaCie Firewire 800 drive, I can not play back my sequence without "dropping frames on playback." What can be causing this. The video files are from the Sony EX1, so it is HD. I am editing on my Macbook Pro connected to the LaCie drive. Thanks for any ideas!

Larry

Hi Larry,

The EX1 is XDCAM EX format. This low-bitrate HD format should play without any hickups from your FiWi800 drive.

There can be many reasons for dropping frames.

First there are the project issues:

- Select Sequence > Render All and make sure ALL render options are checked, including the dark green (Full) option. Then press OPTION+R to do a full render of your timeline. If FCP starts rendering your problem may be solved.

- Make sure you have no FCP windows overlapping. To make sure you have no widows overlapping, select Window > Arrange > Standard to have FCP arrange your windows. Also make sure neither the Capture nor the Voice Over tool is active when you playback your timeline. Sometimes these tools can be hidden behind your Viewer without you knowing it.

- Make sure your Canvas viewer is set to "Fit to window"

If you have checked all this and you still get dropped frames, you may have a system issue. Therefor we need some info on your system:

- Which MacBook Pro ? How much RAM ?
- What OS are you running ? QT and FCP version ?
- How is your drive connected to your computer ?
- Have you re-formatted the drive to MacOS HFS+ bedore doing the transfer ?
- Do you have other FireWire devices connected to your computer ?
- Do you have a cam or deck daisy-chained with the drive ?

And one more question: what is your editing format ? Native XDCAM EX or Apple Pro res ?

This will do for a start, keep us informed if you have found a solution in the meantime.

Best wishes,

Ronny

Ronny! You Are Brilliant! Thanks!!

Last night, as I read your list of items to check, the first thing that grabbed my attentions was "Make sure your Canvas viewer is set to "Fit to window" " I realized I had my canvas set to 25%, so first thing when I got into my office an hour ago was to change that to "fit to window" I just played the entire 18 minute project and NOT ONE DROPPED FRAME!

Let me ask you since you gave me that great list...

I am on Quicktime 7.3.1, FCP 6.0.2, and OS 10.4.11. I know there have been some upgrades to fcp and to quicktime. Am I where I need to be on OS 10.4.11 or should I upgrade FCP? Also, is there any reason to upgrade at this point, or when I finish this project, to Leopard?

Thanks for the great fix today!

Larry

Hi Larry,

I am happy everything is running smooth now. As to your system, the one thing I learned is: if you have a smooth running system and you can't find any major reason why you should need to upgrade anything (e.g. speed improvement, new features you really need etc...) then stay where you are until you find an upgrade that will improve your workflow.

Best wishes,

Ronny

Thanks Ronny

Will do.

Larry