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Dropped frame error message whilst editing. what to do?
I keep getting an error message about dropped frames, whilst I’m editing. The message is:
Warning – Dropped frames.
One or more frames were dropped during playback. If this occurs frequently, try:
* Turning off “Unlimited RT”.
* Lowering your compression data rate.
* Closing open sequences.
* Lowering the preference for real time audio tracks.
* Increasing the speed of your system and/or disck drives and/or network connection.This happens when I bring in footage from the Viewer, into the Canvas. I had been editing fine before this, and it’s only started now, after editing about 4 miniDV tapes.
I have Unlimited RT turned off, it is on ‘Safe’ at the moment.
I have closed all other sequences, so that only the one I am editing in is open.Otherwise, how do I lower my compression data rate? Will this affect the quality of the footage when I go to export? Or is it simply for viewing?
I believe I lowered the preference for real time audio in the RT dropdown button in the timeline and this didn’t make any difference, I’m still getting dropped frames.
Also, the memory of my mac is 2 GB.
If anyone can offer insight, I’d be greatfully appreciative!!
Paulina.
P.S.
I have also posted this on the Apple Final Cut and Lafcpug forum but have not found a solution as yet! Cheers!Go Vegan!
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10 Replies
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Hi Paulina,
My advice in those case is a bit of maintenance to your Mac.
Clean caches, repair permissions and rebuild directories.
If your system is not optimized, FC can not work smoothly.
Happy New Year,
Rafael -
Paulina,
You also should have at least 10% overhead of space left on your media drives. Also, someties and audio mixdown can fix this.
Have a wonderful day.
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Post what you’re using as a scratch disk and how it’s connected to your iMac… needs to be a firewire 800 or 400 drive (at least- NOT usb connected) and also post the format of video you’re working with. Can’t tell from your post enough about your system to give you the best fix here, but most of the time, dropped frame warnings result from drives not being fast enough, or using your internal drive to store media on… Rafael is right too, optimization can help, but basic setup of media drives is crucial to a smooth playback of media files.
Jerry
Apple Certified Trainer
Author: “Jerry Hofmann on Final Cut Pro 4” Click here
8-Core 3.0 Intel Mac Pro, Dual 2 gig G5, AJA Kona SD, AJA Kona 2, Huge Systems Array UL3D, AJA Io HD, 17″ MBP, Matrox MXO, CD’s
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Hi Rafael,
Thank you for your suggestion.
It sounds lovely but can you please tell me how to do this? Is that all to do with software? Ie, do I just use some program to clean out the hard drives or do I need to get them physically repaired?
Happy New Year to you too!
Paulina.
Go Vegan!
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Hi Chris,
Hope you had a lovely New Years!
The capacity of my hard drive is 232.74 and I have 122.47 GB so that is more than 10%. Also, what do you mean an audio mix down can fix this? Can fix the space issue? I dont have a space issue at present, and I can’t do a mix down as I am still in the process of editing!
Many thanks for your help.
Paulina.
Go Vegan!
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Hi Jerry.
What is a scratch disk? do you mean my actual mac? or the hard drive I am editing to?
Yes, the hard drive I am editing to is Firewire connected. I am pretty sure it is 400. Is there any way to check this?
The format of video is simply miniDv tapes. Is this what you mean?
All my media is being stored on the external hard drive, not the internal hard drive.
What does the basic setup of amedia drives means? Ie, how can I make sure my hard drives are set up correctly? I have been editing quite a lot and neve r had any dropped frame issues before.
Many thanks for your help!
Paulina.
Go Vegan!
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Hi paulina,
I hope you had a nice New year Eve and you enjoy the rest of the 2009.
The three things I suggest you to do are:
– Cleaning Caches, Updating What-is data Base etc: Those are maintenance routines that the Mac runs by it self when is kept switched ON at night. If you normally close your Mac at night you should run a small application call “Maintenance”.
– Repairing Permissions: This you can do it with the “Disk Utility”. You should do it whenever you install any application, driver, etc..
– Rebuilding Directories: Directories are, in short, the lists where the system look for the location of the files in the HDs. Messy directories is the main cause of instability and malfunctions in the Macs.
You need a program like DiskWarrior or TechTools to rebuild the directories.
Get your self one of those applications Paulina. Is the best money (90$) you will ever spend in your Mac.
This is a thread about a problem similar than yours:
https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/8/1016666
Cheers,
rafael -
Select all in the timeline, go to sequence>render all>mixdown. You can do this anytime, sometimes it helps dropped frames.
Have a wonderful day.
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Select the drive on your desktop and type cmd+i. It will show how it’s formatted. Needs to be Mac OS Extended… it likely is though if you’ve used it for a while, and it’s been OK.
Disk drives slow down a lot as they fill up too. Keeping them under 70% total capacity keeps them running faster, so if it’s carrying more than that, it could be the cause of your problem.
Jerry
Apple Certified Trainer
Author: “Jerry Hofmann on Final Cut Pro 4” Click here
8-Core 3.0 Intel Mac Pro, Dual 2 gig G5, AJA Kona SD, AJA Kona 2, Huge Systems Array UL3D, AJA Io HD, 17″ MBP, Matrox MXO, CD’s
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I have a brand new mac pro loaded.
I while editing audio got the “said warning” and a stop on time line during playback.
My footage is sitting on my hard drive, to work mobile.what might be the problem…have READ ALOT but no solution.
The laptop is only a few days old.any advise?
thank’s!
mmiller
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