• Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy

  dropped frames on capture only

  Posted by Paul Connolly on July 24, 2009 at 3:14 pm

  Hello there, I have the following set up:

  Mac Pro – Two 3.0GHz Quad Core, 8GB Ram, NVIDIA GeForce 8800GT 512MB GDDR3, 320GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s, Five USB ports, Two FireWire 400 ports and Two Firewire 800 ports; 1.5TB internal RAID

  Latest versions of Mac OS, X QT, and FCP (6.0.6)

  My problem is that I am capturing DVCAM footage from my DSR-11 deck (originated from Sony DSR450). Have also tried capturing from a DSR-1500ap deck via the fw400 and fw800 ports on the front of the mac and I am getting dropped frames on capture.

  I have the capture scratch set to the 1.5TB internal raid

  I have tried and double checked every setting from reading the many posts on dropped frames – but to no avail.

  The DVCAM footage was recorded without proper timecode (time of day code only). As such – I have also attempted to capture the footage as “non controllable device” – but am still getting the dropped frames.

  Could the fact that there is no timecode – only “time of day” be causing this issue?

  Many thanks for your time.
  Paul.

  Paul Connolly replied 16 years, 10 months ago 2 Members · 3 Replies
• 3 Replies

• 

  Bill Dewald

  July 24, 2009 at 3:59 pm

  Time of day timecode is still timecode.

  How does the drop occur? Is it at a timecode break? Or more intermittent? How much can you record before the drop occurs?

  Have you ruled out the tape? That is – are you able to capture other tapes?

  Also – is there any other device operating on your firewire bus?

  And – one more idea – are your settings correct? That is, the proper easy setup for the footage (DV-NTSC, etc.)
• 

  Paul Connolly

  July 24, 2009 at 4:33 pm

  Thanks for the reply Bill.

  I have got “Abort Capture on Dropped Frames” ticked.
  I have got on timecode break set to “warn after capture”
  I am capturing by the “capture now” button (no logging etc)

  The drop does not occur at a timecode break.

  It is intermittent. For example, got dropped frames after ~ 5 mins.
  I then rewound the tape and started again and it captured for ~ 20 mins before getting dropped frames again.

  I have ruled out the tape – as I have tried this on numerous tapes. However – the one thing they have in common is “Time of Day” code rather than continous timecode.

  The only devices connected to my mac are the deck and a 23″ Apple Cinema display – via firewire and usb.

  I have double checked the easy setup and all seems ok – pal etc.

  Any advice is appreciated as I am at a loss as to the cause.

  Thanks.
• 

  Paul Connolly

  November 6, 2009 at 2:31 pm

  Hello,

  As an update to this issue – I bought:

  G-TECH G-RAID GEN4 1TB EXTERNAL DRIVE
  Sonnet Allegro Express FireWire PCI-E Card

  Connected my deck and the external drive to the Sonnet PCI-E card.

  Tried capturing to the internal drives – dropped frames again.

  Changed the capture scratch to the new external drive – capturing successfully!

  In summary – I cannot capture to the internal raid but I can capture to the external drive.

  I have ran the internal drives through disk warrior and all is showing up as ok.

  Can anyone shed any potential light on the cause of this?

Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up