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Deck Capturing Odd Framerates
We’ve been having trouble with FC Server, and found that it was a problem with the video framerates of some of the media we’ve captured.
Using a Sony HVR-M15U, we captured HDV1080i60 footage from miniDV tape shot on a Canon XH-A1. It was captured as the same HDV1080i60 footage in FCP6. Upon reviewing all of our media, we noticed in Quicktime’s HUD that, while most of the framerates were standard 29.97, about 30% or so ended up being either 29.98, 29.99, 30.00, and 30.01 fps. It’s these frame rates that Apple says is causing problems when checking in/out projects from Final Cut Server.
Any reasons or solutions for this problem? Any ideas or similar stories would help. Thanks!
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12 Replies
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Is that the playing FPS or the fps?
Notice this picture has a playing FPS of 13.9 but a frame rate of 23.98
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It is in fact the regular FPS, not the playing FPS. Some additional information I thought of that applies to SOME of the weird clips, but not all. Some clips were originally HDV, downconverted to DV on capture. Several months later, we installed a BlackMagic HD I/O card in our MacPro. The Format in the HUD for those files then went from DV25 (DVCPro 25, I think) to BlackMagic DV, as if the generic DV25 codec was renamed by the BlackMagic card after its install.
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[Michael Cummins] “as if the generic DV25 codec was renamed by the BlackMagic card after its install.”
Hmm, that’s weird. What does Blackmagic say about it?
ALso, when you open one of the offending clips in Cinema Tools, what does the information say about the clip in terms of frame rate and audio sampling?
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Reads the same as FCP and FCServer: 29.97 and 48kHz.
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So, Fcp Sever and Cinema Tools see the file as 29.97, but QT sees it differently?
the ones that DO work, has the codec changed on those as well?
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Yep. Quicktime sees it differently. This is the culmination of FIVE months worth of working directly with the Apple engineering group to resolve this issue. They’ve said that it’s our problem for having weird frame rates and it’s up to us to figure out this frame rate issue.
The BlackMagic problem isn’t much of a concern right now. The BlackMagic drivers for the card seem to want to add it’s name to any kind of generic DV compression. It’s weird, but it’s not screwing anything up, yet….
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[Michael Cummins] “It’s weird, but it’s not screwing anything up, yet….”
I thought you said that the clips that weren’t transferring over had the new Blackmagic codec name. Is that not so?
Jeremy
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All the DV clips have BlackMagic DV Codec coming up in the Quicktime HUD. But only a handful are at odd framerates. And again, all DV clips check in to FCServer, but only the ones that have odd framerates don’t check out correctly.
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That is odd.
With one of those bad clips, I would open it in Cinema Tools and click the conform button and choose 29.97 from the drop down menu. See if it that clears it up in FCSrvr.
Jeremy
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I believe this has been a long standing quirk with Final Cut and other apps as well. Guess that make it more of a QuickTime issue. I often see this where a clip is fine in FCP and even After Effects sees it properly but QuickTime often reports an incorrect frame rate. I’m glad that it is finally showing as a real issue rather than something that just gets a shoulder shrug (not that I’m glad you are having a problem).
As to the decklink qualifier being added to the codec identities. This has been the case for sometime as well. It is annoying at the least and downright infuriating at times as the true identity of the actually codec is obscured by whatever the decklink QT components are doing. As in what is reported by QT isn’t necessarily what the true codec is. Opening the clip in After Effects usually gives the proper info. I have no recent experience with AJA products to know what happens in that case.
After Effects tends to be my goto for anything that is strange, obnoxious or overly vague (complicated) in the Final Cut suite .
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