Dropped frames in FCP 7

[Ella Currer]

Hey Dave,
Where do you weigh in on clean install vs upgrade?

[Dave Bergan]

Hey Elizabeth,

I certainly weigh in on doing a clean install, but I also feel the only way to do a real clean install is to redo the whole computer. I used FCS Remover and reinstalled and still had problems. After that I reinstalled the whole system and still had the same problems. I noticed that FCS Remover didn’t uninstall everything, things like plugins were still there, so I don’t know if there’s something like a third party driver causing my problem.

I’m just hoping a new update will clear it up, I check often for one.

[Chris Borjis]

Of all the posts I’ve read on this subject, it seems like
nobody is able to have a perfectly running system unless
they do a full on clean install.

upgrades are just not worth doing. the time you save
will ultimately be nixed by whatever odd problems you have
while working.

[Vie Chan]

ok, i’ve wiped my system and done a clean install.
and still have the problem. but for me the biggest issue is that my audio is crackling. it seems to play fine for a while and then it will suddenly go PZZZZPPP. and once it starts it becomes more frequent – to the point where it is impossible to edit.
i have the drop frame issue too, but i can still live with it.
ok, so i have a mixture of audio clips 48, 44… i know i should have them all 48. but given that my old crappy white macbook could handle it just fine w/ barely over 1gb ram, it seems preposterous that my new 17″MBP can’t handle it. (so yes i’m also on snow leopard)

it’s just SD footage. nothing fancy.
i have 2 external hard drives connected. 1 FW800, the other an e-SATA, via an express card.
this is so frustrating that i’m almost going to cry.
is it a FCP 7 problem or something else? would it make sense to go back to FCP 6? i’ve done quite a bit of work in 7 and i’d hate to re-do it all, but right now i can’t do ANYTHING.

[John Fishback]

You didn’t say how you were monitoring the audio. A common issue with Kona 3 cards is audio popping if ref video is not fed to the card. The mix of audio file sample rates could be related as FCP is doing the sample rate conversion on the fly. Have you rendered the audio tracks?

As for going back to FCP 6, if you have important work to get out, do so. Hopefully, you cloned your drive so that’d be easy.

John

MacPro 8-core 2.8GHz 8 GB RAM OS 10.5.8 QT7.6.4 Kona 3 Dual Cinema 23 ATI Radeon HD 3870, 24″ TV-Logic Monitor, ATTO ExpressSAS R380 RAID Adapter, PDE enclosure with 8-drive 6TB RAID 5
FCS 3 (FCP 7.0.1, Motion 4.0.1, Comp 3.5.1, DVDSP 4.2.2, Color 1.5.1)

Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neumann U87, Schoeps Mk41 mics, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN

[Vie Chan]

hi john,

thanks for responding.

yes, i rendered the tracks. and it still cracks… and the render ends up containing the crack because when i burn a DVD of the movie, it starts cracking (i burnt 2 copies and tested them on a different computer, they both start cracking at about the same place.)

what do you mean by monitoring audio…? i’m just using the standard/default stuff w/ fcp7 and the mbp.

last night i took out the e-sata drive and switched it to a FW800 enclosure and i managed to go alot further before the sound started breaking again. i ran a hardware test and everything came back as fine….

the mbp shipped w/ 10.6 (SL)…so i’m not sure how well fcp 6 will work on that?

[John Fishback]

What I meant is do you have an interface that outputs audio & video – like an IO-HD or similar? Or do you listen to playback from the MBP speakers? I’ve not read about audio crackling except as it pertains to Kona 3 cards that aren’t fed video ref. Last thoughts: Are your audio levels set properly – not clipping? Did you do a Mixdown Audio (Sequence Menu > Render Only > Mixdown)? You can try using Render Manager to trash renders and then re-render.

John

MacPro 8-core 2.8GHz 8 GB RAM OS 10.5.8 QT7.6.4 Kona 3 Dual Cinema 23 ATI Radeon HD 3870, 24″ TV-Logic Monitor, ATTO ExpressSAS R380 RAID Adapter, PDE enclosure with 8-drive 6TB RAID 5
FCS 3 (FCP 7.0.1, Motion 4.0.1, Comp 3.5.1, DVDSP 4.2.2, Color 1.5.1)

Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neumann U87, Schoeps Mk41 mics, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN

[Alan Langdon]

Hi, Noa.

Have you solved your issue yet? I am having the same problem, I upgraded from 6.05 to 7.01 and I get dropped frames on a common-plcae SD DV NTSC sequence, big time frame dropping. I am just going to go back to 6.05, which I have never had to do before: recede to an older version. Apple has dropped the ball, I think, upgrading and letting this huge bug happen. Please let me know what you discover and I will do the same.
Best luck to us all!

Alan

OSX 10.5.8
MacBook Pro 2.2 GHZ 4Gb RAM 160GB HD Lacie External FW 800 drive

[Vie Chan]

hi alan,

so i went back to the apple store, and had a tech guy who is an experienced editor in FCP. we looked at console and looked at the log and saw that i kept getting an error message looking for an audio plugin (/library/audio/plugins) – sthg like that, so he suggested that i move that plugin so it couldn’t pull that anymore. did that, problem still there.

he said otherwise it’s really my workflow and i shouldn’t mix 44.1 w/ 48khz. so i converted all my audio to 48, problem comes back.

then i noticed that my audio render files and autosave files weren’t where i expect them to be (ie where i defined it in FCP) in fact i can’t seem to find where they are being saved regularly at all…. i suspect that might be part of the problem?

then i also repair disk permissions every time after the PZZZZP happens, and it’s always the same thing that needs to be repaired…

i wish i could switch back down an OS, but because my MBP is spanking new, i can go below snow leopard…. i’m so frustrated that i want to cry. put in a chunk of money and i have less of a system than before.

if you have any breakthroughs, please please let me know…

[Alan Langdon]

Noa-

What a complete drag. Unbelievable… I wish I had better news for you. I was able to uninstall using FCS Remover (I know it’s sloppy and possibly leaves crumbs behind) and now I am updating my Pro Applications drivers and such to just go back to FCP 6.05… I hadn’t gone too far in my current edit so I haven’t lost too much work, just time and headaches… Are you still having the dropped frame issue, which is what I have? The audio problem I do not have, but I have been disappointed before with the audio rendering and such, and I always end up thinking I need to learn Soundtrack Pro to do my audio. Do you know this program? Have you tried it?
Which system did you buy spanking new which doesn’t go below snow leopard?
The audio renders I think you need to locate and find out why they are not giong where you want them to. I know its a stupid question, but what quality are you choosing in the USer Preferences for playback? When you export a FCP movie, current compression, doe sit go with the audio problems the same? Are you “mixing down” your audios? Apple + Option + R
Sorry to offer lame suggestions, I am not a complete expert. Hopefully you can solve this, and I’ll let you know if I get any helpful info.

Best of luck!