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Activity Forums Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy dropped frames on capture only

  • 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?

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