Dropped frames when capturing DVCAM video to MacBook Pro

[John Pale]

[peterpez] ” I can capture my footage fine to an external firewire 800 Hard disk, but when I try to capture to the laptop’s internal hard drive It drops frames.”

This is normal. It’s not recommended to capture to the boot drive of any machine for this reason. The operating system is already keeping that disk pretty busy without the rigors of capturing video.

[Jeremy Garchow]

To add to what John says, the 160GB internal MacBook Pro disk is 5400 RPM. This is probably not fast enough to capture video and run the operating system. You should always capture to an external disk.

Jeremy

[Peterpez]

Thank you John, Thank you Jeremy.
I understand that it is not optimal, and thank you for your advice, I used to be able to capture without any problem to my internal hard drive on my old laptop a 17″ Powerbook G4 1.33 Ghz with 1GB of RAM. I don’t understand why I cant do it to the new laptop.

[Jeremy Garchow]

Please re read my previous post. I’m sure the hard drive in powerbook was 7200RPM

Jeremy

[Jeff Carpenter]

Please re read my previous post. I’m sure the hard drive in powerbook was 7200RPM
Jeremy
===========================

Actually, the model he described came with 4200 RPM drives. It’s possible he had some sort of upgraded version with a 5400, I guess, but I find it very unlikely that it was 7200 at that point in time.

What you experienced, peterpez, was techno-luck. Sometimes things that are just BARELY possible work great in certain situations and then not at all in others. Because it’s unpredictable, people say “don’t do it.” And rightly so…you shouldn’t work in an unpredictable environment.

What this means, though, is that you could have just gotten really lucky with your last system. It can happen. But it means that if your current system isn’t treating you as well, there’s nothing you can do to fix it. Stick with the external drive and you’ll be fine.

[Peterpez]

Thank you Jeff!

[Emma Mcneill]

I’m sorry if this sounds harsh, rude or unfair but as a long time lurker around here I cannot in all honesty read this nonsense about capturing to internal or system drives any longer.

I used the first Powerbook G4’s (400MHZ 10GB Drive) back in the day to edit DV footage on the road with no issues. The data rate for dv (3.5-4mb per sec) was nothing to an internal drive back then, today it’s a joke.

Jeff, if your system is dropping frames on the internal drive switch on Activity Monitor and see if any other mini app or OSX process is hogging read/write to the internal drive (it shouldn’t be the case since OSX is not a disc thrashing OS, unlike Windows) IF a process is misbehaving force quit it, don’t worry if it essential to the system it will restart all by itself. Some OSX processes are know to run amok (in particular the ones related to Spotlight).

Chances are something is causing the read write to be interrupted. If you can’t see anything create a new user account on your Powerbook and try the capture process from there. If the same thing happens then there may be an issue with the drive which is preventing it from capturing the footage, drives fail all the time so it’s no big deal.

For the record I’m using the exact same system as you, capture DV to the internal drive all the time whilst playing iTunes and browsing the web (let’s face it acquisition is the most boring part of what we do). There is no practical or technical reason why you shouldn’t be able to capture DV to your internal drive. Luck is not an issue.

Emma

[Shane Ross]

Emma, we say not to capture to the internal drive because it doesn’t work for everyone. It is about 50/50. It doesn’t work for him, but it works for you. Prime example. It works for me, but not for a buddy of mine.

So we always err on the safe side and say don’t do it. Obviously it isn’t working for Peter, so we are saying that he should try the alternatives.

Shane

Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net

[Emma Mcneill]

Computers are not temperamental, if it’s not working then there is a reason for it, better to solve the issue then perpetuate the myth that you ‘shouldn’t’ do it.

Emma

[Shane Ross]

Whose perpetuating the myth? It is known that some computers capture DV on the internal day and night…no problems. 5400rpm drive…7200rpm drive…makes no difference…it works. For others, it doesn’t. They can have a 7200rpm drive and it won’t work…dropping frames.

WHY? Because the COMPUTER IS DOING SOMETHING. It might need to access a resource file, it might be doing some other task (as you stated, working on another process)…that causes it to stop capturing as it accesses the files…causing dropped frames. Even if you have no other apps running, if the OS needs a resource, it’ll go looking for it..dropped frames. I still get dropped frames warning on occassion, but 90% it works fine. Others cannot get it to capture at all.

No one is stopping you from trying to capture to your OS. If it works..do it. But if it doesn’t, than try something else. Or, if you want to dig into the OS and try to figure out what is going on…go right ahead. People are asking for suggestions and we are offering them. And opinions…we are offering them. If you don’t like the advice…don’t heed it. Up to you. Or them.

The fact that this works on your machine is all well and good. It doesn’t work for a majority of people so to call it a “myth” is pretty darn ignorant if you ask me. You said you follow the boards, read posts….how often has this question come up? Someone saying they get dropped frames when they capture, and they are capturing to their internal drive. We say “get an external” and they say “thanks” and go do so. Then they don’t come back saying “it didn’t work.” No, it works.

so…what myth?

Shane

Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net