fcp 7 audio/video drift/sync

[Michael Gissing]

I’m going to hazard a guess that the metadata in the file incorrectly has the frame rate set to 29.975 no 29.97. It makes me wonder if the DV was converted to ProRes in something like After Effects which can set frame rates with incorrect speed.

Final Cut Pro unlike most other apps tries really hard to apply incorrect metadata like that to what it can. In this case to the audio as a frame is a frame. This may be causing your audio drift.

If you have Cinema Tools, open the file in there and change the frame rate metadata to 29.97. (You should do this to a copy of the file just in case as this is not an undoable operation).

Try this file in a matching sequence and see what happens.

[Ted Coakley]

Hi Michael, thanks for your reply.

Yes, I believe you’re correct. As I mentioned in my previous reply in this thread, MPEG Streamclip shows the clip to be at 29.975.
That clip came from a VX1000 miniDV tape ingested (Log/Capture) by FCP 7, and then converted to ProRes from an FCP 7 export.

I don’t have Cinema Tools on my computer, but I’m looking online for where to download it right now…..
SO far, I’ve found https://www.fcp.co/final-cut-pro/articles/1859-macos-sierra-cinema-tools-is-dead-long-live-final-cut-pro-7, with links to https://support.apple.com/kb/DL949?locale=en_US, which says latest version of Cinema Tools is 4.5.1

I also just found my FCP7 install files on my computer, which I think will allow me to install Cinema Tools – which I must not have known of a reason to install, back when I installed FCP7 – or maybe it was because the Installer says it’ll consume 780MB of my hard drive (as I see now that I launched the Installer).

I wonder if there’s another lighter-weight program/utility I could download, or already have, to change the clip’s metadata.
Searching online now…..

Stay tuned…..

[Nick Meyers]

nothing lighter than CinemaTools
its a small app, very easy to use,
and you have it.
what’s that they say about a bird in the hand?

good idea from michael, btw

n

[Ted Coakley]

Yeah, I hear ya! About to install it.
Once installed, there will be some relatively simple to find and simple to use function to just change the clip’s frame rate tag in it’s MOV file?

[Ted Coakley]

Well, shoot. I just installed Cinema Tools, and when I go to launch it, all I get is this error message:

“Cinema Tools quit unexpectedly while using the Cinema Tools plug-in.
Click Reopen to open the application again. Click Report to see more detailed information and send a report to Apple.”

My options are “Ignore”, “Report” and “Reopen” – none of which allow me to launch Cinema Tools, despite repeated attempts :-/

[Ted Coakley]

Alright, I followed my link from my earlier post, updated Cinema Tools (“CT”) to 4.5.1 (latest available, I think), and now it works in my OS 10.9.5 ☺

I launched CT, opened the problem .MOV file in CT, clicked the Analysis button, where a) it shows 29.97fps (not 29.975, despite 29.975 showing up in Premiere and MPEG Streamclip), and b) doesn’t allow me to change the the frame rate. Furthermore, I don’t see anywhere to change any of the metadata of the .MOV file/clip, in CT.

[Nick Meyers]

open the clip in CT
at lower left click on he “Conform” button
choose your free rate.

good luck
nick

[Nick Meyers]

if 29.97 isn’t available,
try confomring to any other frame rate, then back to 29.97

n

[Ted Coakley]

Conform button is in lower right (FWIW).

29.97 is available, but 29.975 is not. Other frame rates are nothing close to 29.97.

CT already says clip is at 29.97 (despite other programs saying it’s at 29.975), so, what would Conforming do?

Will Conforming cause re-encoding or transcoding or making a new file – or just change the metadata?

[Michael Gissing]

Cinema tools will display 29.97 because 29.975 is not a real rate. Choose conform to 29.97 and it will just correct the metadata flag to 29.97 so FCP can play it correctly without sync drift.

Conform only changes the metadata. It doesn’t re-render.