FCP won’t ignore timecode breaks even when pref selected

[Mike Block]

my shoot-from-the-hip-90%-solution for stuff like that is to trash the preferences. (With age and wisdom, I’ve learned to also try to troubleshoot the cause of the corrupt prefs.) This will force you to resetup FCP from scratch, but 2 minutes to do this could save you hours of head scratching later.

[Scott Sheriff]

“Anyone know why FCP doesn’t ignore timecode breaks even when I have the box “abort capture on dropped frames” unchecked and the option “on timecode break:” selected: “Warn AFter Capture”?

It’s an HDV related problem. I think this is because the GOP frame structure of HDV, and any minute dropout in the TC, or video breaks the GOP. So I the case of Sony HDV, a 1 frame dropout, actually wipes out 15 frames.
I’m guessing that FCP is written to see these breaks as camera start/stops no matter what the selection is, and iMovie ignores them has to due with the limited amount of manipulation iMovie can do with the captured footage compared to FCP.

“Also, anyone have any suggestions to avoid timecode breaks?”

Here’s what I do.
1. I use a JVC camera, because JVC has a 6 frame GOP, instead of 15, which makes is a little more robust. Not a lot, but a little.

2. Don’t reuse media. The tape path on DV based cams puts a lot of stress on the tape. A new tape is cheaper than a reshoot.

3. Use a head cleaning tape to keep the tape path clean.

4. Don’t mix tape brands. HDV/DV tapes have a lube on them. Basically either ‘wet’, or ‘dry’ type, and they don’t play well together if you switch tapes around. Sony=wet type, JVC & Panasonic=dry type. Stick with one type to avoid cross-contaminating the tape path.

Scott Sheriff
Director
SST Digital Media
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com