Final Cut Issues with 23.98fps

Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy

Final Cut Issues with 23.98fps

Posted by Amy Lynn on June 12, 2010 at 3:00 am

Hello.

I’m working on a video for a friend who gave me footage that doesn’t seem to be so friendly with final cut pro studio. She gave me the quicktime files that she downloaded from her camera and when I imported them I matched the sequence in final cut to the QT files. The specs are 1920×1080 (HDTV 1080i 16:9) with an editing timebase of 23.98. The problem seems to be that Final Cut has put the audio out of sync and also cannot playback the timeline for more than a few frames!

So my question is, do I need to convert this footage to a new frame rate, and if so, what’s the best way to do that, or is there a setting in FCP that I am missing to make these files talk to FCP?

I am possibly a little more green at this than I thought, but any help asap would help since I have to finish this video in the next couple days.

THANKS!!!

David Roth weiss replied 16 years, 2 months ago 2 Members · 3 Replies
3 Replies

David Roth weiss
June 12, 2010 at 6:10 am

[amy lynn] “The specs are 1920×1080 (HDTV 1080i 16:9) with an editing timebase of 23.98.”

Amy,

Your “specs” don’t really tell us what we need to know. We need to know what codec the material is, and HDTV is not a codec. Please scroll to the Compressor column in the FCP browser and tell us what it says there. That’s the codec…

I suspect the material may be an uncompressed HD format, and if so, it may be possible that you don’t have media drives with the necessary throughput to playback that material without dropping frames.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

EPK Colorist – UP IN THE AIR – nominated for six academy awards

A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.
Amy Lynn
June 12, 2010 at 6:15 am

Oops sorry. The QT files she gave me have H.264.

ideas?! I’m going crazy. urg.

Thanks!
-amy
David Roth weiss
June 12, 2010 at 5:36 pm

h.264 is not an editing codec in FCP. The files must be transcoded prior to editing, preferably using MPEG Streamclip (freeware), to an editing codec such as ProRes.

You open each file, choose Export to QT, and set the option to ProRes and make certain the frame rate is set to 23.98.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

EPK Colorist – UP IN THE AIR – nominated for six academy awards

A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.

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