Importing From P2 Frame Rate Problems

[Shane Ross]

Put the card back into the camera and use the REPAIR CLIP function. Those sound messed up for some reason.

Shane

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[Greg Newman]

Hi Shane – thanks for this tip. Turns out this doesn’t help because the camera doesn’t see anything wrong with the clip.

We’ve discovered something of a workaround, though we haven’t full sorted out the problem. The audio and video of the original media each live in their own folders prior to importing. If we identify the problem clips in these folders and simply drag the video file into FCP it will successfully import it after an error warning. An assistant of mine then imported the audio into Quicktime and saved it, then brought that into FCP and lined it up with the imported video clip and it matched perfectly.

I don’t have the media in front of me, so I haven’t yet been able to see if this process can be more efficient, but so far I’ve seen it work. This then points to some kind of discrepancy between the video and audio files that is creating the problem in the first place. No insight into this yet, but at least we can get the problem clips into the system.

I’ll keep troubleshooting this and report back further findings. I’m surprised to not find anyone else out here who’s had this problem.

Thanks, more to come.

Greg

[Mike Hawley]

Hey Greg,

I have been experiencing this same problem (driving me crazy) When you say “drag video into FCP” how exactly are you dragging the media into FCP because it does not seem to be working for me? I am pulling the MXF file from the video folder, is that correct? Do drag the file to the bin?

Peace,

Mike:)

PS-Have you been able to locate where this problem occurs, camera, P2 card, or computer? I want to try and avoid this problem in the future. I have been shooting with the same setup for over a year now and this is the first time I have experienced this problem. The only thing that was different was that we shoot this job with 32GB P2cards, which makes me think it could be a problem with the card. Let me know your thoughts.

[Greg Newman]

Hey Mike –

This problem ended up being linked to FCP 5.1, or a combination of 5.1 and a Quicktime upgrade, not sure. But we discovered that if we used FCP 6 the problem went away completely.

With FCP 6 we now use the Log and Transfer function which does a great job of importing P2 media (and r3d media from the Red camera as well.) No more of the above problems at all. This was tested on three machines with the same results: similar problems in FCP5.1 and no problems in FCP 6.

I’m assuming you’re on 5.1?

Greg

[Mike Hawley]

Hey Greg,

Thanks for the quick response, we just ordered the FCP 6 upgrade. If you like I can confirm with you once it works? Greatly appreciate your help!

All the best,

Mike:)

[Chaz Zelus]

Hey Greg,
Just wanted to post to follow up and (hopefully) conclude this thread for all other frustrated FCP/P2 users.

I had been beating my head against a wall trying to import some critical P2 files into FCP 5.1. I was having no luck whatsoever(frame rates of 4, 6, 7, etc…), even to the point of thinking it might be the camera or a card issue, then I came accross this post.

Yes. It works. I imported the same files through FCP 6 and they unwrapped just fine.

To all others, do not use FCP 5.1 to unwrap p2 files (although, to be honest, I only encountered the problem with about 5% of the files.)

Use FCP 6.

I guess they just had some bugs to work out….

-=-Chaz.