Playback Control – Frame Offset

[Bbalser]

It’s mostly a capture setting and depends on what you’re capturing from.

[John Pale]

This setting is there to compensate for the delay in monitoring through firewire devices, which is generally a few frames.
If you are using a capture card, such as the Kona or Decklink, this should be set to 0, as there is no latency.
This really doesnt have to do with lip sync, it has to do with the canvas being in sync with the NTSC/PAL monitor (it delays your computer, so the canvas and the video monitor show the same image)

[John Pale]

Compensating for Video Latency by Specifying a Frame Offset

No matter what signal format you use for external monitoring, all digital video and
audio interfaces (including FireWire) introduce inherent processing delays (known as
latency) to signals sent out of the computer. External video and audio coming from the
built-in FireWire port or third-party interface may be several frames later than the video
on your computer display (in the Viewer or Canvas). The latency, or offset, between
different devices can make precise editing difficult.

By changing the frame offset value in Final Cut Pro, you can compensate for the delay
between your computer display and external video and audio outputs. Frame offset is
active only when your sequence real-time effects are handled by Final Cut Pro. For
information about setting the Effects Handling tab of the System Settings window, see
Volume III, Chapter 23,

[Martin Baker]

In my experience AJA Kona is 0 frames but Decklink range is 4 frames. I asked on the Blackmagic booth at NAB why there’s a 4 frame delay but the guy didn’t know.

Martin
Digital Heaven, London UK
Unique plug-ins and tools for Apple Pro Apps
———-
Avid2FCP
For Avid editors learning FCP