reconnected media now have constant drop frames

[Dan Riley]

What codec are you editing with….I mean, is it DV or DV50 or uncompressed?
Is the drive 400 or 800 firewire?
Is there more than one drive connected?
Is there anything else connected to our firewire port?
What Mac are you using and how much RAM is in there?

I don’t know for sure that de-fragmenting the drive will help
but if you wanted to try it, I’d for sure recommend Disk Warrior
to do it.

Dan

[Linda Petrie]

I don’t know how to figure out what codec is being used. Maybe you can guide me to find out.

It is a 400 firewire.
It is the only thing connected to a firewire port on the computer and nothing else is connected to that same port

What Mac are you using and how much RAM is in there?

I am using Final Cut Pro HD 4.5 on two different computers and it

[Dan Riley]

Linda,

The reason this is important is because the higher the data rate of the
codec you are using, the more you have to worry about the speed of
your drives, or drive if you only have one. RAIDs are best for all
editing, even DV, because you get a much higher average date rate
from the drives to FCP and back. Apple has never recommended
using firewire drives for editing but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t
sometimes work. It’s just that you can’t trust it.
It’s all in the manual. It’s all very clearly explained.

Go to your browser and scroll the columns until you see “compressor”.
What does it say you are using?
If it’s DV/DVCPRO, which is most likely, ok. Your drive should handle it
if there is absolutely nothing else wrong. But editing with firewire drives
is dicey. In your case, if you have a 1.67 Powerbook, you most likely have a
800 firewire port. You should consider buying an 800 firewire drive
from someplace like macsales.com
This would give you more headroom for the data rate that FCP wants.

In the sections where you are getting dropped frames, are you
doing any effects? Do you have more than one video track?
Have you tried rendering the sequence before playback?

Not that I’m recommending this for normal everyday operation,
but you can turn off the dropped frames notification under
user preferences and edit without getting the dialog box.
But when you are all done, before outputting, you MUST
turn this back on and render everything before playback.
Go to sequence, render all, and checkmark all the colors,
including audio.

Dan

[Linda Petrie]

Thanks Dan,

I need help with this instruction:
“Go to your browser and scroll the columns until you see “compressor”.
What does it say you are using?”

In my world ‘browser’ means Safari, but that’s not what you’re asking. I’m looking at “About this Mac/More Info” under each of the contents and I don’t see anything that says compressor or DV/DVCPRO. I don’t know where I should be looking.

The powerbook does have an 800 connection, but my G4 doesn’t, and so I have been using 400 all along so that it can work on both. Working off of the firewires has worked fine for me all along for the past 4 years, even on larger projects. I understand the RAID would be better, but for right now, that’s not what I’ll be using.

I am just editing a very small amount of clips in a new sequence, maybe 10-15 clips – no effects, no rendering, only one track of video/2 audio – I’m just working on the verbal sound track for the piece right now. I haven’t even put any B Roll on it yet. I’ve removed preferences. I’ve copied the sequence into a new sequence. I’m just baffled!

Problems started after the external hard drive started to fill up and I took off another large project to free up space. The media all went offline for my project, which should not have happened. Before that I watched the entire larger 15 minute piece – no drop frames, nothing unusual.

RAIDs – for future reference – what is needed to implement RAIDs? A card has to be added to the computer and then you can use these devices, is that right?

Thanks so much!