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time code break v.s. dropped frame
Sorry if this is a pretty dumb question but I realize I don’t really know the difference between a time code break and a dropped frame. Both occur in capture and I really wonder what can cause a time code break other than a dropped frame? I’ve been doing some batch capturing and have come across the message at the end of some captures to the effect that there was a time code break in the capture. I know that in Sequence Preset on can instruct FCP to abort capture if dropped frames are detected. I have my system set up that way but still I have encountered broken time code during capture, so that would seem to suggest they are different things. Anyone out there who can help me sort out what I suppose should be a pretty basic bit of info?
John
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6 Replies
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A timecode break is exactly what it says, a break in the timecode that’s recorded on the tape. Generally this happens when the TC is set to Time of Day so instead of a continuous time from say, 01:00:00:00 to 01:30:00:00 for an entire tape, the TC jumps everytime the camera is stopped and started.
A Dropped Frame occurs when your hard drives are too slow for the type of capture you’re trying to do. The hard drives could not keep up with the media so they missed data, thus dropping frames and the capture aborts.
Two completely different and unrelated things.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
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Thanks.
A dumb question as I suspected.John
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John,
There is no such thing as a “dumb question” when you don’t know the answer to what you are asking! 🙂
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[john whiteway] “Thanks.
A dumb question as I suspected.”Nope. Lots of dumb ANSWERS but never a dumb question. 🙂
If you don’t know something, always better to ask, someone on here will answer it for you. Even better, try a Search in this forum and regular Final Cut Pro forum first before you ask. Amazing how quickly you can get answers that way.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media“Foul Water, Fiery Serpent” now in Post.
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Apple Final Cut Pro, Apple Motion, Apple Color, AJA Kona, Business & Marketing, Maxx Digital. -
Hello once more.
I’ve got the “dropped frame/broken time code” difference clear in my brain now – thanks – but have another time code related question.
When I began filming DV years ago I’d sometimes stop the tape to review what I’d shot and then go on shooting. The result was often tapes where the time code had been reset to zero, and that caused all sorts of problems. I learned through this experience to leave the tape alone till it was finished. Result – a consistent time code throughout.
But this doesn’t seem to be the kind of broken time code problem I’m facing here.
I’ve just slowly looked through the two 30-minute clips I captured that FC told me had time code breaks and there is no re-setting to zero in them, as I would have expected if there is a time code break. (I’m assuming the time code for these clips that I’m seeing on the FC monitor is the same as on the tape, that if there was a break in the tape – for example a resetting to zero – that would be reflected on the monitor count.)
When I reviewed these tapes I was only able to watch seconds and minutes as they streamed past. Could there be a break in the frame count that I just couldn’t see? But if so why wouldn’t that have made the time code revert to zero?
These are tapes shot in 2002. Is it possible there might be some degradation in the tape over that time that could explain this?
John
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Figured out the answer to my problem.
Being a bit lazy I hadn’t been forwarding to the end of the tape to see where the shooting actually stopped. What I’d been doing in Log and Capture was simply setting an “out” point of one hour. Usually I film till at least that point and being that all the tapes had been striped before use I thought there was nothing to worry about. As it turns out in the two tapes where I was getting the broken time code message I’d actually stopped filming on that tape somewhere in the high 50 minutes. Once I tried recapturing with the correct “out” point things have all gone well.
Guess it’s short cuts that always lead us into trouble.
John
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