[Greg Lehman]

Hi all,

I encountered the same error message today as I switched projects and sought to capture newly shot footage (SD) in a new project. Googling the error message brought me here, hopefully this post — my first here — is helpful.

My footage was shot on a PD150, DVCAM setting, selecting “Auto” for shooting drop frame or non-drop frame. My video deck is a DSR-11. Similar to the camera, I selected “Auto” as to whether I am working with drop frame or non-drop frame footage. This summer, I upgraded to a MacBook Pro with FCP 6.0. I recently upgraded FCP to 6.0.5.

I have shot a voluminous amount of footage using the “Auto” setting in the PD150, all of which is indicated in all on-screen displays (monitor and FCP) using all colons. (That strikes me as strange, but that is definitely the setting and that is definitely the display! — your opinions welcomed).

When I sought on the MBP with FCP 6 to capture footage shot previously, I encountered the error message regarding drop frame and non-drop frame. I believe I resolved it in a way similar to the method employed today when I sought to capture footage shot using the same camera and computer, same settings, but after creating a new project.

Thankfully the problem is now resolved. Here are the steps I took.

1. First, I tinkered with changing the FCP settings from “drop frame” by unclicking them. Didn’t work, I got the same error message.

2. Second, I undertook the following steps: a) booted the MBP in “safe boot” mode (recommended once a week by Larry Jordan, start the Mac holding down the shift key until the blue screen appears, when fully booted then reboot without holding down any keys);

b) I then repaired permissions on the boot drive (which is where my FCP project files are located) and then trashed my FCP preferences;

c) then, I went into the menu on the DSR-11 and changed my setting from “Auto” to drop frame.

3. Third and last step, I reset all of my FCP preferences and did not change any of the default references from drop frame.

As indicated above, thankfully when I sought a new to capture the footage shot today I did not receive the drop frame/non-drop frame error message.

I hope this post is useful to someone. I am writing it as today’s footage is being captured.

All the best,

Greg (more or less a newbie)