[Jim Blokland]

Hi folks:

I know this goes a bit back, but I think I have tracked down the problem…one thing I neglected to mention was that I was running an M-AUDIO Firewire 410 box as an audio interface — and I think that was the culprit.

Somehow, there seems to be a synch drift via firewire on this box, that gets cleared up as soon as you stop and start the sequence again. I listened to the same project that was going out of synch — but this time via the Mac’s audio outs — no loss of synch.

Guess I’ll be hooking up my K-Box again and going back to 2-channel RCA outs for monitoring.

Best, JIM

OSX.4.3
Dual 2.7 G5
3.5 GB RAM
Radeon X800 XT
Kona 2 / K-Box
Seritek 1.2 TB RAID
AVID XPRESS PRO/MOJO

[Jim Blokland]

Hey Jeff:

I had the synch issues on the last 2 projects, completed in summer & fall 2006. At the time I was running OS 10.4.6 (if memory serves…) and whatever the concurrent QT version was. I can’t really comment as to when I didn’t have the issue, as probably most other projects before these were reasonably short and I just may have not noticed. (I’ve been meaning to post this anomaly for awhile, but I’ve been using AXP for the last 5 months or so on some other gigs.)

Perhaps I’ll try a playout this weekend of one of the old projects with the software I’ve got now (10.4.9, Quicktime 7.1.3) and see if I still have the issue.

Best, JIM.

OSX.4.3
Dual 2.7 G5
3.5 GB RAM
Radeon X800 XT
Kona 2 / K-Box
Seritek 1.2 TB RAID
AVID XPRESS PRO/MOJO

[Jim Blokland]

Hi folks:

Thanks for the responses. I wouldn’t think that FCP with a RAID array should be dropping frames on a mini-dv drama with very few effects — and this is on a 40-minute timeline with only about 8 tracks of audio. I certainly have no drop frame issues or synch issues with the same rig but running AVID XPRESS PRO HD.

I wonder if it could be something else…

This is a major consideration for me, as I’m about to cut a feature film and can’t afford to output to Quicktimes just to be able to screen for the clients…

Any other tips out there?

Thanks in advance.

Best, JIM.

OSX.4.3
Dual 2.7 G5
3.5 GB RAM
Radeon X800 XT
Kona 2 / K-Box
Seritek 1.2 TB RAID
AVID XPRESS PRO/MOJO

[Jim Blokland]

Hello all:

Thanks for the great info. Doing the DVCPRO HD export via Quicktime Conversion works. But what an inelegant way to have to go. The FRC may be fine for getting slo-mo out of 60p material, but it doesn’t work as it should for converting 24p/60 material to 24p. (I told them to test, but would they? The same old song…)

Thanks to all who helped me solve this issue. The COW rocks.

Best, JIM.

OSX.4.3
Dual 2.7 G5
3.5 GB RAM
Radeon X800 XT
Kona 2 / K-Box
Seritek 1.2 TB RAID
AVID XPRESS PRO/MOJO

[Jim Blokland]

Hi Gary:

Sorry to belabour this point, but I just can’t get this to work. I did select 23.98, put the original clip in the root of the project, re-loaded the FRC from the FCP install disk — even tried re-importing the original clip with the new 5.1.1 FCP software, but still no luck. When I jog through the footage, I see a still frame every 5th frame, and the duration of the clip is longer than the original (a 10:40 clip comes back in as 13:08).

This is a major issue for me, as I have a shoot where they shot a few days at 24p/60 before they switched to straight 24pN. How the heck am I to cut these two parts together?

I need real-world answers. If anyone has any, I’d gladly accept them.

Best, JIM.

OSX.4.3
Dual 2.7 G5
3.5 GB RAM
Radeon X800 XT
Kona 2 / K-Box
Seritek 1.2 TB RAID
AVID XPRESS PRO/MOJO

[Jim Blokland]

Gary:

Thanks again. I am not using a subclip, but rather an imported clip from the CONTENTS/LASTCLIP.TXT files/folders I copied to my backup drive from the P2 Store. I’m pretty sure I’ve selected 23.98 (as a matter of fact, that’s the default that comes up when I select the FRC). Just for a giggle, I even selected 29.97 and, of course, that didn’t work.

If I seem to be getting 24PA framerates, I wonder if I could run the Remove Advanced Pulldown on the clip after the FRC? Might give it a try and post back.

Thanks, JIM.

OSX.4.3
Dual 2.7 G5
3.5 GB RAM
Radeon X800 XT
Kona 2 / K-Box
Seritek 1.2 TB RAID
AVID XPRESS PRO/MOJO

[Jim Blokland]

Gary:

Many thanks. Not to belabour the point but…the test shot I used the FRC on was a static shot of a lady sitting in a chair playing the cello. It was shot at 720P24 (over 60). If I step through the shot frame by frame, I see a frame duplicated every 5th frame (ie. FR 1-1, FR 2-2, FR 3-3, FR 4-4, FR 5-4) and the duration of the shot (originally 1:36:00) comes out at 2:00:00. The original file’s properties info box says the clip is DVCPRO HD 720P60 with a 59.94 T/C Rate and a data rate of 14.1MB/sec.

I’m going to try running the FRC on a few other clips and see if there is any improvement. I’ll post back once I’ve done that.

This sure proves that testing in advance of shooting is a must with new workflows.

Best, JIM.

OSX.4.3
Dual 2.7 G5
3.5 GB RAM
Radeon X800 XT
Kona 2 / K-Box
Seritek 1.2 TB RAID
AVID XPRESS PRO/MOJO

[Jim Blokland]

Thanks Gary, that would be great.

Best, JIM.

OSX.4.3
Dual 2.7 G5
3.5 GB RAM
Radeon X800 XT
Kona 2 / K-Box
Seritek 1.2 TB RAID
AVID XPRESS PRO/MOJO

[Jim Blokland]

Hi Gary:

Many thanks for your knowledgeable response. Just to clarify, I did not see any option in the FRC plugin for 24fps…on my machine the only available choices were ‘23.98, 29.97 & 59.94’ (if I remember correctly…). Also, I did select all the checkboxes for making self-contained file, importing into FCP etc.

All I want to do is get the 24P out of these larger files. This is definitely not working. Any other advice is welcome. (at this point, seems that going to 5.1.1 may be the best/only solution) Gary, can you confirm that it is possible to extrude the 24P frames out of the 60 upon import in 5.1.1?

Thanks in advance.

Best, JIM.

OSX.4.3
Dual 2.7 G5
3.5 GB RAM
Radeon X800 XT
Kona 2 / K-Box
Seritek 1.2 TB RAID
AVID XPRESS PRO/MOJO

[Jim Blokland]

Okay folks:

Thanks for all the responses. A few issues remain:

I took Gary’s tip about putting the file at the root level and got the FRC to work. The end result? The timecode is zeroed and not carried over from the original (which in itself is not a big issue). Of course, there is no audio (which is a complete drag to say the least…). But the problem is, the file is longer than the original. From an original file of 1:36:00 in duration, I’m getting a 2:00:00 file back. There are repeated frames periodically (seems about every 20th frame or so?).

All I want to do is get the 24P content out of the 60fps source. This shouldn’t be so hard? Or is Jeremy ultimately right, that an upgrade to 5.1.1 is in order, then I could just remove the frames properly upon import? (I would have upgraded right from the get-go, if it wasn’t such a pain to send my beloved disks to the US for ‘trade’.)

Any more advice? Thanks again for your help. Cow dudes rock.

Best, JIM.

OSX.4.3
Dual 2.7 G5
3.5 GB RAM
Radeon X800 XT
Kona 2 / K-Box
Seritek 1.2 TB RAID
AVID XPRESS PRO/MOJO