[Lars Fuchs]

As another test, I imported the audio into Audacity. There I sped it up by 0.01%. I also tried to change the sample rate to 48048Hz. I imported both back into FCP, and the first one worked very well, the second not. It was 4 seconds shorter than first (both were about 1hr 10min long). It didn’t matter if the sequence was prores 1080p24 or DVCProHD 1080p24

go figure.

[Lars Fuchs]

If I change the speed of the audio clip to %100.01, it stays in sync the whole way through. That suggests that it is a problem of 24 vs 23.98. Would mis-digitizing account for that?

[Todd Gillespie] “Slow drives, full drives, or using the system while digitizing.”

I’m using a CalDigit VR external RAID 0 over FW800 importing from a G-Tech mini 7200 RPM. There’s over a terabyte of free space on the CalDigit. I”m using a MBP 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 4 GB of RAM. I’m confident (but not 100% sure) that I left the system unattended during Log&Transfer). I can of course try it again, and I’l repost afterwards.

Interestingly, I installed a trial version of Premiere CS6, which will open the mxf files directly. Same problem!

[Lars Fuchs]

I have also tried to change the way the video clip is imported. So I opened Log&Transfer, and under preferences set P2-Plugin/P2 AVC-Intra to ProRes 422 (see grab:)

Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to make a difference. When I reimport the clip, its compressor is still DVCProHD 1080p30, frame rate 23.98. In the Log&Transfer window, I see that the source format and target format are the same regardless of the settings in the preference pane:

So now I’m really stumped.

[Lars Fuchs]

I read Matt’s article/tutorial. Here’s what I’ve tried:

1) Set default sequence preset to 1920×1080 24p. Quit and relaunched FCP. Imported my video footage (DVCProHD 1080p30 23.98 fps, shot with HPX-170 at 1080PA24). Then I imported the AIFF (converted from .wav using Compressor). Synced to clapper, but same problem.

2) Set default sequence to DVCProHD 1080p24. Quit and relaunched FCP. Imported video footage, wav file. Synced to clapper, but same problem.

3) repeated above with default set to DVCProHD 1080p30. Quit & relaunched. Imported video and audio. WHen I put the video in the sequence, I did two ways, allowing FCP to match the sequence settings (making it 23.98) and not (forcing the 23.98 footage into a 29.97 sequence). Same problem, its out of sync noticeably an hour later. (It gets worse as time goes on but its perceptible around 20 minutes in).

4) I reset the default sequence preset back to Apple ProRes 1920×1080 24p, quit and relaunched, imported audio and video, forced the DVCProHD clip into the prores sequence (didn’t allow fcp to match settings), then synchronized audio at the clapper. Then I exported an XML of the sequence and opened it in TextEdit. The video clip and the audio clip are both NTSC: TRUE and TIMEBASE 24.

So now I’m really up it, since Matt’s fix seems not work. Have I missed something?

[Lars Fuchs]

I also created a prores sequence at 24 (not 23.98) and added the audio and video to that. Audio still lags behind video.

[Lars Fuchs]

Didn’t work.

I tried two things: creating a new sequence, dragging the video into it, and clicked ‘yes’ for FCP to match sequence settings to clip settings. Then I dragged the .wav file into the timeline with ‘snap’ on, which allowed me to align the markers i had placed at the clap. Same result as with aiff – starts okay, but by the end off by many frames.

2nd thing was to create a sequence from scratch and add the .wav as above, but with similar lack of sucess.

What else can I try?

[Lars Fuchs]

Easing of the ‘center’ parameter isn’t accomplished in the ‘motion’ tab of the Viewer. It’s done in the ‘video’ tab of the Canvas. There must be at least two key frames. If the ‘center’ value doesn’t change between keyframes, then they will appear coincident on the screen.

A workaround is to move one (or more) keyframes to a different center value. Between keyframes with different center values, a line appears in the Canvas between the center points. Right-clicking on a keyframe brings up the context menu from which you can change the interpolation to ‘smooth’. Keyframes set to ‘smooth’ have purple ‘easing’ handles. moving the handles allows some control of the ease-in/ease-out vectors. WHen you’ve set them to your liking, you can return the center value of the keyframe you’ve changed back to its original value.

[Lars Fuchs]

I’m having a similar problem with a 34’34” DV/NTSC clip. After 49 markers I can add no more. I can’t delete or modify from the viewer using the marker keyboard shortcuts. I CAN however delete and rename in the browser. I can also access the marker dialog by context-clicking in the browser and choosing edit.

I reached 49 markers about 21 minutes into the clip. I tried subclipping the remainder of the clip and adding markers to that to no avail. I also tried copy-pasting the clip to a new project, also without success. What did work is reimporting the source clip. In the new clip I can add markers whereever I want. I was able to add well north of 49 (after 75 I stopped trying).

So there’s a workaround, but its weird.

This is using FCP 7.0.3 under OSX 10.6.8 on an octocore with 10Gb Ram.

[Lars Fuchs]

Its been a while since I had the problem, but trashing pref’s did the trick. I also recreated the custom Matrox settings I had; I suspected them of fouling things up. Perhaps they got corrupted? Anyway, its working now.

[Lars Fuchs]

Just had the same “white frame in pause” problem, and found that the dropdown was set to ALPHA instead of RGB.

[Andy Wood] “my settings but all correct. (ie it IS set to Alpha)”

When I set it to RGB everything went back to normal. I’m using FCP 7 too. Don’t really know how this got changed, but happy it was an easy fix. Glad I thought to search the forum before undertaking any more radical repair measures!