[Sam Goetz]

I’m having the same exact problem! On FCP 5.0.4 OR 6 w/ BM 6.3 OR 6.4 drivers w/ HD or SD cards!

I’m playing 720p23.976 media out via SD downconversion and the video is resizing rapidly and then crashing FCP. 1080 downconversion looks great as does 720p native on an HD display.

I was able to fix the problem by downgrading back to the 6.2 drivers, but YES this is a confirmed issue. THE 6.3 & 6.4 DRIVERS CANNOT DOWNCONVERT 720P. For now, I’m staying away from the new drivers.

Sam

[Sam Goetz]

YUP! THAT WORKED.

You learn something new everyday. THANKS A MILLION. I can’t believe I didn’t know that my card could do this. Dang!

Sam

[Sam Goetz]

As far as I know, Blackmagic cannot remove 2:3 pulldown on the fly. I’d love it if they could. They do have 23.98 presets, but I see no ability to remove pulldown on the fly.

Sam

[Sam Goetz]

Yes. Blackmagic HD Pro 4:4:4

[Sam Goetz]

We have house sync on all of our machines’ here and we still get the 1 frame off issue. Don’t think it’s a reference issue.

[Sam Goetz]

Keith,

Thanks for the input, you described the issue and it’s reasons PERFECTLY.

And indeed, you need to create a WHOLE NEW device control preset to stop FCP from resetting your latency. I’ve been using the default NTSC preset, which FCP resets everytime you reboot FCP.

I still wonder whether this issue is completely out of BM’s / FCP’s control. For one, can anyone confirm whether Kona users are having this problem? Also, the fact that the drivers changed the behavior of the latency (with older drivers the problem was random, with newer drivers the problem is consistent) seems suspicious.

And, finally, can anyone confirm whether this issue persists with FCP 6.0?

Thanks Creative Cow users for all the chiming in and back and forth! Please BM, do you have anything to add to this?

[Sam Goetz]

What is your set-up (BM card type? FCP version? Drivers version? Computer type?)?

Although this problem occurs with every computer in my studio, on all kinds of BM drivers, with all kinds of BM cards, I do believe that it might also have something to do with long cable drops, which my studio certainly has.

Still, I have Black ref running to every computer and to every deck in the studio… BM should work with long cable runs, it’s SOP for high-end work.

[Sam Goetz]

I, too, have heard from some people that this is a FCP bug, not a BM bug. STILL, if this really is so, BM should AT LEAST address it, and put it in their support database.

Any word from anybody whether this issue was fixed with FCP 6?

p.s. Both workarounds described by a_falk work for me as well, but like a_falk also mentioned, there is no excuse for high-end users to be jumping through hoops for timecode accuracy.

[Sam Goetz]

This issue does not only affect PAL users, it’s been haunting my NTSC life for the past year. Finally, within the last couple of months, I’ve come to a fairly easy work around. The key is that it requires the 6.1 drivers.

Still, the fact that there is a workaround does not make it ok that Blackmagic should continue to ignore this problem like it doesn’t exist. The workaround (although simple) is still a huge pain in the butt on a day to day basis. If Blackmagic could give a definite answer on when this will be fixed I would be very very happy.

Here’s the workaround:

– Download & install the 6.1 drivers, this will not work unless you use the 6.1 drivers.
– Before laying off go into your “AUDIO & VIDEO SETTINGS.”
– Click on the “Device Control Presets Tab.”
– Select your current preset and click “Edit.”
– Here is where things may vary between users. In the “Playback Offset” box it should say something like +00:00;04. Change this playback offset by 1 or 2 frames up or down and try laying off. For me, +00:00;05 gives me perfect frame accuracy and perfect sync. Anything else will throw off my sync and my frame accuracy. So be VERY VERY careful about your tests. 1 frame inaccuracy on sync can sometimes be very difficult to detect.
– Once you’ve found out what you need to change your “playback offset” to, layoff.

** VERY IMPORTANT ** Every time I restart FCP this “playback offset” box gets reset back to 00:00;04. What this means is that I have to re-do these steps EVERY time I layoff. This is what I mean by Blackmagic needing to address this issue. I should not have to re-check my playback offset every single time I layoff it’s a huge time waster and leaves lots of room for error.

Hope this work around helps and works. It’s worked on the dozens of stations at my workplace that were all having TC inaccuracy issues.

Word,
Sam

[Sam Goetz]

Kristian,

I am sad to report that your fix does not work for us. You were correct about the offest being consistent with the new drivers, but now, when we change the playback offest to compensate, our video is coming in at exactly the right time, but our audio is out of sync by two frames.

Originally, our playback offset was defaulted to +4 frames. This was causing our layoffs to be exactly one-frame off everytime with a duplicated frame at the beginning. When we reduced this number say to +3 or +1 the offset only grew (if +3 it was 2 frames, +1 4 frames). When we set it one frame larger (+5) miraculously our video came in at exactly the right point and timecode was accurate with the video the rest of the way through. We thought this was our saving grace, but then we noticed that NOW our audio was coming in 2 frames late and continued to be two frames late the whole way through the program. Before, when our video was coming in one frame late our audio stayed in sync. Nothing we have done since this (restarting, changing the easy set-ups, re-trying various ways) has fixed this 2 frame audio sync issue.

SO, in conclusion, our problem is not fixed. Please reccommend a solution if you can. This is SERIOUSLY frustrating for our studio and causing huge headaches and delays.

Thanks,
Sam