[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

[James Haefner] “I just bought the new G Drive Q and I am trying to capturing a Mini DV tape for the first time, and the playback is fine on the camera, but plays back FAST in FCP.

I reset my scratch disk to my boot drive > captured a clip and it played back fine. I really need to move forward with some capturing this weekend. Please help.
“

Did you erase and format the drive as “Mac OS Extended?”

You should, for better FCP performance.
Try that.

If nothing else works…
Try transferring the clip you captured directly from your boot drive to your new G drive and see if it plays OK after that.

If it does, you can continue to do that procedure with subsequent clips,

Some extra steps but it will get you there this weekend.

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

[Baz Leffler] “But all of a sudden, when playing the timeline it would occasionally freeze then skip”

There is a function in FCP that is often overlooked… and it can help with many audio and video “skipping”, “sticking” and “missing” problems.

You should “Mixdown” the Audio for playback before you dub out of FCP, or during the edit, if you have audio/video stuttering, drop-outs, sync-slippage, or freezes.

NOTE: Mixdown has even been demonstrated to help with slipping, skipping problems (or “missing” audio clips) for files being EXPORTED as QT (or similar) files out of FCP.

First, SELECT ALL of your audio tracks (highlight them) on the timeline, then:

Sequence Menu > Render Only > Mixdown.

You should see a dialog box telling you its rendering.

It might seem to make little sense that “Mixing down” even simple audio tracks will “fix” complex video “freezes” or random audio dropouts to tape or export, but it CAN.

NOTE: It does not matter of you only have one audio track, if there are random freezes during output, you should try the Mixdown.

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

[Joe Paolo] “Check the audio sample rate on the tape. I’ll bet it’s 32K. “

I’ve captured dozens of 32k tapes at 48k setting and that didn’t affect their play speed.

But hey, try anything once.

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

[James Haefner] “should I put the deck in LP mode,”

The players automatically switch to the proper play speed (if they have that speed.)

Is there AUDIO on the tape?
Is the audio playing at the correct speed?

If the tapes are playing correctly, they should capture and play correctly in FCP.

Try dubbing one tape (at least a section) to another DV tape in another camcorder or deck (via FW)
and try capturing the dub.

Also… are ANY OTHER tapes (not from this shooter) capturing and playing OK in FCP?

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

[david bogie] “This is usually caused by trying to capture Canon miniDV tapes shot using LP mode using a Sony DVCAM deck.
“

Yes, I thought of LP speed issue (Sonys will play LP, just not the pro decks/camcorders) but the poster (James Haefner) said the tapes play fine on the player.
[James Haefner] “playback on deck is fine”

If it was an “LP playing at SP speed” issue (and it COULD be that,) the clips would LOOK sped up on the player and not just in FCP.

I’m suggesting the PAL issue because many decks and camcorders will play PAL normally, but a PAL clip would play 20% faster on an NTSC timeline (if at all.)

James, are you CERTAIN that the images play normally on the player?

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

Where did you get the tapes?

What are you playing them on (what deck or camcorder?)

Could they be PAL tapes?

How “fast” are the clips playing in FCP?

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

[James Haefner] “not sure what Camera, does that matter?
“

It can matter when tracking down a problem.

[James Haefner] “What timeline settings should I be looking at?”

Assuming DV, you should have chosen the “Easy Setup” for DV NTSC (or PAL, if that’s where you are.)

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

Duplicate the timeline and, on the dupe, edit out the “blank” clips.

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

What is the TIMELINE setting?

What camera was used?

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

I’ve never heard the term “slop mix” either.

Rough mix?
Garbage mix?
Scratch track?