Dropped frames during playback. Problem or Nuisance?

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Level 1

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Dropped frames during playback. Problem or Nuisance?

Hello, I know this is not a new topic but I'm beginning to get very irritated with FCE 4.1. I am getting the well known Dropped Frames Warning during playback. To start, I opened a new project and I dropped two one hour DV clips into the timeline(32 anamorphic, 12 bit which I imported using FCE 4.1). During playback of the video I get the continuous warnings. After reading about this topic in other discussions I have trashed the preferences, changed the Safe RT to "Unlimited RT" and set in "Dynamic." Still I get a dropped frame warnings every 30 seconds. It mentions causes but I can do little to change many of them. I use a brand new Lacie D2 Quadra 750GB HD with 800 firewire as a scratch disk. It is more than adequate. Is this a problem or just severely irritating? What happens if I check the do not warn me box? I am tempted to get rid of this and return to iMovie 08. I have yet to see any redeeming qualities in FCE 4.1. except reduced user friendliness and the inability to use iTunes music as an audio source. Any help will be appreciated. Otherwise, "For Sale- FCE 4.1, barely used".

iMac 24" 3.06 Core 2 Duo, Mac OS X (10.5.5), My iMac includes 2GB RAM, 500GB HD, Nvidia 8800GS

Posted on Dec 10, 2008 2:21 PM

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Answer 1

Dec 10, 2008 2:41 PM in response to EngineDriver

If these are truly DV clips, that's a large part of your problem. FCE uses QuickTime files created with the dv codec that's appropriate for your Sequence.

In the Finder, do your clips display as MOV files or DV files?

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Answer 2

PieroF

Level 5

4,283 points

Dec 10, 2008 2:54 PM in response to R. Mitchell Fore

I agree with Mitchell Fore; and DV clips would also require you to render audio to remove beeping.

In any case, to answer your question "Is this a problem or just severely irritating?", dropped frames +during playback+ may just be irritating, but not a real problem since the media file is not affected. I usually uncheck the "Report dropped frames during playback" option in the user preferences, to avoid the message.

But I keep the "Abort capture on dropped frames" set, because dropped frames during capture are lost forever in your captured media file. So I 'd better now immediately if this happens.

I suggest you anyway to render video (opt-R) and mixdown audio (opt-cmd-R) to reduce the possibility of dropped frames.

Piero

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Answer 3

EngineDriver Author

Level 1

0 points

Dec 10, 2008 3:08 PM in response to R. Mitchell Fore

Thanks for the reply. Under General Info it says, "Kind: Quicktime Movie." Under More Info, it says, "Codecs: DV/DVCPRO- NTSC Integer (Little Indian) Timecode." Sorry I wasn't more descriptive. I captured from a DV Camera, Canon Optura 60, via firewire daisy chained to the D2 Quadra Ext HD. The captures were uneventful. I did capture while using battery power, but everything appeared to be ok. There weren't any error messages during the capture to the ext HD (Scratch Disk). I did notice one time that it was searching for break in the timeline during capture, however, it resolved this on it's own. Thanks

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Answer 4

EngineDriver Author

Level 1

0 points

Dec 10, 2008 3:26 PM in response to EngineDriver

One more bit of info. The video was downloaded in one continuous capture and not in clips. I used Easy Setup, 32 anamorphic, straight to Media (External) Disk.

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