Some of my video clips are a subframe too long or short

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Level 1

12 points

Some of my video clips are a subframe too long or short

Trust me. Look at the screenshots. Accept the evidence.

I have clips that are overlapping by less than a frame. I cannot trim the excess. Say it's 1 tenth of a frame in excess. It will simply refuse if I try to trim that. If I move the playhead one whole frame and try to trim, it will remove 1 frame rather than 1.1.

I've encountered this issue a number of times and it drives me absolutely mad. Has anyone found a solution to this?

In the below screenshot, ignore the multiple "playheads". The project is rendering and so the program is lagging and every time I move the cursor into the timeline, I get a new yellow line. What you're looking at is the timeline zoomed in so that you can see the end of the 20th frame and the beginning of the 21st frame as indicated by the single entry on the time ruler. You see that CAP_3634 ends before the end of the frame and thus CAP_3635 begins before the beginning of the next frame.This is incredibly frustrating because as I'm reviewing clips in the index, namely to make sure the video titles are in correct sequence, it often shows me things that aren't supposed to be in the frame my search yielded but have crept in.

MacBook Pro 13", macOS 10.14

Posted on Dec 17, 2019 2:31 PM

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Answer 1

Dec 19, 2019 11:55 PM in response to flawrencis

Yes, it IS related. In fact, it is the same problem.

I just found out a hidden command that MAY help.

There is a "Verify and Repair Project" command. Hopefully, it may fix these kinds of errors, but I have no way to test.

Hold down the Option key, and choose Clip->Verify and Repair Project:

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Answer 2

Alchroma

Level 7

23,918 points

Dec 17, 2019 3:54 PM in response to flawrencis

Start by resetting the FCP X preferences.

Hold Option-Command as you launch FCP X.

Then re-open your Library.

Al

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Answer 3

Dec 20, 2019 9:00 PM in response to flawrencis

I am a bit confused. You say the video is a sub frame to long. It is my understanding that video is only full frames, i.e. 24 frames per second, and that only the audio has sub frames. I just completed a project that had a similar issue and had to zoom in on all the video edit points to verify and align the audio and music edit points to the video edit points.

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Answer 4

Dec 21, 2019 1:55 AM in response to Larrie Easterly

Yes, it is perplexing but true. My first reaction was to think it was user error but no. It seems to be an obscure bug - perhaps a rounding error somewhere- that causes an invalid duration of some clips. Probably not easy to reproduce, which makes it hard to troubleshoot. The message when importing the xml says it, and the pictures show it.

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Answer 5

flawrencis Author

Level 1

12 points

Dec 24, 2019 7:11 PM in response to Alchroma

It says "Inconsistencies found" and recommends you repair the project. It gives you the choice to Repair or Cancel.

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Answer 6

flawrencis Author

Level 1

12 points

Dec 24, 2019 7:13 PM in response to Luis Sequeira1

That fixed it! By the way, one way I've reproduced the issue is by dragging an image from the browser onto an image in the timeline and selecting "Replace with Retime to Fit." It didn't retime correctly and instead adds a subframe. I then used the hidden command and the subframe was removed! Thanks!

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Answer 7

flawrencis Author

Level 1

12 points

Dec 17, 2019 7:50 PM in response to flawrencis

I was able to, after playing with it a lot, delete 1.1 frames. So problem gone this time.

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Answer 8

Alchroma

Level 7

23,918 points

Dec 20, 2019 2:19 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Thanks for that TIP Luis.

I have just tested a Project and got this:

I wonder what message displays if a Project is dodgy?

Al

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Answer 9

Dec 20, 2019 2:21 AM in response to Alchroma

I wonder that too.

Fortunately, I haven't had a dodgy one to see for myself.

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Answer 10

Alchroma

Level 7

23,918 points

Dec 24, 2019 8:28 PM in response to flawrencis

flawrencis wrote:

That fixed it! By the way, one way I've reproduced the issue is by dragging an image from the browser onto an image in the timeline and selecting "Replace with Retime to Fit." It didn't retime correctly and instead adds a subframe. I then used the hidden command and the subframe was removed! Thanks!

Very interesting.

FCP X knows when a RULE of editing is being broken; and knows how to sort it out. 👍

Al

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Answer 11

flawrencis Author

Level 1

12 points

Dec 19, 2019 5:17 PM in response to flawrencis

This has to be related. I edited the XML for a different reason and had this warning pop up when I reopened it in fcp.

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Some of my video clips are a subframe too long or short

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