Error: RequestCVPixelBufferForFrame returned: 3 for absolute frame: 136803

The error means that there is some kind of corruption at frame No. 136803. The correction is to expand your time line full out and scroll to frame No. 136803 and vicinity and cut out the corrupt frame.

To locate frame No. 136803 in seconds on the timeline divide 136803 by the frame rate of the project. So, if it is a 30 fps project, divide 136803 by 30 = 4560 seconds or 76 minutes. Then use the time/frame counter above the timeline to scroll to the 76th minute. Scroll around in the area of the 76th minute, looking for black frames, white flashes, artifacts, and any other evidence of corruption. Cut out any that you find. You might want to create a duplicate of your project and work with the duplicate so as to preserve your original.

-- Rich

Looking for a frame in the error message like a "Error: RequestCVPixelBufferForFrame returned: 3 for absolute frame" ?

No calculation is required. There is easy way.

Just change the "Time Dispay" setting to "Frame" from Final Cut Pro's "General" preferences.

@taktaktaktak This thread was about iMovie, not Final Cut Pro.

Another thing you can try, since it is so easy to do, is to delete preferences and see if that fixes the buffer problem. To delete preferences, open iMovie while holding down the Option and Command keys and select to delete preferences in the box that appears. iMovie will open in a new library. Reopen your old library to get back to your projects.  Deleting preferences is a safe procedure that will not cause data loss or disruption to your project.

-- Rich

That explanation doesn't make sense to me. I can scrub or play in the iMovie app just fine. Somehow iMovie will skip, blank, or otherwise deal with the single corrupted input frame (and in fact, I don't see anything wrong with any frame when I'm just going from frame to frame in the app itself), and play the entire edited movie for me with no trouble. It is therefore possible. But when I export to a file, the entire export stops upon encountering one corrupted frame in the input. Not even a dialog box that says "corrupt frame encountered, skip Y/N". So I have to try to find that one frame given an absolute frame number (hey, guess what, the iMovie interface only tells me seconds, not frame numbers, so more fiddling), finally excise the region I think has the bad frame, start another 10 minute export, until it finds the next bad frame (turns out there were 4, widely scattered in my hour-long set of clips). If a single bad frame can derail the whole process, then that's all the more reason for the software's logic to account for this possibility and give the user at least an option of automatically excising the minimum amount that will let it continue starting at the next uncorrupted frame.

I got a similar message Error: RequestCVPixelBufferForFrame returned: 3 for absolute frame: 32309

Do you also at the same time get a system message: out of application memory?

Check during export your "activity monitor" for memory usage.

Can iMovie not have an option (or by default) simply skip any one corrupt frame it finds rather than refuse to export the whole project to a file? It would be vastly superior to have one black frame (or even a few) in my export than have to hunt this individual frame down and excise it by hand.

I agree that the current procedure for dealing with corrupt frames on export is awkward. A yes or no option to skip the frame and proceed would be nice. That would be something that Apple would need to address. We on this forum are consumers like yourself. We have no input into Apple's software designs or decisions.

You can contact Apple directly at this link:

https://www.apple.com/feedback/imovie.html

-- Rich

I don't know if a default option can be done to skip a defective frame and still continue the import. It might be that the nature of the rendering process is such that a corrupt frame will derail it. Sort of like a broken railroad track.

-- Rich

@lgritz Oh, I'm sorry for the mistake.