Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT
I copied an iMovie project into FCP and am encountering the following issues:
1) I installed the Supplemental Content, but cannot locate it.
2) When I play the project in the timeline, this window often appears:
“Video frames dropped during playback.”
3) My project is 1080p / 30fps, with a large amount of 4K footage. Some of the 4K video seems softer during playback.
All feedback is greatly appreciated.
iMac Line (2012 and Later)
As a small addition to terryb's solid answer: as he said, the speed of the drive may be a bottleneck. What drive contains your media (HD? SSD?), how is it connected to your mac and how is it formatted?
Besides all that, it may or may not matter that much if a frame has been dropped here or there.
Go to Final Cut Pro->Preferences->Playback, and uncheck the box regarding warning about dropped frames after playback.
Odds are that you may not even noticed that a few frames may have been dropped - this affects only the playback and not the editing. If you do not notice it, then you don't need to worry.
As a small addition to terryb's solid answer: as he said, the speed of the drive may be a bottleneck. What drive contains your media (HD? SSD?), how is it connected to your mac and how is it formatted?
Besides all that, it may or may not matter that much if a frame has been dropped here or there.
Go to Final Cut Pro->Preferences->Playback, and uncheck the box regarding warning about dropped frames after playback.
Odds are that you may not even noticed that a few frames may have been dropped - this affects only the playback and not the editing. If you do not notice it, then you don't need to worry.
Which Mac? Which OS? Which version of FCP? Where is the footage stored? How much free disk space on that drive? What are the specs of the footage? Answers to these questions can help narrow down the issue. Screen shots help.
1 Supplemental Content can be accessed from the Photos and Audio tab. Download Final Cut Pro sound effects and Pro Video Formats - Apple Support
2 Dropped frames can be caused by a number of things but a common reason is a drive that isn't up to the task or is too full. If you're under deadline you can create proxies and edit with those, then switch back to Original footage for the final export. Create optimized and proxy files in Final Cut Pro - Apple Support
If you're new to FCP, you can save yourself a lot of time and head-scratching by watching the free Izzy Video tutorials.
I have a 24-inch M1 2021 iMac. Big Sur 11.4. FCP version 10.5.2 Media stored on a LaCie 2Big RAID drive, connected to computer via Thunderbolt 3. It’s a 4TB drive with 2.7TB free. Internal drive has 660GB free out of 1TB.
Re: Supplemental Content, I went to the Photos and Audio tab and found only the installed effects, no supplemental content. Also checked System Preferences and the Supplemental Content is no longer available for download.
I exported about 2 minutes of my project as a test and had no problems. But I am noticing stutter in some clips when working in the timeline.
Thanks again for your assistance.
What I meant by "installed effects" was the sound effects package that originally came with FCP. It's a very limited amount, certainly not the huge number that's supposed to come with the Supplemental Content. As per your advice, I accessed my user Library but did not see any folder labeled Supplemental Content.
Thank you again for your assistance.
There are not a huge number of effects. I'm not sure where you got that idea. There are also some that add in if you also have iMovie installed.
I miswrote. They're not in the user Library. They're in system Library/Audio/Apple Loops/Apple/Final Cut Pro Sound Effects.
I just went into FCP and the additional sound effects suddenly appeared in the Photo and Audio drop down, which is where I've been looking since I downloaded them a few days ago.
I appreciate your patience and assistance!
Thank you very much.
The “installed effects” are supplemental content. The only reason it installs separately is that it’s put in the user Library and isn’t in the application bundle.
Supplemental Content / Dropped Video Frames
