Dropped Frames

Hi

Did You try to run a - Cleaning miniDV tape - in Your Camera

(my cleaning tape says it is to be used for 10 - 15 seconds - then quality of playback is to be controlled)

Else when I get into trouble I use one of these methods (in given order)

• Import material into old iMovie HD6 - and here in it's prefs. - Import without capture of individual sequences !

or if that doesn't work

• Play tape in Camera - and on analog-out connect A/D-box as a Canopus ADVC-300 - (Grass Valley ADVC-300) as this has a function called TimeBase correction. Meaning that it heals/mends drop-outs AND (most important) even with several drop-outs KEEPS AUDIO in perfect sync ! - YES one lose Quality but material is far far better than with drop-out frames and audio out of sync.

Yours Bengt W

Your Mac should have no problems caturing DV.

Only use Easy Setup 32 kHz if the camera footage is 12 bit audio.

If you do not get success after cleaning the camera heads, try using the DV Coverter option in the Easy Setups.

You won't have device control so start the camera manually.

BTW: Some adapters cause capture issues so also try a 9 to 4 pin firewire cable if can get one. I take it your Mac has only a fireiwre 800 port?

Al

There have been numerous reported issues with FW400 cameras used with FW800 adapters or cables. Some cables work, some don't. Some cameras work, some don't. I can't say there is a clear pattern. It seems totally hit or miss.

One other option is to take the tape(s) to a video post house and have them do the capture. Have them copy the files to a FW800 external hard drive and you should be good to go.

x

A few things to consider ...

1. While the FW400-FW800 adapters merely connect the appropriate data lines (wires) to each other, some adapters do seem to have problems. It would be best to use a cable that directly connects your camcorder to your Mac (for example, one like this 4-pin/9pin FW cable).

2. Are you capturing to the SSD or another hard drive? How full is your system HD (is it SSD)?

3. Are you capturing to an external HD? If it's connected via USB, or you have daisy-chained a FW drive with your camcorder, dropped frames are a frequent problem. Also, if your hard drive is more than about 50% full there can be a higher incidence of dropped frames because hard drive performance declines as the drive fills up.

4. Final Cut Express was discontinued over 18 months ago and is not supported on Lion or Mt. Lion (your profile says you are using Mt. Lion 10.8). Users have had inconsistent results trying to install and run FCE on these newer versions of OS X. This could also be part of or all of the problem with dropped frames.

5. If by chance you are running *ANY* other apps the same time you are capturing video, that can be a cause of dropped frames.

Have you tried capturing with iMovie or QuickTime X? If not, give it a try. It will help narrow down the cause or location of the dropped frames problem. BTW, there is no difference in quality whether you capture with FCE, iMovie or QT. You could do all your capturing in iMovie or QT and use the resulting video files in FCE with no loss of quality. Just use the files iMovie saves to its event library, or that QT saves to disk - don't "export" or "share" from iMovie.