Dropped frames

Having a problem playing a 90-minute sequence. The playhead stops periodically on the timeline and then will continue moving with sound but it is still frozen on the frame of the video it stopped on. I've been through as many steps possible to try to prevent any dropped frames...closed all other timelines, lower playback resolution, shrinking the viewer and canvas windows etc etc but it still keeps doing the same thing. I'm running the program off three external drives. My hard drive has more than 10 per cent available. Can anyone help me with this?



Chris Sheridan

Sure. Stop using external drives.

See: Desparation Method.

[www.kozco.com]

Koz

Hi Chris -

I was having a drop frame issue a while back, and did the following...eventually it worked (not sure exactly which step did it, but here's the list of what I did..not in any particular order):

Trashed Prefs
Nested the sequence *I think this helped a lot*
Mixed down audio
used Print to Video when outputting
Had External Video set to All Frames
Closed all other applications that were running
Re-started the computer
added more Ram
Disconnected my internet (literally pulled the plug out of the back of the comptuer)
Rendered my entire timeline
And of course...the Desparation Method.

Hope this helps
Rebecca

<<<added more Ram>>>

What did you go from/to?

Koz

Thanks. I will try some of those things.



Chris Sheridan

In terms of RAM, I started with the standard 512 but bumped it up to 1.5 GB. Is that enough?



Chris Sheridan

I went from 1 GB to 1.5 GB RAM

FireWire drives are the problem. Slow drives are the root of most every dropped frame problems. Put those puppies on a separate bus (PCI or PCMCIA card) or go with what apple recommends: a separate internal drive.

Stop using FireWire drives people, they really are the root of many for these kinds of problems.

Kevin Monahan

I wish I knew this BEFORE some of my FCP friends told me that external drives were fine. Problem is, I'm on a tight deadline and won't be able to get another drive. Plus, my media is spread out over the three drives so it will take some time to get everything to one drive. Here's one last question...if I may. I've tried to go to the Desperation Method (exporting as QT and re-importing) but now, for some reason, when I try to export to a Quick Time file, it doesn't seem to work. I get a "not enough memory" message (which is not true since I have a drive with 231 GB available) or it says the whole thing will take "6 hours". When I exported the file a few weeks ago (my rough cut) it only took about 15-20 minutes. Any reason why it might be different now? Help! This is driving me crazy!



Chris Sheridan

Any chance you are using FCP 4.5 and upgraded to QT 7 since the last time you exported?

If so, go to the Apple downloads page and get the QT 6.5.2 reinstaller.

These links will get you to the right neighborhood. There may be a newer one. I'm not sure.

[www.apple.com]

[www.apple.com]

As for the FW drives... This is *exactly* why they're not recommended. They'll cack on you when you least have time to deal with it. Yes, many folks use them and get away with it, but the fact that they are unreliable, as you are finding out, are why they are not recommended. It's likely your friends didn't know any better. The upshot, this time YOU get to teach THEM something!

Ha. I think what I'll do is try to sell them some used external drives! Thanks for the help.
I have a few other questions if you don't mind helping me some more...

1) I tried reinstalling QT6.5 but now my computer's asking me to "change" the start-up disk in order to run it. I am fearful of doing that. Any suggestions?

2) Also, I should mention that I am still getting dropped frames during playback even after I've been through every possible step that everyone's suggested (I think) and I'm wondering if that's affecting my export to QT. For instance, it begins quickly then stops at 9 per cent completion and begins to slow down considerably...for well over an hour. I should also tell you, in the interests of full disclosure, that two of my external drives are linked to my system with USB cables while the third is a firewire drive. All three drives are combo drives so they can be switched to firewire cables. Will this change anything or are they still going to be as unproductive?



Chris Sheridan

You win on Sports Call.

You now officially have the Wort Known Configuration for video in the civilized world. Daisy Chained Firewire drives and one USB.

The Desparation Method only works if you have your show exported as a stand alone (self-contained) movie on an internal drive, still have 10% free space at the top of all internal drives, and ***everything else*** disconnected except the recording machine.

People keep saying, "I have a million meg free on my drive." What they don't say is that's only their video drive and their System Drive reached 99% about two weeks ago and is choking.

We haven't hit this one yet. Do you have "illegal" filenames anywhere? One good way to bring your system to its knees is to put a "/" character in a filename. Many punctuation marks are illegal as well. Do not use "?", a comma, certainly not a "/"mark and no "*" marks anywhere.

These characters all mean special things to OSX. For example, myfile/video is not a plain filename. The System thinks that is a folder or file "video" inside a folder called "myfile."

It's disturbing that the system won't let you create the self contained video. That means you have some serious instability in your system. Something similar will happen if you have a damaged clip--or a clip became damaged because of other problems.

<<<I wish I knew this BEFORE some of my FCP friends told me that external drives were fine. >>>

They can be made to be fine, but there are a number of rules you have to follow. We all use FireWire drives like popcorn, but, at least in our case, never for live video capture or playback and never on the same FireWire service as the video device. And never fill anything up.

Koz