Sequence corrupted (or Project??)

Hi,

I have a serious problem I've never encountered before and would appreciate any help available please.

I've been editing an HDV project for the last few weeks. The project size is 30MB and everything was fine until today. My sequence is just over an hour in duration - the longest I've ever worked on but I can't find any info online regarding maximum length for a sequence.

Anyway, the problem is that when I play certain shots within the sequence, they mysteriously start to display a completely different shot half way through. In other words, the correct shot is playing, then it suddenly changes to another shot whilst the timeline indicates it is still the same shot. Replacing the shot may seem to work, but the problem still crops up further along the timeline and I know the solution has to be more radical.

I've tried various things like creating a new project, copying the sequence to it, then dividing it up into 3 shorter sections but I can find no solution and am terrified I won't be able to salvage the situation. When I copy and paste the 3 shorter sections from an earlier - seemingly uncorrupted - sequence, the new sequence shows green, ie needs rendering for full quality, but when I re-rendered a part of it (it indicates the whole thing will take 1 hour) it still looked soft, worse that if it hadn't been rendered at all, even though the render bar now indicates it's been rendered. This is material that looked perfectly fine yesterday.

I hope this is clear. Please, can anyone advise what I can do to salvage weeks of time and effort and to allow me to finish my film. I know it will be hard to figure out how the corruption has come about but what can I try to do to, moving forward?

Many thanks in advance,

Conniex



FCP Version 6.0.6

Model Name: Mac Pro
Model Identifier: MacPro1,1
Processor Name: Dual-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed: 3 GHz
Number Of Processors: 2
Total Number Of Cores: 4
L2 Cache (per processor): 4 MB
Memory: 6 GB
Bus Speed: 1.33 GHz

Did you convert to ProRes before editing? Sounds like your clips don't have a real timecode track. Also check all files for illegal characters in the file names, and to confirm that all files have unique names. This problem also tends to be more frequent after rendering -- are you editing in the correct timeline settings for the clips?

Forget the project file size. If your editing system can't handle a 30MB FCP7 project file, then there's something much more fundamentally wrong with your editing setup and you'll need to fix that at a much more basic level.


www.derekmok.com

Hi Derek,

It's FCP version 6.0.6 if that makes a difference. In response to your questions, no I didn't convert to ProRes; each clip has unique timecode within the project (NB the clips which come up wrong are from this same project); there are no illegal characters; I'm in the correct timeline setting for the clips.

If the clips didn't have a real timecode track wouldn't the problem have arisen before? Do you have any suggestions what I should try next please?

Thanks very much,
Conniex

I just double checked in one instance: the shot that is being erroneously displayed definitely does not share a time code or a name with the shot that should be displayed. To re-iterate, the correct shot plays at first, but at a certain point changes to a different shot. All of a sudden this is happening, randomly, throughout my sequence.

Thanks again.

> the shot that is being erroneously displayed definitely does not share a time code or a name with the shot that should be displayed.

But do the shots *have* timecode? Were they ingested into a good intermediate format for editing? This kind of thing happens the most with H.264 media and I haven't heard of HDV having this issue, but with the myriad of formats out there, I wouldn't rule it out.

I assume you've already ruled out human error -- there are no tracks lurking above your intended active video tracks, offscreen?

The first thing I'd do is take one of the clips that does this, convert it to ProRes, then replace it in the timeline. See if it remains stable after being replaced.

> I'm in the correct timeline setting for the clips.

That doesn't tell us anything. Please tell us the actual codec, frame rate, field dominance (if any), etc. Saying "I did everything right" doesn't help troubleshooting at all -- everybody who gets stuck in troubleshooting thinks s/he has done everything correctly.


www.derekmok.com

Derek,

I've just realised something that was wrong: I've no idea why, but when I created a New Sequence (to try and split up the long timeline) it defaulted to DV. That was why it had the green render bar and still looked rubbish when I rendered it.

So I have an explanation for that issue, but the initial problem still remains. I will doubtless return to the forum soon!

> when I created a New Sequence (to try and split up the long timeline) it defaulted to DV.

That's what Sequence Presets default to. If you want it changed, go into Final Cut Pro - Audio/Video Settings and change Sequence Presets. Changing the setting for one Sequence only changes the setting for that one created Sequence; it does not change the default preset. To avoid this problem, create new Sequences by duplicating existing ones that have those settings changed, or change Sequence Presets.

> So I have an explanation for that issue, but the initial problem still remains.

You still haven't given your Sequence and media (clip) settings...until you do, we'll still be stuck at the same place.


www.derekmok.com

>But do the shots *have* timecode? Were they ingested into a good intermediate format for editing? This kind of thing happens the most with H.264 media and I haven't heard of HDV having this issue, but with the myriad of formats out there, I wouldn't rule it out.

I've ingested the shots as HDV and the timecode is shown in the browser. This is the format I have used for many projects. How would I tell if they didn't actually *have* timecode?

>I assume you've already ruled out human error -- there are no tracks lurking above your intended active video tracks, offscreen?

No, honestly, nothing lurking. It's crazy but this is what's happening: I have the full sequence and the potentially problematic part is correct. I duplicate the sequence and it's still correct. I delete the front of the sequence (because, rightly or wrongly, I'm trying to create 3 shorter timelines in the belief this might be part of the problem). At this point, the shots that I want to retain change into the wrong ones. [Maybe there's no need to divide the timeline up, but in any case the problem is that shots are changing into other shots.]

>The first thing I'd do is take one of the clips that does this, convert it to ProRes, then replace it in the timeline. See if it remains stable after being replaced.

How should I convert it into ProRes please (unless you mean actually re-import it)?

To show you the Sequence Settings, is there a way to insert a screen grab within my message? And what's the best way to show the corresponding Clip Settings please?

When I create a New Sequence in this project, it comes up as HDV -1080i50, according to the Sequence Preset in the Audio/Video Settings. I don't know why it came up as DV on this one occasion. At least that issue is now explained.

Thank you Derek

> I've ingested the shots as HDV and the timecode is shown in the browser. This is the format I have used for many projects. How would I tell if they didn't
> actually *have* timecode?

If the numbers don't start at 00:00:00:00 on every clip, then theoretically speaking the clips have timecode. Some formats are wonkier than others, however, and HDV is definitely one of the wobblier ones. I haven't heard of HDV clips slipping like this as a matter of habit, but

Start a new Sequence in ProRes and transcode one of the problematic clips as I described. See if the problem might disappear.

> How should I convert it into ProRes please (unless you mean actually re-import it)?

Yes. Reingest it, or run the clip through Compressor or MPEG Streamclip.

> To show you the Sequence Settings, is there a way to insert a screen grab within my message?

You'll need to post the picture on a website, then use the "Insert Image URL" button above. But why not just list them? An editor should always have this information in mind while tackling a project, and should be double-checking these settings on a regular basis, every few sessions or so.

> I don't know why it came up as DV on this one occasion.

Probably because the project was started before Sequence Presets were changed. FCP defaults to DV when first installed, and changing Sequence Presets later does not change the settings for pre-existing Sequences. Never, ever use the first Sequence that comes up when a project file is first created, unless you've checked it first. You made a common mistake of non-editors when editing -- you used the Sequence that was already there and didn't check its settings. Until you fix that, you can't reliably fix any of your other issues.


www.derekmok.com

Sequence Settings:

Frame Size: 1440 x 1080
Aspect Ratio: HD (1440 x 1080) 16:9
Pixel Aspect Ratio: HD (1440 x 1080)
Field Dominance: Upper (Odd)
Editing Timebase: 25 (am in PAL)

Compressor: HDV 1080i50

Clip Settings:

I have checked in Item Properties and these definitely correspond to the above Sequence Settings.

There are still a lot of possibilities, unfortunately. What storage are you using for your media? When was the last time you ran diagnostics on them (eg. directory repair)? Normally this isn't a cause for the problem you're describing, but if FCP reaches for one file and ends up with another, perhaps there is fragmentation or the directory's jumbled. Drive diagnostics are easy to perform and should be done regardless of problems of lack thereof, so I usually do them as part of standard troubleshooting.

Make a brand-new Sequence with the correct HDV settings, copy some or all of the problem clips into it and see if the problem recurs. If so, match-frame some or all of the problem clips, and recut them in. (Clips that have corruptions often carry those corruptions into new Sequences if you copy-paste) Work with the new, correct Sequence and see if the problem recurs. I'm willing to bet that your clips get jumbled mostly after a render. If so, add filters and Motion effects to the clips in the new, correct HDV Sequence to see if you can make the problem appear.

You could also have a flat-out corrupted FCP software. Dump preferences, and if the ProRes test clip and Sequence are still having these issues, a wipe and reinstall of the software could be in the works.


www.derekmok.com

Again, thanks Derek. I will address this tomorrow and carry out what you suggest. Am feeling pretty flat-out corrupted myself. :-)

Since you've been editing the project for the last few weeks, you should have a bevy of earlier versions saved in the Autosave Vault. Open earlier ones and see if they behave better than the latest one. If so, suspicion of FCP itself being corrupt, or the scratch files being corrupt may be relaxed. Then return to the latest project and try disconnecting all media and reconnecting them. I have done this by changing every filename -- prepending an 'x' using NameChanger -- and then reconnecting. You might uncover anomalies during the reconnection process.

Dennis Couzin
Berlin, Germany

> Then return to the latest project and try disconnecting all media and reconnecting them. I have done this by changing every filename -- prepending an 'x'
> using NameChanger -- and then reconnecting.

That's unnecessary. Just select the clips and press SHIFT-D (Disconnect Media). Renaming the files will cause them to fail to reconnect automatically. Yes, you can change the names back right away, but it's just more work. "Flushing" the clip-file link is often a good idea, but in this case, make sure you have your project backed up first, and don't save the project during the process. (The link is part of the project file -- if something goes wrong, as long as you haven't modified the files themselves, you can open up an earlier version and everything should still be online.) "Flushing" the relationship, if you have timecode issues, could fix things, or it could cause even more clips to reconnect wrong. It's not a step I'd take lightly given the nature of your issue.


www.derekmok.com

Derek, I searched the whole FCP7 User Manual for "disconnect" before offering that renaming way!
The idea, however you do it, is to really disconnect the media files and really reconnect them, one-by-one, looking for anomalies at reconnection: differences in the warning. Just uncheck "matched name and reel only" and reconnect to the newly named files. I believe selective reconnection solved my recent corruption problem.

Dennis Couzin
Berlin, Germany

> I searched the whole FCP7 User Manual for "disconnect" before offering that renaming way!

SHIFT-D. Or File -- Disconnect Media, Leave All Files on Disk.
If you really want to reconnect files one by one, you can still do it. Go into Keyboard Layout (OPTION-H), set a shortcut key for Media Reconnect, and then hit one clip at a time.

> Just uncheck "matched name and reel only" and reconnect to the newly named files.

That is something you only ever want to do if you have to -- and the only instance where you'd have to is if the files had a fatal file-naming error, for example duplicate file names, or insufficient names (eg. the assistant forgot to add prefices to audio files, so that files from one card to the next are all identically named). Reconnecting by hand, without "Matched Name", is incredibly prone to mistakes. If you don't mess with the file names, it allows you to locate the correct file just by pressing the right Arrow key on the correct file path. And if you really need to break the clip's adherence to the original clip name, you still have that option.


www.derekmok.com

Please note, I'm using FCP v6.0.6, not version 7. Does this affect the suggestions you've made please?

I did open up old versions from the back-up, but unfortunately the problem persisted. However, things did seem stable at close of play yesterday - but not because of anything I was particularly aware of doing.

I'm now trying to trash the 4 preference files - following Larry Jordan's online clip - but can't manage to empty the trash, am getting error -8003. Am trawling through articles to find a solution.

Conniex

OK, trash emptied now (one rogue Spotify file). About to go into FCP and rebuild Preference files.