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FCP 7 Issue

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Emmet10

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 16, 2014
3
0
Hi folks,

I'm not a professional editor, just like to edit as a hobby. I'm currently in the process of making a video, however I've got a issue with FCP7 and it's a big one - dropping frames.

I initially thought it was due to the files being different codecs and frame rates (most were downloaded from the net), but I've noticed now that every single clip I use is dropping a frame or two, even the clips that are the same compression as the output sequence for the video (ProRes 422).

Now I'm thinking it has to be the hard drive. I'm using an external, nothing fancy. It's your average 1TB WD My Passport Ultra HDD which is nearly filled, can anyone give me confirmation that it is indeed the hard drive and not the type of files?

I'm using a MacBook Pro which was bought this year, but is a late 2013 model, it has a 8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3 processor.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Emmet
 
Small White Car

Small White Car

macrumors G4
Aug 29, 2006
10,966
1,463
Washington DC
1) What connection is the hard drive using? USB 2 is not really good enough. Hopefully you have some flavor of firewire, USB 3, or thunderbolt.

2) You didn't say how full, but most hard drives get cranky once they're over 80% full. If you're running out of space that might have something to do with it too.

3) When FCP 7 was last updated people were using Snow Leopard. I loved that program too, but the fact is that its performance is only going to get worse over time as the Mac OS continues to be updated in ways the software doesn't really understand. I don't know what OS you're using but if it's Lion or up there's a chance you're running into subtle problems that the FCP 7 developers couldn't have anticipated.
 
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Emmet10

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 16, 2014
3
0
My hard drive is supposedly USB 3.0 but who knows if it really is? Out of the 1TB there is about 270GB left, would you suggest clearing some of it?

I'm running OS X 10.9.4

I've read that if you add multiple tracks within FCP7 it might also effect the frame rate?
 
C

Chad3eleven

macrumors regular
Dec 11, 2012
144
0
We need more information.

What kind of media are you using? Has it all be transcoded to 422, or is the setting just set to it.

And when you say skipped frames, it sorta sounds like its not rendered properly.

USB is ok for video.. I suggest a test.. move some of the media to your internal hard drive and see if it skips again.. to help diagnose if there is an issue with your drive..

and 270 gbs is fine.

as for multiple tracks.. thats fine, as long as they are all rendered.. if you see any colored bars on your timeline (red, orange, green..) its not rendered properly. (I dont mean to bring up things that you may already understand.. ) just trying to help!
 
E

Emmet10

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 16, 2014
3
0
Chad3eleven said:
We need more information.

What kind of media are you using? Has it all be transcoded to 422, or is the setting just set to it.

And when you say skipped frames, it sorta sounds like its not rendered properly.

USB is ok for video.. I suggest a test.. move some of the media to your internal hard drive and see if it skips again.. to help diagnose if there is an issue with your drive..

and 270 gbs is fine.

as for multiple tracks.. thats fine, as long as they are all rendered.. if you see any colored bars on your timeline (red, orange, green..) its not rendered properly. (I dont mean to bring up things that you may already understand.. ) just trying to help!
Click to expand...

Only some of the media has been converted to 422. All of the content is downloaded from the net so it's a variety between .avi and .mov. Though even the media which is coded in 422 is skipping frames. I cleared a lot of stuff from my external and it's still dropping frames.

It's been fully rendered yet no success!
 
C

Chad3eleven

macrumors regular
Dec 11, 2012
144
0
It could be because you have different frame rates mixed together, and then the sequence framerate has to override the clip framerate, and sometimes you get some flash frames and other issues.

Can you isolate one area that has the frame skipping? If so... try and make a new sequence based off of that clip exactly, and see if it happens. Or try and just few that file in the viewer as a clip, as opposed to playing it down in the sequence.
 
J

JustinePaula

macrumors 6502a
Mar 14, 2012
601
254
10.9.4 is Mavericks and Mavericks is not set up to run FCP 7 natively, I assume you used the Rosetta install to fool Mavericks into installing FCP7 or Final Cut Studio 2 or 3.

As you are running a incompatible non linear system on an unapproved system, this will cause conflicts, the best would be to edit as best you can, render and render, you will be re-rendering for a while, I had the same problem, and for what it was worth, upgrading to FCP X was in the long run cheaper than waiting for endless cycles of rendering..

AVI is not the best "wrapper" or file system to edit, my suggestion, install Handbrake, and convert to a high quality mp4 or mov file system, cross platform usage not going to be useful with incompatible OS and editing software!!
 
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