DV Capture issue in FCP

[DrRock]

I'm having trouble capturing some DV footage in FC Studio 2. I'm a long time editor, and I'm fairly proficient in the basic functions, but when the program starts to do something strange, I get lost.

I shot footage on DV, with a Panasonic GS10, consumer camera, and when I go to log & capture, it works fine for a while, then his a point in the tape where the capture freezes up. The tape continues to play, however as if nothing is wrong.

I get the "dropped frames occurred during capture, capture was aborted message", so unchecked the abort capture on dropped frames option. I still have the same issue.

Also, the footage that I am able to capture, will also suddenly freeze up on playback, and even go to black at certain points.

I assume there's just something wrong with the physical tape, because I don't get this issue with other tapes, so problem identified, bad tape. It is strange though, because the tape plays just fine, FCP just doesn't like something about it.

Ok, so bad tape, fine, I can live with that. As a solution however, I tried recording the footage to a DVD to create an entire new piece of video, in an attempt to "smooth over" any weird timecode breaks or glitches on the tape or whatever. I then re-recorded that DVD back to a DV tape, creating yet another new piece of video, with a whole new timecode. In my experience, this usually works.

However, even with the new version of the footage, I get the same problem capturing. Doesn't it seem that this brand new piece of video, on this brand new tape should work? If there was an issue with the original tape physically, it should be a non-factor. If there was some weird timecode issue, it should also be a non-factor, right?

I did go firewire from the original DV to the DVD, so I can see how that might cause the issue to transfer possibly, but it seems unlikely. Additionally, I copied the DVD to the second DVD via S-video, so I can't imagine any of the original digital information could possibly have transferred over. It just seems unlikely.

If anyone has any insight, I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks!

 

[huntercr]

I'm having trouble capturing some DV footage in FC Studio 2. I'm a long time editor, and I'm fairly proficient in the basic functions, but when the program starts to do something strange, I get lost.

I shot footage on DV, with a Panasonic GS10, consumer camera, and when I go to log & capture, it works fine for a while, then his a point in the tape where the capture freezes up. The tape continues to play, however as if nothing is wrong.

I get the "dropped frames occurred during capture, capture was aborted message", so unchecked the abort capture on dropped frames option. I still have the same issue.

Also, the footage that I am able to capture, will also suddenly freeze up on playback, and even go to black at certain points.

I assume there's just something wrong with the physical tape, because I don't get this issue with other tapes, so problem identified, bad tape. It is strange though, because the tape plays just fine, FCP just doesn't like something about it.

Ok, so bad tape, fine, I can live with that. As a solution however, I tried recording the footage to a DVD to create an entire new piece of video, in an attempt to "smooth over" any weird timecode breaks or glitches on the tape or whatever. I then re-recorded that DVD back to a DV tape, creating yet another new piece of video, with a whole new timecode. In my experience, this usually works.

However, even with the new version of the footage, I get the same problem capturing. Doesn't it seem that this brand new piece of video, on this brand new tape should work? If there was an issue with the original tape physically, it should be a non-factor. If there was some weird timecode issue, it should also be a non-factor, right?

I did go firewire from the original DV to the DVD, so I can see how that might cause the issue to transfer possibly, but it seems unlikely. Additionally, I copied the DVD to the second DVD via S-video, so I can't imagine any of the original digital information could possibly have transferred over. It just seems unlikely.

If anyone has any insight, I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks!

I might suggest trying with another wirewire cable? That's a longshot, but possibly worth trying.

 

[advres]

Also, instead of batch capturing it can you capture it in smaller chunks? Grab all the takes from the first 10mins, capture blah blah. Then reopen the capture window. Start the tape in at 10 and go to 20, etc.

I have found sometimes when hitting glitches in logged DV footage, slipping an in/out point a few frames sometimes fixes the glitch and allows capture. Is your in/outs within a buffer of frames. I don't like to capture from the 1st 5 seconds and last 5 seconds of DV tapes. Sometimes if you put your out too close to a TC break or the end of timecode, FCP doesn't know how to deal with it.

Without being there, trouble shooting DV capture and be a royal PITA.

 

[DrRock]

Thanks, yeah I have been trying to capture just the short clips I need, but I keep running into the problem. I can wrap my brain around time code breaks, that makes sense, but I cannot for the life of me, figure out why there would be any issues with the new signal, which should have a totally new, uninterrupted timecode. I did also try different cables, same result. It's just so weird...

The problem if definitely with the original tape, I just can't figure out why it persists with the new tape.

 

[advres]

That is strange. When I have had unruly tapes before the last resort which always solved the problem was to dub over to a new with fresh timecode. Baffling that this didn't solve your problem!

Just for shts and giggles did you trash your fcp prefs and restart your machine?

 

[nep61]

I know this sounds a bit crazy... There is probably nothing really wrong with the original DV tape but, you were probably recording the (bad) tape in the camera using battery power at the time... (perhaps the battery was running low on juice).... and now you're using the camera while being plugged into a power outlet and hooked up to your Mac (FCP).

Now, since you've tried re-recording the DV onto a DVD and then back onto a DV and the problem persists... this seems to be a possible reason for the consistent "crash" when you attempt to digitize.... The problem seems to move itself from dub to dub leading me to think it's a TC issue. (especially since every other tape you use, seems to digitize fine into FCP.

If this is indeed the case, then you'd basically have to do a deck to deck dub of the old (bad) tape to a new tape that is already striped with TC... so essentially an INSERT edit onto a NEW TAPE. (If you do a straight dub, the TC will follow onto the NEW TAPE and be bad on there as well.)

Hope this helps

 

[DrRock]

^

It's not that crazy. I was recording with a battery. It was outside in very hot weather, at a zoo. It was dusty as well. I definitely thought of the heat issue causing problems with the tape. There's no mystery there, but I was confused as to why the new tape did it as well. You are probably right about the difference between battery & AC. I'm sure that's a factor.

I should try striping a new DV tape with TC. I only have one playback DV device though (the camera) which is why I made a DVD dub then went back to DV. I can try to re-dub the DVD to a new DV tape after laying down black. Who knows, it might work.

Also, I wonder if the fact that the first dub was via firewire had something to do with it. Maybe if I go composite video from the start it will make a difference. Less chance of transferring bad digital info maybe?

Thanks for the advice everyone, I'll keep trying!

*Update:

I just transferred a bunch of old Hi8 footage to DV, and hen I went to capture it, it seemed to working fine for the first 20 min or so, then began displaying the same problems. So now I think it must just be the camera, or maybe capturing longer than a certain amount of time causes the problem, as someone suggested. I wonder if there's a problem with autosaving during capturing. Maybe it tries to autosave and then things get bogged down or something. Does anyone know if autosave is disabled during capture? Maybe I'll try capturing shorter segments, and set the autosave to longer than my capture time. I haven't had that issue before though. Maybe my system is just getting bogged down.