Dropped frames

[deviantfotografer]

what are dropped frames and how do you prevent them???

when capturing some video I got like over 200 dropped frames and the video quality after was really bad!!!!

I have been using only one tape and re-recording over it, is this bad????

I have a Sony HDR-HC3 HDV camcorder that uses MiniDV tapes

thanks

Jarrod

[Cville]

Tape can cause this as well as computer power. It’s a good practice to make sure no other programs are running when you are trying to capture your video.

I only use my tapes once.

[deviantfotografer]

thanks for the reply,

I will have to buy some new tapes then and try that….

Jarrod

[Grinner Hester]

drop outs and dropped frames are two different things so your tape stock doesn’t matter in this case. You’ll have to give specs on your system for specific help but in a nutshell, it’s time to beef things up.

[deviantfotografer]

thanks!!!!

[EarlC]

After reading some of your other posts Jarrod I am convinced that you simply do not have a system that is up to the task of processing the material you want to capture, or play it back or keep it clean, smooth and intact. It’s the processing power (lack thereof) and if you DID set your software to stop recording in the event of a dropped frame, it’d stop recording. ONLY an adequate processor and system is going to make it all better, regardless of your budgeting difficulties … that’s what it is.

Perhaps sticking with standard def, 4:3 and using cuts only, maybe dissolves and no other fancy editing efforts, will allow your system to accommodate the project.

[deviantfotografer]

thanks earl,

at this time I am not using full HD but DV which is 720X480 resolution…. I do have a dual core processor but I guess this isn’t enough…. what would be a system that could render video and not crash the computer??? is it better to do all of this on a desktop rather than a laptop???? could this be what is holding me back??? and finally my system is upgradable to 8GB ram, is this what I really need………? PS: I don’t do any fancy things on the computer, just capture, and export to a .M4P file….. no fades or anything like that since I am just getting into the video thing, I don’t know how to do these things!!!! any other advice you could give would be great!!!!!!

[EarlC]

It IS possible that upping the RAM would help, and in all probability your laptop hard drive is 5400 RPM rather than the recommended 7200 or faster for video work. I would be concerned, however, that the age of your laptop and its operating system, as well as possibly undernourished CPU, even the graphics card/video card, might simply be too little to offer even though it shouldn’t be too much to ask.

I hesitate to suggest that ONLY a desktop system would suffice because there’s powerful enough (albeit expensive) laptops available, and even the latest iteration of iMac with the OPTIONAL faster CPU and 27″ screen, 2 TB option and maxed RAM is a powerhouse for using iMovie and/or FCP, and/or FCPX (that last is shear speculation because I’m only reading and listening to others who have jumped onboard, and not experienced the new Lion OS or FCPX myself) … I’m a wait awhile kind of fella.

[deviantfotografer]

Thanks Earl for help!!!! I guess I will just have to deal with the fact that I have a PC that is too slow for the video editing stuff…. I will now put my resourses into a newer more powerful PC!!!!

[artsmith]

‘Earl’ and almost everyone else have given you good information. Dropped frames are not normally an indication of faulty footage, they are simply an inability of your computer to keep-up with an incoming stream of ‘capture’ material. There may, in fact, be a brief period at the beginning of each ‘capture’ when your computer gives an illusion of ‘keeping-up’, but that is usually confined to the time taken for a buffer to fill to capacity, the buffer being needed to even-out the flow of incoming material and match the input to the output. Another correspondent mentioned using tapes only once. I have found it perfectly OK to use mine several times, retiring them to less onerous duties after between four and half-a-dozen uses. There used to be a theory, that if your tape-driven mechanism suffered from head-clogging, or similar problems, thatmight have been put down to a small amount of oxide shed by brand-new tapes, which was unlikely to be a problem with re-use. Some people used to run brand new tapesright through, end-to-end with the lens blacked-off to establish a reliable time-coding basis for critical applications.

IanSmith(Dunedin, NewZealand)

[artsmith]

An afterthought:

Jarrod, is your computer correctly set-up. I do not run to quad, (or even dual) core myself, but it is a pretty basic computer which won’t handle DV in 720 x 480 (oras it is for us in the antipodes, being Pal-based, 720 x 576). I am using Hi-Def in a ‘hybrid’ configuration, eg 1920 x 1080 scaled down to 1280 x 720,and standard-definition up-scaled to the same format, the ‘standard’ being de-interlaced to ‘progressive’ scan. That way, I am able tosee a long-term project though to fruition, put off the purchase of a more ‘grunty’ computer, and enjoy the best of both worlds, although some ‘standard’ footage performs better on up-scaling than others, and I am under no illusion that my standard definition is, in an way, ‘Hi-Def’. I mentioned thesetting-up of multi core computers, because dual and quad-cores are notorious for being incorrectly configured, and many users, world-wide have shelled out for what they anticipatedwould be greatly improved performance, only to find that there was no improvement due toonly one core being available at the one time instead of sharing the work around. (In which case, as you can imagine, they mightwell have saved themselves the expense).

[Anonymous]

dropped frames:-

Dropped frames are frames that are unintentionally skipped during
playback or output, either because the hard disk cannot keep up with the
video data rate or because the computer processor cannot perform all of
the applied effects in time. Some real-time playback modes allow
dropped frames, while others require rendering to avoid dropped frames.

Dropped frames during editing are usually tolerable. However, during
capture and output, dropped frames are almost always unacceptable.
Dropped frames during playback are almost always caused by a hardware
setup issue. When properly configured, Final Cut Pro should not drop
frames.

[Joseph]

I’m notsure what system setup you have butdepending on its age you may want to consider an upgrade.

I’ve got a Toshiba laptop running Win7 on a corei3with 4gb of memory. I edit with Premiere Elements doing AVCHDand recently did a DV project.The i3 ispretty maxed out with the AVCHD and I couldn’t recommend it to anyone unless they were on a super tight budget- however – if all you do is DV then it should be a piece of cake for an i3. My DV project was smooth and fast with no hiccups even though I downloaded the video to an external HD using usb.2 and edited it from there.

I like Toshiba because myold Toshiba winXP is still alive and kicking while my wife is on the verge of needing a third laptop since I purchased mine. She’s finally agreed to get a Toshiba. And Toshibas have awesome speakers (for a laptop, at least.)

[videoguy33]

When uploading tapes always use the AC adapter with the camcorder. A weak battery can cause problems.

[SteveMann]

As everyone has said, dropped frames is most likely that your PC can’t keep up with moving the data from the tape to the hard-disk over the Firewire port.

Stop all unnecessary programs. Capture to a separate hard disk drive so O/S overhead won’t interfere with the capture. Use a 7200 RPM hard disk drive. Finally, when I was capturing DV (I am 100% tapeless now), I used Scenalyzer to capture my footage. It’s very light on system resources and all it does is capture DV.

[Author]

Posts