Dropped Frame while Printing to Video

[Nathan VanHoose]

I keep getting a dropped frame error at the exact same place in my timeline while using FCP's print to video option. In the timeline the video is going from DV to HDV. Could this have something to do with it?

Also, I wanted to know if exporting video with compressor multiple times before outputting it to tape would degrade the quality?

Here is an example of my workflow:
1) Import HDV video.
2) Drop HDV video into DV timeline.
3) Edit shots, color correct, etc. Render
4) Export as DV. (I do this for archiving purposes)
5) Bring new DV into timeline. Add additional video and export as DV.
6) Drop the finished project into a DV timeline and print to video. (The reason I have to do this is because it seems to be the only way to keep from dropping frames. Otherwise I would just print to video from step 5)

Thanks in advance for your help!

[Boyd Ostroff]

Hi Nathan and welcome to DVinfo! I've moved your post to the FCP HDV forum where it should get a better response. I haven't worked enough with HDV to give you a definitive answer, but print to video problems are very common in FCP. Unfortunately, that function seems very picky and seems more prone to dropped frames than capturing.

For starters, you should have all your media files (FCP scratch disk setting) on a separate drive, and that drive should be formatted with disk journaling turned off. If disk journaling is turned on then it seems to slow things down to the point that frames are dropped.

In the end you may find that you need to export your video to a file first, then print that file to video unfortunately. I've had a number of problems printing to video using standard DV, even with my media on a fast internal SATA drive....

[Ben De Rydt]

Do an audio mixdown (Sequence -> Render Only -> Mixdown) prior to Print To Video.

[Nathan VanHoose]

Thanks for the suggestion guys!