Sony HDV issues, random frame flickers?! at DVinfo.net

Aric Mannion · April 21st, 2006, 06:27 AM

Hello, I've been having some issues with FCP for awhile, and I would be gratefull for any suggestions!
First of all, and worst of all, when I edit videos I get a random frame from the video shown to me for about one frame every three seconds. This has happened for years, and now that I've moved to HDV it is appearing again and I know it only gets worse! Flickering random images is not acceptable for a final project, they appear in exports, as well as anyother type of previewing, whether it's edited DV, 24P, or HDV.
I'm also noticing a new problem, now that I've upgraded to HDV. Anytime I import AIFF and play sound, it comes out totally distorted and slowed down. I was very worried about this until I added an HDV video with the same sound under it. Now the sound plays fine, but the second the video ends, and the sound plays alone, the distortion begins again!
Also I've noticed that some dropped frames are not reported to me, only with HDV... I am hoping this won't appear once the video is printed to tape. But this is the least of my problems.
But if anyone has heard of the random flickers please share your experience! I think I've tried everything to avoid it.

Boyd Ostroff · April 21st, 2006, 07:39 AM

Welcome to DVinfo Aric. Wow, that's a new one on me... have been using FCP since version 3 and can't say that I've ever seen random flickering frames (if I understand what you're talking about).

However, as you play the timeline it's pretty common to have a skipped frame or audio glitch periodically. These often happen when FCP autosaves its files. You can turn off the autosave function if you like. There are a lot of things which affect playback and might cause the video to "skip" as it plays, but your description sounds like something different. Are they really "random frames?" In other words, a frame from a completely different section of the video in a place where it doesn't belong?

The "print to video" command is dicey at best when it comes to dropped frames. In fact, I think FCP 5 is even more finicky than earlier versions. It doesn't like playing back from disks which were formatted with file journaling enabled. That seems to slow things down enough to cause dropped frames. Sometimes the only way to get smooth playback when printing to video is to export your rendered sequence to a new file.

There's a preference for reporting/ignoring dropped frames. Have you set this the way you want it? Also, where are your video files stored? Are they on a separate drive? How fast is the drive? Internal or external? Firewire or USB? What kind of Mac are you using? What version of FCP?

Tim Hupalo · April 21st, 2006, 10:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Boyd Ostroff

Welcome to DVinfo Aric. Wow, that's a new one on me... have been using FCP since version 3 and can't say that I've ever seen random flickering frames (if I understand what you're talking about).

However, as you play the timeline it's pretty common to have a skipped frame or audio glitch periodically. These often happen when FCP autosaves its files. You can turn off the autosave function if you like. There are a lot of things which affect playback and might cause the video to "skip" as it plays, but your description sounds like something different. Are they really "random frames?" In other words, a frame from a completely different section of the video in a place where it doesn't belong?

The "print to video" command is dicey at best when it comes to dropped frames. In fact, I think FCP 5 is even more finicky than earlier versions. It doesn't like playing back from disks which were formatted with file journaling enabled. That seems to slow things down enough to cause dropped frames. Sometimes the only way to get smooth playback when printing to video is to export your rendered sequence to a new file.

There's a preference for reporting/ignoring dropped frames. Have you set this the way you want it? Also, where are your video files stored? Are they on a separate drive? How fast is the drive? Internal or external? Firewire or USB? What kind of Mac are you using? What version of FCP?

you got that autosave right for sure. when autosave tries to save i usually end up with dropped frames on just about any project. as far as the flash frames i too see that sometimes. it almost looks like a dirty track, except it only appears after i insert my footage in the timeline. whenever i get them i just reinsert my footage and it goes away.

Aric Mannion · April 23rd, 2006, 10:07 AM

I am using a powerbook 15inch with 2 gigs sdram... I just bought final cut so it's up to date. Autosave is off, and I always have a message turned on for dropped frames. I use the newer porsche firewire drive, but not all the time. I've had the flicker frame problem for years, it first occured when I tried to make a 24P video on my Emac, and I must have had something incorrect about it's capture or sequence settings, cause I needed to render a clip just for bringing it into the timeline. After editing for a few days 1 frame was randomly selected and displayed in a flash throughout the video... Sometimes even more (rapidly) than other times.
But the problem came back the next year when I was finishing a pretty hefty project with many filters (DV). I have come to the conclusion that the more dense a project gets (with effects) or the more foreign the media type is, the better the chance of flickering. So I am concerned about moving to HDV... I imported a .mov from after effects and things seemed fine, till briefly I encountered the flicker frame problem again.
As for the dropped frames and audio distortion, have you ever encountered the audio playing in slomo and completely choppy until it is played along with a video clip? This is a bizzare problem but atleast I can constaintly have a slug in my project. And the HDV video appears to drop frames but only sometimes is it reported to me. It also looks a little wavy -my capture and sequence settings are set to Upper interlace as opposed to "none", is this correct??
Thank you for your response, and it looks like I've got some unusual problems going on here...

Boyd Ostroff · April 23rd, 2006, 03:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aric Mannion

it looks like I've got some unusual problems going on here...

Indeed! :-) The other thing which occurs to me is that both the powerbook and eMac are pretty slow machines for HDV editing. I've always worked on a dual 2.5 G5, although I've edited standard defintion DV on my 1ghz 15" powerbook and 1.25ghz Power Mac G4 (under FCP 4.5) without any problems (other than long render times :-)

April 21st, 2006, 06:27 AM	#1
Aric Mannion Major Player Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Boston, Massachusetts Posts: 616	Sony HDV issues, random frame flickers?! Hello, I've been having some issues with FCP for awhile, and I would be gratefull for any suggestions! First of all, and worst of all, when I edit videos I get a random frame from the video shown to me for about one frame every three seconds. This has happened for years, and now that I've moved to HDV it is appearing again and I know it only gets worse! Flickering random images is not acceptable for a final project, they appear in exports, as well as anyother type of previewing, whether it's edited DV, 24P, or HDV. I'm also noticing a new problem, now that I've upgraded to HDV. Anytime I import AIFF and play sound, it comes out totally distorted and slowed down. I was very worried about this until I added an HDV video with the same sound under it. Now the sound plays fine, but the second the video ends, and the sound plays alone, the distortion begins again! Also I've noticed that some dropped frames are not reported to me, only with HDV... I am hoping this won't appear once the video is printed to tape. But this is the least of my problems. But if anyone has heard of the random flickers please share your experience! I think I've tried everything to avoid it.

April 21st, 2006, 07:39 AM	#2
Boyd Ostroff Wrangler Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Mays Landing, NJ Posts: 11,801	Welcome to DVinfo Aric. Wow, that's a new one on me... have been using FCP since version 3 and can't say that I've ever seen random flickering frames (if I understand what you're talking about). However, as you play the timeline it's pretty common to have a skipped frame or audio glitch periodically. These often happen when FCP autosaves its files. You can turn off the autosave function if you like. There are a lot of things which affect playback and might cause the video to "skip" as it plays, but your description sounds like something different. Are they really "random frames?" In other words, a frame from a completely different section of the video in a place where it doesn't belong? The "print to video" command is dicey at best when it comes to dropped frames. In fact, I think FCP 5 is even more finicky than earlier versions. It doesn't like playing back from disks which were formatted with file journaling enabled. That seems to slow things down enough to cause dropped frames. Sometimes the only way to get smooth playback when printing to video is to export your rendered sequence to a new file. There's a preference for reporting/ignoring dropped frames. Have you set this the way you want it? Also, where are your video files stored? Are they on a separate drive? How fast is the drive? Internal or external? Firewire or USB? What kind of Mac are you using? What version of FCP?

April 23rd, 2006, 10:07 AM	#4
Aric Mannion Major Player Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Boston, Massachusetts Posts: 616	I am using a powerbook 15inch with 2 gigs sdram... I just bought final cut so it's up to date. Autosave is off, and I always have a message turned on for dropped frames. I use the newer porsche firewire drive, but not all the time. I've had the flicker frame problem for years, it first occured when I tried to make a 24P video on my Emac, and I must have had something incorrect about it's capture or sequence settings, cause I needed to render a clip just for bringing it into the timeline. After editing for a few days 1 frame was randomly selected and displayed in a flash throughout the video... Sometimes even more (rapidly) than other times. But the problem came back the next year when I was finishing a pretty hefty project with many filters (DV). I have come to the conclusion that the more dense a project gets (with effects) or the more foreign the media type is, the better the chance of flickering. So I am concerned about moving to HDV... I imported a .mov from after effects and things seemed fine, till briefly I encountered the flicker frame problem again. As for the dropped frames and audio distortion, have you ever encountered the audio playing in slomo and completely choppy until it is played along with a video clip? This is a bizzare problem but atleast I can constaintly have a slug in my project. And the HDV video appears to drop frames but only sometimes is it reported to me. It also looks a little wavy -my capture and sequence settings are set to Upper interlace as opposed to "none", is this correct?? Thank you for your response, and it looks like I've got some unusual problems going on here...