Tons of dropped frames on miniDV capture. What are my options?

[Tom DelRosario]

I'm not worried about it. When Scenalyzer Live was last updated, not only was it pre Windows 10, 8, and 7. It was even pre Windows Vista. It was an XP program. Back then, the 2 TB limit hard drive size limit was real. I assume that, when the software requests the amount of free disk space and it gets a number larger than 2 TB, it doesn't know what to do with it, so defaults to thinking there isn't enough space. I seriously doubt there's anything wrong with the fairly new hard drive, since the error happens with both hard drives (both of which have more than 2 TB free), And not because the software is somehow checking the health of the hard drive.

[John Dutton]

I just went through digitizing all my DV / HDV tapes using FCPX. I found using the "Create Archive" to be the best solution to capture the tapes even with dropped frames. I was then able to import the media from the Archive file and edit. Despite dropped frames I was at least able to select footage that was not effected.

[Tom DelRosario]

Originally Posted by John Dutton

I just went through digitizing all my DV / HDV tapes using FCPX. I found using the "Create Archive" to be the best solution to capture the tapes even with dropped frames. I was then able to import the media from the Archive file and edit. Despite dropped frames I was at least able to select footage that was not effected.

If you have access to a Windows computer, I highly recommend using Scenalyzer Live.

Tapes that resulted in a thousand clips, most of which were under a second, were captured just fine on Scenalyzer. (Although I didn't try the Create Archive option.) Because I'm not a Premeire user and really don't want to go through the process of learning a new NLE, I will have to go through the extra step of moving them back to my Mac. But at least I'll have the footage. And the bonus is that I will already have a backup of the original footage.

[Derek Heeps]

I still shoot tape , both HDV and DVCAM , with my HVR V1e and DSR 500 , I also have three Firestore FS-4HD DTE recorders , which are great for recording conferences and the like .

I used to plug my camcorders , both current ones and earlier ones , into my Macs to ingest via FireWire . I'm using an 8 core MacPro with 16Gb RAM and a pair of 2Tb internal drives configured as a RAID pair for my scratch disc ; there is a separate OS disc in bay 1 and a time machine disc in bay 2 , nothing beyond the OS resides on these . For data storage I have a number of G Technology G-RAID drives on the FW800 bus and anything beyond work in progress goes onto these ( each drive having a backup copy ) .

To capture from tape , I now use an HVR-M15 deck via FW400 - this works unfailingly into FCP 7 . I never bothered with FCP X as I just can't get my head round it and FCP 7 ( I have the full FCS 3 suite ) does everything I want .

I can't remember when I last saw a drop out , other than last year when a friend handed me four very dusty looking mini DV cassettes with dates in 2003 on them . Being suspicious of them , I used my older DSR45 deck to capture them - one tape was damaged , visibly creased , at one point , and there were occasional drop outs on all four tapes - I put it down to them being recorded on a misaligned camcorder as my decks generally play everything thrown at them without issues , and the DDR 45 still plays other tapes just fine .

I'd be very surprised if the issue the OP is having is to do with his Mac ; it may be some import setting . I used to edit using iMovie on an iMac DV ( the first generation ) and a PowerBook Pismo , which was only a G3 processor , importing from my DCR VX-1000 - that now seems like Stone Age stuff , so the Mac Pro should take it in its stride ; HDV is the same data rate as DV so makes no difference .

The only question mark in my mind would be FCP X , given I have done little beyond play with it in the Apple Store and decided I didn't like it .

[Tim Lewis]

Hi All

I have just spent a few weeks ingesting all my miniDV tapes too. I did get some patches of timecode error, but it was just in the first few seconds of the tape. I would get up to twenty short clips then everything settled down. I just ignored it as a problem as it was not an important amount of the sixty minutes of footage.

I captured on my 2010 iMac i5 2.8GHz, 20GB RAM, 1TB HD, macOS Sierra 10.12.6, using iMovie 10.1.6. I had shot most on a Canon MV630i or Sony PDX 10. I only have my Panasonic NV-DX100 left from which to capture. Sold the Sony, the Canon died.

After I had captured each tape, I copied everything off the internal drive to my 8TB desktop drive and deleted the media from the event after each tape was done. I also deleted the Thumbnail and Peaks files each time. I got very good results, but looking back on my miniDV tapes I really wonder why I bothered filming some of the stuff.

I also found thirteen of my tapes were actually blank. What to do with them now?

[Boyd Ostroff]

Originally Posted by Tim Lewis

I did get some patches of timecode error, but it was just in the first few seconds of the tape. I would get up to twenty short clips then everything settled down.

Have been gradually capturing about 200 MiniDV tapes myself, originally shot on a Sony VX-2000, PDX-10 and HVR-Z1U. Using a Sony HVR-M15U deck that I purchased used from Adorama last year since I no longer have any tape based cameras. I started this project using the legacy version of FCP on Mountain Lion but a few months ago I switched to the current version of FCPX under Sierra. Using a 2012 quad core Mini Server with system on an external 1TB Samsung T3 SSD. After capturing, I copy the files to one of two external 5TB hard drives depending on the content. Also have a second pair of 5TB drives for backup.

Has gone pretty well although I have seen something similar to what you describe with lots of little clips from the beginning of some tapes. Generally it hasn't been a problem, but a few of them did have a significant issue that wasn't immediately obvious.

On these captures, the audio is out of sync on that large clip that was captured (not the small clips at the beginning of the tape). And not just a little out of sync - a LOT out of sync, like a second or two. Don't think I've ever seen this happen before, and it was a bit of a pain to fix on one since there weren't any obvious things like somebody clapping their hands to use for sync.

I recall reading that one advantage of the DVCAM format was audio locked to the video on the tape. Guess that would have helped with this problem? Would not have been practical as these are tapes of opera performances where I really needed the full 60 minute run time.

I suppose this could also be caused by some issue with how FCPX captures tapes? Anyway, if you have tapes with a bunch of little clips at the beginning as you described, you might look more closely at them to see if the audio is in sync. I did not notice this until I started editing one of these projects. Some of my tapes were shot with a telephoto lens over 100 feet from the stage with an on-camera mic. These have about a 3 frame offset to the audio which I'm accustomed to fixing. But the big sync problems on some of these tapes was a new one on me!

[Tim Lewis]

Thanks Boyd! That is useful advice. I have finished all the capture now, but I am waiting on a new computer to come next week that has USB3 so I can copy all the data onto a new drive for backup, before I start editing. I will look more closely at the sync of those clips when I get to the editing and let you know what I find.