Can't print to tape from 24p

R

Romelio

Member
I've managed to capture and edit in 24P. I need to put something together for broadcast and need to record back into my dvx100a. I've used almost every combination possible but the video seems to freeze and the audio is choppy at the camera. I'm sure it has something to do with the pulldown settings but can't figure out what it is. I feel like I am doing the same things over and over again.

It almost seems like the firewire cable can't keep up with the video but it could be dropped data from an incompartability between settings. If I wasn't on the hook for all this gear I would smash it all to hell. The DVD looks good and I didn't experience a single problem with the video. I also do notice that the video signal goes nuts when ever I play from the canvas window or FCP tries to prepare a file for print to video.

Any Ideas outhere?
Thanks in advance.
 
Can you preview from FCP? Set camera to view all frames and just play the canvas window. Set it to 100% and open it up.
It's unlikely to be the pulldown unless your system can't keep up.
Is your movie on a firewire drive? If so you may have issues loading images in from firewire at the same time you're outputting them to firewire to your camera.
 
Thanks for your help!
I can preview the canvas on the camera but I get the same results. It's funny because the minute I hit that print to video in FCP the monitor in the camera goes nuts. Your idea that the firewire system is overworked sounds reasonable. I do have an external drive running on firewire so it's being pulled out of one and sent to the other via two firewire links. It's a great point but I have a G4 800mz with 1.25 gigs of ram not state of the art but I've seen others with the same config do it with no problem. I imagine that my configuration is common outhere. How do other people with firewire hard disks deal with it and is there a better way?
 
I can't believe it but it seems that it's the firewire that's causing the problem. I have two clips , one in my internal hard disk and another in the external firewire disk. When I play the clip in my internal disk all is fine. When I play the same clip on my external firewire disk all hell breaks loose. I am using an external ACOM data 80 gig. I am so disapointed I never expected to be something that is supposed to handle the load. Is there a setting or buffer that can be used to increase the throughput?
 
Are you daisy chaining from computer -> Drive -> Camera?
You might try switching it around to see if it's better or worse.
Other options: Copy to internal drive for current project.
You can buy a firewire card which will provide another real port.
All the firewire ports on a Mac are connected internally (even if there are multiple ports) so it will operate at the speed of the slowest device. A firewire card will allow a drive to function closer to full speed.
Make sure you have the various updates.
 
That's awesome advice man. Thank you so much...I really appreciate your imput. After a few days of this crap and thinking that it's your fault and doing something wrong...this takes away the pain fast. It feels really good to know there are good people outhere....so thank you!

I am not daisy chaining the cables and I've even moved around cables and ports but it's still happening. It's even happening with adobe premier. This card you suggested sounds like a great idea. I am going to look into it. My bus speed is 133 I don't know if that's a problem but the second port makes sense. Maybe it explains why older systems that required their own firewire cards worked and mine doesn't. I do wonder if there are any settings that might be used to streamline the firewire throughput?
 
From my understanding, which means that I could be wrong, that you can not output to tape in 24p, because the pulldown only do 23.98. Now, try to run your project through Cinema Tools and output it to 23.98, and put it back to FCP with a timeline of 23.98 and print it to video that way.
 
Yes. I have a quick time movie that I imported from an panasonic consumer dv camera. It does the same thing from the external firewire drive but not from the local internal drive. I am going out in a little while and picking up a firewire card from the applestore or compusa. I think Lacie makes one. Hopefully it will do the trick. Right now I am a sitting duck. No matter what I do I can't save anything for broadcast. Thanks again for all your help guys.
 
Sometimes "Print to Tape" is flakey anyway. Try simply recording the timeline (set VIEW>External Video>All Frames).
 
just got the firewire card and installed it. Ended up with Adaptec AFW4300 the only one I could find in stock. The Apple store doesn't carry firewire cards for the mac only PC...go figure that one out?
It really seems to help, I think I am close because I am hearing perfect audio and I was not getting that before. The video is still screwed up. When I hit play in the canvas the only thing that makes it to the camera is the first frame. The video continues to play in the canvas but the camera only gets a still image and the full audio. I'm trying different configurations to see what happens I will rebood the system and continue testing.
 
It's definetly the encoding!....I finally got clean video from a previously recorded clip on a consumer grade camcorder. I think the video hardware problem is resolved. The new firewire card really helped ...I want to thank everybody for your help and suggestions.......it just seems that all I need to do is figure out why the 24p footage doesn't play.
 
Make sure it's in a 23.98 timeline and set to NTSC DV format.
If that doesn't work go to playback settings and set to lower quality or 2:3:3:3 output just to see if the pipeline itself works and the computer/systems not fast enough.
 
I'm ready to get severely medicated. It's like God's teasing me with success. Everything look and works great except for the lost frame 15-20 minutes into my print to video that F#!@#@ up the process. I've tried about 6 times with different settings. thought it might have been the screen saver but I disabled it on the last try. I'm fresh out of ideas.
 
Try print to tape with the in point set to just before it messes up to see if there's anything wrong in that section.
Do you have enough room on your internal drive for the full project? (along with system needs)
Can you burn to DVD?
Have you tried writign out a QuickTime movie of the full project? Does that work?
Is there anything else running? Do you have enough scratch space?
Just try to isolate the propblem.
 
1.The point varies some times it happens after 20 minutes other times after seven minutes.
2.My internal drive is not big enough. I only need 30 minutes worth I don't know how much space that requires.
3. I can and did burn a dvd. It looks good. I did it on an external dvd burner working on the same firewire port as the external hard disk.
4. Nothing else is running. Nothing active on the console except FCP.
5. Scratch space is 4096 meg.

The card I am using for the second firewire port is a 32 bit card but I had to install it in a 64 bit slot. I am wondering if that will slow down the entire bus. If this is so, then all the other components on that bus might be affected including the onboard firewire that comes with the system. The card definetly changed everything....it is close considering that yesterday I was not getting any video or audio out of the system. I just don't know what else could be causing those dropped frames.

Scottdvx100:
I looked at another thread back on 9/2004 about printing to tape. I also tried to do what that person did to fix the problem. In that thread he copied the project file, just the reference file to the local disk and according to the author it worked. It didn't work for me. I coppied the project file to the local disk but the same dropped frame still happens.
 
Well your streaming from your video files so at some point it will need to get to that data.
Try posting at 2-pop.com. Somebody there may have some other ideas.
 
thanks scott thanks for all your help. I wish I could make it up to you and thanks to everyone else for their suggestions. I'll see if 2-pop.com works out. I've never been there. I am also going to try to buy an internal drive but I am wondering if my 32bit firewire card will slow down my whole system.
take care!
Romelio
 
Ok....just intalled a 300 Gb seagate drive (INTERNAL!) moved all my source files to that drive and tried printing to video again. It's still happening. I am wondering if I should be looking at the DVX100a? I got it a 2 months ago. Probably used it for 20 hours max on it. Can the head s be dirty? Could that do it? and if so What's the best way to clean them. I looked at a cleaning kit today at circuit city for about 20 bucks but on the instructions it said to insert the cleaning tape and hit play. Never to hit record. Aren't we supped to clean the write heads or are they the same. I know most VCRs have two sets. the read and the write.
 
Try p[laing back the tape. Is it breaking up? If not then it's not dirty heads unless you have real issues capturing. In that case just follow the instrctions o nthe tape. Usually play it for 10 seconds.

Try turning off everything (all items in startup folder). Check the activity monitor.
get a 60i (29.97 project) or make a simpe one that you can try playing back to see if it happens there.
 
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