Could it be a drop-frame issue?

discover

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While importing my DVX100a footage into FCP, my camera when playing (and capture log) goes into PAUSE, then begins slowly reversing. As this happens, the 'REVERSE SYMBOL' appears on the camera's LCD next to the 'PLAY SYMBOL.'

After capturing the footage I play it back I notice, or so it appears, that some frames are missing.

Admittidily I did experiement with some of my camera's settings, but don't remember what I did.

Does this have to do with drop frame? BTY, what exactly is / when does one use, drop frame?

How do I make it so that camera doesn't do this ?
 
timecode "drop frame" and NLE capturing "dropping frames" are two different things. when you shoot with the DVX in 24p mode it automatically uses a non-drop frame timecode. in timecode the term "drop frame" means that every minute or so it drops a frame (not a visual image, but a count) to keep the timecode in sync with real-time. so 00:02:15:00 is actually 2 minutes and 15 seconds whereas if you used non-drop frame then it would be a tad longer than 2 minutes and 15 seconds by about 2 frames. in your computer when capturing if you have other operations conflicting with the CPU, RAM, or the drive then you might lose actual visual frames or if there's an interruption in your tape then you could lose visual frames. were you trying to do a batch capture?
 
thanks for the clearing up the two.

No batch capture... I simply clicked 'capture'. Didn't have anything else running, either. I noticed it most after I burnt a dvd and played it on a big screen tv.

Does that sound familiar? The camera pausing, then reversing the tape. Seems like it goes backwards frame-by-frame?

For 'regular' shooting in 24p, should I be using drop or non-drop frame?

Is there a way I can reset my dvx to where it was before? Will reverting the settings to facory settings fix this problem? If so, how do i do that?

Thanks Novelt
 
the camera shouldn't stop and start or rewind during capture unless you had batch capture going. if it was a straght capture it should keep chugging along unless there was a gap in the timecode.

in 24p the camera automatically uses non-drop frame and i don't think you can change that...at least in mine i can't, but i have the original no A no B.

you can set all the presets to default by doing so in the menu or by doing a hard reset (if that's the right term) by pushing a pin into the hole. you'll have to read the manual for that, but it is there and that will reset it to it's factory state.

though that may not be the problem...i don't have FCP so i really can't give you any info there. hopefully someone can help you on that. i know try another capturing app. does imovie capture (heck i don't know the name) but don't MACs come with soemthing? try that and if the same thing happens then it might be the camera, but if you get a clean capture then check the settings in FCP.
 
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