Who says "time heals all bugs"?
After importing and editing 1080i AVCHD footage from my trusty TM300 camcorder and exporting to .mpg WTF! I get the same random drop frames that Leonardo Da Vinci used to complain about. I can see many others have had this problem too.
What I am trying to figure out is if the problem is caused by my camcorder, my computer, my sequence and export settings, all of the above, or.... most likely me
one by one:
CAMCORDER/SD MALFUNCTION?
Has anybody experienced drop frames on original footage from a prosumer AVCHD camcorder due to dust or humidity, faulty camera recording, HD or SD card malfunction, over heavy workload or too old camera? I think and hope this is unlikely to be the cause of the dropped frames as have not come across anybody groaning about cameras or cards causing this kind of problem. But would be happy to get confirmation on this from others so I don't have to convince myself I may need to consider upgrading my camera - at least not for this reason.
OVER STRETCHED COMPUTER/HD?
What I have read leads me to conclude my computer is the most likely cause of the problem. I am editing a fairly complicated 10 minute project in CS4 on a Core i5 Mac Pro laptop with 4GB memory and one internal HD for both video and program. Maybe a laptop computer with these specs is not powerful enough to export this project without dropping the ball? Maybe trying to do everything on one HD could also be the cause of the dropped frames? Is this just old wives tales or HIGHLY LIKELY TO BE THE MOST PROBABLE CAUSE OF DROPPED FRAMES ON EXPORT?
If overburdening of the computer system is the most likely cause of the dropped frames then can somebody kindly explain to me why I get the dropped frames on the same clips but in different places when I chop off 95% of my project, copy the errant clips to a new sequence and export. Surely a macbook pro with 4gb ram should be able to export ONLY 5 short clips without dropping frames?
SEQUENCE/EXPORT SETTINGS?
I import 1080i to AVCHD 1080i and export to .mpg 1080p that from all accounts should not be a problem even though it involves some changes, right? Perhaps this dropped frame problems is a CS4 bug that has been fixed in later versions?
OPERATOR ERROR?
Weakest link in the chain so most likely cause of the problem. Perhaps more coffee would help though have already gone through too much sitting for hours hunched over my laptop trying to figure out how to get rid of these !"#€% dropped frames?
In the end I solved the problem by re-importing a couple of different versions of the exported .mpg project file with the dropped frames in different places then cutting out and patching over the dropped frames on a master clip with clips swiped from other versions of the same exported mpg project file, then re-exporting the doctored sequence. This probably worked as the number of edits (about 10) the computer had to make to edit the patched up master clip was far fewer than the number of edits (a few thousand) that had to be done while exporting from the original sequence, right?
So I have found a solution but not a very viable one and hope not to have to repeat this gothic procedure again. Hence this lengthy post trying to analyze the most likely cause of the problem and what NOT to do next time?
After importing and editing 1080i AVCHD footage from my trusty TM300 camcorder and exporting to .mpg WTF! I get the same random drop frames that Leonardo Da Vinci used to complain about. I can see many others have had this problem too.
What I am trying to figure out is if the problem is caused by my camcorder, my computer, my sequence and export settings, all of the above, or.... most likely me
one by one:
CAMCORDER/SD MALFUNCTION?
Has anybody experienced drop frames on original footage from a prosumer AVCHD camcorder due to dust or humidity, faulty camera recording, HD or SD card malfunction, over heavy workload or too old camera? I think and hope this is unlikely to be the cause of the dropped frames as have not come across anybody groaning about cameras or cards causing this kind of problem. But would be happy to get confirmation on this from others so I don't have to convince myself I may need to consider upgrading my camera - at least not for this reason.
OVER STRETCHED COMPUTER/HD?
What I have read leads me to conclude my computer is the most likely cause of the problem. I am editing a fairly complicated 10 minute project in CS4 on a Core i5 Mac Pro laptop with 4GB memory and one internal HD for both video and program. Maybe a laptop computer with these specs is not powerful enough to export this project without dropping the ball? Maybe trying to do everything on one HD could also be the cause of the dropped frames? Is this just old wives tales or HIGHLY LIKELY TO BE THE MOST PROBABLE CAUSE OF DROPPED FRAMES ON EXPORT?
If overburdening of the computer system is the most likely cause of the dropped frames then can somebody kindly explain to me why I get the dropped frames on the same clips but in different places when I chop off 95% of my project, copy the errant clips to a new sequence and export. Surely a macbook pro with 4gb ram should be able to export ONLY 5 short clips without dropping frames?
SEQUENCE/EXPORT SETTINGS?
I import 1080i to AVCHD 1080i and export to .mpg 1080p that from all accounts should not be a problem even though it involves some changes, right? Perhaps this dropped frame problems is a CS4 bug that has been fixed in later versions?
OPERATOR ERROR?
Weakest link in the chain so most likely cause of the problem. Perhaps more coffee would help though have already gone through too much sitting for hours hunched over my laptop trying to figure out how to get rid of these !"#€% dropped frames?
In the end I solved the problem by re-importing a couple of different versions of the exported .mpg project file with the dropped frames in different places then cutting out and patching over the dropped frames on a master clip with clips swiped from other versions of the same exported mpg project file, then re-exporting the doctored sequence. This probably worked as the number of edits (about 10) the computer had to make to edit the patched up master clip was far fewer than the number of edits (a few thousand) that had to be done while exporting from the original sequence, right?
So I have found a solution but not a very viable one and hope not to have to repeat this gothic procedure again. Hence this lengthy post trying to analyze the most likely cause of the problem and what NOT to do next time?