I know this is long but if you have been having this problem you will be happy you read it.
Alright, it looks like lots of people (including myself) keep having problems when using "Free Run". After a lot of searching I have not found any real solution to the problem online but through some trial and error I think I know why it is happening and have come up with some basic solutions. First let me explain a common situation this keeps happening in (and how it happened to me).
I just captured footage from a wedding that was shot with a DVX100A, DVX100B, and HVX200. All cameras were set to Drop-frames and 24PA. All three were set to "Free Run" so that I could used FCPs Multi-Cut feature and would only have to sync the video once. After logging all the clips I stared to capture and was getting all the same old errors and warnings about the timecode and timecode breaks. I've found that most of these errors occur because FCP needs pre and post roll to line up the tape to capture or because you are causing time code breaks when you log the footage. Let me break it down by error/warning:
Warning: You are about to capture Non-Drop...
FCP is looking at the tape for timecode and sees something like "19:36:45:04" and then reads the next frame as "20:10:22:15". This makes sense because in "Free Run" the TC is rolling even when you are not shooting, so if you did not shoot for about 35 min the above TC would have been seen (and expected) on the tape. FCP sees these long breaks in TC and warns you.
If you were not shooting "Free Run" then this warning would be helpful because if FCP saw you go from say "19:36:45:04" to "19:36:45:10" then it would be nice to know you dropped 6 frames. So what does this mean? It means you can ignore this warning because you should expect it if you shoot "Free Run". However, it is these long breaks in TC are what cause all the other errors but they can be avoided.
Error: "Batch Capture: Timecode Error: End of tape reached."
FCP needs some pre-roll to read before capturing footage from the tape. If you were not in "Free Run" you could set your "Media Start" or in-point as the first frame of your scene because there would not be any break in your TC between this and the previous shot/scene; but when you are using "Free Run" there is a long break between these two. When FCP is setting up the tape to start recording at "19:20:30:10" it is going to rewind a few seconds before it starts to record to say "19:20:27:10" but if that TC does not exist because you were not recording then, you get this error.
You have to adjust by adding some pre-roll before you begin capturing (the same way you would with the first shot on a new tape). If you are having this problem, go to "Media Start" for the clip with the problem in your Browser and add a few seconds then try and capture again. Or remember to shoot a few seconds or pre-roll when you are on site shooting.
Warning: Dropped frames were detected during capture...
If you get this warning chances are you captured a shot and did not leave a lot of post-roll (kind of like the last error but at the end of the shot). FCP finishes the capture at say TC "19:22:11:11" and then notices a TC break a second or two later, so TC jumps to say "20:33:20:09". Again, this is expected in "Free Run" but not in normal TC settings.
Lots of Timecode breaks:
If you don't take your time when logging you might set your in-point/out-point in a separate timecode area. An example will help explaine. Say you wanted to record between 19:11:00:01 and 19:11:10:01 but when setting your points you were lazy and just set the in-point in the previous scene. Well that scene's TC might be 15:10:11:01. So FCP gets the clip ready and starts capturing at 15:10:11:01 but then the TC jumps up to 19:11:10:01. That clearly is a TC break and FCP tries to fix the problem by searching for the missing TC. Moral of the story, NEVER set in/out-points in the previous/next scene.
Well I think that covers it. I know that was long but I hope it helps you and explains why you have to be so careful with "Free Run" timecode. If something did not make sense just leave a reply and I will try to go over it in a different way.
Alright, it looks like lots of people (including myself) keep having problems when using "Free Run". After a lot of searching I have not found any real solution to the problem online but through some trial and error I think I know why it is happening and have come up with some basic solutions. First let me explain a common situation this keeps happening in (and how it happened to me).
I just captured footage from a wedding that was shot with a DVX100A, DVX100B, and HVX200. All cameras were set to Drop-frames and 24PA. All three were set to "Free Run" so that I could used FCPs Multi-Cut feature and would only have to sync the video once. After logging all the clips I stared to capture and was getting all the same old errors and warnings about the timecode and timecode breaks. I've found that most of these errors occur because FCP needs pre and post roll to line up the tape to capture or because you are causing time code breaks when you log the footage. Let me break it down by error/warning:
Warning: You are about to capture Non-Drop...
FCP is looking at the tape for timecode and sees something like "19:36:45:04" and then reads the next frame as "20:10:22:15". This makes sense because in "Free Run" the TC is rolling even when you are not shooting, so if you did not shoot for about 35 min the above TC would have been seen (and expected) on the tape. FCP sees these long breaks in TC and warns you.
If you were not shooting "Free Run" then this warning would be helpful because if FCP saw you go from say "19:36:45:04" to "19:36:45:10" then it would be nice to know you dropped 6 frames. So what does this mean? It means you can ignore this warning because you should expect it if you shoot "Free Run". However, it is these long breaks in TC are what cause all the other errors but they can be avoided.
Error: "Batch Capture: Timecode Error: End of tape reached."
FCP needs some pre-roll to read before capturing footage from the tape. If you were not in "Free Run" you could set your "Media Start" or in-point as the first frame of your scene because there would not be any break in your TC between this and the previous shot/scene; but when you are using "Free Run" there is a long break between these two. When FCP is setting up the tape to start recording at "19:20:30:10" it is going to rewind a few seconds before it starts to record to say "19:20:27:10" but if that TC does not exist because you were not recording then, you get this error.
You have to adjust by adding some pre-roll before you begin capturing (the same way you would with the first shot on a new tape). If you are having this problem, go to "Media Start" for the clip with the problem in your Browser and add a few seconds then try and capture again. Or remember to shoot a few seconds or pre-roll when you are on site shooting.
Warning: Dropped frames were detected during capture...
If you get this warning chances are you captured a shot and did not leave a lot of post-roll (kind of like the last error but at the end of the shot). FCP finishes the capture at say TC "19:22:11:11" and then notices a TC break a second or two later, so TC jumps to say "20:33:20:09". Again, this is expected in "Free Run" but not in normal TC settings.
Lots of Timecode breaks:
If you don't take your time when logging you might set your in-point/out-point in a separate timecode area. An example will help explaine. Say you wanted to record between 19:11:00:01 and 19:11:10:01 but when setting your points you were lazy and just set the in-point in the previous scene. Well that scene's TC might be 15:10:11:01. So FCP gets the clip ready and starts capturing at 15:10:11:01 but then the TC jumps up to 19:11:10:01. That clearly is a TC break and FCP tries to fix the problem by searching for the missing TC. Moral of the story, NEVER set in/out-points in the previous/next scene.
Well I think that covers it. I know that was long but I hope it helps you and explains why you have to be so careful with "Free Run" timecode. If something did not make sense just leave a reply and I will try to go over it in a different way.
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