Time Code?

I have recently encountered a problem when creating an archive directly from camera.......the picture on my screen freezes but continues to roll on the camera, then I get a message about break in time code and the footage has not been able to be archived??? Any ideas??? FCP has also began to freeze on me and I have to force quit.....
I thought I had it sorted yesterday but it began to happen again. (I deleted some recent downloads thinking they may be interrupting things and FCP began to work better)

I am using FCP version 10.1.1

thanks

Rita

I assume you are capturing from tape?

Yes - from tape - sony z1 camera. the tape continues to roll and the counter continues on my mac screen but then the time code message appears and FCP freezes!

???

"Import was aborted due to timecode break"

This message keeps appearing - why can't I create archives anymore?? Must be a simple way of fixing this....Anyone???

www.steves-digicams.com/knowledge-center...mecode-breaks.html#b

I just found this website and I am reading through it - incase there is anyone else out there with the same problem as me!!

Good luck!
Any advise would be very helpful!!

Thanks

What the...??? Now its telling me the "Import was abort due to frames being dropped"!!?? What is happening???

Please advise!!!

Creating a camera archive should ignore timecode breaks. Humm. Is this happening with every tape? What is your hard drive storage speed like? Are you capturing to a FW drive on the same FW bus as the camera?

We had a similar thread but with a Canon camera a few weeks ago:

www.fcp.co/forum/4-final-cut-pro-x-fcpx/...rting-hdv-tape#42302

If you cannot create a camera archive and you are not using the same FireWire bus for the camera and the drive there is something wrong with the tape. If you have a separate tape deck you can make a copy of the tape from the camera onto a new tape in the deck. This should get rid of any time code breaks or glitches that are on the original tape. Then you can import from the new and clean tape.

If you cannot make a clean copy of the tape you can try capturing the faulty tape using QT player. QT player usually captures over time code breaks: connect the camera your system, open QT player and select File > New Movie Recording (OPTION+CMD+N). This will open the video capture window and you should see your tape playing in that window when you press the Play button on your camera or tape deck.

If you are using QT X make sure to click the triangle icon to select the external camera you've connected to your Mac, and quality of your recording (select Higher).

Then start the tape from the beginning and press the red Record button in the video capture window. If you are using QT player X your tape will be imported as an H.264 file. When the recording is finished you can import the H.264 file in FCPX and optimize it to ProRes 422 for smoother editing.

-Ronny

Hi Ronny -

I've actually had tapes with horrible timecode breaks be able to import into FCPX successfully with create camera archive. In fact when I use tape now, I don't even bother to do anything but create a camera archive. Maybe it is the combination of my Canon HDV camera and FCPX that is making this happen.

Hi Tim,

You are correct, capturing into a Camera Archive normally ignores TC breaks. Actually it is pretty much like capturing tape into QT7. That's why I'm surprised this does not work. Either there is something terribly wrong with this tape, or Rita is using hardware that cannot cope with tape capture.

This makes me think.

Rita, are you by any chance capturing to a USB2 drive? If so: that is a big NO and it could also explain why you get these messages. USB2 is not fit for video editing. If this is not the issue try the things Tim and I have suggested above.

-Ronny

Thanks again Ronny and tpayton for your advice.
As far as I can see it was the tape that was at fault. I have managed to create archives from other tape without a bother. I also deleted the libraries that had clips with dropped frames and this stopped FCP from freezing on me - so I'm back on track - pity I can't use the footage from the doggy tape. I did put it on to QT but the quality is poor!!

Thanks again.......

I have used the old iMovie in the past (before the Fall 2013 release) and it was able to import without timecode. If you can find it, it might be worth a try to save that tape.

Have you tried simply importing from the camera (as opposed to creating a camera archive)? I ingested many HDV tapes from a Sony HVR-Z1U by NOT choosing create camera archive, but by simply connecting the camera and opening the camera icon import window (This was under 10.0.9. I haven't tried this on the recent 10.1 or 10.1.1 versions. As I recall, there was a switch on that camera that had to be set either to disable or enable the DV iLink and after figuring that out, everything worked fine. I also believe a new clip was created after a timecode break once the timecode on the camera began outputting again. Maybe this will help you get back some of the footage.

I have been busy shooting and with a new tape sat down with FCP to create archive and I'm back to square one . It runs for about 7 seconds and then the screen on imac freezes and I get the message :

"Import was aborted due to a timecode break. All media up to this point has been preserved."

Getting pretty fed up with this - any way of resolving this??

Rita

Are you sure the heads are clean? Running a cleaning tape through your VTR might help.

TC breaks on Mini-DV tape are actually normal. It was created as a consumer product, and the mechanics of it leave it prone to TC breaks, even on the best equipment. Honestly, I'd not use FCPX for capturing from tape on a regular basis. I'd try QT 7 Pro or something else. Just my two cents.

But should these TC breaks interrupt the importing of footage?? Because thats what happening.....?
And when I playback the footage there are frames dropped????

Thanks for any suggestions

Rita

Yes, FCPX has horrible tape capture support. That's my point.

Ben, I have rarely used X for (H)DV, but the only time, I had trouble was when there was some sort on the heads. Once the heads were cleaned, the problem was solved.

Assuming that you were shooting your footage with clean heads.

Every time I have had this issue (which has been frequently) Create Archive has resolved it. Odd that it is not helping you. Did you try iMovie?