Master exports incorrect length

I think I've posted about this before, but I'm circling back today. Is anyone else seeing exports that don't match the length of the timeline? I exported a series of 30 second promos yesterday (they were all exactly 30 seconds to the frame) and some show as being an extra frame long. Exporting the same sequence several times in a row shows that sometimes it's correct, and sometimes it's a frame long.

I'm close to mastering a 30 minute show for broadcast, and I'm concerned about this issue. A known bug? A software conflict? A Mavericks issue?

Thanks,
Bill

I've made two broadcast shows at 26 minutes long in the last couple of weeks. Both times the video was one frame late out of sync.
Don't know if that made the show longer, but it was a real PITA.

Peter

Check for a frame of gap clip at the end of your timeline. I see this quite often. It's annoying and not real obvious.

Try sending to compressor for export to see if there is a difference.

I got in the habit of just exporting via FCPX (cause it's the same Compressor guts, right?), but on a particular client project my exports were wayyy out of whack when done directly from FCPX. I'm talking bizarre - i.e., previous versions of my timeline getting exported instead of my most recent edit, clipping text, etc.

I didn't have time to track down the problem at the time. Instead I just sent to Compressor and the exports were perfect. So now I've just gotten back into my pre-FCPX workflow.

Thanks for the reply- I carefully checked the duration and it was correct. I exported the file and then dragged it back into X and looked at the running time side by side in the browser. One frame longer on the export.

I will certainly try the Compressor route. This used to work perfectly from X in the past- I feel like something broke in a recent FCPX or Mavericks update. Most frustrating- considering there's no tape output you would think that creating a solid master file would be a top priority.

Make sure to send feedback to Apple. They do read it. Final Cut Pro menu > Provide Final Cut Pro Feedback...

Hi,

We've had this issue randomly since moving To FCPX. We thought it might be in SD Only but it is not. Since we work a lot with MXF files we thought this May be the reason, but no, it happens with other wrappers.

All our exports start with a leader, a custom made generator slate with editable fields, colour bars and a custom countdown. What we noticed was that the extra frame occurred systematically prior to the first change from slate to bars, a cut that happens at 5:00.

So it looks to us that it could be the very first frame that gets repeated whilst the audio is exported correctly. The resulting file is one frame off and we can always spot it with the sync one frame 1kHz set at 9:59:57:00 (program starts at 10:00:00:00)

Since FCPX is sometimes playing funny when using Motion Generators, we removed ours. No go, the out of sync export still happens....

This hits us randomly. The last thing someone suggested on the Cow forums was dragging an empty title over the whole program duration, which seemed to cure a similar issue. Haven't tried it yet.

Hope this helps

We had this problem on several occasions. I also noticed that all the times the first frame with audio got duplicated, wether at the start of the edit or right behind the slate. This does not happen when we put a legalizer on top of the entire timeline.

- Ronny

Ronny,

What sort of legalized are you talking about?

I've had the problem when applying a broadcast safe to all clips of the edit or even when. Nesting and applying broadcast safe to the compound....

Thanks,

PF

Hi Patrice,

We put an adjustment layer on top of the edit and apply the broadcast safe filter to the adjustment layer. When doing this I don't notice any doubled frames in the export.

-Ronny

Thanks for the tip Ronny. Can you confirm that this is a bulletproof workaround? I've dropped adjustment layers on top of timelines and they sometimes still export incorrectly. I have not tried it with the Broadcast Safe filter however.

It's crazy that we're all dealing with this critical issue. I've submitted a report to Apple.

I can confirm this works for all our edits, but I have to add we are using a full ProRes workflow. Different workflows may lead to different results.

We have submitted a LOT of feedback regarding this issue, so I have a strong feeling it will be addressed in the near future.

-Ronny

In my limited testing with version 10.1.2 it seems that this problem has been resolved. I have exported 30 second spots and 40 minute edited programs and so far they are frame accurate. Can anyone else confirm?

Thanks-
Bill

Are you marking your in and out point by snapping the playhead to the start and end of your sequence? This will select the next frame as well.

Here is what happens for me. I make TV ads, mostly 30, sometimes 15 seconds long. I have a motion generator of 10 seconds long with my clapperboard, some black, then a next frame marker, after which I build the ad (or drop in a published motion generator that I have used), and then I add 3 seconds of black after that in the form of a gap clip, which handily defaults to 3 seconds long, which is a requirement for delivery here. This makes the total for a 30 second ad 43 seconds or 28 for a 15.

If I skim to the start, press "I", skim to the end, press "o" and go to export, I will get an exported file that is 43:01 or 28:01.

This threw me for a bit so what I did was select in the same manner just my clapperboard and exported it. When I played back the exported file you can see the first frame of the commercial following. Indeed when you look at what you have selected when you mark the in and out points, that first frame does get selected within the range, because you are selecting to frame 43 so it ends up 43:01 long.

I think you've resurrected a thread with an issue that has since been resolved. I haven't gotten this bug for months, so my guess is that it was fixed with 10.1.2.

The "in" to "out" thing is just how most NLEs work. The playhead will snap to the beginning of a frame, so when you snap to the end of a project, it will rest in the space after the last frame and in front of the frame of whatever is next. Selecting "out" will then include that frame.

OK - I never experienced this as a bug with previous versions. Always took it as normal behaviour, AVID does the same, but at my current job we also use Premier and today I was exporting something and it kept coming out at 43:00 when I used this method so that is why I came looking here to see if there were any threads about it. That said I may have been not quite doing the same thing in PP as I rarely use it.