Dropping Frames in FCP
 

I'm putting together a simple cuts-only piece in FCP. I brought selected clips down to the timeline, playback quality set to "high," and all was working fine. After re-opening the project to start editing again I can't play back from the timeline without getting the "dropped frames" dialog box every 15 frames or so. Incredibly frustrating. No settings have been changed, as far as I know, and my external HD is relatively empty. Plays back fine with playback quality set to medium, but . . . I've edited quite a lot of other projects with the same specs and never had this problem.

EX1 1080/30p HQ
3.06 Ghz iMac core 2 duo with 4 gb of RAM
OS 10.5.7
FCP 6.0.6
G-Raid-2 1TB drive at 7200 RPM with over 700 gb free.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

You can set your playback to Unlimited Render or turn off the warning notice in User Prefs. Your monitoring options stayed the same? Maybe also try switching render files to ProRes.

Monitoring options have remained the same, that is, NO external monitor. I tried Unlimited Render but the problem persists. I'd also turned off the warning notice but I could see (I think?) those skipping frames and found it disconcerting.

I'm not quire sure how to switch render files to ProRes. Would it necessitate rendering and/or transcoding? I'd rather avoid that.

I just opened an older project that had played back fine in high quality and now has the same problem, the dropping frames warning constantly. Arrgghh . . .

Thanks again.

To change the Render settings go to: Sequences>Settings>Render Tab

Change Render Setting to ProRes

The render files is a User Prefs setting under Render; you use the pull-down menu to change from XD to ProRes, but that doesn't sound the like problem. Odd. Sounds like drive full, but you say it has plenty of room. Maybe check scratch disk settings just to make sure they didn't change. I wonder if you took the material and dumped it into another setting timeline, say prores, and see what happens.

I transcoded the sequence to ProRes and indeed it does play back fine in HQ. However, the original sequence that I was having problems with plays back fine now also. Hope it lasts . . .