[muchachotron]

anyone see this article?

http://www.powerpage.org/cgi-bin/Web...y?newsID=12076

quote:
"After wasting hundreds of hours on trying to get my new 17" 1.33 GHz PowerBook G4 to capture DV without UNANNOUNCED DROPPED FRAMES, Apple Tech Support finally figured out/confessed that the FireWire I/O component of the Panther OS software does not work on any PowerBooks shipping with Panther."

is this just an inexperienced mac user frustrated with a new production tool, or is this a real and recognized problem? i just ordered a 1.5ghz 17" powerbook with all the sauce, and was hoping to do some video work with it.

- d

[MRTrauffer]

Originally posted by muchachotron:
anyone see this article?

http://www.powerpage.org/cgi-bin/Web...y?newsID=12076

quote:
"After wasting hundreds of hours on trying to get my new 17" 1.33 GHz PowerBook G4 to capture DV without UNANNOUNCED DROPPED FRAMES, Apple Tech Support finally figured out/confessed that the FireWire I/O component of the Panther OS software does not work on any PowerBooks shipping with Panther."

is this just an inexperienced mac user frustrated with a new production tool, or is this a real and recognized problem? i just ordered a 1.5ghz 17" powerbook with all the sauce, and was hoping to do some video work with it.

- d

Firewire seems to be working fine on my 15" 1.5 GHz Al.

[muchachotron]

well, i'm sure the firewire works as far as data transfer, but have you (or anyone else) been doing dv work with it? or is that what you meant...

- d

[bastula]

Works fine on my 15" 1 GHz AlBook with iMovie. That was recording video. I don't know if it is fine sending video back to a camera, but why would it not be?

[dangerman]

Originally posted by bastula:
Works fine on my 15" 1 GHz AlBook with iMovie. That was recording video. I don't know if it is fine sending video back to a camera, but why would it not be?

I sent video back to my sony via the print to video command. Didn't work at first, then tracked it down to the cable. Third try was the charm.

[nate_02]

capturing video and exporting video work fine on my 1.25 15"

[scott_jaworski]

Originally posted by muchachotron:
anyone see this article?

http://www.powerpage.org/cgi-bin/Web...y?newsID=12076

quote:
"After wasting hundreds of hours on trying to get my new 17" 1.33 GHz PowerBook G4 to capture DV without UNANNOUNCED DROPPED FRAMES, Apple Tech Support finally figured out/confessed that the FireWire I/O component of the Panther OS software does not work on any PowerBooks shipping with Panther."

is this just an inexperienced mac user frustrated with a new production tool, or is this a real and recognized problem? i just ordered a 1.5ghz 17" powerbook with all the sauce, and was hoping to do some video work with it.

- d

I can _not_ capture video properly with Final Cut Pro 4+ on my Powerbook 15" 1.25GHz. I _can_ capture same video properly through Avid Free DV installed on the same computer, though, with no problems.

The problem with FCP is exactly as the article describes: random, unreported dropped frames.

I doubt this is a problem with ALL powerbooks. Anyone who thinks they might have this problem, capture a clip longer than five minutes and then check your system.log file - the dropped frames *are* logged in there. If there's no mention of any dropped frames (and it'll even keep a running tally!) then you're fine. If not, there's no fix as of yet. This has been discussed at great length on Apple's own FCP forum, there are in fact many users who are experiencing this problem and we're praying Apple fixes it soon. Some users were able to downgrade to Jaguar, this solved the problem every time as well. Others (myself included) -can't- downgrade as the firmware in our PBs won't allow it.

This is a real problem, but I doubt it's quite as widespread as the author of the article on powerpage would have us believe.

Cheers,

Scott

[MRTrauffer]

Originally posted by muchachotron:
well, i'm sure the firewire works as far as data transfer, but have you (or anyone else) been doing dv work with it? or is that what you meant...

- d

I'm doing DV work with Final Cut Pro. That's what I meant by firewire working fine.

[Shaddim]

Originally posted by muchachotron:
anyone see this article?

http://www.powerpage.org/cgi-bin/Web...y?newsID=12076

quote:
"After wasting hundreds of hours on trying to get my new 17" 1.33 GHz PowerBook G4 to capture DV without UNANNOUNCED DROPPED FRAMES, Apple Tech Support finally figured out/confessed that the FireWire I/O component of the Panther OS software does not work on any PowerBooks shipping with Panther."

is this just an inexperienced mac user frustrated with a new production tool, or is this a real and recognized problem? i just ordered a 1.5ghz 17" powerbook with all the sauce, and was hoping to do some video work with it.

- d

Works great on my Rev A 12"er using FCP and iMovie with my MiniDV cam.

[raiste]

I have captured around 20 hours of movies with my 15" PB. I looked in the "system.log" file and did not see any messages about dropped frames. Unless I missed something. Is it an obvious message or are there particular words that I need to be looking for?

[scott_jaworski]

Originally posted by raiste:
I have captured around 20 hours of movies with my 15" PB. I looked in the "system.log" file and did not see any messages about dropped frames. Unless I missed something. Is it an obvious message or are there particular words that I need to be looking for?

It's pretty obvious. I can't remember the exact line but it will say "Final Cut Pro: Warning: Just dropped 1 frame(s) (x total)"
(where 'x' will be the total number of frames dropped in any particular capture attempt.

It's only going to be in the log for maybe a couple days tops after you've captured, so if it's been a while, you may want to run a test by capturing ten minutes or so and then loading up the system.log and seeing if it's there.

Not everyone has this problem, and it seems to be limited to 15" aluminum FW800 and 17" powerbooks (same generation) and newer, running OSX 10.3+ and FCP4+.

Good luck,

Scott

[Arch.]

My 17" would not export to tape with final cut 4.

[raiste]

Originally posted by scott_jaworski:
Not everyone has this problem, and it seems to be limited to 15" aluminum FW800 and 17" powerbooks (same generation) and newer, running OSX 10.3+ and FCP4+.

Good luck,

Scott [/B]

FCP is probably the key? I only use iMovie and iDVD.


Good luck to you as well!

[scott_jaworski]

Originally posted by raiste:
FCP is probably the key? I only use iMovie and iDVD.


Good luck to you as well!

Seems like it - although I tried using a free application called GCam to capture my DV material and it also dropped frames.

Avid Free DV does _not_ drop frames.

It's definitely a "how-the-software-interacts-with-the-hardware" issue and I'm *certain* that if Avid can provide a free application which captures without fault then Apple can fix their supposedly professional software to work in the same fashion.

(No, I didn't write the rant on Powerpage...) :-)

Again, it's limited to RevB or newer machines with FCP4+ and OSX10.3 only. If you can run 10.2.8 on your PB, you're fine.

Cheers,

Scott

[saltines17]

10.3.4 just came out, and one of its listed improvements is:

�_Addresses a situation in which video frames may be missed when digital video is being captured from a FireWire camera connected to a PowerBook.


Try it out and report back

[Mel Dada]

i have had no problems with the pwerbook and final cut. but will use this new upgrade. thanks for info. all digitizing in and print to video out has been A-Ok. I've had to wrestle with the new upgrade on final cut like the new All Frames thing in the View menu. Also fit to window in the Canvas in order to get playback in the monitor. but other than that- this new 12" 1.33 ghz w/ BTO 8o gig drive works great with Final cut. mel

[scott_jaworski]

Originally posted by Mel Dada:
i have had no problems with the pwerbook and final cut. but will use this new upgrade. thanks for info. all digitizing in and print to video out has been A-Ok. I've had to wrestle with the new upgrade on final cut like the new All Frames thing in the View menu. Also fit to window in the Canvas in order to get playback in the monitor. but other than that- this new 12" 1.33 ghz w/ BTO 8o gig drive works great with Final cut. mel

For some reason nobody has ever reported a 12" not working properly... maybe they use a different FW chipset or something.

Anyway, I'm gonna install the 10.3.4 update right away, but I'm on dialup so it could take all day. :-) I'll let you know how I fare.

Cheers,

Scott

[scott_jaworski]

Yep, all fixed.

10.3.4 resolves the random, mysterious unreported frame drops on some Powerbooks... among other benefits.

Back to work, me!

- Scott

[saltines17]

Yay!

[QuadG5Man]

Re: Powerbook G4 dropping frames

FCP 4.5 still has the SAME dropping frames- without the system knowing-problem with 10.3.4 as it did with 10.3.3 on a Powerbook 1.25 G4 15" 1 gig ram.

The solution to this problem is using Final Cut Express 1.0 to capture with. Flawless capture! Go figure. FCE 2.0 exhibits the same dropped frame issue as FCP 4.5, but 1.0 is a lifesaver. !

You can then import your flawlessly captured clips into a FCP project.

[Talk2Angus]

Firewire seems to be working fine with myne