What's an acceptable frame drop number?

[harpe025]

Hey all,

I've had some difficulty in frames dropping from my videos (more than 1%). However, I think I have it fixed, but I still lost some frames. I lost 158 frames out of 172204 captured. Does anyone think this is excessive? I tried playing the captured video converted to DVD the other day and it froze (before I "fixed" the problem) on the player. I haven't tested this capture yet, but what kind of frame loss do you experience? Thanks.

[BJ_M]

i never get any ...

as if 158 is acceptable -- depends on your judgement and if you would accept that ...

there is no magic percent or number ..

[Cornucopia]

I agree with BJ_M, the answer is:

0

If you have a capable enough IO/processing subsytem, you shouldn't have any problem.

Scott

[harpe025]

I agree with BJ_M, the answer is:

0

If you have a capable enough IO/processing subsytem, you shouldn't have any problem.

Scott

Yes, but I think there is something wrong with the tape itself. I captured other videos with less than 20 frames lost. These two particular tapes are giving me trouble. I'm just asking what's acceptable before you'll notice when watching I guess.

[mysticgohan17]

if the playback is very skippy/jerky (i tried real hard to think of non-kiddie terms) you've dropped too many frames or picked up the same frame too often. acceptable for me is 10. thats less than half a second dropped.

[vhelp]

.
.
yes, definately, zero here too.

You see, if you have frame drops, and your source type is Film, and you
know your next step is to perform and IVTC on the source, you'll have
some issues (ie, hickups or studders or whatever in those areas)
And, unless you learned the art of ignorance, you can't mistake
them when you see then on your TV :P

The short is like this, and if your issues wont go away, (no matter what your
finance is like) You are probably better off seeking a better Capture device.

So, zero drops is my recommend.

Good luck anyways,
-vhelp

[lordsmurf]

If it is caused by the computer, zero.
If it is caused by the tape, not much you can do.

How can you tell if it is the tape's fault?
Capture the same spot a few times, and see if the drop happens in the same place.

Normally I drop 0, but some tapes haven given me up to 25 during the course of the 2-hour movie. Not terrible. I can live with it.

Also be sure to use a TBC, a good VCR, be sure the tape is tracked, and follow the dropped frames sticky on this site (which is also mirrored on lordsmurf.com).

[g_shocker182]

I used to drop 29.97fps on my old [despicable] Dazzle DVC80.

[reload_effect]

i believe, it all really depends on a few things
-> the length of the capture, compare 168/ 3000 frames and 168/300000 frames.
-> whether they are all in 1 big hit or staggered over the movie
-> if they are in 1 big hit, how much you continue to capture after this.

if i have a tape that i want to capture and i know the quality isn't the best, i leave it to capture to a day when i know i have a few spare hours where i can keep an eye on it, and when i see a spot where it drops say 10 or more frames in that spot, i try to stop it fairly close to that spot and restart the capture after that spot and then join them with tmpgenc, i know you get the beep noices on the join, but otherwise if you capture much further after that you start to lose a/v sync after that point

[Cornucopia]

I was smiling when I last wrote that, but I actually do mean it.

Dropped frames can be the result of a couple of things:

1. The computer/digitizer not being able to keep up.
(this should never happen if you have a capable enough system for your task--there are certain benchmarks and rules of thumb to help here)

2. You've got too many other things going on besides.
(if you've got a whopper of a system, this may not happen. if it does, cut out all the superfluous stuff--background processes, screensaver timers, downloads, etc.)

3. Your source has got bad spots--bad enough to bring the digitizing down.

What you do here is run it through a TBC, use a better quality playback device and connections/cabling, bump the footage up to a higher quality medium, etc.

I've used Avids, Premieres, FCP, Canopus units for a lot of years and haven't had ANY trouble with ANY tape, unless it's so bad that the thing won't even play back smoothly--major tracking probs, rolling/tearing, more dropouts than signal, hard in-camera edits, etc.

Scott

[lordsmurf]

i know you get the beep noices on the join,

Womble MPEG-VCR has more accurate cut/join. I used to have bad breaks too at splices in TMPGEnc, but not with Womble.

[reload_effect]

i know you get the beep noices on the join,

Womble MPEG-VCR has more accurate cut/join. I used to have bad breaks too at splices in TMPGEnc, but not with Womble.

sweet. thanks i'll give it a go