Repair BRAW Footage with Dropped Frames

Hi all,

We had a shoot where a camera operator grabbed a camera to quickly shoot some content, but didn't adjust the settings for his higher frame rate - therefore, I've got 6K 50FPS BRAW footage shot at Q0 with a bunch of dropped frames. The frame drops are semi-random, but typically I'll get two good frames, followed by one offline, then 2-3 more good frames, followed by 1-2 offline, etc, etc.

Is there a tried and true process for repairing this footage that I'm not aware of? Resolve's new frame replacer seems great - BUT - I'm unable to export the result since Resolve refuses to export the file, unless I manually REMOVE (not with frame replacer) the offline frames. This is a huge pain - I wish Resolve would just show duplicates instead of offline media, so that I could actually export the clip and get somewhere, but right now it's looking like I'll have to:

•Replace the bad frames with duplicates of surrounding good frames, manually
•Export a 50FPS ProRes of the file with my duped frames
•Bring that back into Resolve, and use the frame replacer to get blended/optical flow frames that look better

Any help/advice would be massively appreciated. Even if someone knows how to force resolve to export the clip with the media offline graphic instead of cancelling the export... that'd be awesome.

I’d hire an external recorder, play the clips in the BRAW player or the camera and record that.
In many cases the camera and the separate player software can play over dropped frames.

I wish Resolve would just show duplicates instead of offline media,

I think that works for a media player, but is a bad idea for an NLE.

To avoid this in the future, you can set the camera to stop recording when frames are dropped.

Absolutely. I was thinking of an emergency solution.

I’d hire an external recorder, play the clips in the BRAW player or the camera and record that.

I'm interested in trying out this idea, I just haven't grasped the concept yet. When you say external recorder, did you mean record the clip using a different camera? Excuse my ignorance please

[Dwaine Maggart]

Resolve should export the clip with missing frames if you want it to do that.

In Resolve Preferences - User - UI Settings, uncheck "Stop renders when a frame or clip cannot be processed"

My suggestion would be using a recorder with HDMI input, connected to your computer while playing the footage.
Sure, you could use a camera, but that will introduce issues like moiré.

My suggestion would be using a recorder with HDMI input, connected to your computer while playing the footage.
Sure, you could use a camera, but that will introduce issues like moiré.

Interested to know what you mean too, Uli. How would a camera introduced moiré, unless your filming through the lens? And no BMD camera can act as a recorder either through HDMI or SDI, as far as I am aware. Unless I'm not understanding this thread, the OP is able to play the clips, reasonably, with Frame Replacer, but not export them. The only solution as far as I can see is to use either Decklink or Ultrastudio and re-record them to an external device, such as a VA, via HDMI or SDI.

Since, as you already noticed, none of the cameras we are discussing here can record via SDI or HDMI, we have to use the lens, right? So, it's moiré (having two rasters, screen and sensor).
Of course I was referring to an external recorder as a quick and dirty solution you may get away with if it's an occasional single frame drop.
Frame Replacer with the right adjustments is the better solution, but quite tedious.

Since, as you already noticed, none of the cameras we are discussing here can record via SDI or HDMI, we have to use the lens, right?

Ah I see. A bit impractical no? You would have to contend with the raster and pixels of the screen too

Sure. That’s why I suggested a recorder from the start.