Bad news, “Lost” fans. Well, those of you who download 720p caps of the show. It looks like ABC, per juicy message board rumors, is doing something screwy with the video as it airs in order to fit in more commercials—removing frames after the 2:3 pulldown, that is. So, when cappers convert the video into bite-sized x264 chunks for us, it results in jerky playback. (Dupe frames that are present in the original broadcast are removed from the cap.) You’re not going to notice the dropped frames when watching the show on TV (due to the nature of broadcast television), but it makes capping the show a pain in the neck. The resulting cap, less the dupe frames, plays back like garbage.
This dropped frames issue only seems to have affected S05E01—episode two doesn’t exhibit the same problem.
The moral of the story is, as “scene” cappers grapple with this dropped frames issue, we’ll have to wait longer than usual for “proper” caps, perhaps after the shows airs in the UK, where, presumably, Sky won’t drop frames left an right to fit in more adverts. Clever way for ABC to combat piracy, though.