Hello all

I'm losing hair and going very tired over this one. The problem? Ok.

I am capturing Hi Def footage from a Sony HVR-Z1E camera onto Final Cut pro 5.1. The hard ware is a spanking new Macbook Pro: 2.16 GHz Intel Core Duo with 1GB DDR2 SDRAM. Presumably designed to work with the new Hi Def cameras.

The Problem?
Well, when I capture and drag the captured footage onto the time line on 'unlimited RT', a yello bar appears above the footage. I understand that. But what I don't understand is that the playhead judders over the footage and grinds to a halt. A dialogue box then appears which gives me a number of solutions: eg: try turning off Unlimited RT, etc, lower compression rate, etc. When I do this, and set it to 'Safe RT', the RED bar appears over the footage, which you probably know means that you can't view the picture because it needs rendering.

The computer I am running is surely fast enough to cope with Hi Def, isn't it? So what am I doing wrong?

I have the Audiio/Video Settings set to:
Sequence Preset: HDV - 1080i50
Capture Preset: HDV
Device Control Preset: Sony HDV 1080i50 Firewire
Video Playback: None
Audio Playback: Default

This all seems correct to me, but clearly it isn't.

PLEASE HELP ME SOMEONE. I don't want to loose all of my hair.

Thank you.
Regards
Karl.
PS: I am happy to answer as many questions as you wish to deal out with this problem. And I really do appreciate all the help I can get.

Hi Karl.

Are you capturing to your one (and only) internal System hard disk?

You really need a separate hard disk to hold video footage - so that would mean a FireWire connected external HD.

Karl,

Your sequence settings are not identical to the footage you've captured. FCP is trying to convert your footage on the fly to something else (whatever the sequence is set to), and failing.

1-Delete the sequence you're working with now

2-Use the Easy Setup tool and choose whatever you shot your footage in.

3-Make a new sequence.

Sounds like you may have chosen the correct seq and capture settings AFTER the seq you were working in had been created...so the seq would be wrong.

Thread title renamed from "Someone Please Help Me!!!!!!!!!!!!!" to "Trouble with HDV Capture in FCP 5.1"

Thank you all for your help. I haven't yet been able to try these suggestions, but will do so when I am back in the office.

Kind Regards
Karl.
PS: I am using an exterlan Lacie Hard Drive.