Capturing HD into FCP from my A1
 

My A1 has arrived and I love it.

I am having some trouble capturing HD into FCP (Everything works perfectly in SD though)

From the start, please note that I have FCP 5.0.4 which may immediately be a problem - do I need to upgrade to Final Cut 2.0 to get anything to work with this cam in HD? (MAC G5 Dual proc., Power PC chipset)

If not, then can someone please tell me the correct FCP settings to capture HD? I have set the camera to HD60i (no downsample) I've tried a variety of settings but with differing results. Sometimes, I get full control over the camera, and can hear the tape running, but there's no picture. On other occasions, I get a message saying that there is a CODEC missing.

There are so many settings, that I just get totally confused, so perhaps someone has been down this track before and got the correct answer. I've scanned the forum but cannot find the exact answer I'm looking for.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

well my roomie has fcp 5.1.4 and it doesnt have any profiles for 1080i24p or whatever.. if you shot 60i it should be a bit easier to get a profile for it though.. can you not patch to newer version of 5?

Doesn't look like it David. As far as I can see, when I look for an upgrade from 5.0.4 to 5.1.4 on the Apple Site, it liks me directly to FCP 2.0.

Can anyone else confirm that I have to update to version 2.0 to get the necessary profile, or if not, how do it set it up?

What you have to do is get the Apple upgrade from 5.0x to 5.1. That cost 49 bucks and went on for about a year or so. It is possible it is not available anymore. It was the Universal upgrade. Then that allowed you do d/l 5.1.2 for free which has the 1080p24 settings and all that good stuff. We're up to 5.1.4 now. I have no problem at all with capturing and editing the XH A1's 24f footage. But without that earlier Universal upgrade, you can't get 5.1.2.

Although I'm not 100% sure, I believe I heard that $49 upgrade is no longer offered. If that's true, then you will have to go with the expensive big deal upgrade. But it's worth checking around to be sure.