FCP 4.5 and capturing video

[Kuentos San Miguel]

Hi folks, I recently purchased the XHA1 a month ago and have been using FCP 4.5 and my Mac powerbook 1.67 (100hd and over 1gig ram) FCP capture setting set to "firewire basic" to capture the video I shot in HDV. I can capture, edit and export quick time files.. It worked fine... absolutely fine.

That is up until yesterday when I was using the menu in the XHA1 and had to "reset" the camera settings. With some setting changes in the camera menu I can get FCP to see and control the camera, however I still get the "preview disabled". What I don't understand is what is different than before when I was able to shoot video and capture it flawlessly into FCP 4.5. As I mentioned earlier I'm new to this, but though I shoot in HD think I had the camera set to "down-convert" during capture but I'm not sure. Now in my XHA1 camera menu, "down-convert" is grayed out and I can't select this as an option.

My settings when the XHA1 camera and FCP4.5 worked fine were, 24p or 30, HD 1080i.

Any thoughts would be helpful.

Kuentos

[Boyd Ostroff]

Something is wrong there Kuentos. FCP 4.5 definitely does not support HDV... I know because I was still using that version after I got my Z1 and had to wait until I upgraded to FCP 5 in order to work with HDV.

So if you were capturing from your A1 on FCP 4.5 you must have had the camera set to downconvert to DV. I don't have an A1 so I can't help with the specific menu command but I sure someone else will.

But you were definitely not capturing high def material in the HDV format on FCP 4.5. I suppose another explanation might be that you really have FCP 5 and don't know it? :-)

[Kuentos San Miguel]

Boyd I'm pretty sure I was shooting in HDV (I think). At least when I play back video in the camera it indicates in the view finder HDV 24f.... and the blue light on the XHA1 wheel lights up the HDV letters as oppose to the DV letters. But I suppose all that could still mean I was shooting in DV mode. I hope someone else can offer suggestions.

Kuentos

[Bill Pryor]

There is no way FCP4.5 will capture HDV 24F from the Canon. Boyd is correct--you have to have 5.0 for HDV and at least 5.2 for 24p HDV.

Either you shot SD at 24F, or you shot HDV and the camera was set to downconvert and FCP captured it as SD. The 24/30F modes will work in SD.

[Boyd Ostroff]

I think you shot HDV but set the camera to downconvert via firewire.... that would explain why the camera was telling you HDV yet FCP 4.5 was able to capture.

[Kuentos San Miguel]

"I think you shot HDV but set the camera to downconvert via firewire.... that would explain why the camera was telling you HDV yet FCP 4.5 was able to capture."
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Boyd I think your right. But through the menu SIGNAL SETUP I can see "HD down convert" but it's grayed out. However with no applications running and when I unplug my firewire cable from my powerbook the "HD down-convert" changes to bold and I can select the "ON" position. But when I re-plug my firewire cable into my powerbook it grays out again.

Kuentos

[Chuck Fadely]

The firewire to the camera has to be unplugged to change the setting to downconvert. Then you have to reboot the camera. (Turn off then back on.) Then set up Final Cut for standard DV, quit and restart FCP, plug in your camera and you'll be back where you started.
Camera has to be in vcr/playback mode to change it.

[Kuentos San Miguel]

Boyd and Chuck thank you so much for the helpful tips. BTw, Earlier today I went out and purchased FCP 6, so we'll see what happens.
Thank you