canon xh-a1 problem
 

I recently purchased a canon xh-a1 and it's a pretty amazing camera. I have run into a couple of problems with the camera and FCP 6.0. I was hoping somebody could answer a couple of basic questions and give me some help. I am also new to high end cameras like this so I have lots to learn and I'm open to suggestions/help.

Question/problem 1.

I recently went out and shot a bunch of footage. I was shooting in 30f modes. When I got home home, I was able to see some of the footage on the camera LCD and then the footage I really wanted to see was not available to me. I received the following error message "Video playback not allowed, std playback error" with a yellow flashing warning sign and red text. Since I got that error I can't view any of the footage recorded on that section of tape?

Question/problem2.

FCP 6.0 problem.... I shot all footage in HDV and some of the footage on the tape will only play out if I put the cam into Auto or DV mode which will then not work in FCP because the computer won't see it. (old G5 1.6, OS 10.5.4)

You must have switched from HDV to SD or vice versa on the same tape.

You can go into the menu and change the playback mode to match whatever format you shot it.

For FCP to recognize the camera and capture footage, it has to be in playback mode, and you have to set the playback standard before you plug it into the computer. Turn off the camera, unplug it, turn it on, reset the playback mode to the proper standard, turn it off, plug in the firewire cable, then turn it on again. Never plug in or unplug the camera when it is on.

You also want to make sure your easy setup is set to capture the footage in the proper mode, like if you're shooting 24f, it should be in the HDV 1080P24 mode; I'm not sure what the 30f mode would be, but there's probably one there if you go through the list.

Probably what you're running into is a combination of two things--you have mixed formats on the tape and you're trying to change output while the camera is plugged in. I don't know if you can change the playback mode and the camera will go play that part of the tape and then kick out when it gets beyond the area in question or if you will have to cue it up to the head of the part that's different.

Thanks for the info...

I will check the hd/sd settings.

For the order of operations, I will check my workflow and make sure not to make the mistakes again. I definelty have had the camera on while making changes and plugging in and unplugging.

For the 30f in FCP ther is no 1080p 30 for some reason. I read another post from a user about using verification software to make sure the install worked correctly. Maybe i'll try that but for sokme reason it wants to connect in 1080p50i? Not too sure about that.

In general when I connect FCP it seems very buggy, is that normal with this camera and setup?

No, not normal at all. I use the camera and FCP Studio 2 with zero problems. Before the Intel laptop, I had a G5, same basic setup you have.

1080p50i? There's a 1080i50 for PAL, no 1080p50. You have to tell the easy setup what you want. Set it on HDV-1080P30 Firewire Basic if you shot 30F. If you shot SD or any other mode, you have to go to Easy Setup and change before capturing. The camera doesn't tell FCP what to set it at, you have to do that. Just go to the Easy Setup menu and change it. Then open up capture mode again. You may have to disconnect the camera before doing that, I'm not sure...but you can't change the camera output mode when it's connected. In other words, if you're outputting HDV and change to SD, you have to disconnect before doing that, and change your Easy Setup mode too. Once the camera is plugged in, FCP recognizes that setting and changing it while connected won't work.

hmmm. Maybe I will try and reinstall FCP. I just did a fresh install of 10.5.4. Not an upgrade a fresh version to make sure all was good on my machine. Everything else seems to be running good, just FCP buggy with the camera. But maybe I made the mode change mistakes and others like you said.

I will check the menu for easy steup and see if there is something in there I'm missing. Maybe I made a mistake saying the 1080p setting, but I don't see an option for 1080P30 Firewire Basic at all. I foiund that strange. When i run home for lunch, I will look at my settings and see what's there in the easy setup menu to see if it's not there by default? That is the one mode that by default doesn't show and it's been puzzling me. I was wondering if I had been shooting in the wrong mode for some weird reason.

I am looking at FCP and under HDV settings my options are only 1080i 50 1080i 50 firewire basic, 1080i 60, 1080i 60 firewire basic 1080p24 + 25 , 720p 24,25,30... Are these the normal setting I should see? I thought i should see 1080p 30?

Mine has an HDV-1080P30. If you have 1080P24, you also should have 1080P30. Mine is right below the 1080P25 Firewire Basic.

weird.. I thought I'd look at my setting s and let you know what I saw. Maybe a reinstall might help? Not too sure why I wouldn't have it...

Hi, I am new to FCP and have a related problem. I was trying to capture a tape recorded in 1080 30F by XH-A1. I picked the 1080 30P easy setup in FCP, however, when I started the capture window it told me the program cannot connect to the camera. After a lot of trouble shooting, I found out that the program could connect to the camera only if I changed the capture setting to 1080 60i. So, what's wrong here? Is the 30P preset for 30P recording by Sony only and not the 30F recording by Canon?? I went on to create a custom preset with 60i capture, 30P sequence. Everything looks good. Is that the way to go?? How do you FCP Canon 30F users out there do?

Thanks.

when i first installed FCPS2, not all of the codecs were installed. i downloaded 'Pacifist' and cross-checked the FCP install disc with the files it should have installed to discover this, and also to re-install just the missing files (HDV codecs!!!). very handy program!