Capture Problem - Final Cut Pro HD (4.5)
 

i'm having some trouble with my final cut capture now. First off, the camera is very temperamental in finding final cut (or vica versa) I have to keep switching the camera off and on several times before it eventually shows up on the capture canvas. Then when i play and hit capture now, it records for about 4 seconds and then times out - every time! I'm getting a message saying there may be something wrong with the tape. I've also captured before on FCP with this camera, but the linking up has always been a problem since i got it.

Think I'll bring in a new cable tomorrow and see if that works, but anyone have any ideas on settings on camera or FCP that could be affecting this?

thanks

The Canon's can be very tricky especially the HV10, less so, the A1.

This is the procedure that works for me on both of these cameras.
1.Make sure FCP is not running.
2.Turn on the camera
3. Plug in the firewire connection
4. Start FCP
5. Use Easy Setup to select the type of footage i.e. HDV-1080i60 or HDV-1080p24
6. go to log and capture and begin

I managed to get the camera showing up first time Jim, but unfortunately still having this capture problem. I brought in a new cable today as my other one is pretty old, and has not made anydifference. Also tried re-starting the mac. It seems to be capturing the same amount of time, each time (3.02 seconds / 22.2mb) which is kind of strange. I'm totally lost with it now, as i can't think of any camera settings which i've changed that would affect it. I have also tried another tape just to rule out that it is the tape. As far as i can see my FCP is set up correctly (DV50 Pal Anamorphic)

I think i've sorted it (but not sure!) I had changed the easy setup recently to try something out. When i had set it back, i changed it to DV50 Pal Anamorphic, which is what i thought the settings would be seeing as i recorded in standard DV 50i Pal 16:9. I've sorted it by changing the settings to DV Pal Anamorphic - is this correct? What is the difference between setting it to DV50 or DV? Will i lose any quality setting it at this?

I am a bit confused now. What camera are you using? Are you shooting HD or SD.

If you are shooting HDV pal you should be using easy setup HDV-1080i50
and putting the footage into a HDV-1080i50 timeline sequence. Do not set the anamorphic flag - your footage is native 16:9.

Run this setup before entering the log and capture screen

You may also have a drop out on your tape causing the capture to stop. Try moving the tape forward a miniute or two and try capturing again

Do you have anything else but the camera connected to the FW bus?

I'm a little confused also... FCP 4.5 does not support HDV. Are you trying to capture downconverted PAL DV? If so (and I assume this is the case since you say you've done it before), then you need to set your camera to downconvert. Unfortunately I can't help there since I don't have an A1. But you won't be able to capture HDV in FCP 4.5, so I'm guessing that's the basic problem.

Unfortunately this setup isn't available in FCP 4.5... HDV support was not implemented in FCP until version 5. There were some hacks and 3rd party workarounds for FCP 4.5 but I doubt they are still supported. You should consider upgrading...

No, i'm shooting Standard DV not HDV, and 50i. Can/should i have Final Cut Pro easy setup, set to DV50i Pal Anamorphic or the one i have it set to now? (DV Pal Anamorphic)

I don't use FCP 4.5 anymore, but in version 5 you would choose DV-PAL Anamorphic (assuming you shot anamorphic 16:9 at 50i). I think we're mixing Apples and Oranges a bit here. You do NOT want DV50-PAL. That terminology does not refer the the frame rate, but the data rate of 50mbs. Standard DV is 25mbs which is known as DV25. The data rates are the same for both PAL and NTSC DV.

If you can't capture with the DV-PAL Anamorphic setup then I would confirm that your camera (which I assume is an A1 since that's the forum you've posted to) is correctly set to downconvert to anamorphic PAL DV.

There are evidently some capture issues with MacOSX 10.4.9, based on other posts I'm seeing here. Have you recently upgraded to that version? It may have happened without your knowledge if you have software update set on automatic...

I'm moving this thread to the FCP forum since I think you'll get a better response there.

ah right, that's cleared that up then. I thought that since i had it set to 50i, I should have FCP set to DV50. It appears to be working fine now on DV Pal anamorphic.

thanks