HDV video & final cut - what am I doing wrong?
 

Hi all,
I have previously only worked with DV. Now I've been given HDV footage, shot on a MiniDV, and can't seem to capture it in Final Cut. If I hook up the vidcam to my G5 via firewire the system doesn't recognize that the camera is attached (it's JVC's HD prosumer cam). And if I play the tape on a deck (Sony DSR-11) no video shows up... 'capture now' for example just gives me a blank screen, even though I can see the timecode running in the capture screen, without an accompanying picture. What in the world am i missing? I know that all the cables/connections are ok, since I'm not having any problem with DV, it's only this HDV tape... Please help!!!

Thanks,
Justin

Justin, I moved your question to the HDV editing forum since I think you'll get a better response there. You originally said you had been given "SD video" but I'm pretty sure that what you really have is HDV video, as shot with the JVC HDV camera. I made this change in your post - if this is wrong then you can edit and change it back.

I can't really answer your question, since I don't work with HDV (yet ;-), but I'm sure others will be able to help. But I believe the bottom line is that you won't be able to edit this in FCP without an add-on package, and the JVC tapes will not play in your DSR-11.

Final Cut Pro isn't currently capable of working with HDV footage without some third-party software to convert the video to the DVCProHD codec. Hopefully in a few months Apple will have a more seamless solution; in the meantime you'll need additional software.

Thanks for your help Boyd & Kevin. However, the footage I was given actually is SD, not HD. It was shot on the JVC HD prosumer cam, but SD is also an option on that camera.

I found the info below on Apple's site, http://www.apple.com/finalcutpro/capture.html:

"DV Input
Capturing from DV cameras and decks over FireWire is as simple as plugging a cable into your Macintosh and selecting Log and Capture... Final Cut Pro HD can capture DV, DVCAM, DVCPRO 50 and DVCPRO HD formats over FireWire"

I notice it doesn't mention capturing SD over Firewire. Regarding SD it says:

"SD Input
Final Cut Pro HD provides excellent support for capturing and editing in Standard Definition (SD)... You can also use a video capture card like the Aurora Igniter, Aja’s Kona SD or Pinnacle CinéWave to capture SD or HD media in native format."

For SD it says you CAN use a capture card like those described above, but is it a necessity?

Thanks guys. I appreciate your help.

Ah I see, sorry for the confusion. I think someone who knows this camera will have to chime in. But when they talk about SD video I suspect they are only using the term to mean 720x480 resolution, as opposed to HD at 1280x720.

Now I think this camera has component video output and you could use a card like the ones you mention to convert the analog component signal to digital. But I was under the impression that the JVC camera just had an HDV mode and a DV mode. To the best of my (admittedly limited) knowledge, that's the only thing that any cameras put on miniDV tape.

But maybe JVC does something weird in the recording process such that the tapes only play from one of their cameras? Or maybe a PAL tape with NTSC deck (but doesn't the DSR-11 also do PAL?)... Hopefully someone else will be able to suggest something to try.

Hi there,

Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't the JVC also have an MPEG2 SD mode which uses a native widescreen resolution of 960*480 or something like that (rather than DV's 720*480)? Maybe that was the mode that the cam' was set to.