Canon HDV and Adobe Premiere

Greg Rothschild · August 28th, 2007, 05:29 PM

I've had no trouble at all capturing from XH-A1 to Premiere CS3- it worked perfectly the first time and every time since. Knock on wood...

Mickey Mackwan · August 28th, 2007, 06:28 PM

i have had the same problem connecting my xha1 tried every way suggested here and later found out that the firewire port on the camera was not working ....good that the camera was only 1 week got it exchanged and now everything works well....

Bill Pryor · August 28th, 2007, 06:44 PM

Also, the playback in the camera has to be set for HDV. It could be on SD.

Mike Quinones · August 28th, 2007, 07:00 PM

Hi Jordan.
I had the same problem and it turn out that is was the camera with the wrong set up. Look carefull at SIGNAL MENU set Signal to HD. Comp out to 1080i. Recording set up to 1980/480 In sinal set up comp out 11080/480
HD down convert off. Good lock.

Peter Ferling · August 28th, 2007, 07:55 PM

Not CS3, check you camera settings. Sometimes you may have to play the tape from the camera's transport controls to force the camera to recognize and set itself to SD mode. Get's stuck in HDV mode sometimes.

From your description my money is on the fried firewire port. These small 4 pin ports are joke and don't take well to heavy cables, twisting and torquing on thinly insulated contacts. One wrong pull with a live camera and Zap it's off to the repair shop. I've had a few casulties. (My latest was an HC1, to the tune of $400 in parts and labor).

It would serve you well to get an HV10 as a ingest deck.

Steve Wolla · August 28th, 2007, 10:17 PM

I love my A1, but....
it has been the most problematic of any cam I have ever owned in terms of capturing to the computer. I run two Sony VAIO's on XP Pro, and a Fujitsu laptop running Vista Home Premium and always had a problem until I installed CS3 Master Collection. Now it works (???) just fine, but will sometimes on occasion not be recognized. My Sony VX2100 and Panny GS400 NEVER have any such issues.
It's the cam. It's much more sensitive than other makes, for some reason. I have not bothered to get a Canon HV10 or HV20 yet, as I am concerned that it too will have the same connectability issues as the A1. Why the Canon A1 seems so finicky and my Sony is such a model of excellence when it comes to being recognized by the computer that I am using, I will never understand. It seems to be an area where Canon needs to do some more homework.

Steve Wolla · August 28th, 2007, 10:33 PM

In terms of fixing it, mine did start to recognize the A1 after I had a friend help clean out a lot of old files, add Norton Anti-Virus, tack on a couple external drives for backing up to, etc. Somewhere along the way we fixed the problem--cannot say for sure why, but now all works well. The CS3 was done about the same time.

Bill Ritter · August 29th, 2007, 04:16 PM

I have almost never had the problem on PP2, once or twice it took turning the computer off and then on and then the camcorder. However I have done all of my projects in HDV and run well over 60 tapes through without incident.

I should be installing CS3 as soon as I finish the latest project, hopefully next week.

Bill in Ohio

Jim Froom · August 30th, 2007, 05:48 PM

I also ran into problems. It was the firewire port on the A1. One day it worked and the next day it was dead. Camera has to go back to canon to fix.

Jordan Orberg · August 31st, 2007, 09:29 AM

Thanks everybody for their replies -- I guess there is no easy fix for this problem. However, I fiddled around with the camera for a good while, switching it on and off, unplugging and plugging and finally windows picked it up and it asked me if I wanted to capture with Premiere. I said yes, and it took me to the capture screen where i was able to capture some stuff.

However, HDV is still giving me trouble. I got it to capture a little bit, but I'm not sure that I'm using the right settings. I know that they came out with some A1 presets for 2.0, but do they work is CS3 as well? If you don't recommend me using those presets to capture HDV footage, what do you recommend?

Thanks everybody for their help, I really appreciate it!

Tom Van Dyke · September 26th, 2007, 01:03 PM

I have to render in CS3 after importing HDV from the Canon XH A1. Am I doing something wrong?

Don't have this problem with Premiere 2.0 as they have a plugin for Canon 30F codec.

Brian Brown · September 26th, 2007, 07:02 PM

I can't speak much about bad firewire ports (yet!), but did have my A1 "revert" one time (somehow), but I dug out the manual to reset things like Mike Quinones suggested earlier in the thread, and all was groovy again.

BTW, I use the CS3 suite, also. But I never use PPro's capturing, since it doesn't do scene-detection. The wonderful and FREE HDVSplit application splits up all my shots into m2t files that I can review, rename, delete the bad ones, etc. then drop them in my projects. It probably saves a bunch of time on the heads than my old "log and batch" method. Just an FYI...

HTH,
Brian Brown
BrownCow Productions
www.browncowvideo.com

Mike Quinones · September 26th, 2007, 08:21 PM

Brian;
Just out of curiosity, do you use On Location to capture HD or do you use another program for this?

Brian Brown · September 26th, 2007, 09:39 PM

Mike, I just purchased the CS3 upgrade last week and loaded it on a new quad-core 64-bit Vista system I built... so, I've yet to try OnLocation. But, I will definitely use that app with my laptop for my studio-type shoots.

I'll keep you posted on how it works,
Brian Brown

Benjamin Boyle · October 16th, 2007, 07:19 AM

Hey everybody,

I've been watching these forums for a while, and I finally bought my A1. I love it! I recently shot some footage, captured into Premiere Pro CS3, edited everything, and it looked beautiful on the screen. HD is awesome!

Then when I exported it to SD, trying various methods within CS3 (Adobe Media Encoder or Encore, etc.) my footage looked like garbage. I was pissed, 'cause it ended up looking like some amateur's footage. Detail was lost, even when using high bitrates. I know the down-convert won't be as sharp as HD, but I thought it was supposed to be noticeably sharper than shooting is SD.

What am I doing wrong? Any advice on getting the sharpest image possible for SD would be fantastic!

Thanks!

August 28th, 2007, 05:29 PM	#91
Greg Rothschild Regular Crew Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Los Angeles, Ca Posts: 120	I've had no trouble at all capturing from XH-A1 to Premiere CS3- it worked perfectly the first time and every time since. Knock on wood... __________________ Greg Rothschild Photography http://www.gregrothschild.com

August 28th, 2007, 07:55 PM	#95
Peter Ferling Trustee Join Date: May 2005 Location: Wyomissing, PA Posts: 1,141 Images: 57	Not CS3, check you camera settings. Sometimes you may have to play the tape from the camera's transport controls to force the camera to recognize and set itself to SD mode. Get's stuck in HDV mode sometimes. From your description my money is on the fried firewire port. These small 4 pin ports are joke and don't take well to heavy cables, twisting and torquing on thinly insulated contacts. One wrong pull with a live camera and Zap it's off to the repair shop. I've had a few casulties. (My latest was an HC1, to the tune of $400 in parts and labor). It would serve you well to get an HV10 as a ingest deck. __________________ Pete Ferling http://ferling.net It's never a mistake if you learn something new from it. -------------------------------------------

August 30th, 2007, 05:48 PM	#99
Jim Froom Regular Crew Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Rochester, NY usa Posts: 75	capture from a1 I also ran into problems. It was the firewire port on the A1. One day it worked and the next day it was dead. Camera has to go back to canon to fix.

September 26th, 2007, 01:03 PM	#101
Tom Van Dyke New Boot Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 13	Premiere CS3 and Canon XH A1 I have to render in CS3 after importing HDV from the Canon XH A1. Am I doing something wrong? Don't have this problem with Premiere 2.0 as they have a plugin for Canon 30F codec.

September 26th, 2007, 08:21 PM	#103
Mike Quinones Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Melreso Park IL. Posts: 89	Capture. Brian; Just out of curiosity, do you use On Location to capture HD or do you use another program for this?

August 28th, 2007, 06:28 PM	#92
Mickey Mackwan Regular Crew Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: sydney Australia Posts: 60	i have had the same problem connecting my xha1 tried every way suggested here and later found out that the firewire port on the camera was not working ....good that the camera was only 1 week got it exchanged and now everything works well....

August 28th, 2007, 06:44 PM	#93
Bill Pryor Contributor Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Kansas City, MO Posts: 4,449	Also, the playback in the camera has to be set for HDV. It could be on SD.

August 28th, 2007, 07:00 PM	#94
Mike Quinones Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Melreso Park IL. Posts: 89	Hi Jordan. I had the same problem and it turn out that is was the camera with the wrong set up. Look carefull at SIGNAL MENU set Signal to HD. Comp out to 1080i. Recording set up to 1980/480 In sinal set up comp out 11080/480 HD down convert off. Good lock.

August 28th, 2007, 10:17 PM	#96
Steve Wolla Major Player Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 477	I love my A1, but.... it has been the most problematic of any cam I have ever owned in terms of capturing to the computer. I run two Sony VAIO's on XP Pro, and a Fujitsu laptop running Vista Home Premium and always had a problem until I installed CS3 Master Collection. Now it works (???) just fine, but will sometimes on occasion not be recognized. My Sony VX2100 and Panny GS400 NEVER have any such issues. It's the cam. It's much more sensitive than other makes, for some reason. I have not bothered to get a Canon HV10 or HV20 yet, as I am concerned that it too will have the same connectability issues as the A1. Why the Canon A1 seems so finicky and my Sony is such a model of excellence when it comes to being recognized by the computer that I am using, I will never understand. It seems to be an area where Canon needs to do some more homework.

August 28th, 2007, 10:33 PM	#97
Steve Wolla Major Player Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 477	In terms of fixing it, mine did start to recognize the A1 after I had a friend help clean out a lot of old files, add Norton Anti-Virus, tack on a couple external drives for backing up to, etc. Somewhere along the way we fixed the problem--cannot say for sure why, but now all works well. The CS3 was done about the same time.

August 29th, 2007, 04:16 PM	#98
Bill Ritter Regular Crew Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Beavercreek, OH Posts: 93	I have almost never had the problem on PP2, once or twice it took turning the computer off and then on and then the camcorder. However I have done all of my projects in HDV and run well over 60 tapes through without incident. I should be installing CS3 as soon as I finish the latest project, hopefully next week. Bill in Ohio

August 31st, 2007, 09:29 AM	#100
Jordan Orberg Regular Crew Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Redmond, Virginia Posts: 84	Thanks everybody for their replies -- I guess there is no easy fix for this problem. However, I fiddled around with the camera for a good while, switching it on and off, unplugging and plugging and finally windows picked it up and it asked me if I wanted to capture with Premiere. I said yes, and it took me to the capture screen where i was able to capture some stuff. However, HDV is still giving me trouble. I got it to capture a little bit, but I'm not sure that I'm using the right settings. I know that they came out with some A1 presets for 2.0, but do they work is CS3 as well? If you don't recommend me using those presets to capture HDV footage, what do you recommend? Thanks everybody for their help, I really appreciate it!

September 26th, 2007, 07:02 PM	#102
Brian Brown Major Player Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Estes Park, CO USA Posts: 426	I can't speak much about bad firewire ports (yet!), but did have my A1 "revert" one time (somehow), but I dug out the manual to reset things like Mike Quinones suggested earlier in the thread, and all was groovy again. BTW, I use the CS3 suite, also. But I never use PPro's capturing, since it doesn't do scene-detection. The wonderful and FREE HDVSplit application splits up all my shots into m2t files that I can review, rename, delete the bad ones, etc. then drop them in my projects. It probably saves a bunch of time on the heads than my old "log and batch" method. Just an FYI... HTH, Brian Brown BrownCow Productions www.browncowvideo.com

September 26th, 2007, 09:39 PM	#104
Brian Brown Major Player Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Estes Park, CO USA Posts: 426	Mike, I just purchased the CS3 upgrade last week and loaded it on a new quad-core 64-bit Vista system I built... so, I've yet to try OnLocation. But, I will definitely use that app with my laptop for my studio-type shoots. I'll keep you posted on how it works, Brian Brown

October 16th, 2007, 07:19 AM	#105
Benjamin Boyle New Boot Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Honolulu, HI Posts: 8	Premiere Pro CS3 HD to SD turns out crap? Hey everybody, I've been watching these forums for a while, and I finally bought my A1. I love it! I recently shot some footage, captured into Premiere Pro CS3, edited everything, and it looked beautiful on the screen. HD is awesome! Then when I exported it to SD, trying various methods within CS3 (Adobe Media Encoder or Encore, etc.) my footage looked like garbage. I was pissed, 'cause it ended up looking like some amateur's footage. Detail was lost, even when using high bitrates. I know the down-convert won't be as sharp as HD, but I thought it was supposed to be noticeably sharper than shooting is SD. What am I doing wrong? Any advice on getting the sharpest image possible for SD would be fantastic! Thanks!