View Full Version : 6 second gaps at start/stop with HDV Capture & FCP


Scott Jaco
September 27th, 2006, 02:44 PM
Has anyone figured out a way to eleminate the 6 second dropouts between subclips while capturing with the HDV codec?

I'm still using AIC as a work around but I'm wondering if anyone has figured this problem out or contacted Apple for support.

David Knaggs
September 27th, 2006, 03:20 PM
Hi Scott.

I've given a suggested workaround for replacing those missing first seconds of footage in post #48 of the sticky thread "FCP 5.1.2 NOW AVAILABLE with 720P24 & 720P25 native support". This would at least enable you to work in an HDV 720p sequence rather than AIC.

But I don't have a solution for why FCP won't capture those early seconds in the first place.

Lee Alford
September 27th, 2006, 05:52 PM
do you have scene detection turned off? please turn it on and your problem will be fixed.

Ben Brainerd
September 27th, 2006, 06:11 PM
Actually, turning off scene detection doesn't help. I had the same problem for a while. Checked with Apple, checked with JVC. Both acknowledged that it's an issue with the way the TC blips when you start/stop the camera. Neither really presented a solution.

At this point, for anything I've shot event-style, I just use AIC.

Brian Chow
September 28th, 2006, 11:48 AM
Here's one for ya. I have the same problem as well. Doesn't matter what setting when capturing HDV, it will always start a new clip at start/stop. No problem I guess, I've heard that's how HDV works. My problem is that sometimes when capturing, FCP will start capturing subclips even when there is no start stop of TC breaks. I've checked frame by frame for dropouts or anything, it just seems that it does it when it feels like it. Evren tape drop outs won't trigger the new clip I've found. I really hope that the 5.1.2 update will fix these problems.

Does anyone else have this problem?

thanks,
Brian

Lee Alford
September 28th, 2006, 01:39 PM
Doesn't matter what setting when capturing HDV, it will always start a new clip at start/stop. No problem I guess, I've heard that's how HDV works.
not with canon. it captures clips if you turn it on, or it captures one big file if you turn it off. xlh1 users are not having any problems. jvc has a new update released. if you install this all will work.

Steve Connor
September 28th, 2006, 01:42 PM
Brian,

If you look in one of the tabs in the capture window, there is a checkbox marked "create new clip on stop/start" turn this off.

Paolo Ciccone
September 28th, 2006, 01:46 PM
Has anyone figured out a way to eleminate the 6 second dropouts between subclips while capturing with the HDV codec?

Scott. If you look at the descriptions for the Presets (Audio/Video settings, click on the "Device control presets" tab ) you'll see that FCP explicitly declares a 5 second preroll and 3 second postroll for HDV Firewire. Duplicate the preset wih a new name, edit it and change the values for post/pre-roll. Don't know if it will work but that's where it is. I got into the habit to start at least 10-20 seconds of preroll.

Good luck.

Nate Weaver
September 28th, 2006, 02:59 PM
Paolo,

I think they're talking about the behavior of FCP if there's a timecode break. Previously in FCP, if there was a break in 720p30, FCP would stop tape, back up, try again, and in the process lose 4 seconds and 4 frames of material.

It just plain wouldn't digitize over the break.

Scott Jaco
September 28th, 2006, 03:07 PM
Scott. If you look at the descriptions for the Presets (Audio/Video settings, click on the "Device control presets" tab ) you'll see that FCP explicitly declares a 5 second preroll and 3 second postroll for HDV Firewire. Duplicate the preset wih a new name, edit it and change the values for post/pre-roll. Don't know if it will work but that's where it is. I got into the habit to start at least 10-20 seconds of preroll.

Good luck.

This seems to help quite a bit. I re-captured some interviews and the timecode gap is only 2 seconds now. The 2 seconds is actually a combination of 1 sec pre-roll & 1 sec post-roll which is the minimum setting.

So this has made a really big problem into a small one, as long as I pre-roll a second or two between each interview (which I'm doing already) all my other shots should be fine. I'll probably use the HDV codec for my next project.

Thanks for the help!

Nate Weaver
September 28th, 2006, 04:09 PM
Alright then, maybe I stand corrected!

Paolo Ciccone
September 28th, 2006, 08:32 PM
Scott, glad that it worked. Pre-roll is defintely necessary. I believe it's pretty much the ame with any tape-based camera but the HD100 has definitely a need for more time. You can see that the "REC" label in the VF turns from white to red, that's your "safe area".

Nate, the behaviour that you described can deintely happen, data breaks or timecode breaks caused that and probably the pre/post-roll setting apply to each break.