24f audio sync in FCP
 

I have FCP 5.1 and the audio after loading my 24f footage is way out of sync. Using AIC. Suggestions? Otherwise, I am very, very happy with how the footage looks and the audio as well. I also have a z1 and though it rocks the H1 is just another level beyond. But it would be nice to hear and see the same thing at the same time.

FCP and XLH1
 

Sorry bro, I'm in the same boat as you, FCP and the XLH1 24F will not work together. Avid Xpress Pro HD (which comes out for Mac in 2 weeks) can deal with it in a 1080i 59.94 project, so I'm waiting for that. Thanks a lot FCP, you cost yourself a customer for life with this debacle.

Have you tried sliding the audio over to match the video?

Workflow for capturing canon 24f pic and sound.
 

I have been struggling with FCP capture of 24f Canon footage and, due to enormous help from people on various bulletin boards such as Barlow Elton and Greg Huson, have now got a workflow for which I have sweated blood.

I am using a Blackmagic Decklink HD Pro and Mac G5 dual 2 gig.

It's a bit wierd, but here goes:

1. SDI from camera to B/M card. (By the way, that's the BNC connector on the extreme right if you're facing the rear of your computer).

2. In FCP Set "EASY SETUP" for "B/M 59.95 1080i DVCPro HD". You may need to download this from the B/M site.

3. Go to " Audio/Video Settings" in FCP and toggle "Audio Playback" to "Built in Audio".

4. Now go to Capture presets (also in A/V settings) and check that you have the correct setting (B/M HDTV 1080i 59.94 DVCProHD).

5. See the "Edit" box, below. Hit that. See "Quicktime Audio Settings". Make sure that this says "Built in Audio" and "Line In". Don't change anything else. Hit OK.

6. Connect Audio from camera RCA outputs to Mac mini jack input.

7. In FCP go to LOG and CAPTURE screen. In CLIP SETTINGS, make sure to tick the little Preview box. Capture settings should be "Non controllable device" and B/M HDTV 59.94 DVCPro HD

8. Capture your material. You will probably NOT see it on your computer monitor, but should see it on your external one. You should be hearing your sound. And for goodness sake capture to your internal drive. I thought my G-Raid 1TB would be fast enough, but I struggled with dropped frames which screw up the frame cadence, or whatever it's called … so don't try that.

9. . Get hold of MPEG Streamclip. You probably know that this is a free App from Apple. Open your captured video and audio file. The sound capture is usually about 4 frames off in my case, but consistent.

It is now critical to set your "In" point to the first frame after the two interlaced frames. Last frame doesn't matter.

10. Go to "Export to Quicktime"

Settings as follows:

Compression: Apple DVC Pro HD 1080i50. (I know - but it works this way)

Raise Quality to 100%

Type into the FRAME RATE box: 23.976.

Frame size 1920x1080 unscaled

Check "deinterlace"

11. Go to "Adjustments" and raise sound level to maximum.

12. Hit "Make movie"

I suggest that you save this new file to your external drive. Later, you can trash your original capture and free up your internal disk space.

13. Wait forever.

It takes about 2.5 x real time. It uses about I gig per minute of drive space.

14. Open FCP and create an HDTV 1080i 59.94 DVCPRO HD sequence and drag your newly created file into it. I find that to re-sync the sound, I have to advance the sound by 4 or 5 frames.

Voila! You will find, to your astonishment that you have created a 24fps timeline and your movie is playing at 24 progressive. I know that some of these steps seem to counterindicate a 24p result and appear contrary to any logic. But for some reason that perhaps someone else can explain, it does work.

Incidentally, I have tried many variations on this, including a variation on the last step which is to make a 24p sequence, but for some strange reason my monitor then gives a picture which is very slightly squeezed and has a thin black line running down the right hand side of frame.

I hope I haven't made any mistakes here.

Please let me know if this works for you.

I am able to do a whole roll (1 Hour) at a time using this method. As you may have discovered, C-Tools doesn't accept large files which makes it useless.

Don't forget to email me with your results, if any at harry323@pacbell.net

Best wishes.

Harry.