FCP log and capture of V1U tapes losing 6 seconds between clips.

[Mark Angelos]

Using FCP log and capture for cassettes shot in HDV 30p with my V1U. There problem is occurring between clips. I am consistently losing 6 seconds of footage between clips when I capture the footage. Occasionally, there will be a seamless transition between clips, but most of time there is a consistent 6 second delay.

I am using FCP 7.0.3

My settings are as follows:
Sequence Preset: HDV - 1080p30 (I always shoot in 30p)
Capture Preset: HDV
Device Control Preset: HDV Firewire (and it is a firewire cable I am using)

I tried switching my Sequence Preset to Apple Pro Res 422 30p and that didn't help.

Checking or unchecking "abort capture on dropped frames" doesn't make a difference.
Checking the box to limit capture to 30 minutes doesn't make a difference.

I have captured to two different types of external hard drives and my computer's hard drive, and the problems persist. I have tried 3 different V1Us and 3 different tapes and the problem persists.

Suggestions are welcome.

I have never had an issue with log and capture over the past few years with older FCP versions. So, I am wondering if it is a problem with FCP 7.0.3.
Mark

[Shaun Roemich]

Change your preroll setting to 1 second. Any shorter and I find transport ballistics don't work .

[Mark Angelos]

Thanks Shaun,
I just tried several different pre-roll setting and it didn't change that consistent 6 seconds of lost footage.

I have also cleared my the FCP preference on my hard drive a few times. So, I don't think that is it.

I have plenty of memory left on my drives. So, it isn't a memory issue.

I am going to bite the bullet and call FCP... I do not have high hopes that their customer support will remedy the situation. Will post the result.

Mark

[Rob Katz]

mark-

any new info?

were you able to resolve the issue?

is it a hdv -> fcp problem?

be well

rob
smalltalk productions

[Mark Angelos]

Rob,
Sorry so long to respond.

I have been downloading the footage using the following setup under "Audio/Video settings", which is resulting in my losing less that a second at the start of each clip.

SequencePreset: Apple ProRes 422 1440x1080 30p 48 kHz
Capture Preset: HDV-Apple ProRes 422
Device Control Preset: HDV FireWire

This appears to be my best alternative. Loss of the first second is not material to the project, whereas loss of anything past 2 seconds may be a problem.
Mark

[Tim Dashwood]

There are many old threads here on this issue on DV Info Net threads in the various HDV camera forums. When I say old I mean circa 2006 when HDV was new and FCP 5.1 first started supporting capture.

There is no way around it if you want to capture native HDV in FCP. ProRes transcoding will reduce the gap between takes, but the cause of the issue is the fact that FCP expects a perfect Mpeg2 stream and has zero tolerance for start/stop breaks or even slight dropouts. The time from capture abort to starting new capture happens to be about 6 seconds.