Final Cut Pro Capture Problem with XL1
 

Until last night I have been able to capture footage with my XL1. This is no longer the case and I would appreciate your assistance.

I have successfully captured video using my 2.5 year old Sony TRV-350 but can not get FCP to capture any footage using my XL1. I have made sure all the basics have been taken care of (ie: no virtual memory, latest QuickTime drivers, etc...).

I have tried to re-capture using footage that I previously was able to successfully capture. No luck this time around...almost as soon as I hit "capture" it comes up with the error message informing me about dropped frames.

I have been to Apple's site. I've been to 2-pop and posted there. The problem, I think, is an XL1 issue. If you use FCP and the XL1 or XL1s could you please post any preference fixes you've done to correct this problem? I once had it working and no longer can find what I need to do.

Thank you, in advance, for your assistance.

Well it sounds like you've made most of the rounds to the usual places on this problem. The next step might be to Canon's service center. I use an XL1s and XL1 and have been able to capture from both (although, admittedly, I rarely do so).

Just a few additional questions came to mind when reading your post.

- What version of FCP are you using? On OS 9.2 or 10.1.2?
- I assume that you've tried the ol' deletion of your FCP preferences?
- Do you have any trouble playing back footage on your XL1?
- Have you tried to capture one of the XL1's tapes using another miniDV camera?
- Is the tape you're trying to capture recorded in SP (versus the infamous LP)?

XL1 & FCP Frame Drop on Capture
 

Ken,
Thank you for your reply...
To answer your questions:

I'm currently using FCP 2.0.2 on Mac OS 9.1 and 9.2 (2 comps same problem). I have deleted the prefs and even went so far as to re-install the software. The tapes look fantastic straight from the camera to the monitor. The tapes were recorded in SP mode.

I have tried using both my XL1 and XL1s cameras and have not had luck with either one.

This one's gonna cost me a job I think if I can't get this solved by tomorrow night! :(

Again, thanks for your reply...any further thoughts and ideas are welcome ...VERY welcome!

This may be utterly worthless advice but whenever I used FCP, I had to make sure the XL1 was connected and turned on to VCR mode before I booted the Mac.

Try also www.dvcreators.net -- Josh and his crew are experts at using FCP with the XL1 -- see their FCP Knowledge Base at www.fcp411.net or .com -- link off of DVCcreators.Net. Hope this helps,

Chris you're awesome! Thanks...I'll try your trick with having the unit connected and in VCR mode prior to boot. Wish me luck & thanks again, Chris!

Good suggestion, Chris. If Final Cut is set to use the FireWire for an external monitor and does not "see" a Firewire device when it starts-up all kinds of funky "fropped frames" stuff can happen during both capture and playback. FCP3 became a bit more forgiving and at least sets the session's external monitor preferences to "None" when it sees no device.

Jeff,

Somebody listed a solution to this in an earlier thread...but I think it's only available if you have the new 3.0 version.

In preferences, you can turn off the option that tells FCP to stop capturing when frames are dropped.

I did that...and I was able to capture normally (before I kept getting the dropped frames warning). At the end of the capture, I still got a warning about dropped frames, but when I played it back, everything was fine. No dropped frames.

If you have 3.0, try it out and see what happens.

(strange...mine worked fine for awhile too before the dropped frames problem cropped up)

OK...here's the update...I tried Chris' solution but didn't solve the problem. A fellow XL1/FCPer in another forum suggested I switch the "Capture device" to "Firewire Basic". I am not seeing the option...I'll continue to look for it as I now wonder if this could be the problem.

I'm on my way over lunch to visit with a friend who uses FCP 3.0 to see if I have any better luck there.

I'll keep 'ya posted...thanks again for your assistance.

@#$%^@#$
 

Got my friend's comp to capture just fine from my XL1 just fine. When I came back, made the adjustment to "Firewire Basic" I still ran into the problem. This is painful...

Well, at least that narrows it down to the computer. Best of luck,

Ugh. I feel your pain! My neck and shoulder are both getting all cramped up because of it!

Not long ago I kept getting the "dropped frames" warning in Final Cut Pro 2. I turned off the preference that says "Abort capture on dropped frames". I still got the warning when capture was complete, but the footage was fine. At least for awhile. Not too long after that I noticed that the video files were actually dropping frames and getting pretty messed up. The solution was to defragment my capture drive. Once that was done everything cleared right up. If you can defrag your drive, please try that! Unfortunately the Mac OS does not give a built in means to defrag like Windows does.

Have you tried switching the firewire cable that goes from your XL1 to your computer to the OTHER firewire port on the back? It's a long shot, but we gotta try everything.

Capturing in Macintosh
 

I would like to use Mac for two purposes:

1) monitoring video images by capturing them through firewire.
2) editing them in iDVD, or FCP.

1) is more like cheap way to view my PAL images in Mac monitor.
Depending on the quality of image in Mac monitor, I will decide to buy a separate PAL monitor.

I tried to view the images by capturing in PC and Premire, but
the video images looked dark and zagged in PC monitor.

Does anyone know the captured images look good in Mac monitor, or look dark and zagged like PC?

Any News, Jeff?
 

How is your capture problem going?

Well...turns out, after all was said and done...after I was ready to blowout the whole computer and start from scratch (painful thought) I realized that, while I defragmented my A/V drives I had not defragmented the boot drive in quite some time.

Turns out, a half-hour with Norton Utilities appears to have done the trick.

I got the project done in a marathon Thursday session and have a happy client who'll receive their project on schedule (Monday).

I'd like to thank each and every one of you for your assistance ...after investing in equipment & time it was downright depressing to realize that when any one part of the entire chain goes down the whole operation comes to a halt.

Lesson learned...I'll be defragmenting ALL drives on a regular basis. BTW...the suggestions that were given in this and other forums were all helpful as it gave me a chance to tweak FCP to run better with the XL1 setup.

Thanks again to you all. Hopefully I can return the favor in the not too distant future! :)

Really happy to hear your success! What a relief it must have been. Looks like Joe rang the bell on this one! Good thinking Joe.

The gamma setting on PCs make images look darker in general. This is a problem in designing web pages and working with images for the internet because they are viewed on different platforms. Colors do look much brighter on the Mac. As far as the images looking jagged - that might be the specific monitor or resolution. I use a Mac with a flat panel LCD display, so my picture is very bright and I've never had problems with jagged (pixilated) images in video (unless they were poor quality to begin with or rendered in a low resolution).

That said - (no matter which format you use - PAL or NTSC) having a separate monitor (PAL/NTSC) is a big plus. No computer monitor you use can show you what the image would look like on a television.

Derrick

I do all my work on a Mac, then when doing the final compression for web I use Cleaner Pro. It has a Gamma adjustment setting for PC that allows you to crank out two copies of your film, one for Mac monitors and one for PC monitors, and also the code to insert in your HTML page that will detect which monitor is being used by the viewer then select the appropriate film.

Apple G5 and burning DVDs
 

Hi,
Does anyone knows when the Apple G5 comes? I was thinking about getting the G4, but now I heard rumors that the G5 is just about to be launched. Does anyone knows what the differences will be in terms of using it for editing DV?

My second question is: I will also buy a XL1S PAL version. Can I choose using FCP3 and a G4 to burn DVDs which can be viewed either using a DVD NTSC and a DVD PAL (different DVDs) ? As far as I can see I will need to convert the output to record on VHS in NTSC when I caputure the DV on PAL. I am just not sure if the DVD standard is the same using NTSC or PAL.

Best regards,
Thomas B. Petersen

I don't think you'll see a G5 for awhile. Apple wants to sell a bunch of the upgraded G4s. I just moved from a G3 to a dual G4 -- it was, as expected, faster. The G5 will bump that up some, no doubt. You can count on that whatever you get will be outdated soon after you get it -- such is the nature of computers. When you're ready to upgrade, just dive in. After all, when the G5 gets introduced, can the G6 be far behind? :)

I'll let someone else take on the PAL/DVD question.

Cheers

As far as I know, Final Cut Pro is not a standards converter. You can capture and edit in PAL, but then your output is PAL also.

Well I've never tried it, but you could import and edit in PAL. Then you could possibly export as Quicktime and set the format to DV-NTSC 29.97 fps blah blah... You'll get a new file. Load that up into FCP and export to your favorite NTSC enabled DV device. I have no idea how this would look, but I bet it would work. You'd probably have to size the Quicktime to 720x480 from the PAL file as well.

The details are sketchy...but I remember a couple months ago hearing that a new processor has just been developed that features a new kind of "insulated circuitry" that will make it blaze at speeds never seen before...and that Apple has an exclusive contract for it. And I remember the report saying something about them starting to buy these new processors in large quantities by summer 2002.

Sounds like a G5 is on the horizon to me. If the story I remember was true, I'll bet they announce it before Christmas.

Yeah, 2 days after I order my new G4.

When I decided to upgrade from my B&W G3, I was tempted many times to jump on the dual-800. Fortunately, I waited just long enough to see the dual-1G machines introduced, at a considerably lower price. I was much less concerned about being on the cutting edge of technology than buying the computer just a few days before the inevitable price drop. In my case, it worked out this time -- frequently it doesn't. I fully expect to see my "hot" MAC trumped by something better NLT than this summer -- that's not a real concern to me, since mine won't suddenly slow down or get stupid. Getting the most bang for the buck at the time I buy it is the main consideration for me. I'll leave the "gotta have the latest/greatest" syndrome to the gamers. Now, about that dual, double clutchin' e-flat major G5........!

I've got an older 733 the 1st with the super drive.

I just made my first iDVD and while it was short, I had no problems. I was sweating the settings for quicktime in FCP before the burn. I think it would have been a nobrainer if going from iMovie to iDVD. But I made it in 1 try. Whew!

I do see what you describe as interlacing while on the monitor, but it's fine on the real tube. I've noticed the same "problem" when watching dvd's on the computer as well. It must be taxing to make the sq pxl proscan monitor look like the non sq pxl, non proscan tv.

While I haven't upgraded my version of iDVD, it took 5x the length of content to burn the disc.

Another reason to like Mac, the software that you are paying for when you buy the box; iMovie, iDVD, iTunes. All rock solid. I don't think I've ever crashed in all my playing with iMovie. Love/Hate my a##!

yeah, there's a question? Has anyone ever crashed and lost an iMovie?? (I hope I'm not going to be sorry for this, but I'd like to know!) And if so, what else was running?

Has anyone heard any rumors about when DVD Studio Pro is going to come out in an OSX version?

Not a stinkin' peep here. I've been keeping my eyes sharp for this update. The last I heard (last summer) was that an update to 2.0 was planned for sometime this year.

HDTV
 

I should have delivery of a Hitachi SWX61 HDTV by this weekend- I'll post my opinion on how well XL1S video looks on it. It's a widescreen 61" tv with no lines- it works with pixels as our monitors do- i'm excited to view the video on it...remarks coming soon.


(man I wish that WTC 911 video that was aired by CBS would have been shoot with an XL1S- would have been great for us Canon shooters.....what was that....a PD150?)

Ken & others,

The reason why you do not have the same capacity on DVD-R
disc as the study have is not their fault. It is just technically
(allmost) impossible todo at the moment. The "professional/
authoring" discs you are talking about are dual layer discs.
They get pressed at a factory and have two layers. Your DVD
player can shine through the lower layer with a special laser
color to get to the "hidden" layer. These disc get "pressed"
instead of "burned", that is a whole different process! At this
moment, with my knowledge, it is not possible to burn to a
deeper layer.

So what does this all mean? A DVD-R can hold 4.7 GB of data
(and cannot be encrypted like a professional disc, it can have
region coding though!) versus 9 GB on the dual layer disc. This
is why there can be less video/audio on a DVD-R disc with
the same quality then a "professional" disc. If you truly need
the full 9 GB (and this is very questionable) then get your
disc pressed instead of burning them yourself!

A common DVD-R holds more then enough space to fit a full
movie (if compressed with a good MPEG2 compressor). Most
movies from hollywood use only about 5 GB (exceptions
possible) depending on the amount and type of sound tracks
(DTS takes more space than Dolby Digital or stereo!!). The extra
GB available sometimes are not used (Doh), used for menus
and/or extra items as commentary tracks, behind the scenes
etc. You should be able to fit 1,5 - 2 hours of footage on a
DVD-R disc without any quality loss (if a good MPEG2 encoder
is used).

Now I don't know about the Mac, but for the PC the two best
available are CCE @ www.cinemacraft.com (expensive!) and
tmpgenc @ www.tmpgenc.com.... A guide to get more on a disc
without sacrificing any or much quality can be found at
www.robshot.com

Hope this has clarified some.... Lemme know if anyone didn't
follow it. I'd be happy to explain it more.

Rob,

Thanks very much for that info. Very helpful. I recently saw double-sided DVD-R's for sale, but that would only give you a 2nd side of 4.7Gb rather than 9Gb, eh?

I'm going to look at some of those encoders.

-Ken-

your dvd studio pro for OS X question
 

I read in Australian Macworld magazine that DVD studio Pro for OS X is to be release first quarter of this year.

Ken,

That is correct. It gives you two sides of 4.7 GB. It might
be nice to have your movie on one side (if you truly need
4.7 GB for that) and special futures, a documentary or
whatever on side two. Just a thought. You really should
have enough space to put the movie on one side. Unless
you start to go over 3 hours of footage. But who is gonna
watch that? Perhaps better to put in a telivision show format
and make two or more 45 minute episodes :)

Good luck

65" HDTV test
 

well I finally got the HDTV I've been waiting for- the 61" was broken by the delivery men so I opted for a larger 65" widescreen version made by Mitsubishi.....

...DVD's in general don't look too great- the lower resolution of the DVD's are apparent with screens of this size- yet they look great on smaller sets- the same applies to the footage direct from the camera via s-video cable (even when viewed at 960i via TV interpolation option)....I guess 530 lines of res isn't enough for large screens (I was hoping it would look fantastic-)...

...so if anyone is wondering if the XL footage looks good on HDTV's i'd have to say "not really"..not that the footage views poorly- more like it's pixels are spaced further apart (seems like this in a way) on projection TV's.....but the footage does look great on my smaller tube TV.... just my .02 cents.

65" HDTV test
 

Steve,

I'm sorry to hear that your video didn't live up to your expectations. I too have been wondering how XL1s video would look on an HDTV set. You may have just saved me a big chunk of change for a new TV however. I have a 27" Sony flatscreen and the video from the camera is awesome.

Good Luck,

Bill

Well, really it's not how XL1S video looks on a large HDTV screen or how video from *any * partticular camcorder looks... it's how DV itself looks on a large HDTV screen. Which ain't all that impressive.

I can think of two explanations:

1. the DV standard uses the D1 aspect ratio of 720 X 486 where the Media 100 uses the square pixel ratio of 640 X 480. Perhaps the conversion of the aspect ratio caused some artifacts. I would expect the video to look somewhat soft in this case.

2. This isn't so much of an explanation as it is an observation coming out of my own experience. We use a Canon XL1s to shoot and have a Panasonic DVCPRO deck in our edit suite. When we tried to capture DV footage digitally through firewire (whether from the DVCPRO or the XL1) the image tends to be somewhat "blocky" as though you can see the grid the Media100 is using for digitization. Keep in mind that the Media100 was built to digitize analog video and its codec is based on motion JPEG compression - great for analog but questionable when translating another digital format. Our solution was to use the component outputs of the DVCPRO deck and the video looks great. Digitizing from the S-video output of the DVCPRO or XL1 looks almost as good as component and both look dramatically better than the DV capture.

Hope this helps,
Mark Smithhisler

Y'mean we're all gonna have to go get HD cameras now? (I'm sure Panasonic would be only too happy to sell me one!)

I've seen my XL1s footage on a tube TV (Sharp) as large as 36" and it's always been fantastic...the big HDTV sets will liekly not impress you- Consumer Reports recently tested a Hitachi 55" HDTV ready set (along with a bunch of others) and proclaimed it the very best because of how well it displays analog tv signal (the HDTV images were great as just about all the manufacturers seem to have it down)....the trick according to Consumer Reports is how well they handle analog footage....the Hitachi 55" was the king...if anyone's looking for a big set to show-off your XL1S footage- the Hitachi set would likely be the best bet. (Mitsubishi's sets came in a close 2nd)

have fun fellas,

Apple had demoed DVD SP 1.5 on several ocassions in the past couple of months. My guess is that it will be announced at NAB.

I would like to make a DVD version of my travel video but I have heard the QT MPEG 2 enoder is not the best.

Assuming a reasonable bit rate of say 8.5, how close will properly shot XL-1 footage look on a DVDSP made DVD to the original footage? If perfect XL-1 footage is a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10, where would you place DVDSP footage? I have to say that a VHS dub is about a 3.

Thanks.

Greg M

<<<-- Originally posted by stevenyc1@aol.com : Ken,

Mac's are amazing aren't they?

Prior to burning the DVD (during compilation) iDVD did prompt me and say that there was more than 60 min of content and that the video content would decline in quality slightly...but in actuality there was only about 19 min of actual DV footage- the rest were slideshow images that i'm assuming get encoded into an mpeg2 at whatever screen rate DVD's use.......this is the likely reason iDVD prompted me with such a message.....

...my 60&quot; TV is on the outs so I can't view it there- but will try soon on another set.......

Ken which Mac did you get with the superdrive?

I picked up the 933 mhz model w/SuperDrive at B&amp;H in Manhattan- so far the system works like a charm.
Mac's rule! -->>>


Ken,

What do you feel you are putting up with with the Mac platform?

I have to say I am tired of a 133mhz system bus and only ghz speeds, but that will change at MW in July. Supposedly Apple demoed some real fast hardware to some key Japanese players at the MW there last week. Dual 1.4ghz G4's( no G5's) on 400mhz logic boards with DDSRAM, blah, blah, blah.

I will buy a new machine in July and I hope it is blazing fast. Speed tests have shown the dual ghz machines to be "only" 2.5 times as fast as my single 450. It has something to do with the lastes G4 chips still doing less work per clock cycle than the orginal. Yes they are clocked higher, but there is no scaler speed increase. Sigh.

Greg Matty