Import Question
 

G4
dual 867
800 SD RAM

So I recently shot on the JVC GY HD100, returned the camera, and rented a JVC CUVH1 deck to upload the footage today. Few questions if you will:

1. Will I be able to easily upload my footage into FCP in a pretty straight forward way? Or is there something regarding FCP's inability to accept the 24p mode that I should be concerned about?

2. Will I be able to upload that same footage to iMovie?

3. As for exporting to a DVD...I'm really just looking to get a best-quality product of raw footage to my client, not going to edit anything too detailed right now. What's the simplest way to do that? I am thinking export to Quicktime full-res movie and import that into iDVD and hit burn...is that fine?

Thank you for your help.

Dan

Dan,

You shot in 720P24?

If so, there is a free (but bothersome) workflow, a $80 (and simple) workflow, and a $179 (yet confusing) workflow.

FREE without sound:
Use FCP5 and set the capture preset to HDV Apple Intermediate Codec 720p30. Capture your footage. Open Cinema Tools and "Batch Conform" the footage to 23.98 fps.

FREE with sound:
The free method that retains sound involves using a either DVHSCap (google it - part of Apple FW Dev Kit) or the HDVxDV downloadable demo.
Capture with either of those applications from the camera via firewire.
You will end up with .m2t files. These are MPEG2 Transport Stream files and are exact copies of what was recorded to HDV tape.
FCP won't accept these files to edit, so you need to convert them to Quicktime using a codec that won't degrade the image or add artifacts.
Download and use an app called MPEGstreamclip to batch convert your files.
I like using "Apple Intermediate Codec" because it is a compressed format so it doesn't require a ton of space, but it seems to retain the original image quality.

$80
Buy HDVxDV v1.024 and use it to capture and convert your footage.
See this thread for instructions: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=56015

$179
Buy LumiereHD 1.6b2 and use it to capture and convert your footage.


In summary:

FREE without sound: Using FCP5 AIC codec and Cinema Tools.
Pros: It's free and no 3rd party applications are required.
Cons: No Timecode. No usable sync sound - M.O.S. only.

FREE with sound: DVHSCap or HDVxDV demo with MPEGStreamclip:
Pros: It's free
Cons: No Timecode, files are still wrapped in 720P60 (59.94fps) in a 2:3 pulldown. You will need to make your timeline 1280x720 @ 59.94 fps to get realtime working.

$80 HDVxDV v1.024:
Pros: It works and is simple. Captures and retains timecode. Removes the pulldown and creates 24P files. There is a demo to download and try before you buy.
Cons: It creates 24fps files instead of 23.98. (THis is easily repaired with Cinema Tools.) I sometimes get TC inconsistencies.

$179 LumiereHD 1.6b2:
Pros: ??? (It is supposed to be capable of outputting back to HDV tape.)
Cons: This requires a whole forum. Lucky we have one.
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/forumdisplay.php?f=77
Let's hope v2.0 works better.


Of course, the big "con" of all of these is that they leave out the typical "log & capture" workflow we are used to.


As for downconverting and burning a DVD, your suggested method should work with iDVD05. Alternatively, you could drop your 720P24 sequence into a NTSC or PAL resolution 24P DV sequence and render, then export for iDVD. It might be faster than encoding from 720P?

Is JVC Deck CU-VH1 ok to import footage to FCP?
 

If so, as asked in my new thread, can you please guide me through adjusting my capture settings? Where are they exactly? (I know that's a lame question, but I am fairly new at this)...Thanks for your help. Dan

Dan,

I deleted your cross-post because it is better for everyone if we keep the subject all in one thread.

JVC considers the CUVH1 to be a "spooler." It officially doesn't fully support 720P24, but will allow input and output of 720P24 HDV via firewire (but you will not see an image on the screen.) Therefore it is a low-cost alternative to the BR-HD50 deck.
The ProHd FAQ:http://pro.jvc.com/prof/Attributes/f...re_id=13#cuvh1

As for your question about FCP5 capture settings, I thought I was as clear as I could be in my last post. You won't need to adjust your capture settings at all if your are not using FCP5 to capture.
Does the footage you want to digitize have sound? If so, you must use one of the three 3rd party applications I suggested before.

If you shot M.O.S. and only need the picture information, then you can use FCP5 to capture. Just go up to the Final Cut Pro menu, select easy setup and set to "HDV-Apple Intermediate Codec 720P30." Then select log & capture, name the clips and capture. When you are done capturing, use Cinema Tools to conform the clips to 23.98fps.
Better yet, Graeme Nattress put together a pdf guide demonstrating this method step-by-step. http://www.nattress.com/Downloads/AIC_24p_Workflow.pdf

Still Not Working
 

Am connected with the CU-VH1 deck via firewire and HDVxDV and HDV is not reading the connection...what am I doint wrong?

Dan

Does the deck have a DV / HDV mode switch? Did you connect and then turn on the deck before launching HDVxDV?

You are right, I cannot see picture in FCP or the deck (though I can hear sound in deck) . However, in FCP, when I hit capture now, it shows the time code is going, but I do not get picture.

So I tried capturing through HDVxDV and was able to "capture" clips blind, but have no idea what I'm capturing, going only off of the sound heard through the deck.

So for the few clips I captured "Blind", I followed your tutorial and got them into the browser in FCP , then moved them into the timeline. Though the individual clips play in the viewer (video and sound), they do not play video when I drag them to the timeline--only sound--and I see UNRENDERED instead of video.

Thank you for sticking with me on this...
Dan

That's because the CUVH1 won't play back 720P24 on its screen - only 720P30. This is what I meant when I said it didn't "fully" support 720P24.

That's because FCP can't capture or understand HDV 720P24 yet. This is why I gave you all the other options.

Plug a TV into the deck output. Unfortunately neither HDVxDV, LumiereHD or DVHSCap show you a live preview of your footage the way FCP does. This is the way it is until either HDVxDV or LumiereHD add the capability. It sucks, but software development takes time. Probably the next maintenance release of FCP will have 720P24 native compatibility and then all of this 3rd party software will be unnecessary.

You have a clip/sequence mismatch. This simply means that your sequence is not set to the same frame rate, resolution or codec as your clips. Select "Sequence - settings" and make sure that the timebase is either 23.98 or 24, the codec is Apple Intermediate Codec, and the resolution is 1280x720 square pixels. If the frame rate is set to 29.97 and "grayed out" then remove all the clips that you edited into the sequence and try the sequence settings again. FCP will only let you change the frame rate for a sequence when it is empty.

Thanks!
 

I will try these things out ...

Dan

Tried it, but..
 

And then i did get playback in the viewfinder, but the top third of the image was fine and the bottom third was all stretched.

1. The only thing I could figure out in an amatuer way was that the clip attributes in the browser said they were something like 1280 x 1080 (dont quote me, but both numbers were in the thousand). And you said make the sequence settings for 1280 x 720.

So I shut down and went to sleep, which brings me to:

2. Tried to open FCP and got the error "Codec Not Found. You may be using a compression type without the corresponding hardware card."

Then I click ok and it says: "Error. Out of memory."

Dan

Sorry
 

"Viewfinder" should be "Timeline" in the above post.

Dan

Addendum
 

For some reasons my sequence settings had changed, so I reset them to:

1289 x 720 HDTV 720p (16:9)

Anamorphic (not checked)

Field Dominance: None

Editing Timebase: 23.98

Compressor: Apple Intermediate Codec

...And still getting the stretched picture in the timeline, which, let me clarify: Is the bottom HALF of the picture, not the bottom 2/3 and, also has two large black spaces on the left and right of.

Thanks for your help.
Dan

The errors you are getting are weird and I've never seen them myself.

So a few things to check:

Have you run software update to make sure you are working with the latest version of Quicktime? Do you have Quicktime Pro registered?

What OS version? What processors? RAM? Hard drive space?
Was this a fresh install of FCP5, or an update from FCP4.5?

I don't quit understand about the stretch of teh bootom half of the image. I've never seen that.

Can you email me a screen grab? Just hold down SHIFT + APPLE + 4 and then select the area you want to "photograph." It will show up as "Picture 1" on your desktop.

Will do
 

I will check and do all of the above then get back to you tomorrow. Thanks for your continued support.

one thing...
 

it's true that my clip and sequence settings must be identical, yes?

so if my sequence setting is 1280 x 720 then my clips have to be captured as such, correct?

because I recall that when i did a "get info" on the indiviual QT clips, they were 1280 x 1080, could that be my problem?

(but come to think of it, i did adjust my sequence settings to match the 1280 x 1080 clip setting and things still dint work)...

dan

d2olphin

clip info
 

Tim does the below info seem correct or could my problem lie somewhere there?

Sitting my desktop, after having been captured through HDVxDV, the clip info is:

Dimensions: 640 x 540
Codecs: Integer (Big Indian --may be the watermark from HDVxDV), Timecode, Apple Intermediate Codec

Upon importing the files into FCP I get the message: "The following media files are not optimized are not optimized for FCP HD

It is highly recommended that you either recapture the media or use the Media Manager to create new copies of the files to improve their performance for multi-stream playback."

Once imported, Item properties for the clips are:

Vid rate: 23.98
Frame size: 1280 x 1080
Compressor: Apple Intermediate Codec
Data Rate 4.4 MB
Pixel Aspect DVCPRO HD (1080i60)
Anamorphic: Blank
Field Dom.: Not set

You must not have set "720P" as the option when you used "expert settings" for batch exporting from HDVxDV. I think it defaults to 1080i.

So basically, HDVxDV is converting your footage into 1080i, and that isn't right. I saw your frame grab. That must be what happens when 720P is converted to 1080i.

expert settings
 

I think I did actually click expert settings....are there any other loopholes?

Does all else seem correct in my clip info post above?

Should I be getting that error message in FCP?

Dan