Sony Z1U and Final Cut Pro

[David Ertley]

I'm running the latest release of Final Cut Pro and I still have the same problem as the day I bought my Z1U over a year ago. I have since then reinstalled my whole system. no matter what version of Quicktime and FCP I have, I can't seem to fully connect to my Z1U with FCP over firewire. I can control the VTR, I can see video and capture video. but I can't send video out to the camera. The camera is grayed out in the View>video playback menu. I have verified my settings, they work to bring video in. I can send video to my camera with iMovie without doing a thing to my hardware set-up. Of course having FCP I don't use iMovie, but I did have to export from FCP, then import the video to iMovie to export to tape once. That is the only way I have been successful. The Z1U and FCP are very popular, and it seems they should work better together than I have experienced. I tried searching the forums, sorry if this is a duplicate question.

[James Brill]

For your sending out to tape problem I believe the problem is that you need to re compress your timeline for the Mpeg2 compression, Long Gop and what not which is HDV. I have never edited/printed to an HDV tape before so I am not sure on the exact procedure for it but I know that it is a common problem.

[David Ertley]

it's not even an issue of recording, the camera shows up as grayed out in the list of video output options. So I can't get video out at all even just to view it on an attached monitor. As I said, I have no problem getting video out with iMovie.

[David Tindale]

Hi David,

I'm just going to spitball, but have you done a "refresh devices" from the view menu in FCP? Are you starting FCP before turning on the camera or are you turning on the camera then FCP? All sounding a bit alchemical but I find that sometimes FCP will see then won't see the Z1 depending on which order they each start, and of course the refresh devices.

what version of Quciktime are you running and what OSX? I've got a problem with two out of the three macs I work with not seeing the Z1 for ingest! I think its a problem with QT, but then again...

David

[David Ertley]

Originally Posted by David Tindale

Hi David,

I'm just going to spitball, but have you done a "refresh devices" from the view menu in FCP? Are you starting FCP before turning on the camera or are you turning on the camera then FCP? All sounding a bit alchemical but I find that sometimes FCP will see then won't see the Z1 depending on which order they each start, and of course the refresh devices.

I have tried a bunch of combinations. starting FCP with the camera on, restarting the computer, turning it off then back on while FCP is running. the thing is that I can control the camera's VTR and capture from the camera, but it's always gray in the view menu. I wish it was as easy as using the refresh command, but it isn't.

I just tried again and it is still grayed out in HDV and DV mode (including relaunching the app). Oddly though, it is showing up as an HDV camera and not grayed out for except 60i is still Gray, the one setting I need.

Originally Posted by David Tindale

what version of Quciktime are you running and what OSX? I've got a problem with two out of the three macs I work with not seeing the Z1 for ingest! I think its a problem with QT, but then again...

I have had this problem since I bought the Z1U, so whatever the latest Quicktime has been for over a year, maybe close to 2 years. I stay up to date with FCP and FCS updates. This has happened with fresh installs on the system, with Tiger and Leopard.