Capture Now - Problem Later?

Something I posted in another forum but might be of interest to folks here.


I do use capture now most of the time when I need to capture whole tapes

If you do a capture now and allow it to role to the end of the tape, take a look at the last second of what's captured. You'll find the last frame of active video FROZEN across several frames. You'll find time code still advancing under those frozen frames.

On the actuall tape neither those frozen frames nor that advancing time code exists.

The above didn't happen on early versions of FCP but I think the above became a "fix" for some other issues people were having with capture now.

I think the above is harmless for most but not all situations.

I suspect the above exacerbates some of the the speed change issues, where you change the speed of a clip in the timeline that is linked to an entire capture now tape with frozen frames/advancing time code at the end.

I also think the above affects some MPEG2 encode issues where those frozen tail frames end up in the sequence.

I suspect the above may cause problems with the Media Manager.

If any of those tail frozen frames end up in the sequence and in some way need to be rendered (such as dissolve from the last shot on that tape to another shot) one might create an issue in rendering.

Basically I think those frozen frames and false time code can wreak havoc with how FCP is handling media.

Mind you, I use capture now a lot and most of the time I have no issue. I also see that when I bump into an issue related to clip/clips, the issue nearly always involves a capture now clip vs those I've done a loge & capture with.

I won't stop using capture now but I do now it's the first place I look when I get an odd issues. My solution to fix some issues is to log/capture the clip(s) in question.

My suggestion is to Media Manage the sequence in question into a new project. Try rendering. If it does not render then Media Manage into an Offline Sequence. Then batch capture.



Craig Seeman
[thirdplanetvideo.com]

Craig,
If you need to capture a whole roll, it's better to Log and Batch capture the whole deal as a single clip. That way, you never have fewer problems in my experience.



Kevin Monahan
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Kevin,

See my post at Ken Stone. (a big rush as everybody runs over looking for it).

I agree with you as a technician. I guess I'm the guy who runs across the street during red lights because he thinks he'll get to the meeting on time. (Ken Stone site for the detail).



Craig Seeman
[thirdplanetvideo.com]