final cut pro bashing thread?

Lolz. just need to vent out my inability to capture footage properly.

1. Why is Imovie better than FCP in the sense that it can Capture easily even when there are time code breaks

2. Why does FCP have this ridiculous ceasure of capturing whenever there is a time code breaK?

General purpose of this post is to critique FCP.

this is what taught me early on to leave about 4 secs of pre and post roll for every shot. to allow for batch capturing from logs with 2 sec handles...

1. iMovie captures WITHOUT TIMECODE! I'd never use that in a professional environment. If your tape has a lot of timecode breaks, use CAPTURE NOW. just make sure you don't use UNCONTROLLED DEVICE as your setting, otherwise you will not get timecode, which is VITAL to your edit. I use cature now all the time when handed tapes shot with TIME OF DAY code. The way FCP behaves is typical. Same thing happens on an Avid if you log points beyond timecode breaks...it stops. If you log and capture, then make sure you don't mark beyond a TC break. And you need to allow for enough pre-roll after the TC break. Just like on an Avid.

2. Because it knows you want the timecode information. By choosing your device control as FIREWIRE DV, you want the TC information. When it hits a break in code it stops because if it continues then the timecode AFTER that break will all be incorrect. FCP assumes (rightly so) that you don't want that, so it stops capturing. The solution? Use Capture Now with device control. When it stops it will keep the clip it captured up to that point.

No guys... Try and imagine this man:

I have like 35 minutes of footage... Uninterrupted, No breaks, No stops... Meaning during recording, i never stopped recording when i was shooting the footage.

So the footage i wanna capture is like at the 15th minute of the 35 minute footage.

So the moment im at that point, and i press Capture now. The black menu pops up. I press play on my cam corder. AnD INSTANTlY i get the error
Dropped frames.

So it is IMPOSSIBLE for me to capture it man.

But i can only capture stuff if it's shot in HD. So i think FCP HD has a problem.

> 1. Why is Imovie better than FCP in the sense that it can Capture easily
> even when there are time code breaks
> 2. Why does FCP have this ridiculous ceasure of capturing whenever there is
> a time code breaK?

Because timecode breaks can destroy your edit. It is absolutely necessary to be able to recapture a project using its original tapes. If you ignore timecode, or capture wrong timecode, one power surge can wipe out months of work.

The main thing is always to figure out the source of any given problem. Most Final Cut Pro users can capture without problems, and 99 per cent of problems encountered by users are human errors, not a problem with software or hardware. You just have to acquire enough experience to be able to troubleshoot. Or get an experienced assistant.

what kind of camera was the footage shot on?

i used a Sony HC1-E.


I sincerely apologise for ranting guys.

FCP could be reading a TC break as a symptom of not being fully compatible with your camera. Not sure if that's the case or not. If you don't have TC breaks on your tape, why don't you try log and capture instead of capture now?

If you must capture now, try this: press play on the camera BEFORE hitting the capture now button. The TC break that FCP is reporting might be due to an inconsistancy of TC coming through the FW. By playing the tape before capturing, it's kinda like making sure that the tape is up to speed.

Andy

What Andy said is a common mistake for capture now entusiasts!

Wind the tape back for 3-5 seconds before the bit you want to capture > play the tape > then press capture now.





For instant answers to more than one hundred common FCP questions, check out the LAFCPUG FAQ Wiki here : [www.lafcpug.org]

And let's reiterate Wayne's point: The first 3-5 seconds of a tape are not *meant* to be captured. Shooters who start recording important material at the very beginning of the tape are either a) On a documentary shoot, the clock is ticking and they have no choice; or b) Amateurs who don't know how to prep a tape properly for modern post-production.

Post-roll is another extremely important skill that a lot of people don't know. You can't capture the last 20 frames or so of a certain shot, either, so always record 10-20 seconds of colour bars (the best -- it tells the editor/assistant editor the tape is over) or at least non-useful footage before you wrap up a tape.

What kind of Mac do you have? how much RAM? What drives aare you recording to?

I think you get "dropped frame" errors if your mac has trouble keeping up with FCP. Older macs, or insuficient RAM, or even slower harddrives can be too slow to record the DV signal when it "drops frames" it doesn't mean there are TC breaks, it means it is not physically recording the media. I kinda remeber that from back in my G3 days, and I think I had something similar happen when I was recording some HD footage.


-Rick

<<If you must capture now, try this: press play on the camera BEFORE hitting the capture now button.>>


Ding! I'm pretty sure that's his problem.

Chaar. When you hit Capture Now it's like saying, "FCP, capture this video that's coming through right now." Since FCP doesn't see any video (since you haven't started it,) it telling you, "But I don't see any video!"



- Justin Barham -

Generally if you constantly get TC dropped warnings and there is no reason just turn off the warning in the prefs.

*** ONLY IF YOU ARE NOT GOING TO NEED TO RECAPTURE FOR UPREZ ****

If you ignore droped frames the timecode in FCP will not match your source tapes, thus you will not be able to recapture clips for online uprezing.

-Rick

I have used Capture Now when the shooter started the camera from TC 00:00:00;00. I have never had a problem hitting the Capture Now button and then starting Play on the VTR. It's the only way to insure you get every little frame off that tape.

Now - Not every mechanism supported in iMovie is supported in Final Cut. The HC1-E is a very new Sony camera, if I am not mistaken and he has mentioned DV in FCP HD (4.5). Is their anyone else who has done thiswith their HC1-E that can say "definitely" DV from their camera works in FCP HD? Since the HDV component of that camera needs FCP 5?

I agree with John, but conditionally. At work we use a Panasonic AJ-D295, capturing 25 or 50 bit through FW by hitting Capture Now and then pressing play. Never had a problem.

However, on my AJ-D230H at home, trying that tact gets me dropped frames error messages. It might be due to the computer (G4 vs G5 at work), or the deck, but at home I press play first. Solves a lot of issues.

Of course, so does batch capture over capture now.

Andy

Thanks for your help guys. But somehow, even if I have logged the clips, when i press batch capture i still have the same problem.

I would spend 2 hours logging all the good stuff i need. Complete with 30 seconds of pre-recording BEFORE i get to the material i need. Finally when i press batch capture, it would 'que source material', but when it actually starts recording, then i get the dropped frames error.

My mac is new, latest G5 quad core, with 2 internal SATA drives.

I agree with Andy and john. I did manage to capture successfully ONCE, by hitting capture now and then play button on my cam corder. But that was only when i was capturing HD footage. I seem to only have trouble with DV.

Can u guys pls just tell me this, if I were to capture my DV footage in Imovie and import it into FCP, will i lose picture quality?

Are you sure your scratch disk is set to the non-system drive? Are you using the DV/NTSC Easy Setup?

Do not use iMovie. iMovie does not capture timecode. And you will have to render each clip as iMovie captures using DV Stream and FCP doesn't work with that format natively.

Like Michael said turn off report dropped frames.

Have you tried another dv camera at all? It could be an unstable or incompatible signal from your dv camera.

Everyone who replied to this thread is able to capture DV with FCP. It's not an inherant FCP problem.

Borrow or rent another dv camera and see what happens. Also try using a different firewire cable.

i have a JVC cam corder, i tried that, same problem.

But guys, I am able to capture video into FCP using my Hc1-E ONLY when im doing HDV footage.. So do i need different fire wire cables or another camera for HDV capturing?

I can capture HDV but not DV.. meh.

Hi Shane, thanks man, but I have no choice but to capture in Imovie and import it into FCP, it takes me an hour to render it all.. but it's better than nothing, coz i absolutely CANNOT capture using FCP/

Just a quick question Chaar

Did you set the HC1-E to output HDV to DV via FireWire in the setup menu on the camera?

If I remember correctly the Sony HDV cameras have a menu setting that says something like "iLink Converter" or "Downconverter" This needs to be set to "HDV - DV"

If this is not set you will not be able to capture DV from HDV footage.





For instant answers to more than one hundred common FCP questions, check out the LAFCPUG FAQ Wiki here : [www.lafcpug.org]

Are you sure you have the correct output settings on the camera for the downconvert? On most Sony cameras there's a button to switch this, and a menu setting that has to be correctly assigned. Make sure you relaunch the application after the camera changes and that you use the correct settings.



All the best,

Tom

On the HC1-E there are only 3 "format" options: HDV, DV and auto.

When i set it to DV and record something, i can only play back what i recorded if it is set to DV. Likewise for HDV. Not sure about Auto though.

Check the menu to make sure - it will be labelled iLink out rather than Firewire I would imagine.

Don't rely on the fact you RECORD in a particular format to enable your camera to OUTPUT via firewire the correct format.

Sony implement all kinds of tricks with iLink/firewire to enable video/in out and analog to digital to analog conversion as well as HDV downconvert...

So - go into all the menus and make double sure that the iLink/Firewire output is set to DV

If you can capture HDV this suggests to me that this is the problem.

It's the same on the HDR-FX1 and HVR-Z1.

What format is iMovie capturing? Check if it's using Apple intermediate CODEC or if it's a DV Stream.

Having said all this I have read about capture problems from the HC1-E on PC and I still haven't found a work around. All the suggestions you have had here are the same for other forums it seems.

Good luck





For instant answers to more than one hundred common FCP questions, check out the LAFCPUG FAQ Wiki here : [www.lafcpug.org]

>>i have a JVC cam corder, i tried that, same problem.<<

Just a standard non HDV camcorder? Then there's something else rather than the HC1-E that's wrong.

oh NO Jude!!

Im a bit better nowadays though, managed to finish one commercial, when it's out on utube i'll send u guys a link.

Plus i finished importing all my footage (imovie DV).