Canon XH A1 HDV footage in Final Cut Pro

I have an HD questions for you. I will be editing a short on FCP 5.1.4 that was shot on the Canon XH A1. During production the recorded Mini DV tapes have been backed up on a G-RAID external Drive. Here are my questions:

What size (mb/s) are the files? Or: how many GB is one hour?

Will FCP 5.1.4 use a codec to down size the original quality (of the tapes) on the fly while importing the files? Or can I keep the HDV resolution?

Which settings should I use to keep the HDV quality?

Would you advise to upgrade to FCP 6 (my current version is 5.1.4) before editing the footage of the Canon XH A1? Or can I get the update at a later point, finishing the project with color?

I like to edit from an additional hard drive that mirrors the stored data (and works as additional back up of the digitized movie) in order to work with/send back and forth the fcp project files (via e-mail or i-disk) on each disk seperately. Would a G-RAID 500 with Firewire 800 work?

I will be seeing the producer/writer/director of the short tonight and would appreciate your thoughts before I meet him.

Thank you for reading this,
Michaela

Hey Michaela,
it seems there´s not to much people working with the canon xh a1, but i am.
here some info i got:
I just went through the process these past few days
?
? This is what you need to do...
?
? 1) OS 10.4.9
? 2) FCP 5.1
? 3) FCP Upgrade 5.1.4
? 4) Quicktime 7.1.4
? 5) Use a clean hard drive
? 6) Capture using a 800 firewire cable
? 7) XH-A1> under VCR mode > go to MENU (when its disconnected from the firewire cable) > select SIGNAL SETUP > switch PLAYBACK to HDV > then click on HD DOWN CONVERSION and set to OFF
?
? Good Luck.

also, this can help you:

[videoediting.digitalmedianet.com]
[forums.creativecow.net]
[forums.creativecow.net]

let me know any news about you editing proces. i´m gonna start editing a documentary next days and i´m reaserching all about xh a1 footage related to final cut.

good luck

>What size (mb/s) are the files? Or: how many GB is one hour?

About 14GB/hour. Roughly the same as DV.

>Will FCP 5.1.4 use a codec to down size the original quality (of the tapes) on the fly while importing the files? Or can I keep the HDV resolution?

You could down convert from the camera as DV, but with the file sizes being the same size, there is no point. YOu could capture as Offline RT HD and get small file sizes, but then the offline/online workflow with FCP and HDV isn't too tight. Better editing full HDV quality. Drives are cheap.

>Would you advise to upgrade to FCP 6 (my current version is 5.1.4) before editing the footage of the Canon XH A1? Or can I get the update at a later point, finishing the project with color?

If you plan on getting Final Cut Studio 2 so you can use Color...get it now...capture and edit with FCP 6 now. No point in capturing with FCP 5.1.4 then upgrading mid project when you know you will be upgrading. Issue can pop up when upgrading mid project. Avoid them by upgrading first.

>Would a G-RAID 500 with Firewire 800 work?

I believe the G-Raid is Raid 0 only...it is hardware raided to be Raid 0 and that is it. However, the Firewire VR from Caldigit (www.caldigit.com) can be Raid 0 or Raid 1. Note that your performance will not be very good with Raid 1. Might be fast enough for HDV editing, but really, if you want Raid protection and speed, best to get a RAID 5 solution. Caldigit HD One, Sonnet 500P...


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