capture problems - again!

I wish I knew how it resolved itself the last time. This happened last summer as well and the solution seemed to be to capture directly to the mac hd rather than an external drive. Or it fixed itself. (?) It is fcp 6.0.6 on a macbook pro i7, 8 gb ram, plenty of disc space, os 10.6.8. Canon XH-A1 and HV-40 cameras. I have tried it with both.

>>
Insert tape into camera, play, no problem.
Connect camera via firewire, initiate log and capture, all fine.
(Capture and sequence settings are both hdv 1080i 60)
Hit play on the camera or in the log and capture window, the counter counts a few frames and stops. The screen is blank. Hit stop and the counters all say it has played X seconds, about the time since I hit play. If I try capture now, it can't find data.

The odd thing is, I have captured footage from these cameras since the last problem with no trouble. I just tried the same tape that was trouble free a month or so ago. It is doing the same thing.

If any help or advice is out there, please shout loud! I am totally stalled now.

Many thanks,

Ernie

What has changed since it last worked? Did you lend the camera to someone? Change any settings yourself? Install something new?

The biggest by far thing that gets people when capturing HDV is that the camera and computer both need to be set to be either sending and receiving HDV or sending anf receiving DV. If the camera is set to downconvert on the fly to DV and your computer is looking for HDV, you'll get zip. If your camera is set to push out HDV and the computer is looking for firewire DV, also nothing.

Thanks for the idea,Jude. I haven't changed any settings that I know of since I last captured but I will triple check. Playback is auto and the original recording is hdv. So that should be correct at both ends. HD down convert is off. Comp. out is 1080i/480i. No one else has had the camera. And yet, it still does not work even after trying a couple of different capture presets in fcp.

So if anyone can lend insights, please do with huge thanks in advance.

Ernie

Didn't you recently change some stuff to do voiceovers? Did you get that working? If so, what did you do?

No, I never did get it working. I am getting a good usb mic to go straight in. However, capture did work at that time. It is very mystifying.

I have tried several methods now to no avail. Does anyone know if trashing prefs would help?

Thanks.

erniet Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have tried several methods now to no avail. Does
> anyone know if trashing prefs would help?
>
> Thanks.

That's at least an option - but put them aside rather than deleting them. In case the "virgin" prefs won't help you still will be able to restore the previous one.

Andreas

Sigh. Tried that, same thing. Still stymied and open to suggestion...

Thanks to anyone who can help.

Does a different cable help? A different camera? Does your camera work on someone else's system?

I still wonder if it's to do with the settings on the cam and the computer. Is the blank screen you're getting a bright blue or black?

I'm trying to figure out what this means:

[ HD down convert is off. Comp. out is 1080i/480i. ]

Is that "Composite"? That would be wrong. You want to bring in HDV via FireWire using a Firewire cable-- it's the same rate as DV, 25Mb/s.

Glitches during capture? Because it's a Canon model, you may need to use FireWire Basic, originally designed for difficulties specifically with Canon capture-- although that was for straight DV issues with audio sampling. Just a thought.

I use Sony HDV, HDV via FireWire-- it's a specific setup in Video/Audio setup. That might work for Canon HDV as well.

It is always a good idea to capture to a dedicated media drive, not your system disk.

You probably remember you will have no control over Log and Capture; you'll take in the entire HDV tape as one clip or as a section terminated by pressing Escape. The capture window may play it as squeezed-- this is how it's stored on tape. FCP should resolve it to 1080 after capture.

- Loren

Today's FCP 7 keytip:
Advance to next/previous keyframes in a clip with Shift/Option-K !

Your Final Cut Studio KeyGuide™ Power Pack
with FCP7 KeyGuide --
now available at KeyGuide Central.
www.neotrondesign.com

Thanks Loren,

It is still not working. (I think the comp out is irrelevant, I have never touched it). Having tried just about every setting on both camera and FCP, and even trashing prefs, I still get the same thing. It simply rolls but does not communicate. the capture window gets nothing and even the screen on the camera goes blank. but the tape is indeed turning. I think I am to the point where I will reinstall the system and then reinstall FCP. Yikes, that's an entire day! It's a good thing I am doing other sorts of work at the moment and have some deadline room.

If anyone else sees this and has insights, please shout loud.

Thanks again,

Ernie

Well, we've gone through cabling, connections, capture disk, capture settings---

[(Capture and sequence settings are both hdv 1080i 60) ]

Have you tried HDV 1080i 30?

It might actually be something obvious and easily overlooked, like maybe a camera switch set the wrong way? You're using the camera in playback mode, yes?

- Loren

Today's FCP 7 keytip:
Advance to next/previous keyframes in a clip with Shift/Option-K !

Your Final Cut Studio KeyGuide™ Power Pack
with FCP7 KeyGuide --
now available at KeyGuide Central.
www.neotrondesign.com

Thanks again, Loren.

Yes to everything except 1080i30, will try that IF I can reinstall it.

On the local Apple Tech's suggestion, I reinstalled OS 10.6.8. Uninstalled fcp with FCS Remover. (Three reviews looked good and it went swiftly and apparently cleanly.) Am now installing FCP, and for more than a half hour now, Running Package Scripts has stopped progressing with "about a minute" Install time remaining. It is still running, there is no cancel button.

So new Question for insight from anyone? Does it just take a long time and the timer is way off? I think I will give it a full hour at that before force quitting and taking it to Apple.

Thanks in advance.

Ernie

Update: After 6 or 7 install failures (no exaggeration) including after a complete erase/install of OS 10.6.8, FCP installed successfully and I am using it.

However, it still will not capture. I took the same camera, tapes, cables, and external HD to a colleague with FCP 5 on a mac G5. It all captured perfectly normally.

Still looking for solutions if anyone can help. Apple might provide me with a new logic board given other issues I have had with the computer but there is no guarantee that will solve this.

Thanks again,

E

Is it a different log and capture screen? FCP uses a different log and capture UI for HDV. Make sure you are set to HDV with easy setup.



www.strypesinpost.com

I tried different formats, same thing. It occurred to me that there is other software out there. I had an old imovie which I installed, upgraded and launched. It all worked correctly until I tried to capture. Settings look right and so on, but it does exactly the same thing: blank screens, time code stops but in fact the tape is turning. The problem appears to be with this computer.

Still open to suggestion but I think Apple is giving me a new logic board.

Ernie

Hello everybody, I have not been around for a while.

I bought an older MBP to use while this got sorted out. I just got the "new" MBP back after installation of a new logic board. Both FCP and Freehand (other software that I use, long story) have the same issues they did before. Apple suggests trying the forums again, so here I go. I will just use the text of the email with Apple ( you may be shocked at what one pays up here!) FCP-specific info is in bold >>

On Mar 4, 2013, at 6:42 PM, Ernie Tomlinson <et@versatility.tv> wrote:

Hello Karen,

I didn't hear back from you on my last email. Please confirm you got this.

I picked up the revamped MBP Saturday and just did as follows, including the background info before sending it to Richmond:

Migrated everything from "new" (newer model etc), to old in Jan(?), updated FH on old, all good.

Freehand - Received new MBP from replacing logic board, uninstalled FH, reinstalled, all OK.
Attempted to update FH as I have done on the old AND on this one before these problems -> NG - will not install the updater. I First triple checked all the factors and have omitted no steps.

FCP was of course among the migrated software. It runs AND captures perfectly on the OLD MBP with no changes.

Even after logic board, FCP will not capture footage on new machine. I moved the camera over to the old one and it does the same thing. But if I turn off the camera and the old computer, it is normal again.

So the question of course is, now what? Turn the new $3,800 warranted computer into a glorified DVD player again and limp along on the older, lesser MBP so I can use my two key programs? (Sorry for sarcasm)

OR - over to you. Please reply.

Thanks,

Ernie Tomlinson

APPLE'S (senior advisor) REPLY >>

Hello sir!

I'm sorry to hear that even after the logic board replacement was successful we still can't get the video to capture on the computer. I've done some research on our support communities to see if anyone has had a similar issue but I admit I'm not familiar with final cup Pro at all. I know the forums may be a slower source of answers but perhaps someone on there has resolved this same issue? Free Hand is still proving to be a mystery, as I can't find anything much to work with.

Sincerely apologizing,

have you installed any screen capture software ? -- a few months ago I was testing different screen capture software and started have glitches
with FCP and slowed my computer -

Finally figured out it was audio drivers from one of screen capture that had been deleted But not completely -
it caused eratic capture/no capture and playback --

No, I just have whatever OSX provides. Really odd that after a new logic board/motherboard, it works on the old one but not on this albatross.

Thanks for trying.