DVCPRO HD sequence problem...

I don't get it. I followed Ken stone tutorial to capture 720p Varicam footage from a 1200 deck in Final Cut pro. The settings of the capture are fine. But when I drop the clip in the sequence, it wants to render it (there's a red line) - I already selected easy-setup DVCPRO HD 720P24 - I don't know why the settings of the sequqnce would be different than the captured clips.. any clue?

thanks

And jsut so you know, I created a new sequence after doing the "easy setup"

Check the Sequence Settings by hand -- APPLE-0. Match those against the clip's settings (APPLE-9). Every single parameter must match between the two.

I don't get it. I can play the clip correctly... but not the sequence...the settngs are the same except for the vid rate (clip is 59.94 and sequence is 23.98) Everything else is the same - frame size, aspect ratio... When you do "easy setup" - I thought it was supposed to match all of this automatically??

Looks like your clips have been captured using DVCPro 720p60 but your sequence is set up for DVCPro 720p24. What was the footage shot at supposedly? Change your sequence setting to match your clip setting and things should fall in place. DVCPro HD is not my forte, so hopefully one of the gurus (Shane's been working with this format; he'd probably be very knowledgeable) would look at this thread and confirm the right approach.

If you clip is 59.94 fps, then your sequence needs to be 59.94.

Are you sure you shot 720p24? Like Derek said, it sounds like 720P60. I have an issue myself with footage supposedly shot 720p30, and captured with that setting, yet the clips properties show 720p60 at 59.94...and a few have a rate of 29.97. Very odd, and something I am trying to figure out...

Ok, so the capture settings are at 720p24 - The only thing I changed from easy setup is the sequence settings. I put the editing timebase to 59.94 instead of 23.98 and now it works. Doesn't need to render. It is okay? If I understand, the clips are captured at 59.94 with pulldown - I don't understand why easy setup puts your editing timebase to 23.98 though...

You shoud be fine.

I believe, and I might be wrong, that in order to get 720p24 footage into a 23.98 sequence you are going to have to reverse telecine all the footage. It is recorded on the tape at 59.94 (as all Varicam footage is, I am led to believe)...even the 24p stuff. Much like 24PA is recorded on the DVX-100a at 29.97, even though it has a frame rate of 23.98.

RX, before you proceed, let's check a couple of things:

a) Are you the director/producer?

b) If not, check with the person you're responsible to, and check what format they wanted their footage shot at. I don't know enough about DVCPro, but on DV formats, it's perfectly possible to capture footage shot at a certain setting, then capture it at the wrong setting. (For example, using Motion JPEG A codec on DigiBeta footage) Check with your producer, director, and possibly the DP -- was the footage supposed to be at DVCPro HD 720p60? Or was it captured as such incorrectly? If you're not the boss on the project, you should report things like this to the producer so they don't hold you responsible down the line.

c) Are you going back to film? The 23.98fps setting seems to target projects that want to go back to either film or HD, not stay on tape.

d) If you *are* the director/producer, ie. responsible for calling the shots, it might be good to check with your post house and see what the ramifications are, make sure your choices of settings are correct, depending on what your future needs are.

Yes I'm the director. Should I then capture everything with the 720p settngs at 23,98 and leave the sequence settings at 23.98 or should I capture at 59.94 and keep the sequence settings at 59.94?

You won't have to reverse telecine. That's just for film projects. You are fine with a 23.98 time base. That's the way it should be. The varicam shoots at 59.94 and flags the proper frames so that FCP can capture at 23.98.

Here's my question: If RX is not going back to film, what's the point of using 23.98fps? I was under the impression that with HD and 24p, you shouldn't do anything to convert to 24fps unless you *were* blowing up to film. If you're planning on staying on video, shouldn't you use a 59.94fps editing timebase to keep the "ghost frames", in order to preserve the 2:3:3:2? If he edits at 23.98fps, doesn't that mean at a certain point he will have to "telecine" it to 29.97fps for proper playback on NTSC video?

<<I believe, and I might be wrong, that in order to get 720p24 footage into a 23.98 sequence you are going to have to reverse telecine all the footage. It is recorded on the tape at 59.94 (as all Varicam footage is, I am led to believe)...even the 24p stuff. Much like 24PA is recorded on the DVX-100a at 29.97, even though it has a frame rate of 23.98.>>

From what I understand it's true that Varicam only records at 59.94. But if it's set to record 24p, it should do so in a matter which would create a predictable pattern where dupe frames are discarded during capture into FCP 4.5+, like with DVX100a 24pa.

It sounds like the footage wasn't actually recorded at 24p.

<< If he edits at 23.98fps, doesn't that mean at a certain point he will have to "telecine" it to 29.97fps for proper playback on NTSC video?>>

From what I've been lead to believe, the advantage of 23.98 over absolute 24 is that it should easily pull back up to 29.97.

Of course I could be totally wrong. Hopefully Graeme will chime in on this one. I'm dealing with 24p more and more all the time.



- Justin Barham -