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Capturing footage at home
I’d just as soon capture from the comfort of my home, rather than sit in the edit room and do it. Is there a way to capture footage on my powerbook G4 for later use in FCP?
I was thinking I could hook an external firewire drive to the powerbook, grab with iMovie or something, then take the external drive to work, hook it the G5 editor, import the movies and start editing. Is this possible? Do I need to buy another copy of FCP? I’m not talking about extensive logging; just hosing in huge chunks (20 or 30 minute long clips).
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14 Replies
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Need another copy of FCP:
#20 Using iMovie to Capture for FCP edit
Shane’s Stock Answer #20:
iMovie handles the media differently from FCP, specifically where audio is concerned. So it is not a recommended workflow. Here’s why…
iMovie captures using DV Stream (.dv) standard which does not use timecode. That is a big disadvantage over the way that FCP captures in that you can’t go back and recapture the material at a later date if you need to revisit a project.
The DV/NTSC specification (the one FCP uses) also calls for seperate tracks for audio and video, even if you capture it as one clip. iMovie’ DV stream format is muxed audio and video, which means that they are tied together (I can’t get into specifics because I ain’t no engineer or programmer). FCP is a bit more demanding and captures the seperate audio/video tracks, either in a single media file or as seperate video and audio files. With FCP you could capture video only or audio only because each is defined by the DV specs. while with iMovie you can’t.
Also, if you drop the iMovie footage into the timeline, your will get the RED render bar forcing you to render the footage in order to see it…
Shane
“There’s no need to fear, UNDERDOG is here!”Shane Ross
Alokut Productions
http://www.lfhd.net -
What about using FCE as a cost saver?
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[Scenecutter] “What about using FCE as a cost saver?”
FCE is DV only so as long as you’re working in DV, then you’re good to go.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.comDirector, “The Rough Cut”
https://www.theroughcutmovie.comNow Posting “Good Eats” in HD for the Food Network
“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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How about an older version of FCP? I could install ver. 4 on my powerbook, then use 5 at work. Would that be the best solution?
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[akmaniak] “How about an older version of FCP? I could install ver. 4 on my powerbook, then use 5 at work. Would that be the best solution?”
This would be a REALLY BAD IDEA! Splurge and spend the few hundred bucks to upgrade. Did you hear about how little Apple is charging to upgrade old versions of FCP to the new, all encompassing “Studio” version? Check out their website.
Moving projects across versions like this is only asking for trouble. Can it be done? Yes. Is it playing with fire? Yes.
mark
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Problem is, I’ve already upgraded. I thought I could install 4 on my PB.
FCExpress would work???
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weeeell, if you’ve already upgraded your license then you really shouldn’t be installing another copy using the same licence.
if you have FCE anyway and are working in DV then why not go that route. keep it legal. -
what you can do is install it on your powerbook. as long as your not on the network at the same time with your machines, your good to go.
i.e. you can use the fcp on the notebook at home, fine, but at your office, if yoru connected to the same network as your big edit machine, you just cant have both in the same network.
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Great advice. Thanks everybody.
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That’s not true, ben.
The license reads “Installed on one computer at a time”. Not installed on one computer on a network at a time. Not run on one computer at a time. Installed, it means if he uses it on his laptop, he would have had to nuke it off the other computer before he installed it on his laptop, and nuke it off the laptop before he re-installs it on the other computer.
He can’t legally install a version of FCP that is installed anywhere else. It has nothing to do with the network it’s on.
debe
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