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capture now problem
I’m running on a first-round G5 (the 1.6 Ghz) and trying to digitize just plain old DV-NTSC footage. The tape has numerous timecode breaks and, unfortunately, dubbing to another tape isn’t really an option. So I can’t log and capture, I pretty much have to use Capture Now. Problem is, I hit play, hit capture now and then it takes at least a solid minute to “allocate disk space” leaving me with an inability to capture the beginning of the tape. Is there a way to fix this “allocating disk space” step?
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Michaelblack -
7 Replies
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try seting the capture limit to a shorter segment (this is done in fcp’s system preferences). the shorter the capture limit, the shorter disk space to be “allocated”, hopefuly resulting in a shorter delay.
also you might want to hit play AFTER the capture has begun (keep it in pause in the meantime)
sebas. -
[Michael Black FCP] “The tape has numerous timecode breaks and, unfortunately, dubbing to another tape isn’t really an option.”
I suggest you DO dub it.
All it takes is ANY two DV camcorders and a FW cable.
A home video DV camcorder will work perfectly for this purpose and the quality of the copy will not degrade at all.
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you could also, if timecode isn’t an issue, turn it off and capture that way…it should just record black at breaks,
-ben
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[ben] “you could also, if timecode isn’t an issue, turn it off and capture that way…it should just record black at breaks,”
Sometimes, however, there will be a “slippage” between audio and video after theses “holes”.
And having solid, repeatable timecode can many times be invaluable during the edit process.
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Actually, Capture Now works beautifully in v.5. I’ve had to capture some pretty bad tapes on a recent project and the Producer wasn’t willing to get dubs done. You can either play, Capture and hit Escape to close a clip before a break, or just let FCP do it on its own. It’s pretty smart and the TC I’ve gotten has been more solid than clips I’ve logged and captured(!) which have been slipping 1 – 10 frames in some cases (DVCAM over FW).
Just make sure you enter some log info before hitting Capture Now or you’re going to end up with a mess of untitled clips. And keep in mind that if you need to recap the stuff, you’ll probably need to adjust your Media start and end points b/c Capture Now doesn’t account for roll time.
FCP will even change increment your reel numbers over TC breaks (“001-A,” etc).
Before doing anything, go into your pref’s and make sure you’re set to create new clips at TC breaks.
I love the FCP team for improving this feature. My guess is it’s related to multicam editing, b/c tapes that are sync’d based on time of day code are going to be nothing BUT timecode breaks everytime the camera starts and stops. But a dub isn’t going to solve this b/c you WANT the breaks in this case.
HTH
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Great news reel. I’m gonna have to check out this improvement. Can you recapture easily though?
Kevin Monahan
Take My FCP Master’s Workshop!
fcpworld.com
Pres. SF Cutters -
Kevin, the only thing you have to keep in mind is pre and post roll times.
Capture Now will start the clip right at the very first frame (or very close) so you won’t have any roll times for recapturing. You’d have to create an offline first and then adjust your media start and end times to allow for some deck roll. Fastest way is to just select the media in field in the browswer and hit “+4.” or something to add 4 seconds, or however much you want, and “-4.” or whatever for the media out.
I still log everything first, if I can, but for some multicam tapes, it’s been a lifesaver One tape, for instance, had about 100 camera starts/stops, so 100 TC breaks! It took a while, but FCP grabbed everything, and I spot-checked a lot of the clips to make sure they matched the tape and they were solid and the multiclips sync’d perfectly.
I still feel more comfortable with Logging. Actually, now that I think about it (I’ll have to try this) if I had to recap any of those 100 clips, I could probably just roll to the proper area of the tape, then roll back to the previous clip and Capture Now, so FCP will grab the next clip in its entirety again, then force FCP to reconnect to the new clip. That would probably work fine.
James
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