-
Batch Capture Errors
Hello All,
I need to re-export some short films from an old project, but my original captured files are gone.
Of course I assumed I could just use batch capture, but I keep getting errors…
I’m working on a Mac OS X 10.5.5, FCP 6.0.4, camera canon XL H1.
When I captured the files for the first time I used the option “make new clip on start/stop” So one tape has about 100 clips.Now when I try to recapture I get the “unable to locate timecode” error.
The clips I’m trying to capture are halfway on the tape, so there’s no problem with the post-roll. Also, there aren’t any timecode breaks.Anybody have any idea what’s the problem?
thanx in advance!!
Riske
-
13 Replies
-
Hi Riske,
I have discovered over the past two years capturing from both the Canon H1 and Sony V1U that batch capture of HDV is unreliable. I can go through several tapes batch capturing with no problems and get to one tape that just won’t capture (can’t find timecode). And as you note there is plenty of preroll time. Sometimes I have to resort to using capture now just to get the media online. Regardless of how the material is captured, I always copy the media files to a backup drive. Essentially I treat it as if it was recorded on card media such as P2 or SxS. This may not help you now, but perhaps in future projects.Lee Berger
http://www.leebergermedia.com -
Hi Lee,
Thank you for your reply. I was hoping for a solution, but was kind of afraid someone might say what you said… From now on I’ll make sure I keep the captured files!
Do you think that this problem occurs only with those 2 camera’s you mentioned? Or is it an HD problem?
Well, I hope it gets resolved some day…
Thanx!
riske -
[Riske de Vries] “Do you think that this problem occurs only with those 2 camera’s you mentioned? Or is it an HD problem?”
That’s a good question. I’ve only used these two cameras to capture, but I have received tapes from one additional model, Sony HVR-Z1U and the capture went fine. I would be willing to bet that it’s an HDV problem. Perhaps other forum users can respond.
Lee Berger
http://www.leebergermedia.com -
I just had a similar problem batch capturing logged (but not previously captured) clips using my Canon XH-A1. I too am using an external firewire drive as my scratch disk. In my case, the “cannot locate timecode” warning came up during the batch capture. I had the option to continue or abort… I clicked continue.
When it was all said and done, about half of my clips captured as expected. The other half captured, but were broken up into two (only two clips). So now my bin has several clips with “clipname-1”). It does appear these breaks occurred on a start/stop… but the timecode is consistent. I end up missing 2-5 frames between the “clipname” and “clipname-1”, but in my case I will work with that.
I’m guessing it has something to do with the throughput on the FW bus. I’ve read some stuff about this. In my case, I’ve got my scratch drive attached w/ FW400 to the front port on the MacPro, a second hard drive on the rear FW800 port, and my camera (acting as a deck) on the rear FW400 port.
Once while using an AJA capture card I had a similar problem. The AJA rep rightfully advised to capture to a non-firewire drive because the capture card needed all the “throughput” on the port to do its thing. I’m wondering if two externals plus deck control is similarly bogging down the business…
I’m capturing using the standard HDV codec (not an intermediary). OS 10.5.3, 2 GB RAM, 2X 3 GHz Quad_Core Intel Xeon processors, FCP 6.0.3. -
My scratch drive wasn’t a firewire actually. It is on the network we use here, so it uses the network cable… but maybe that has the same problems as using firewire.
but maybe I/we should try capturing to the desktop to make it easier on the computer… -
To add somethnig else to this subject; I’m trying to capture a new tape now, and FCP seems confused.
I just used capture now and started on the beginning of the tape. (At a timecode of 30 seconds)
The tape has an hour of film and says “NOW CAPTURING” for an hour, and you can see the images playing on screen.
But when the capture is finished, I open the captured file and it is only 20 minutes long.
I tried to capture the same tape using batch capture; same result.
I tried to capture the rest of the tape AFTER those first 20 minutes and it seemed to work, only again only 20 minutes were captured and strange enough those had the same timecode as the first clip!
Is FCP going crazy??
anyone else has these issues?
Might it be a solution to get a capture device, so I don’t have to use the camera to capture? -
Try checking your FCP System Settings to see if the “Limit Capture to” check box is selected.
Lee Berger
http://www.leebergermedia.com -
Sorry I didn’t mention that before, but no, none of these boxes were checked!
-
RE: capture now
Check your scratch folder to see if there is a second source file with the rest of your footage. I’ve seen FCP presumably go through a whole capture and no master clip is created in the bin. Generally this happens after and error and/or abort. Although no master clip was created in the Browser, the source media was indeed created in the capture scratch folder. Then, it’s just a matter of importing the file. This may not be what happened in your case… and even if it is, it still doesn’t explain why FCP is breaking up “capture now” clips (in your case) or “batch capture” clips (in my case; see above). -
What happened with you sounds to me as a timecode break. I read that, even when there are no timecode breaks on the tape, the camera could cause timecode breaks when the heads need to be cleaned.
Maybe worth a try?What you describe about clips sometimes not appearing in the bin, but only in the capture scratch, I’ve seen that too. that’s not my problem today. I don’t know yet why it happened, but on another computer the problem didn’t occur… if I find out what caused it, I’ll post it here.
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up