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Weird Capturing – Please Help!
Hi,
I filmed footage on a PAL camera and I’m trying to capture into FCP. I used the ‘capture now’ button and it finally worked after stopping the capture and saying it “can’t locate time code” and other messages such as, “there is no video playing”. When it finished capturing the whole tape, I couldn’t find it in FCP. I then was able to find it in capture scratch. I then tried to import in FCP, but it only showed me 30 seconds out of an hour of footage. I then renamed the footage in finder and reimported it, and it worked.
I’m on my second tape out of 5 and I have the same problems. While importing the cassette, it stopped 20 minutes into recording, saying “there is no video” and then I found the footage in the finder and played it back to find out the audio is off sync. Also, a small section of my first import skips around and the audio is messed up.
Below is a screenshot of my preferences
Thanks,
Zevie -
11 Replies
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Hi, Zevie
I have no idea what’s going on, but I know that you’re more likely to get a response from someone who does if you’ll tell us the following:
What camera? What format of tape?
Tell us what model Mac you’re using. What version of the OS? What version of FCP?
How is the video getting into your computer? Firewire? Straight from the camera or via a deck and a capture card?The more information you provide, the more (and better) answers you’ll get.
Good luck!
Mike Raff
Richmond, VA -
Camera
Panasonic DVX100B (PAL)
Import Camera
JVC gr d720e
Mac Specs
Mac Pro, 8 Core, 10 Gb of Ram, NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT
Additional Info
– Im importing through the camera’s firewire into my mac, firewire 400.
– I can’t use the Panasonic for capturing because it was a rental, if any really thinks its the camera thats causing the problems, I can try getting another PAL camera, but I’v used the JVC successfully before.
– My Mac Pro wasn’t recognizing any fire wires recently, until I unplugged all the cables for 15 seconds and restarted mac and it seems to recognize my Lacie via firewire 800 and my JVC camera, I double checked on System Profiler.
– My time code on my tape seems to be messed up, I think because I reviewed my footage by rewinding and then went back to where I left off, to continue recording.
– While capturing, the tape would continue playing, but in FCP, the capture window would just stay on a frozen frame, and the program would be unresponsive.
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How does your video play in your camera’s LCD? Any issues, such as timecode breaks? You could try importing onto a new project
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There are timecode breaks, and what do you mean by importing into a new project? Thanks!
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You could create a new project file and try you capturing again. I noticed in your prefs that you have the “on timecode break – make a new clip” checked, it may be worth trying the “Warn after capture” setting.
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Well, I see a few things here that might be your problem.
First, you are capturing from a camera? Why not a small deck? It’s much better to capture from a deck than a camera. You spent good money on you edit system, why not a DV deck?
Next, as was stated, you have timecode breaks, of which, FCP doesn’t like these. You have two options. Set your prefs to Warn After Capture OR you can duplicate the tapes to stable timecode copies.
Lastly, what version of FCP are you using? I ask, because you have a great setup but you have 10 gig of RAM. Apple has a tech docs about FCP and memory. You should have your RAM in matched pairs and in the following sizes – 2 gig, 4 gig, 8 gig and 16 gig. Anything else can and will cause performance issues. Take it from me, I have lots of experience with this.
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Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions
https://web.mac.com/schazamproductions
schazamproductions@mac.com -
Thanks Wayne, I’m going to have to stick with a camera for now, because I ‘went all out’ on the mac. I switched the settings, to warn after capture. This is the info of my ram, I pretty sure I set it up in the right order because, I too had a lot of problems with the ram until I realized you had put it in a certain order. I’m running version 6.0.5. If nothing else works, I might have to capture with iMovie 06 because I have to finish this job.
Below is a screenshot of my memory
Thanks again for helping out,
Zevie Tannenbaum -
Dude!
Memory IS your problem. Its configured totally wrong…
First, take out the two 1 gig bars. Next, move the two 2 gig bars from Riser A – Slot 3 and Slot 4 and place them in Riser A – Slot 1 and Slot 2.
When Apple talks about placing memory, its saying that if you place memory in riser A – slot 1, then you need to place a memory bar in riser B – slot 1 to match properly. AND, placing different sized memory bars like 1 gig and 2 gig bars will cause problems in FCP. This is a known fact.
https://support.apple.com/kb/TS1957?viewlocale=en_USTake a look at this.
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Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions
https://web.mac.com/schazamproductions
schazamproductions@mac.com -
Thanks, I reconfigured the RAM to this,
I posted a question on the Apple forums about problems with installing RAM, and I got links to these to pages,
https://homepage.mac.com/tribe3/.pictures/MemConfig.jpg
If I’m not mistaken, the link you provided with me was to set up the RAM to have FCP running at the best, but I do run other video editing software and didn’t notice a problem with my previous configuration. Can you please tell me what the difference is?
(whats the best way to check is my RAM is running at it’s fullest power and that they are not defected?)
Thanks again,
Zevie -
Its just a performance issue with Apple and FCP.
_______________________________
Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions
https://web.mac.com/schazamproductions
schazamproductions@mac.com
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