• Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy

  Live Capture into FCP

  Posted by Will Sanderson on April 14, 2011 at 3:34 pm

  Hi all,

  I have been using a switcher and Laird Media Converter connected to my Mac via firewire in order to capture live footage from our studios straight into FCP. The Laird recently died on me and as a work around, I have been capturing through the switcher, into a DV deck (where we record a backup tape), and out through a firewire connection into the mac.

  Since making this change, I’ve noticed a change in overall video quality (though we only record SD). So I have two questions. 1 – is this change in quality as a result of capturing from the deck? And 2 – is there a reason to replace the Laird Media converter or is there a better option to look into?

  Thanks as always for your help.

  Will

  Paul Dubbs replied 14 years, 10 months ago 3 Members · 2 Replies
• 2 Replies

• 

  Andy Mees

  April 15, 2011 at 7:08 am

  [Will Sanderson] “Since making this change, I’ve noticed a change in overall video quality (though we only record SD). So I have two questions. 1 – is this change in quality as a result of capturing from the deck? And 2 – is there a reason to replace the Laird Media converter or is there a better option to look into?
  “

  1. Yes. It suggests that the SDI to DV conversion in the deck is not as clean as you were getting from the Laird convertor.
  2. Much better options, yes. The silver lining to this technical failure is that it presents a golden opportunity for you to ditch DV as your intermediate format, move to something better like ProRes 422. Have a look at the much more modern I/O options available these days from the likes of Matrox, AJA, Blackmagic and Motu. For example, a Blackmagic Design Decklink SDI card is only $295 and is possibly all you need. Or there are multi format portable options that allow SD/HD up, down and cross conversion, color corrected monitoring etc. The Matrox MXO2 LE, AJA IoExpress and Motu HDX-SDI are all sub $1000 portable I/O units worth checking out.

  Best
  Andy
• 

  Paul Dubbs

  July 12, 2011 at 5:35 am

  I know you mentioned you’re Laird died but when it WAS working, did it perform cuts properly? I have DV cameras and would like to make a live master without have to recut the entire project. I’m looking for a converter that would take for firewire DV signals and be able to cut a show from that.
  Thanks!

Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up