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AJ-HD1400 25HD mode
Here’s my situation:
Client has shot a great deal of 25P footage with Varicam. The setting there is 60Hz, 25FPS – this is confirmed by tape user bits.
Operating our brand new AJ-HD1400 deck in 25HD mode seems very promising. I get audio, and the timecode is a nice 25FPS.
However I CANNOT capture this video in FCP (6.0.1) via Firewire, or via a borrowed Decklink HD Extreme.
From what I’ve been able to determine the problem is this:
– FCP’s DVCPRO HD 720p25 setting expects a deck in 50Hz mode, and will not see the HD1400 in 25HD mode as that deck.
– Decklink only expects to see full stream 59.94/60Hz video coming in. When the HD1400 is in 2D mode it is at 25Hz and sending (apparently) 720p25 video down HD-SDI and Firewire.By setting the deck to 60Hz mode I can play the tape via HD-SDI to the Decklink card and it will capture a 25p stream, but this generates 30FPS timecode, which I am led to believe will not be accurate should we ever want to redigitise the tape (and is also a bit confusing for editors).
Avid, of course, doesn’t even have a 720/25p project mode, so it’s not help at all.
At the moment I am forced to capture, via 60Hz playback, a 25p stream with Decklink, with it being recompressed to DVCPRO HD 720p60 at 25FPS. I am concerned that this is a less than ideal setup.
HELP!?
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7 Replies
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[sycophant] “- FCP’s DVCPRO HD 720p25 setting expects a deck in 50Hz mode, and will not see the HD1400 in 25HD mode as that deck. “
This setting expects the tape to 25/50p not over 25/60
You have capture at 60 and run the FRC to get to 25p unless you have an aja kona card, ( which handles the frame removal in hardware on capture)
the Hardware FRC would also solve the issue.you need to be very very careful that 60p preset in FCP is actually 60hrz and does not default
to 59.94.Note too that FCP currently has some issues with 720p50 material for playback.
gary adcock
Studio37
HD & Film Consultation
Post and Production Workflows -
Even capturing at 60fps (or 59.94) FCP will only allow coversions to NTSC framerates. From there, apparently you then have to use CinemaTools to retime the clip to 25fps.
It’s detailed at the Outpost Blog.
Overall, that’s not a workflow that is practical with 50+ hours of reality material.
Running the deck in it’s hardware FRC mode (called ’25HD’) is interesting. It delivered 1080i50 via HD-SDI then, upconverting on the fly. However I have no idea at all what’s coming out the Firewire in that mode. I certainly couldn’t get FCP to play nice with it.
Currently, as the show will be mastered in 1080i50 anyway, we’re using the ’25HD’ mode to capture via HD-SDI with a Decklink HD Extreme to 1080i50. This mode appears to provide us with reasonable good video quality (the upconversion is nice) and accurate timecode (which is not vital, but makes me feel better).
Given that there’s only one camera (I believe) that shoots 720p25/50 (the HDX900) I imagine still that the majority of DVCPRO HD 720p25 is over 60.
I can’t see any reason, technically, that it should be any harder to extract the 25 active frames, over Firewire, from a 60p stream than from a 50p stream. I mean FCP can get all the active frames from the stream using it’s Framerate Conversion Tool but insists on making a clip with an NTSC framerate.
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[sycophant] “Even capturing at 60fps (or 59.94) FCP will only allow coversions to NTSC framerates. From there, apparently you then have to use CinemaTools to retime the clip to 25fps. “
Not if the camera and deck are set correctly- FCP 6 does support 720p25 and the Software FRC NOW supports 25p workflows. the article you ref is out of date.
” I imagine still that the majority of DVCPRO HD 720p25 is over 60. “
Only in NA, in the rest of the world the camera lays 50p to tape.
gary adcock
Studio37
HD & Film Consultation
Post and Production Workflows -
from the HD and Broadcast pdf coming with FCPStudio2:
The Panasonic Varicam camcorder can record at the standard NTSC-compatible
rate of 59.94 fps or at exactly 60 fps. Final Cut Pro only supports DVCPRO HD video
transfer via FireWire at 59.94 fps (or one of its variants, such as 29.97 or 23.98 fps).
If you want to capture DVCPRO HD footage via FireWire, make sure you record your
footage with the system frequency of your camcorder set to 59.94, not 60. For more
information, see the documentation included with the Panasonic Varicam camcorder.So 25p from a Varicam can only be captured via HDSDI because it is 60Hz and not 59.94.
I as well don’t understand why Apple doesn’t implement it, but that is the situation right now.
In the moment I tend to capture everything straight to prores in either 720 or even 1080 using the ioHD. But I can’t finally test it unti I get the ioHD…
Carsten
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“Not if the camera and deck are set correctly- FCP 6 does support 720p25 and the Software FRC NOW supports 25p workflows. the article you ref is out of date.”
That has not been my experience – I spent close to 8 hours going through every combination I could find on the Deck and in FCP.
There is NO WAY to capture 720p25/60 via Firewire in FCP. It can’t be done. As cofe has mentioned, FCP simply doesn’t support the 60Hz system frequency (which is the required setting on the Varicam to record 25fps).
“Only in NA, in the rest of the world the camera lays 50p to tape.”
Based on my discussions with Panasonic NZ (and there have been many now) – the only model Panasonic have that records 25p over 50 is the HDX900. As these cameras are pretty new, most people, at least here, are recording 25p/60.
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OK
the deck can handle 25p material correctly when it is shot correctly for the foramt
FCP can record 25p content when the tape is a 25/50 masterWhat was done here was to try and fake it by doing 25p / 60p instead of the the Traditional 25p/50p, SO FCP sees this as an offspeed (24p) tape rather than the expected 25p.
I can assure your that the 1400 deck can and will record and playback 25p correctly when the tape is the correct format for that type of video.
Because you are working over 60p on the tape FCP can only recognize that format setting which is 59.94. The deck can force output of 24 at 25, and has the ability to force 23.98 to 25 also.
the 1400 deck will do 60hrz over FW- if the tape was encoded that way at the camera.
gary adcock
Studio37
HD & Film Consultation
Post and Production Workflows -
Problem is that the only way to shoot 25p without the HDX900 (which is not widely available here) is as offspeed on a Varicam. Making 25p/60. This is apparently a pretty common desire in PAL countries.
Yes the 1400 can play it over firewire, but that’s no help when nothing (so far) can digitise it.
I just can’t imagine why. It can’t be that much more complicated?
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