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capture now time limit
The time limit in capture now just plain doesn’t work. I am running FCP 4.5 on OS 10.3.9 on my dual 1 gig G4. I need this feature for capturing about 60one hour hi8 tapes run off the client’s old camera, through my DSR250, and firewire in. These tapes vary in length, and I need to let them capture without babysitting. Would playing from a hi8 camera with a built-in firewire out solve my problem if the time limit in capture now is not a fixable problem?
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20 Replies
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I would dump the content to tape with time code and capture from that. Then you’d log the tapes and capture. The hi 8 format doesn’t have time code does it? If so, then firewire from a hi 8 deck should work.
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The time limit in capture now just plain doesn’t work. I am running FCP 4.5 on OS 10.3.9 on my dual 1 gig G4.
It is working fine here. However, Capture Now is not stable unless your tape is rock solid with no dropouts.
I need this feature for capturing about 60one hour hi8 tapes run off the client’s old camera, through my DSR250, and firewire in.
If I were you, I’d dub ’em to DV and capture them that way. Otherwise, you’ll tear your hair out. Those old hi8 tapes have noise and dropouts galore.These tapes vary in length, and I need to let them capture without babysitting.
That would be nice wouldn’t it? 😉I would watch them like a Hawk for Capture Now. If you were batch capturing the DV dubs, you could walk away.
Would playing from a hi8 camera with a built-in firewire out solve my problem if the time limit in capture now is not a fixable problem?
Capture now works fine. Your tapes, however, are likely going to trip it up. Even if they’re relatively clean, a single drop out will cause a whole 60 minute capture to fail.
Yup. I speak from experience. If you want to use Capture Now with those hi8 tapes, I don’t think you can successfully capture a whole tape. Every dropout will cause the capture to go awry causing synch loss and dropped frames.
Most folks these days want to capture HUGE chunks of video and then break them up. Although you can do that, I find that FCP works much more reliably and predictably with short, discrete clips with every clip having a single, short media file. My opinion and experience anyway.
Kevin Monahan
Author – Motion Graphics and Effects in Final Cut Pro
fcpworld.com -
Thanks, Jeff and Kevin.
I neglected to post the purpose of my task. My client has recorded family tapes over the years and wants both an archive on DVD of each tape as well as an editible video file of each tape which will live on a server. I hoped I could manage this by capturing whole tapes and exporting each of them to (1) a self contained quicktime movie and (2) DVDSP. I wouldn’t make shorter clips at this point because any editing will be a project they will do later.This brings me to a second question… In the past I have had problems accessing what I thought were self contained quicktime movies. Do they have to keep their render files as traveling companions?
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Just a thought. I am assuming that you will never go back to the original tapes to batch conform an edit. Why not forget about timecode and select non controlable device under device control. That way you can just manually press play on the deck and hit capture now. Any timecode or video hits are ignored, and it will capture for as long as you’ve set the capture limit for. You may want to back up the archive alter once it’s on the server. You could always lay the stuff out to a newer format.
Peter McAuley
Axyz Edit
Toronto
G5 dual 2.0
4 gigs ram
10.3.8
FCP 4.5 HD
QT 6.5.2
Kona 2 v1.1 with K Box
4 X 250 gig external F800 Lacie firewire drive
2 X 23″ Apple cinema display -
That is precisely what I set out to do. But it here that the time limit is not working. In fact, time limit on capture now has not functioned for a long time here.
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I wouldn’t want to capture anything longer than about 30 minutes any way. Get a good book or but the ballgame on. It’s really the only way to do it
Peter McAuley
Axyz Edit
Toronto
G5 dual 2.0
4 gigs ram
10.3.8
FCP 4.5 HD
QT 6.5.2
Kona 2 v1.1 with K Box
4 X 250 gig external F800 Lacie firewire drive
2 X 23″ Apple cinema display -
Maybe you could feed it bogus timecode during capture. Log an actual tape that has time code long enough to get the whole thing. Press play on the hi8 system and capture the logged clip. Your video source would be the hi8 system, but the control would be for a deck you’re just using for timecode and as a dummy.
Just a thought.
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I’d agree with this. If you’re doing capture now, you really shouldn’t go longer then that anyway – no matter what the source.
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A dummy is what I feel like. I took this gig with the belief I could just casually keep capturing as I went along with my usual routine. Why doesn’t anybody like long captures? Too many sync problems?
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A dummy is what I feel like. I took this gig with the belief I could just casually keep capturing as I went along with my usual routine. Why doesn’t anybody like long captures? Too many sync problems?
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