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dvcpro HD help
Hi,
I am currently involved in a production where I was brought in to capture to my macbook pro and then edit. I have 2 main questions. I have searched the forums, but really haven’t found my answers, while I’m sure they are here somewhere, after my 12 hour day of editing today, I’m a little blind so I do apologize is I missed something. 😉
Anyway, here goes…..(note, its my first time dealing with HD). The camera is I believe a Panasonic HDX900 (it’s new). I did a direct log and capture via a G-raid to one firewire 800 (on an sonnet express card 34) and then the camera into the firewire 800 on my macbook pro, and then plugging into the camera as a firewire 400. I picked non-controllable device in the device control settings for the capture. Got it to work fine.
The client is currently wondering if the footage isn’t looking as crisp as that camera should put out, and it isn’t appearing in final cut as it appeared on their production monitor. Now, on to my settings in Final Cut Pro prior to capturing. They were shooting in DVCPRO HD 720p 24. I did Easy Setup with those same exact settings, and made sure the capture input was the same. I’m wondering if I missed a setting somewhere. When viewing the footage in the browser now that it’s all in, it’s all how it should be, 960 x 720, DVCPRO HD 720p24……HOWEVER, a few clips every now and then say 59.6 (60) frames. Why? I have no idea!
On to my next “issue”. They want this 16 9 to be placed into a 4 3 with bars ONLY bottom….or maybe with a little black on top. What I did was I cut the footage, then created a new sequence. It was NTSC DV 3:2, pixel NTSC CCIR 601, compressor DV/DVCPRO NTSC, copied, pasted, THEN created another new sequence (same settings as this prior one here) and dropped in the 2nd created sequence (the first 4:3 one) so I could nest and move all the clips up to give a small top black bar.
Soooo, I need some help. I’d like to know what I did wrong – both in setup, and now converting from 16 9 to 4 3. The footage looks real nice for the most part (to me), but I guess they’re feeling it isn’t just like that monitor in production.
Thanks for any help!
Lisa
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5 Replies
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If you captured using a non-controllable device, I can’t image Final Cut was able to properly see the flagged frames in order to remove the pulldown. The clips that showed up as 59.94 would look that way, because on tape, it is inherently 59.94 but the camera flags redundant frames so that they can be removed on capture so that you work at 23.976 in the NLE.
Now, your biggest issue is since you captured using non-controllable device, you’re not going to have corresponding timecode. If you’re doing this for a network, or really, anywhere that might require an EDL or a recapture, that can not be done. The only fix for this, would be to recapture all 12 hours of footage with the appropriate device control. Use and trust the Easy Setups, they work well.
As far as putting the project into a 4×3 frame, with black on the bottom only. I would cut the sequence in it’s native format. Once done, I’d copy it into a 720×480. Resize the first clip, and then use “Paste Attributes” to adjust the proceeding clips.
Richard Sanchez
North Hollywood, CA“We are the facilitators of our own creative evolution.” – Bill Hicks
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Yup…UNCONTROLLED DEVICE. Bad idea. No tape timecode recorded, and no way to detect the flags on the footage to get you to 23.98…removing pulldown on capture. Gotta choose the DVCPRO HD Easy Setup and leave it alone.
As for the quality issue…FCP doesn’t play back full quality in the canvas or viewer. FCP lowers the quality to ensure proper playback. You want to see what it looks like full quality? Gotta play the footage out through the deck to an HD monitor, or via a capture card to an HD monitor.
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
[Shane Ross] “r via a capture card to an HD monitor.”
Or with the MacBook Pro, you can use an Io HD.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR Apple Color Training DVD available now!
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Morning, and thanks for your responses (I visit the cow daily and love you guys :).
I was just looking at the footage again this morning, and noticed the only footage that was affected with the 59.94 frames was the first tape, and that was brought in later as a normal capture, not while the live shooting was going on, however the settings were still on non-controlled device while doing so….hence the issue of the framerate. So, all the other footage that was grabbed live is at the right frame rate in my browser settings, 23.98. Is this 59.94 making tape one look weird?? What are the resulting issues in a messed up FR? And can’t I just changed my sequence settings to fix that??
Besides the network issue with replacing footage using the timecode, do you see anything that would “ruin” the capture and quality of this footage? I will tell them today about how final cut does not display in crispness too. But I need to know if we need to recapture what we already have (because of quality), before I continue editing. Also, we are taping more today, and are set to do it the same way, directly into my macbook pro.
ei yi yi,
Lisa -
With a messed up frame rate your footage will playback very stuttery. No, you can’t just change your sequence settings to fix that. The issue is not just the framerate, since you captured on “Non-Controllable Device” Final Cut did not see the appropriate frames that were flagged to be removed. While it might be possible to capture as 23.976 without these frames flagged, it won’t be removing the right frames, and it will give you problems. I could get more technical on this, but just trust me on this one.
I would consider recapturing everything you captured yesterday using the DVCPRO HD 23.976 Easy Setup (even if it looks fine and was captured at 23.976) because in my mind, it can’t be trusted.
For playback, Walter mentioned the IOHD, great product, also you could playback using the Matrox MXO2.
Richard Sanchez
North Hollywood, CA“We are the facilitators of our own creative evolution.” – Bill Hicks
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