DVCPROHD 25P 720 through firewire????

[Gary Adcock]

[GlennH] “Ive shot a short film recently with the varicam at 25P 720. Is there anyway of capturing this format through firewire? to FCP?”

the most current versions of FCP support the 720p25 spec over FW, and I have worked in the format via custom settings for a couple of years using my Kona Card.

gary adcock
Studio37
HD & Film Consultation
Post and Production Workflows

[Mactrix]

No, not via FireWire. You should use a Kona card and
capture via HD-SDI.

[Macgregor]

Hi, please could you find a definitive answer to this topic? I find conflicted answers on the net also.

ON the latest FCP update you can read: “FCP does not support DVCPRO HD 720p25 capture from or output to tape.”

I am interested in direct capture via firewire, not capturing via HDsdi into a DVCproHD codec file(that means recompressing).

However if Gary says he has done it, there must be some way to do it. Any precise help would be great here. THanks

[Mactrix]

You can only capture 720p25 over 60p.

This means you choose the 720p60 DVCPRO HD Easy Setup in FCP,
and than you capture 720p60 via FireWire. You can edit this inside
a 720p60 sequence. The motion resolution of your footage is still
25p but you’re dealing with duplicated frames that are embedded
into 60p. You can edit this and you can output to a video monitor
and back to tape … always in 60p. Like this you only create one
generation if you apply filters or effects.

There is no way to capture only the flagged frames for 25p via
FireWire and there is no way to remove an advanced pulldown like
in the NTSC world. This is a fact.

To capture 720p25 or 720p50 you can only use an AJA or BMD cards
and if you capture uncompressed you will preserve image quality
but it costs a lot of disk space and performance. Capturing again
into DVCPRO HD compression will create the second generation. If
you perform filters and effects it’s the third generation. Going back
to DVCPRO HD tape via HD-SDI will create the fourth generation.
Beside this I noticed wrong format conversion results when using
the AJA 720p25 setting. The sub-sampling was not applied to the
footage resulting in a 1280 x 720 clip, instead 960 x 720. I couldn’t
get it work correctly yet.

If you work uncompressed you won’t have these problems and you
only generate the first compressed generation when going back to
tape. Unfortunately this is your only chance and you will still have to
adjust some of the Kona settings, depending of the video device you
are using. Some 720p25 presets are made for the AJ-HD1400 and if
you’re working with the AJ-HD1200 you have to adjust them to
720p59,94 input instead of 720p50. If your are using the Varicam
directly also the 720p60 setting might work, depending of the
camera setup. There is also a Mirranda adapter for the Varicam that
would again generate 720p50 … so many combinations are possible.
All work if you do the correct FCP setup.

You can also go on my website where I’ve published some articles
about this. Unfortunately I can not post the link as the website is
blocked here (taking traffic from this holy website). You have to
google for “720p50 fcp” and the first two hits will bring you to the
website …

You can contact me for further informations or instructions.
Where are you from?

[Tony]

Great example of a post workflow which should have been pre-tested well in advance of the entire shoot.

Tony Salgado

[Macgregor]

Hi Mactrix, how can i contact you (any email or msn account?). It seems you are in Germany, cool! ;D

[Mactrix]

I try to cheat the blockade:

a u l i ch – a d a m s k i . d e

Klick on Feedback and send me a message …

[Laurel Andrews]

I would really like to know the settings inside the camera to activate the firewire as my other cameras work fine on the same PC port apart from the Panasonic.

It look like it needs activation from inside the camera I get a error message there is a option menu with 1394 Config not sure what number should be next to hit and under neath another one 1394 Gap Count. would really like to get it work before Tuesday via Adobe On Location saving me from using tapes.

Any Panasonic HDX900 experts out there !!!!!!!!!!!