EDITING DVCPROHD on FCP

[Walter Biscardi]

[Gary Taylor] “1 Do I need any plugins to edit varicam material?”

No

[Gary Taylor] “2 Project settings? DVCPRO HD 720P25 or 1080i50”

Not sure if FCP 5.1.4 supports 720/25. You might have to make your own preset or it doesn’t work.

1080i/50 does work

[Gary Taylor] “3 RT setting
Playback video quality?
Dynamic
High
Medium
Low”

Dynamic is what I use on the desktop machines. Just adjust this as needed for maximum playback on your machine.

[Gary Taylor] “4 Playback frame Rate?
Dynamic
Full
Half
Quarter”

Full

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.

STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR
The new Color Training DVD now available from the Creative Cow!

Read my Blog!

[Gary Taylor]

Thanks Walter I’m hiring a 1400 deck tomorrow so I’ll try your advised setting out once I have digitized, But are you sure I need to work at 720p25 and not 1080? I’m not sure what picture size the tapes were recorded at. Hopefully this project will go out to broadcaster in the UK and I want to give them the best quality output. Thanks for getting back to me, I read your bio and and visited your web site it looks like your doing some really cool stuff. Cheer’s for the advice mate. Garry

[Walter Biscardi]

[Gary Taylor] “I’m not sure what picture size the tapes were recorded at.”

Varicam can only shoot 720 so it’s going to be 720/24, 720/25 or 720/60 unless they shot at some off frame rate.

Again, not sure if FCP 5.1.4 can work with 720/25. I’m almost certain there is not an Easy Setup for that, but you might be able to create a Custom Preset to make that work.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.

STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR
The new Color Training DVD now available from the Creative Cow!

Read my Blog!

[Gary Adcock]

[Gary Taylor] “I’m not sure what picture size the tapes were recorded at. “

Varicams only record 720p signals.

gary adcock
Studio37
HD & Film Consultation
Post and Production Workflows
Inside look at the IoHD

[Dylan Reeve]

Danger danger!

You can not digitise 25fps material shot on a Varicam into a 25fps project in FCP (or Avid) via Firewire.

The problem is that Varicam always operates at 60Hz (or 59.94Hz) no matter what it shot on it. The signal coming from the Firewire on the AJ-HD1400 will always be at 60Hz.

For this reason you simply cannot capture into a 50Hz-based project (anything 25fps or 50fps) from Firewire.

The HD1400 has a mode called ’25(HD)’ designed to cope with this, which generates 50Hz signals (specifically 1080i50 25PsF) from the 25fps Varicam footage. However it will ONLY output via HD-SDI and HD-Component – the Firewire signal will still be carrying 720p at 60Hz.

The only way to work with Varicam at PAL framerates is to capture using an AJA or Decklink card. the IoHD would be another option, but with only FW400 on your laptop, isn’t going to work.

The only software I am aware of which can capture the 25fps footage from the 60Hz Firewire signal is Grass Valley Canopus Edius Broadcast. Which is a Windows application.

This has been my nightmare for the past two months.

Our workflow now is using the ’25(SD)’ mode on the deck to capture Analogue SD video out (Firewire is still 720p 60Hz in that mode) into Avid for offline. Online will be in FCP, using the ’25(HD)’ mode on the deck, HD-SDI with a Decklink card.