Failing to import to final cut pro

[Paul Jay]

What kind of Sony VTR? Firewire miniDV/DVCAM?

What are your Capture settings?

Have you used easy setup first to set proper format.
Then new project
Capture?

[Chris Nicholls]

Hi

The Sony VTR is connected via firewire and the footage is on Minidv tape. The weird thing is i am using the same settings as i have done in the past with no problems, i have the easy set-up set to HDV firewire basic 25p and started a new project every time to try it.

Any ideas?

[Paul Jay]

So you shot HDV? or DV?

For sony HDV you should choose easy setup HDV 1080i50
Then log and capture.

If you still don’t get an image now, then your deck has iLink conversion set to ON
You should set it OFF or it will output a DV signal ( even when you shot HDV)

Was it shot with a Sony HDV camera ? or another brand?

[Chris Nicholls]

The footage was shot on a sony v1 using 25 progressive, so ive been using the 25p template in final cut to import the footage. The deck is already set to off. i used the same kit to import into Imovie which worked fine so i think its a problem with Final cut.

[Paul Jay]

In that case, trash your FCP prefs/caches.
https://www.digitalrebellion.com/prefman/

Looks like there are more issues with this camera.
https://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=4018117

Someone there suggests this trick:

Ok, i found a simple trick that works for me :

– hook up the camera (power switch set to “off”) to the computer with firewire
set camera power switch to “camera” position
launch FCPHD
now move camera power switch quickly from “camera” position to “VTR” position (without stopping in the middle “off” position
open capture window (apple-8)

now you should be able to capture 50i and 25p…

I did it with an HDV50i “easy setup” project for both interlaced and progressive.
I believe it’s the correct setup, even for progressive scan, since the V1 in this mode still records two fields for each frame (but unlike interlaced, these two fields are identical)

The progressive scan footages came up beautifully on the 50i timeline, no aliasing or jagged lines…

[Scott Sheriff]

“I have been using a mac pro with a Sony VTR to import footage into final cut pro, recently the tape imports have been failing with an error message saying there are dropped frames. I have tried to import the same way into Imovie and this works fine so i think it could be an issue with Final cut. Does anyone have an idea of what this could be?”

I’m assuming this is an HDV camera. HDV is a long GOP format. In the case of the Sony flavor (as opposed to the JVC 6 fame GOP) a one frame dropout actually ruins 15 frames of footage. Even if the footage doesn’t have any dropouts, a glitch in the TC will do the same thing.
If you turn off ‘abort capture on dropped frames’ FCP should just make a new clip where a break occurs, instead of aborting the capture. If this is turned on and your capture is stopping, FCP is doing what it is supposed to, not a problem with the software.
Capture settings and how to set up FCP are covered pretty well in the manual, you should have a look at it some time. It would save you a lot of grief.

Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com

I have a system, it has stuff in it, and stuff hooked to it. I have a camera, it can record stuff. I read the manuals, and know how to use this stuff and lots of other stuff too.
You should be suitably impressed…

[Chris Nicholls]

Thank you everyone for your suggestions, i will try these and keep you posted.

Again many thanx