FCP 5.0.4 and Canon XL H1: Capture, work flow and camera setting

[Shane Ross]

FCP 5.0.4 doesn’t support that camera…nor does the newer FCP 5.1. Not yet anyway. At NAB Apple was running a version (pre pre beta) that did work with footage from the XL H1…but that revision isn’t out yet. No word when it will be out, but look at the Apple Developers Conference in August.

Shane

Alokut Productions
http://www.lfhd.net

[Graeme Nattress]

Camera is fully supported in 50i and 60i modes. It’s only the funky 24f, 25f and 30f modes that are not yet supported.

Graeme

– http://www.nattress.com – Film Effects and Standards Conversion for FCP

[Annerloo]

But Apple says that there’s a new update to FCP 5.1, issued about 4 weeks ago. They say the update makes FCP compatible with the Canon’s 24F. Have you tried the update? Do you know if it works? I’m trying to figure out whether to update to 5.1 or not.

Thanks so much!
Anna

[Videoboy]

Did you ever find the solution to your problem? I am now starting your process. I shot. Now I have to get it into the computer. DId you find any answers?

Thanks
Aron Orton

[Annerloo]

Hi there,

yes, I found the solution, and thanks so much to those who helped me. Turns out, the solution I originally tried did work, however, the motion looked strange when played back on my G4 laptop. I have since transfered the project to a G5 desktop computer, and now it looks fine–so it must have been that my laptop was not powerful enough. In any case, the solution I used this solution from the dvinfo.net website:

https://dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=69003

Barlow Elton
I thought I could find it, but here’s the simple breakdown:

–Capture HDV 24F with DVHSCap or HDVxDV. Do a search on the web for either. DVHSCap is actually part of the developer tools that are optionally installed in Mac OSX 10.4 (the captured .m2t files will read as 29.97 clips technically, but the true 24p is there)

–Import clips into MPEG Streamclip. (drop m2t file into main Streamclip window) https://www.squared5.com/

–Take m2t clip and mark an in and out point. Or just leave it as is to export the entire clip.
–Go to “File/Export to QuickTime”
–Choose 1920×1080 frame size and either PhotoJPEG @ 75% quality (anything higher isn’t noticeably better and makes a MUCH larger file)
or alternately choose DVCProHD 1080i 60 @ 100% quality (it’s just the codec container–clip will be true 24p)
–For frame rate, type in 23.976. If you shot non-drop frame 30fps timecode, type in 24.(you need the latest MPEG Streamclip v 1.7 for the frame rate option)
–deselect Interlaced Scaling and Reinterlace Chroma for progressive 24P output
–Choose a location for the clip
–Click “make movie”

That’s it! You can bring the clip into FCP with the appropriate project and sequence settings.

This is the easiest way to do true 24P intermediate codec editing on the Mac at the current time.

Chris, you should consider making this info a sticky for anyone trying to figure out a low cost way to get 24F HDV into FCP without hassles. This will likely be obsolete when Apple finally intergrates 24F support within FCP, but for now this is what works.