FCP 5.1.2 won’t recognize JVC BR-HD50 deck

[Michael Alberts]

I got the deck to work with several of our FCP 5.1.2 systems, however we had many other problems. We can’t get FCP to digitize complete clips. You’ll notice the Log and Capture window is not the standard window, in fact it resembles the log and capture window from FCP Express. When digitizing from a JVC HDV 24p recorded tape FCP can’t seem to detect the stop/start of this format properly. The system will miss the first five seconds of every clip when using the Capture Now feature. The timecode and playback are sluggish when capturing.
We gave up on the HDV capture and just hooked the deck up to our Kona2 via an AJA HD10AVA. Captured everything to the DVCPro codec then rendered out the 23.98 by putting the material in a DVCPro 24p sequence. Once it was exported to a file and reimported the cadence was perfect. Of course doing it this way means you can never go back to the camera master as the t.c. is shot.
If you get the workflow to work post back here on the Cow. It seems no one is able to get the JVC 24p format working properly, especially with the BR-HD50 deck. That’s the last time we’ll work with that format.

I’m told the HDV metadata in the JVC stream is to blame for FCP not picking it up quickly enough. However, Premiere Pro on the PC handles this format properly. Go figure. Since we’re not about to switch platforms any time soon we’ll just stick with our Panasonic HVX-200 and the beautiful images it produces.

Michael Alberts
Ambidextrous Productions, Inc.