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FCP is attempting 1:26 pre-roll to capture
Using FCP 6 on a G5 with Leopard, connected to a Sony M25 HDV deck via firewire. Attempting to capture HDV clips.
I have to use HDV firewire basic device preset usually to get successful batch captures, and 5 second preroll often doesn’t work, so I’ve been using 7 second preroll with good results. But suddenly I cannot capture any clips – regardless of what I have the pre-roll set at, the deck cues up to 1:26 (one second, 26 frames) back from the clip start, and then rolls to try to lock up and capture. Of course it cannot lock up that fast so capture is not happening. Plenty of preroll available on the tape and this happens on every clip throughout the tape.
Any ideas?
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2 Replies
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I got on the forum to find an explanation for what I believe is a similar problem. I shot HDV 1080i with my Canon XH-A1. I’m capturing with the HDV codec, NOT an intermediary like ProRes (although I may change my mind on that). During a batch capture of previously logged clips, I get the “error locating TC” warning with the option to continue or stop. I too thought this might have to do with preroll not being enough to get to “speed” (although I did not note the specific time of the preroll). I simply chose “continue” when I got the warning and I managed to get all my clips captured. HOWEVER, I often had to click “continue” several times for a single clip. Usually by the third attempt, it would work. I wasn’t changing anything else.
I’m suspecting this has to do with the device control and/or the long GOP structure of HDV. I’m using my camera as the playback device, so I imagine the motors and parts that read the tape are not as precise as a dedicated deck (maybe some sales guy told me that when explaining why decks were so expensive). Anyway, I found persistence paid off in my case. Still, I’d like to find a better solution because mine means I have to sit and monitor the batch capture, which sort of negates its advantages. -
The “error locating TC” problem is different, I believe. I do run into it sometimes. I believe I vanquished it by selecting a different device control preset (Basic HDV instead of Sony, as I recall).
I have found a work-around for my short pre-roll problem, though there will be times it may not work. I discovered that whatever pre-roll I was selecting in the device control settings, FCP was subtracting about 5 seconds from that. So I set an 11 second pre-roll and now FCP is doing about a 6 second pre-roll, the deck locks up and all works fine.
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