HDV firewire

[Tom Wolsky]

Sounds like you have the camera switched to iLink or something to downconvert your media.

Is there some reason you don’t provide full specs of your system and devices.

All the best,

Tom

Class on Demand DVDs “Complete Training for FCP6,” “Basic Training for FCS2” and “Final Cut Express Made Easy”
Author: “Final Cut Pro 5 Editing Essentials” and “Final Cut Express 4 Editing Workshop”

[Neil Weaver]

Thanks for responding.

I’m using a Canon XH A1 camcorder, into FCP 6.0.5, running on a MacBook Pro with 2.6 GHz Intel Core Duo, 4Gb memory.

I’m just switched off the HDV downconvert setting on the camera, see if that makes a difference

[Neil Weaver]

Switching off HDV downconvert has made no difference…

[Tom Wolsky]

Are you set to iLink output?

Please give your full system specifications, what computer, what drives, what camera or deck, how everything’s connected, what settings are on the media, what settings you’re using in Final Cut, and finally what version of the software, of the OS, and of QuickTime are you using

All the best,

Tom

Class on Demand DVDs “Complete Training for FCP6,” “Basic Training for FCS2” and “Final Cut Express Made Easy”
Author: “Final Cut Pro 5 Editing Essentials” and “Final Cut Express 4 Editing Workshop”

[Neil Weaver]

Canon XH A1 camcorder, recording HDV at 1080i50 PAL
FCP 6.0.5, running on a MacBook Pro, 2.6GHz Intel Core Duo, 4Gb memory

FCP settings:
Sequence Preset: DVPAL 48KHz Anamorphic
Capture Preset: DVPAL 48KHz
Device Control: Firewire PAL

I can’t find any settings on the camera to do with iLink, there’s just a firewire port on the back. Tried turning HDV downconvert off and it’s just given me a different error message – unable to control video deck. Won’t capture.

[Dave Blodgett]

I don’t think there are any iLink controls on the canon…

However, because you have HDV material, you should be setting the fcp capture to something like 1080i50 (or whatever is appropriate for the video you shot) and the deck control to Firewire Basic.

Also, I’ve found FCP to be pretty finicky about the order in which things are done. What works for me is to connect the canon via firewire to the mac.ensure nothing else is connected to the mac via firewire, then turn the camcrder on and set the dial to vcr/play. *Then* start FCP. If FCP is already open when you connect the camcorder to the mac, the success rate of fcp recognizing it is about 10% in my experience.

hope that helps,
-d

[Chris Poisson]

That camera requires that the playback standard be set to HDV in order to capture to FCP by any method. By default it’s set to Auto. This is in the camera’s manual. You must change the setting in the menu BEFORE you hook it up to the FireWire.

Have a wonderful day.

[Chris Poisson]

That camera requires that the playback standard be set to HDV in order to capture to FCP by any method. By default it’s set to Auto. This is in the camera’s manual. You must change the setting in the menu BEFORE you hook it up to the FireWire.

Have a wonderful day.

[Neil Weaver]

Playback set to HDV so it ain’t that.

I’ll try hooking it up in the order Dave suggested, but to be honest, I’m getting pretty pissed off trying to edit HDV in FCP. I’ve had some problem or other every time I’ve used it.

Can anyone suggest an alternative HD shooting format that doesn’t cost the earth and actually talks to FCP without the bullshit?

[Larry Asbell]

Today I was capturing from a PAL HDV tape and could not get FCP to recognize my deck. My Sony HDV deck is normally used with NTSC tapes so it puts out a 60i signal when the tape is not playing. So I played the 50i tape while FCP was booting and the deck was recognized over Firewire.

Had this not worked, I would have changed the 60i/50i setting in the settings menu, but for one PAL tape this got me by.

– Larry Asbell