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HDV, HVR-1500, and FCP problem
Howdy. I’ve been using FCP since version 1.0, and it seems like when I have a problem I can’t figure out on my own that it is never easy to get an answer…
I have not been able to get FCP to capture HDV from the HVR-1500 with either firewire or RS-422.
However – both Premiere Pro CS3 and Blackmagic Deck Control WILL capture HDV every time – perfectly, 100%, no errors.
My thought is that the FCP I/O driver for the HVR-1500 is written poorly.After attempting to explain the difficulties I am experiencing to several support personnel from Apple, Sony, and Blackmagic, I decided to create a short movie to illustrate the exact problem I am having attempting to capture HDV from the Sony HVR-1500 deck.
You can see the movie here:
https://homepage.mac.com/kenjones/iMovieTheater47.html
Thanks!
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3 Replies
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I forgot to add – I can capture DV via SD-SDI using RS-422 without any problem. It works 100% of the time.
But trying to capture HDV via HD-SDI with RS-422 (or even with HDV Firewire) is impossible.
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Ken, have you figured anything out with this? I am in a similar situation. We have rented in an HVR-1500 temporarily to capture with. I am having constant weird, intermitent, and unexplainable TC issues. When logged and captued on an M15U SDI and FW into a Kona 3 all is fine. When using the 1500 with RS-422 and SDI my in/outs are completely random; plus I only get a handle on the front about 50% of the time. Always have one on the end. I have tried everything I can think of. I am thinking it is the deck.
Scott Davis
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I have figured out very little. Sony was gracious enough to loan my VAR an HVR-1500A (the new version of the HVR-1500) and it performed EXACTLY the same as the HVR-1500. In other words it did not work correctly with FCP. The absolute worst part of all this for me is that I NEVER get an error message and FCP just captures whatever it wants and then does not update the time code numbers in my bin. It keeps the original time code numbers! So in other words I have no way of knowing if it actually captured the correct clip or if it randomly decided to begin capturing a few seconds later.
A couple of (lame) workarounds I have figured out:
1. Use at least a ten second pre-roll. This is not even practical in a lot of situations, but at least FCP backs up the deck far enough that the tape is still actually in pre-roll when it is pre-rolling. Unfortunately you still have to sit and watch the deck capture every single clip and make sure it is capturing the correct portion of the tape.
2. FCP performs more consistently if you utilize one of their easy setups. If you start changing the capture parameters (such as codec) the deck misses the mark more often.Keep in mind – all my tests have lead me to conclude that this is a FCP driver issue. The deck performs flawlessly with Premiere and with Blackmagic Deck Control. Doesn’t AJA have a similar program called “VTR Xchange”? Have you tried a test using this AJA outside of FCP?
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