Is JVC HM 700 compatible with final cut X ?

[Peter Dearmond]

I have the JVC HM700 (love this camera!) and I’ve recently started using FCPX. I’m not having any problems with jerky playback. In your playback preferences, is the playback quality set for “better performance”?

My workflow probably is typical: I copy the video files to an internal backup drive on my Mac before even launching FCPX. I have an external SATA RAID, and when I’m importing a file into FCPX I always save it to the RAID. All of my footage is shot at 720p60 (59.94) at HQ, 35 MB/s.

JVC had a good idea in promoting the fact that their cameras could save your footage as Quicktime files so you could import them directly into FCP, but everyone I know always backs up first. Anyway, the files the camera shoots certainly are compatible with FCPX.

[Don Smith]

I also have the JVC GY-HM700 camera. Also love this camera. No problems whatever in FCPX when set to shoot .MOV files. Do you have ATI or AMD acceleration?

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[Umberto Aguiar]

Many thanks to both of you. It is good to know that I am doing something wrong and the JVC is compatible. The camera is my livelihood and I was having nightmares because of this compatibility issue…I just can’t buy a new camera now and as much as I prefer fc 7 to X, I know that I need to walk forward, not backwards.

I take that you are talking about high def files? I have no problem playing down converted files, dv codec. It is just with high def files, xdcam codec, that I get the jerkiness and frozen images.

Are you working with Lion or Snow Leopard? I am using Lion 10.7.3 and am wondering if the whole problem is being caused by Lion.

I’m sorry but I don’t know what ATI acceleration is. I have an ordinary WD external hard drive. I tried to work with the files in the external hard drive or in my mac. The player is set to better performance.
I tried optimising and proxy. I followed Apple’s recommendation and downloaded XDCAM transfer but I can not even “add source” because I can not select the files. They just don’t highlight.

I know two things for sure: There is nothing wrong with the files because they play perfectly, high def, on final cut 7.
If I down convert the files to standard they play just fine on fc X. If I try to work with them on high def, xdcam ex codec, they
are useless.

Please let me know if you are working with mac os Lion and high def files on sdhc cards. If you are, did you have to follow any steps in order to work with the JVC and fc X?

[Peter Dearmond]

There’s no issue that I’ve heard of with Lion (I’m also using 10.7.3). I don’t think XDCAM Transfer is needed at all — I’ve certainly never used it.

Sounds to me like the jittery video is related more to trying to use a single external drive for playback. For example, my array (RAID 0) is four drives connected to a Sonnet Tempo E4P card. Moves the data really fast and I have zero playback problems. I’d recommend getting a drive array and a dedicated PCIe card for processing.

You can build your own array (that’s what I did) and get an enclosure and card from very helpful folks at MacGurus (https://www.macgurus.com)

[Don Smith]

If the files didn’t play fine in FCP7 I would agree that you have a bottleneck to your external hard drive but that can’t be if the files are doing fine in FCP7.

I also am running Lion on an old Mac Pro 1,1 but what helped greatly is having an ATI Radeon HD 5770 graphics card in it. Before the ATI card I had an nVidea card and I described FCPX as “running like a stubborn mule”. Replacing the nVidea card with an ARI card made a huge difference.

FCP7 does not take advantage of graphics card acceleration and it also only uses one core of the main processor, yet your video runs fine with FCP7.

FCPX uses Open CL (that’s what my ATI card provides) to make use of the graphics card processor for acceleration. FCPX will also use all available processor cores.

So what gives? I can only think you have an nVidea graphics card that hobbles FCPX. Maybe. Worth checking.

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[Umberto Aguiar]

Thank you so much for your answer. I will buy a Raid but will need to wait until next month…
I’m thinking in either a G Raid or a WD with Raid. I prefer to buy like that instead of building my own,
just in case it doesn’t stop the jittering and I need to return it.

Larry Jordan, in his excellent book on fc X, recommends working with Raid for better performance and I was considering buying a Raid, although my idea was to buy one by the end of summer, after the Olympics.

But I have a serious problem with Raids: Mobility. The main job I do is news and many times I edited in a crowded Starbucks. I work for TVs from different countries. Some work with 4×3 and standard files are playing fine on fc X. But most European TVs are 16×9 and the best workflow is to capture high def, edit high def and convert the finished story to 16×9 standard. I could just down convert straight to 16×9 but then it is real time and time is one precious thing when you are running against a deadline.

Besides, this way I have the story in two files: one high def and one standard. I also want to use archive high def images that I keep in a small WD passport. But there is more. Just another day I shot a corporate video for a website. Of course, I shot it high def. The director wanted to see the footage in my laptop…I used fc 7 and can’t even think of how embarrassing would be if I had tried fc X.

All that said, if I need a Raid in order to properly play high def files in fc X then fc X is not really for me and I feel cheated by Apple. Apple is very arrogant but they went too far when they created a super upgrade of iMovie and called it final cut pro X.
One thing that puzzles me is that I have no problem playing high def files from Ms Weynand book on fc X. Maybe the problem I am having is not related to hard drive storage.

I contacted JVC about this situation but, so far, they are hanging me out to dry. I can not buy another camera otherwise I would just buy a P2 and edit on Adobe. I work with sdhc cards but if I buy a SxS card I guess that I will be able to edit on Adobe. Lion
deleted the original SxS software that comes with the JVC but I downloaded the new SxS driver and Lion accepted it. I just got a free trial of Adobe production premium and if I can work with my camera there, then I will try to get a refund from Apple.

I apologize for writing such a long post but I am doing nothing since monday but try to sort this compatibility problem.

[Umberto Aguiar]

Thank you for your post, Don. It is very informative and helpful. It also made me laugh, the stubborn mule thing. First time I laughed whilst dealing with fc X.

My macbook pro is mid 2009, 7200 rpm, 3.06 GHz intel core duo processor, memory 4 GB and the graphic is indeed NVIDIA GeForce 9400 M 256 MB. But it is a macbook pro and I need to check if there is a ATI card for laptops.

[Umberto Aguiar]

Thank you for your post, Don. It is very informative and helpful. It also made me laugh, the stubborn mule thing. First time I laughed whilst dealing with fc X.

My macbook pro is mid 2009, 7200 rpm, 3.06 GHz intel core duo processor, memory 4 GB and the graphic is indeed NVIDIA GeForce 9400 M 256 MB. But it is a macbook pro and I need to check if there is a ATI card for laptops.

[Don Smith]

I think you have the model where you have two graphics cards but to get the more powerful one you have to manually engage it in the preferences. I helped a friend recently with poor performance and I found that she hadn’t enabled the more powerful graphics card in her preferences. The more powerful graphics card is intended to be used when the laptop is plugged in but you have to tell preferences to use it.

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[Umberto Aguiar]

Don, I love you!

I changed my graphics card from NVIDIA 9400 to 9600 in the energy saver from preferences. I imported one high def file, an interview that previously I couldn’t play properly, and this time the interview plays just fine, all the words are there…The jerking and freezing are gone!

I’m glad that I don’t need to go through the hassle of getting my money back from Apple.
i did check the minimum requirements and my mac meets them but Apple , that I also contacted, never suggested that I would need to change my graphics card. Really, they should know better but their “specialist” on fc X I talked too knew less than I did…

Now I can work with fc X. I like some of its features but I do prefer fc 7. Motion 5 seems to be far better than motion 4 so I will start to work with fc X instead of fc 7. But I will try Adobe and if I can work with the JVC there then Adobe will be my main editing platform. They have this fantastic promotion for Avid Symphony now but I doubt very much that the JVC, SxS cards , would work with Avid.

Adobe or fc X, I will get a Raid as soon as I can afford this extra expense.

Well, that’s it. Problem solved. Thanks again, Don.