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Multiclip not working with HDV
This is my first foray into using FCP to edit tapes shot in HDV. I’m editing a concert piece shot with three cameras on HDV (Sony). I’ve read as much as I could find on the posts about this including Jerry Hoffman’s recent article in the Creative Cow magazine. I captured using Apple Intermediate Codec and think I set everything up ok. The clips will play nicely individually (looks awesome) but when I set up the multiclip it doesn’t work. I can see all three camera angles in the viewer ok but when I start playing the timeline, they disappear and just the clip that was up shows. When I stop, then all three angles show again. I can do a barely crawling shuttle with the arrow keys but it’s ineffective and plodding – will take forever. Also, even when I do make cuts, doing it that slow way, all of the remaining clip at that point falls out of render. So, I have to render the remaining before my next cut, and so on. I did complete a sample minute or so, using the plodding method, and it played fine and looked wonderful. (BTW, editing in DV works wonderful and smooth).
My drives have plenty of room and I’ve done most of the usual computer checks for that things tht slow it down. Everything checks out. Any ideas? Am I missing a step or is this the problem with HDV in FCP? I know the articles and posts said it is difficult but they never mention this and this is way too difficult. Is there any way to offline it and bring it back online with the HDV? Do I have to have a Kona card or is there another option?
Thanks in advance for any help you can give.
Equipment:
G5 dual 2.5 ghz, 3.5 Gb DDr SDRAM, OSX 10.4.8
FCP5 Studio, v5.0.4, 500 GB Lacie Firewire HDs (2 250 gb drives) -
7 Replies
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You need to learn how to use multicamera editing. You do NOT play the viewer, you play the timeline with playhead sync set to open.
All the best,
Tom
Author: “Final Cut Pro 5 Editing Essentials” and “Final Cut Express 2 Editing Workshop” Class on Demand “Complete Training for FCP5” and “Final Cut Express Made Easy” DVDs
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Thanks, Tom for your input. I misspoke; it was late and I was tired. I have been multicamera editing for some time. I’ve cut many projects in DV and the process has been seamless. I really meant that when I “play the timeline” and “with playhead sync set to open,” the viewer switches from showing the three camera angles in the viewer to just the current angle showing in the entire viewer. And it plays smoothly but I only see the one angle. When I stop playing the timeline, the three camera angles again show up in the viewer. That’s what I can’t figure out and, of course, can’t edit using multiclip. If I advance the timeline, using the left/right arrow keys, it moves ahead only a few plodding frames at a time (both in the viewer and on the canvas) and when I do that, then the three camera angles remain showing in the viewer and I can very slowly make cuts but that defeats the purpose of the multiclip. Plus, as I mentioned, after each cut, I need to re-render the remainder of the clip because it becomes unrendered.
Anyway, thanks again for your suggestion. I’ll keep trying and continuing to learn the HDV workflow.
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If your timeline is rendered, multiclips will not play.
You will only see one angle when you play the timeline
even with “open” selected.
That may be your problem.Dan
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Thanks, Dan. I’ll give that a try.
Mike
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I am having the same problem as Mike but do not have any rendering at all on my clips. At least not yet. I’ve followed the instructions in FCP Pro manual on optimizing the system for multiclip but still the three angles I want to use do not play simultaneouly. Could it be a problem with using HDV Cam? I’m also running a blackmagic card within FCP Pro. The footage was shot with freerunning timecode and yet it does not sync. How is that possible?
I need help desperately as the project needs to be finished ASAP for broadcast.
PLEASE HELP!!!
Olga
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I don’t know if this solves your problem, but I had a problem like this and managed to find a simple solution. Here’s what I did…
The culprit was a mismatched RT preference setting (which can be changed by clicking the little “RT” pulldown menu that’s on the far left side of the timeline window.) For some reason, I had defaulted that setting to “Safe RT,” when it wants to be set to “Unlimited RT.” That worked for me but I have no idea why. Let me know if this helps!
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I edit multiclips in HDV often. Corporate gigs, dance performances, etc. – generally we use 2 HVR-Z1U cameras and a HVR-Z7U. 99% of the time it works flawlessly, but every now and then I have this same problem and have never foundd a reasonable explaination for it, so that leads me to believe there must be some weird little glitch that no one has ever been able to pin down. Obviously, since I am visiting this forum again right now, the problem has arisen again. I tried changing the RT setting as Ben lays out above and … Voila! It still has an orange bar above it, and the canvas picture looks like absolute crap while it plays back, but I can edit it, and that’s what matters right now. THANK YOU, BEN!
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