Question for first time HD capture and edit

[Dan Riley]

I thought I had read somewhere here that FCP DOES NOT do drop frame with
720p sequences. It Does?

Based on Jeremy’s comments, here’s what I think I’ll do:
I’ll capture and edit using the easy setup KONA 3 DVCPRO HD 720p 23.98 Varicam setting. And I’ll have the 1400 deck set to a system sync of 59.94. I’ll set my Tri Level sync generator to 720p, 59.94.

It sounds like what FCP does in this case, is remove the extra frames
on the fly? So this approach will take up more space for the capture,
but otherwise should be fine. Yes?

Thanks,
Dan

[Jeremy Garchow]

Dan, I feel your pain. All this new stuff and no idea how it’s all going to pan out. Don’t worry, man, we will get you settled. You have a few things confused.

First of all, FCP 6.0.2 does in fact support 720p drop frame, but only @ 59.94 fps. 23.98 is never drop frame only non drop.

[Dan Riley] “It sounds like what FCP does in this case, is remove the extra frames on the fly?”

Yes.

[Dan Riley] “So this approach will take up more space for the capture,
but otherwise should be fine. Yes?”

Actually, no. After capture you will be left with only 23.98 frames per second. If you captured @ 59.94 (60 frames per second) you file sizes are bigger because you re capturing 60% more frames per second (24 vs 60). Make sense?

[Dan Riley]

Still a little confused, yes.
When I said FCP is removing the extra frames on the fly, I was talking about
during playback in the sequence, which is incorrect? You are saying the KONA 3 DVCPRO HD 720p 23.98 Varicam setting removes the extra frames during capture?

Sounds like using the Varicam setting makes a lot of sense, so why would someone what to use KONA 3 DVCPRO HD 720p 23.98 (the one without Varicam) setting?
While using this setting will give you the same results as above by removing the flagged frames during capture, it also wants to make a format called 1080sf23.98
as a result. Why do that?

Dan

[Walter Biscardi]

[Dan Riley] “I thought I had read somewhere here that FCP DOES NOT do drop frame with
720p sequences. It Does?”

With FCP 6.0.2 it now does. Three years after I started complaining about it. 🙂

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.

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