Recording to FCP/ New Hard disk recorder

[Lawrence Marshall]

I am currently on a project that involves shooting interviews in several cities, and am recording directly from the HVX 200 to FCP 4.5 on a 1.67ghz Powerbook. I am recording 480i 24p, 16:9 anamorphic, but since the client wants a tape backup I am recording in standard DV mode.

I purchased a SATA PCMCIA card from Granite Digital (about $50.00), and am recording to an external SATA drive. It is working flawlessly… recording lots of continuous takes 10 or 15 minutes long. At night we edit the interviews… no digitizing needed, of course, since I recorded directly to FCP on the laptop.

I’m going Firewire out of the camera to Firewire in on the laptop. In FCP I am using an “Easy Setup” for standard DV, and using “Capture Now” when I’m ready to start recording. Select “none” in the “Device Control” tab. Timecode from the camera when captured this way does NOT carry across to FCP, and hitting the “Record” button on the camera does not trigger FCP to “capture now” (at least I haven’t found a way to make it work). So I have to hit the “record” button on the camera to start the tape rolling, and hit “capture now” in FCP. Makes for a bit of mind-juggling to make sure you start recording on both, and also *stopping* both when you’re done with a take (so far I forgot to “Capture Now” in FCP only once… wound up digitizing the interview from tape later that night).

Hope this is helpful…

[Don Wilson]

Thanks Lawerence. Makes perfect sense. I’m unsure whether the camera will output the 720p/24 data stream via the firewire. I know at one point the firewire output was limited but I’ve also read that it has changed. I think at worst I’ll have to shoot in 720p/60 and have FCP do the pulldown during capture. Really anxious for the hard disk solution or at least reasonably priced P2 media.

Thanks again for contributing.

Don Wilson
AmericanaMediaInc.com

[Jeremy Garchow]

If you want to record straight to FCP in 720p24, you set your camera to 720p24 mode (not native) and that way the 24 flagged frames are sent over firewire in a 60p stream. Set up FCP in the DVCPRO HD 720p24 easy setup and then FCP will remove the redundant frames upon capture. Your camera has to be rolling first before hitting capture now. Timecode is not picked up this way, which might or might not be important to you.

Jeremy

[Don Wilson]

Jeremy, thanks very much. This make total sense. I think the CitiDisk unit I’m
anxiously awaiting has to do the same until Panasonic releases a couple of
codec items to them and they can implement all DvcProHD and variable recording formats
onto the disk drive. My camera arrives tomorrow and will try your suggestd
setup. I too am a SATA fan but am hoping to record to a FW800 7200 rpm
16mg cache drive in the field. It should be ok and I’ll transfer to our big
raids when I get back to LA. I’m probably going to shot 20-30 hours of stuff in 720p/24 so I have a feeling I’ll
be buying more drives via the internet while we’re down there shooting.

Thanks for the clear info.

Don Wilson
AmericanaMediaInc.com

[Gary Adcock]

[Don Wilson] ” I think the CitiDisk unit I’m
anxiously awaiting has to do the same until Panasonic releases a couple of
codec items to them and they can implement all DvcProHD and variable recording formats
onto the disk drive.”

Don
it is the nature of the HVX200 the content coming out of the FW port will always be in video stream mode NOT MXF.
VIdeo traveling over FW must conform to the SMPTE spec of the format you are shooting — which all equal 60 frames/fileds per second depending on your chosen format.

Join us at the NAB FCPUG SUPERMEET
Wed April 26th @ the RIO for details go to https://www.lafcpug.org/nab_2006.html

[Chris Baldwin]

So I just wanted to be clear…

The Citidisk press release says it records the MXF via Firewire. Really? The full P2 MXF or the metadata less Firestore MXF?

Chris Baldwin
Shoulder High Productions
Media of the World; For the World!
https://www.shoulderhigh.com
newsletters@shoulderhigh.com

[Gary Adcock]

[Chris Baldwin] “The Citidisk press release says it records the MXF via Firewire. Really? The full P2 MXF or the metadata less Firestore MXF?”

The FW connection on the HVX200 can only send a SMPTE standard video signal while in the record / Playback mode.

MXF data is NOT passed down the FW or USB chain at the same time as the video is.

MXF data CAN be transfered( ie:copied) from a P2 card in the camera via FW but not while the camera is in a recording mode.

Join us at the NAB FCPUG SUPERMEET
Wed April 26th @ the RIO for details go to https://www.lafcpug.org/nab_2006.html

[Barry Green]

[Chris Baldwin] “The Citidisk press release says it records the MXF via Firewire. Really? The full P2 MXF or the metadata less Firestore MXF?”

With all due respect to the Citidisk people… um… well, I’ll believe it when I see it, and when someone else has been using it for a good three months and reports that it works reliably.

Right now there’s confusion over whether it records DVCPRO-HD at all, or whether it only allows P2 offloading of DVCPRO-HD.

But: if they’re claiming that it can actually capture live DVCPRO-HD, and that it stores it in MXF format, then the only way it can do that is if it creates its own MXF file. The streaming format from the camera is AV/C, not SBP2. The metadata that gets associated with the MXF files on the P2 cards is not transmitted via the firewire when streaming; only the SMPTE-compliant AV/C stream is fed live over the firewire.

—————–
Get the most from your DVX camera. The DVX Book and DVX DVD are now available on ebay and at Amazon (https://www.fiftv.com/db)

[Don Wilson]

The more I look into this CitiDisk product the more questions I have. They are not real clear on what they really record onto HD.

I’m expecting my camera delivery any minute now so this question may be pre-mature……..but is it true that I can record 720p DVCProHD directly into my Final Cut HD system via Firewire? Man, if not I’m in trouble. As I understand it. I can shoot 720p/60i out of the camera and have FCP do the 3:2 pulldown into 720p/24. I’ve set this workflow up as a temporary measure until there is reliable/affordable HD storage. I did order 2 4g P2 cards but am getting ready to start shooting a documentary in hurricane ravaged Mississippi and hope not to have to keep downloading every several minutes.

All this information is very appreciated by the way.

Don Wilson
AmericanaMediaInc.com

[Barry Green]

Yes you can set the camera in 720/24P mode and capture directly in FCP. FCP will strip out the duplicate frames and record 720/24p directly.

—————–
Get the most from your DVX camera. The DVX Book and DVX DVD are now available on ebay and at Amazon (https://www.fiftv.com/db)