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serious 720P24 HDV L&C malfunction
The HDV logging window is incapable of actually reading 23.98 timecode through Firewire. It only counts in 30 frame increments, not 23.98. This means that it creates clips that have a clip frame rate that is different from the clip timecode base. This creates unfixable problems. 24P 720 HDV through firewire is completely dead in the water.
You can’t reset the timecode rate of an offline clip in the Item Properties until its captured, so you can’t log it, change the tc rate then capture. Or at least this version won’t. That means you can’t fix the inconsistency before attempting capture.
Then, it actually captures the wrong set of video frames, since its counting time differently than the deck is (one of the weirdest looking things I’ve seen in an edit studio). If you load a tape and step through the frames, you’ll see the deck move to the next second while FCP is still adding frames to the previous second. Do the math, six extra frames per second and extra second every four seconds. Holy crap!
This means that even if you DO capture the clip and then change the tc rate, you’d have the wrong frames anyway. It also means that recapturing a previously edited but offline sequence yields wildly incorrect clips. This may be at the root of a lot of the problems FCP6 is having with TC slipping for some users. And it means you can kiss recapturing previously edited but offline sequences (for safety) or traditional uncompressed onlining strategies (for efficiency or quality) goodbye.
This is a deal breaker.
It worked in the last version. I know because I’ve spent the day trying to recapture a project from the previous version that was completed from soup to nuts; I’ve tried from every possible angle on two different systems. I then burnt a huge amount of time trying to accurately log and capture ANY 720 P 24 HDV through Firewire. The problems are consistent.
At this point this is more of a warning to other 720P24 HDV users than a plea to Apple, who apparently never did any testing with this format in FCP 6. Back your media up to the teeth if you’re using this format, because recapture may not be an option. At minimum, be prepared to run back to 5.1.2, because it ain’t happening in FCP 6 yet.
And PLEASE, do not reply back to this post telling me not to use HDV or telling me to check for drop frame/non-drop frame timecode. When the Easy Setup is set for JVC 720 24P and the deck and L&C window show totally different TC values, we can safely say that FCP is busted. And frankly, if Apple is going to put this format in there, its got to work, there’s no halfway.
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OK, so after going back into 5.1.2, I found that it was logging all those clips with 30 tc numbers but pulling the phantom frames out in the clip tc. So that part is not different. But the problem still persists for the full batch capture, and a lot of small test captures.
Starting to get a a little dizzy.
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