V1U Capture Multibridge Pro Prores

[Joshua Helling]

Hello Bruce,

Well, definitive is sort of a hard answer to give without having tested this model of camera in this way. We may not always have a yes or no answer to give. But refusal to help, is just not our style.

What I can tell you is that this can work. We have done it in house on our Canon HV-20 as well as our Sony HC-3s. Once we get them configured to work, they work nicely.

Though getting them setup can be a bit problematic. Also, it is important to bear in mind that when set up like this, device control is done purely through FCP and the internal firewire port on the Mac and doesn’t interface at all with the Blackmagic Board. So outside of helping each person try to get this to work, it is out of our hand.

We do our best to help people get setup to do this, but it simply does not work on all cameras. So in that regard, a definitive answer is indeed difficult.

So here are some tips that may help you out. There is some oddness in using the HDV to control the camera in FCP with an external video I/O board. Because of that you have to change the device control preference to DV in FCP. When you open the capture window you can change the device control option from “None” to “generic DV”

So changing the preset is the easy part. Once that is done, you have to make sure the camera is set correctly. To do that you have to access the settings and change the Firewire output to DV (instead of HDV).

Once the camera mode is changed you may (will) have to close Final Cut and restart it. This is where it gets tricky. If the computer connects to the camera as an HDV device it will not work properly (you can confirm by checking the system profiler). If it is connected as HDV, try rebooting the camera, detaching the camera and reconnecting it, and if that still doesn’t work, reboot the computer (you shouldn’t need to though).

Once you can see in system profiler that the camera is connected in DV mode then you can reopen FCP. Now when you open the capture window you will have device control (provided you changed the device control setting as mentioned above).

If all went to plan you should now be able to set up a batch list.

Remember, this works on some cameras, not on all, and we’ve never done it with your particular one. This setup is using functionality that doesn’t involve our boards directly, so we can never guarantee that every camera will work this way (some can’t set firewire output to DV and still do HD out of component/HDMI.

I hope the information about if helpful in getting your camera set up to work the way you want. Not trying to pass the buck, but device control is really controlled by FCP and not us in this case.

As for whether or not we need some help in our support department, I am always willing to accept applications. But a large part of this job requires being able to communicate without being rude. 😉

Sincerely,

Joshua
Director of Support
Blackmagic Design Inc.

[Bruce Fraser]

Thanks Joshua for the thoughtful answer. A simple “let me send you an email about this issue” would have been sufficient for me when talking to tech support on the phone. I hardly ever call any support for anything so I was a little shocked as to the response. It’s one thing to say “it’s Apple’s issue” it’s another kind of response to TRY and help, which you did. I do truly appreciate it. That’s a sign that you know what you’re doing and that you know support is a bit of a game. I really liked your response… All of it.

I apologize for being rude. I’ll do my best to not let my frustration get the best of me in the future.

Thank you so much,
Bruce

[Joshua Helling]

No worries Bruce,

I hope the information helped. My comment was meant more tongue-in-cheek than anything else.

I can completely understand the frustration when you as a customer call no joy and have to call support then feel like you didn’t get the help you needed.

And sometimes it takes a strongly worded post, or letter to get the attention of someone who can help.

That said, please feel free to contact us for anymore help with this. I don’t get to get on the forums as often as I would like, so I may not respond very fast here.

Sincerely,

Joshua
Director of Support
Blackmagic Design Inc.

[Bruce Fraser]

Yes, I understood. 😉
Once again, I truly appreciate the response. I know how it goes, I’ve been in your shoes.

As soon as I have time I’ll try your suggestion and post how it went. In time you’ll see me helping others out on this forum once I get used to how it all works.

Thank you,
Bruce