Will old formats Apple in the future?

[Jeremy Garchow]

Using a capture card and the proper drivers, you can can capture video without any NLE at all. You will need a capture card from AJA, Balackmagic, Matrox, etc, and the proper video deck.

[Clint Wardlow]

[Jeremy Garchow] “Using a capture card and the proper drivers, you can can capture video without any NLE at all. You will need a capture card from AJA, Balackmagic, Matrox, etc, and the proper video deck.”

Thanks Jeremy. This is an area I really need to increase my knowledge. I have basically been using vintage decks and inputting them into my Sony camcorder to create DV tapes. Being able to capture directly onto my computer would be a big help. You think I would know more about this considering I shoot in many old formats from pixelvision to betacam.

So as long as companies like AJA and Blackmagic are around and I can dig up the hardware (which is becoming increasingly more difficult with stuff like Betamax decks) I am still okay.

Apple and FCPX has nothing to do with it.

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Clint Wardlow] “I have basically been using vintage decks and inputting them into my Sony camcorder to create DV tapes. “

Direct capture would save you having to go to DV first. You will need the deck, and you might need a Timebase Corrector depending ont he footage, but it’s possible.

[Clint Wardlow] “Apple and FCPX has nothing to do with it.”

I am sure in a few minutes, you will get someone on here that says you won’t be able to capture tape into FCPX driectly, which is true, you will have to import after capturing. All capture companies now give away free software that will capture video without an NLE. Hopefully, the capture card companies with be able to hook right in to FCPX once “video monitoring” is available.

Jeremy

[Bill Davis]

Black Magic Design makes a little $150 dongle called the Video Recorder that takes analog composite video and audio via RCA and transcodes it directly to H-264 desktop files in a single step via any USB port.

Use any legacy deck with it you like.

Works great.

“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor

[Kevin Patrick]

I haven’t tried it myself, but …

Doesn’t FCP X support importing from tape based cameras/decks? Over firewire. Won’t that work for you? Obviously you need to run your analog device through a firewire deck or camera. For VHS, I use a full size DV deck.

I think another issue is what to do when all your old stuff stops working. VHS, Video 8, Hi8. Back in the day, I made “movies” with my friends on 8mm sound film. A few years ago we got together, I pulled out my old Elmo projector and the drive belt broke. Melted a few frames. I couldn’t find a replacement, but I’m not sure I would even risk it again. I finally got around to having them digitized. Shortly after that, I purchased one of Sony’s Hi8 portable decks. It takes both Hi8 and 8 and has firewire. You can still buy them, but I wonder for how long. I started capturing my old family videos (which I’ve put off for years), shot on those formats. Now that I have over 3TB of that stuff on a RAID 5 array, I wonder how long that will last?

Perhaps I missed the point to your post. Are you concerned that Apple might drop the existing firewire capture capability that FCP X currently has? Making it much more difficult to capture your old analog stuff?

I don’t think you have anything to worry about. Apple would never drop something like that. It’s too import, to too many of their customers. Just imagine if they did. You’d be hosed.

Surely Apple would never do such a thing.

[David Roth weiss]

[Kevin Patrick] “Apple would never drop something like that. It’s too import, to too many of their customers.”

Famous last words…

George Armstrong Custer said something similar to his cavalry troops too, and look what happened to them.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
https://www.drwfilms.com

Don’t miss my new Creative Cow Podcast: Bringing “The Whale” to the Big Screen:
https://library.creativecow.net/weiss_roth_david/Podcast-Series-2-MikeParfitandSuzanneChisholm/1

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

Creative COW contributing editor and a forum host of the Business & Marketing and Apple Final Cut Pro forums.

[Clint Wardlow]

[Kevin Patrick] “Perhaps I missed the point to your post. Are you concerned that Apple might drop the existing firewire capture capability that FCP X currently has? Making it much more difficult to capture your old analog stuff?”

I think my fear, assuaged somewhat by Jeremy, is that in the move to embrace all new and shiny technology, the rush towards a “tapeless” environment will make it impossible for folks like me that still embrace old technology as part of our palate. I consider myself an experimental filmmaker. I am not worried about loss of old analog tapes shot in the deep dark past, but stuff I create currently using old technology.

I still shoot using VHS or Betacam sometimes. I recently purchased a refurbished Mattel Pixelvision camera (but to be fair it was modified so it can record to another video source than the audio cassette originally used). I’ll even occasionally shoot using my Beauleau 4008 super8 film camera. It is not necessarily all about visual clarity with me. I like the feel you can get with old video and film cameras. Each format has a distinctive look that often creates a mood I seek.

I realize that this kind of puts me as the odd man out here as I am not usually shooting or cutting for a “client.” I create a lot of projection pieces for art openings and live band performances. Or I make many films that are not traditional or linear in nature. So I realize my needs are kind of specialized.

Sometimes I feel like one of those photographers that purposely works in large film formats and prints using wet collodion plates.

[Jeremy Garchow]

You’ll have to get a capture card. The good thing is, most capture cards will work on macs or windows, fcp legacy or PPro, even Avid, but less options on Avid, today, surely to change in the future. As has been mentioned, you can lay everything off to dv and use fcpx now.

[James Culbertson]

[Clint Wardlow] “Now what concerns me about Apple’s direction is the ability to work in old formats (which I do a lot for aesthetic reasons)will disappear or become increasingly harder. Maybe not. I don’t know.”

Software support is the least of your worries.

I’d be more concerned about the gradual disappearance of decks and particularly the shelf life of tapes. Similarly, at some point the i/o device makers will stop supporting analog i/o I would assume.

Get them into a digital format now, because I doubt you will have a usable tape in 10-20 years.

[Chris Harlan]

[James Culbertson] “I’d be more concerned about the gradual disappearance of decks and particularly the shelf life of tapes. Similarly, at some point the i/o device makers will stop supporting analog i/o I would assume.
“

Actually, I think you will find–if you take the time to consult vault managers–that tape has a far better shelf life than mechanical hard disks, and is still prized as the leading archival format, at least pre-Tsunami.