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Export the Batch list and save it if you want.

Its easy to reopen it in FCP (or Excel) if you ever need to.

But why NOT just “back up the whole project”?

Its a very small file.

You, of course, don’t need to back up the captured media, just the project which contains all of your info.

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The audio is, by default, MUTED to the Mac’s speaker output during Log and Capture.

You should normally monitor the audio directly from the camcorder or deck you are using to capture.

NOTE:
Many people have reported that noise or “pops” appear in the captured clips if the Mac’s internal audio is left on WHILE capturing… so may want to choose “Off During Capture.”

However, there is a way you can turn ON the Mac’s speaker if you really WANT to:

Final Cut Pro (menu) > Audio/Video Settings… > Capture Presets (tab)

“Duplicate” the Capture Preset you are now using, when the window opens rename it (I added “MacAudioOn” to the file name).

Click open the “Advanced” button in the Audio section and turn speakers to “ON during Capture.”
The Mac speakers/audio-out will now play Audio during the preview in the Log and Capture window.

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[steveq] “It just seems strange that I have to resample anything off CD to 48K before I use it?”

You need to do this in most high-end NLEs.

Avid does it (and it is SLOW) at the time you import from a CD track.

I just automatically convert a CD track to 48 kHz using iTunes BEFORE I drop that new audio file into FCP.
(and it is FAST!)

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[kefar] “So if I shoot a wedding or long event I’ll have to make a tape change in the middle. I’d really prefer the Panasonic but I’d hate to run out of tape in the middle of a ceremony…does that make sense?”

Using a FireStore (or similar) FireWire HD (“tapeless aquisition”) record unit would allow you to record up to the limits of the drive in the unit you chose to purchase.
https://www.focusinfo.com/products/firestore/fs-4.htm

Or, there’s always the technique of connecting a second camcorder via FW to the FW output of the first camcorder.
At approx. the 1-hour mark, you’d just put the second camcorder into the record mode and it would continue on the second tape for another hour.
This method will work with ANY FW camcorder, even an inexpensive “home video” 1-CCD type.
Since all you are using the second camera for is its “tape deck” section, the CCD quality does not come into play… the quality of the DV tape recording it makes will be identical (image-wise) to your main camcorder.
I have bought many of these “back-up” DV camcorders, used, for around $175 each (Pawn shops, eBay).

There’s also the use of 80 minute DV tapes.
I have used these “thinner” tapes many times and had no problems, but there is always the risk of having a failure due to the more fragile nature of a thinner tape.

On the IMAGE side, the PD250 (basically a PD150 which only records on the large-size DV tapes) will have a much better image in low-light situations than the Panny. If you shoot in “natural light” for many events, this might be a serious consideration.

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Have you tried first opening (and maybe re-saving) those PC files in your Mac Photoshop?

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[boardrider] “The tape plays glitch free on all four decks when you listen straight out of monitor, but as soon as it goes through firewire and into “log and Capture” the recorderd waveforms have visual dropouts. I didn’t have one dropout using the DSR-25 though – same tape.”

This does not really change my answer.

The error-correction (sent to the analog outputs) in a playback deck or camcorder can compensate for many drop-outs and mistracking.
But the FW output could come more “directly” from the tape (no compensation).

And any given deck’s heads might track a particular tape better than other players.

But problems like this can be symptomatic of many things (like a “cough and fever” in humans).

If you don’t like one answer, you can seek a second opinion.

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[boardrider] “I have random, but consistent audio dropouts (1-2 frames at a time) when I am bringing in a voice track.”

I’m lost.

You have the voice track on DV tape and it drops out playing in from the TAPE?

Or the audio drops out going TO the tape from FCP?

(Two very different things.)

If its FROM the deck, it sure sounds like a “glitchy” recorded tape (dub the master to another TAPE via FW and capture from the copy.)

If its dropping out in FCP, perform an audio Mixdown.

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[bockos] “Create one map with the line, one map without the line. Apply a simple wipe left to right, or right to left and you have your animation.”

Oh bockos, you’re just thinking like a “TV Guy”.

In Digital Post Production, we LIKE to use lots of Alpha Channels and Layers and Filters and cool stuff like that.

😉

(from another “TV Guy”)

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Of course you can use ANY properly operating composite Routing Switcher… if you are satisfied with composite video quality.
But today’s multitude of superior signal systems means that composite is usually the LOWEST quality transfer.

Hence, many edit houses use passive Patch-Bays to take advantage of the highest quality signals at a much lower cost than equivalent (multi-format) Routing Switchers.
And there’s no worry that an “interior component” in an active Routing Switcher (most have many internal DAs) will degrade the signal (or fail outright).

There are many configurations of Patch Bays that allow you to patch: composite, component, S-Video, SDI, FW, TC, audio, sync… anything that goes via a cable.

You send as many outputs/inputs as you want from/to decks, monitors, transcoders, DA’s and other gear to one central (well-labeled) patch-bay, and you can hook “anything to anything”.

Even locations that HAVE a routing switcher (left over from “all composite” days) just use it now to route to monitors in various rooms and for making VHS dubs and the like.

https://www.atis.org/tg2k/_patch_bay.html

https://home.flash.net/~motodata/patchbays/right.html

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[Matthew] “but my timecode is slowly drifting”

From where to WHERE??