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[Matte] “You might want to Trash the FCP Preferences, then try turning the “

Oops!

Just sorta nodded off there.

Trash the FCP Preferences and then try the two DV capture settings again.

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[Toomy] “this is on the computer monitor. I do not have an external NTSC monitor. “

Well, that’s likely a big part of your problem.

You cannot judge image quality on the Canvas on the computer monitor.
It is, by design, presented in lower resolution and limited motion.

You need to judge quality on an external NTSC video monitor, and that can even be a standard “TV” connected via a camcorder and FireWire to the Mac.

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You can’t beat a mic-per-person.

If you don’t want to mix it “live” (the better option) then add another camcorder (any DV camcorder will do) and send the 5th mic into it’s input, then capture that cam’s audio and do the mix in post.

If you don’t want to use another camcorder, use any digital recording device and import that into your edit.

Any other kind of mic arrangement will offer you little help if one or two guests speak too softly or another guest has the “coughs” during the shoot.

A mic-per-guest (lav, or directional on the desk) offers the most options in post.

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Are you viewing on an external video monitor or on the computer monitor?

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Sounds like the camcorder’s tape-function is not being “controlled” by FCP.

Try this:
Under the “Capture Settings”
Switch the FCP Device Control preset to “FireWire Basic” (or “FireWire NTSC.”)

Try each one and see what happens.

If still no joy…
Switch the FCP Device Control preset to “Non-Controllable device” then, just manually hit PLAY on the camcorder and press “Capture Now” on FCP.

This should capture the audio and video and timecode into FCP, but without FCP controlling the camcorder.

Don’t know why the camcorder is not responding to FCP control.

You might want to Trash the FCP Preferences, then try turning the

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“Handles” are not something that you “add” to a clip.

What you want to do is “automatically” add an IN-point and an OUT-point to every captured clip in the Browser at a specific number of frames (say, 15) after the first frame of every clip and/or before the end frame of every clip.

Then, lay all the clips onto the timeline, in order, with those cut marks already on them.

And you want to do this without putting each raw clip into the Viewer.

I don’t know how to accomplish that in FCP or Avid.

(Once you do have all the clips on the timeline with suffcient handles, you CAN add the same transition to all the cut-points with a simple “all-at-once” function.)

In pro editing, the raw clips are generally much longer than the sections used in the final edit.

So the auto-marking of IN-points and OUT-points to RAW clips you describe is not generally needed or used for pro work.

The reason I suggested iMovie is that it can “see” every scene cut during capture and make each scene change (not just on start-stop) a new clip.
Then it can automatically adjust the clips on the timeline to allow for dissolves.
That iMovie can then be imported into FCP for further work.

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[Arniepix] “You need to manually hit Play on the deck if you use Capture Now.”

Not necessarily the case.

“Capture Now” will immediately roll the tape and start capture.

Of course, if you have the FCP deck control set to “non-controllable device” you must manually hit play.

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The first thing to always try is to Quit FCP, Restart the Mac, Open your FCP project and try again.

Next:
THE FOLLOWING COMES FROM THE KEN STONE WEBSITE:
“Over 5,000 years ago Confucius wrote: ‘If you are toiling away, you have changed nothing and FCP heads South on you, [starts behaving in strange ways] then it is time to trash your FCP Preferences.’ ”

Click the following link for instructions.

https://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/trashing_fcp_prefs.html

A great way to do this is to use “FCP Rescue” a free Apple Script that will Trash the Preferences for you (and restore nearly all of your user settings afterward).
There are versions for FCP (Pro) & FCE (Express) and a new one for FCP 5.

Download these free Apple Scripts at

https://fcprescue.andersholck.com/
or
https://pistolerapost2.com/fcprescue/

This is one FCP tip that has helped in solving hundreds of “odd” problems.

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I seem to remember that iMovie might do this easier.

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Is the deck in “remote control” mode?