[Evan Mcintosh]

The original code on DVCPROHD is 29.97, even if you’re shooting 24p. So you can make a downconverted DVCAM with this original code (both window burn and on the LTC track) and all should be well for most workflows (although I think working with downconverts is an unnecessary pain in most cases).

There is a mode on the 1200 and 1400 VTRs that will allow them to output 1080/23.98psf and manufactured 23.98 TC. It will not output firewire; I’m not sure if it outputs SD-SDI in this mode.

So to answer your question…I don’t think you can have a dub with both kinds of code, but do you really need it?

Evan McIntosh
McIntosh Productions LLC
Atlanta, GA

[Evan Mcintosh]

Last time I tried loading DVCPROHD on a G4 laptop, even with Cardbus firewire card, I wasn’t able to get it to work properly–sometimes it would be fine, sometimes it wasn’t. I think you could do it at one point long ago (and 24fps was much more reliable than 60), but my guess is additional overhead of OS and FCP updates prevents it from working now.

One more thing to try is to flip the busses that camera and drives are on, or even attempt loading to the internal HD. I profiled FW disk performance via the additional firewire bus once on my former laptop (the last G4 Powerbook) and it was quite abysmal…

You octocore should make life much more pleasant.

Evan McIntosh
McIntosh Productions LLC
Atlanta, GA
HDX900 owner/operator

[Evan Mcintosh]

You’re welcome. Glad you got it sorted out.

Evan McIntosh
McIntosh Productions LLC
Atlanta, GA
HDX900 owner/operator

[Evan Mcintosh]

What happens if you turn off device control (non-controllable device) in FCP? Are you able to load?

Also, watch the timecode when playing back the problem tape on the camera’s side display and in the log and capture window. Do you notice anything abnormal?

Evan McIntosh
McIntosh Productions LLC
Atlanta, GA
HDX900 owner/operator

[Evan Mcintosh]

The HALF setting is synonymous with a 180 degree shutter–and is thus a very useful feature. Exposure time is half the reciprocal of fps, so at 24fps HALF yields a 1/48 shutter, at 60fps HALF yields a 1/120 shutter.

If you have the shutter turned off in 24p, then the exposure time will be 1/24 of a second (360 degree) which gives you way too much motion blur for most circumstances.

Evan McIntosh
McIntosh Productions LLC
Atlanta, GA
HDX900 owner/operator

[Evan Mcintosh]

This is a well known issue. The audio sync with firewire seems to relate to system speed, i.e. a new Mac Pro will be much closer to being in sync than a G4. Captures on my Mac Pro are right on. Capturing HD-SDI with Kona on a current computer will also elminate this as an issue.

Also note that older Varicams lay sound to tape a couple frames off. There is a menu selection in the H model that fixes this.

Evan McIntosh
McIntosh Productions LLC
Atlanta, GA
HDX900 owner/operator

[Evan Mcintosh]

Hmmm…having the Kona remove 1080 pulldown works for me, although it isn’t a workflow I would want to use regularly. The key is to have properly calibrated deck control (for me it’s -1 in VTR Exchange and FCP) and begin capture on A frames (00 or 05 multiples). This means some manual labor to make sure all in’s land on a 00 or 05 frame and batch captures only. I have tested this in FCP and Kona VTR Exchange. I imagine it would also work for film telecined to 1080i29.97 (assuming A frames land in the right place), but I haven’t tested it.

Just to be clear, using the 1400 VTR to convert material into 1080/23.98psf doesn’t have these caveats.

Evan McIntosh
McIntosh Productions LLC
Atlanta, GA
HDX900 owner/operator

[Evan Mcintosh]

I’d say “downconvert” isn’t the right word to describe what’s happening…

Fundamentally, 1080p24 with the HDX (unlike an F900), images are always written to tape at 1080i29.97 with either a 2:3:2:3 (std) or 2:3:3:2 (advanced) pulldown. So in order to edit, you can either choose to stay with 29.97 and keep the inherint pulldown (do this for standard pulldown only) or extract only the original 23.98 frames and edit in a 23.98 timeline–which has some very nice benefits.

There are several methods to removing pulldown:
-remove advanced pulldown over firewire
-switch deck to 23.98 and load via Kona 23.98psf preset over HD-SDI
-use Kona card to remove standard pulldown on ingest over HD-SDI
-load material as 29.97 over firewire or HD-SDI and use Cinema Tools (Reverse Telecine) or After Effects to eliminate the pulldown. This is your only option with tapes already shot with standard pulldown and only a firewire connection. It’s also a pain compared with other methods.

With the Kona, you can choose to capture/edit in the DVCPROHD codec, ProRes, or Uncompressed.

Evan McIntosh
McIntosh Productions LLC
Atlanta, GA
HDX900 owner/operator

[Evan Mcintosh]

It should be pretty straightforward, but something’s awry. It very well could be something in the camera, as I’ve found the 24psf HDSDI method to be pretty foolproof with various sources…SD and HD, standard pulldown and advanced.

On the camera:
In the VTR section of the menus, look at TC/UB. TC MODE should be NDF (I don’t think it’ll let you shoot 24p as DF, but just to be safe…), VITC UB MODE should be FRM RATE. In the OPTION menu, FRAME RATE UB should be FRAME RATE.
You might also try initializing the camera settings (you can save a copy of current settings to a card if you want to go back), then reselect 1080/24PA from the system mode menu.

On the VTR:
Try initializing the deck settings as well to eliminate any weirdness. To load via firewire, keep the system frequency at 59/60. To load over HDSDI, change the system frequency to 23/24.

In FCP:
To load over firewire, choose the DVCPROHD 1080pA capture preset and DVCPROHD firewire deck control. It’s best to capture shorter clips with this method. Loading full tapes will sometimes abort and give you a VFR cadence break warning.

To load over HDSDI, choose AJA KONA 3- 1080psf 23.98 DVCPRO HD easy setup (make sure it’s PSF not regular P). Change device control to Panasonic 23.98 VTR. If you have a monitor that can display 23.98psf, then take a look and see if something strange is going on with the motion (if it’s a CRT, it’ll be flickery, but just look at the motion rendering).

Check the captured clips to make sure that as you go frame-by-frame, there are no duplicate frames or jumps. Put into a sequence that is set to the DVCPROHD 1080p 23.98 preset. (Aside: one of the sequence presets is wrong/mismatched out of the box in FCP 6, I think. They introduced a 1080p30 version of the DVCPROHD codec, but captured material is still loaded with the 1080i29.97 flavor of the codec. There should be no render bars at all.) Generally for editing, you’d set your Kona output to 1080i/29.97 and have it add pulldown on the way out for viewing.

That should be everything, but report back and let me know what you find.

Evan McIntosh
McIntosh Productions LLC
Atlanta, GA
HDX900 owner/operator

[Evan Mcintosh]

Actually, you can capture to native 24p using firewire–assuming you are shooting 720p24 or 1080pA (advanced pulldown only–you cannot remove standard 1080 pulldown directly using firewire). Use 59/60 in the 1400 menus and select the appropriate capture preset in FCP.

For 1080p29.97 over firewire, just select the 1080p30 capture preset in FCP. The signal output by the camera or deck is really an interlaced stream, but that is inconsequential when dealing with 30p.

I don’t understand your question about the camera downconverting 23.98.

Evan McIntosh
McIntosh Productions LLC
Atlanta, GA
HDX900 owner/operator