[Jerry Alto]

Jim- After a lot of trial and error here is a step by step approach for stable machine control with HDV in FCP;

Let’s start at ground zero.

Boot down the computer

Make sure camera settings are correct;
HDV mode (iLink down conversion off)
HDV picture in viewfinder

Power down camera

Connect firewire cable

Boot up the computer (do not launch FCP)

Power up camera

On Mac launch>about this Mac>More Info

Select Firewire

Is your camera/deck there?… If yes then you are on the right track… if not then you have a communication issue between the deck and the computer.

Solve it before you move on.

Now, even more important are OTHER firewire devices listed. If yes then unmount them now (if you can’t unmount them because they are your media drives- then go buy a $20 firewire PCI card and establish a new firewire bus and plug the drive into that). Your digitizing deck must be on its own discrete firewire bus.

OK, now launch FCP.

Grab the best HDV easy setup that matches ALL of your parameters.

Now (real important) verify that the source footage and the FCP project are set with matching time code (50i/60i/drop/non-drop).

OK, launch log and capture.

Test digitize footage. Are you still getting time-code breaks? If so you are down to machine control. FROM THE LOG AND CAPTURE WINDOW select the machine control tab and test other machine control settings.

Strange as it may sound our most stable machine control for our Sony Z-1, V-1 and M-10 is DVCProHD firewire. It rarely misses a beat. Sometimes we’ll batch dig 75 clips and get only on or two aborts. But a FCP workaround is that you have to select this from the machine control tab in the LOG AND CAPTURE window (if you try to set this in your FCP Audio/Video settings FCP will not allow it because of the HDV/DVCPro HD mismatch).

Once you have a setup that works PLEASE make your own custom Easy Setup.

Hope this helps.

Jerry

[Jerry Alto]

Michael- Close the project while your still working in FCP. Then quit out of FCP. The next time FCP will open with a new project.
Jerry

G5 Dual 3GB Ram
FCP5 Studio
External 1 TB SATA Raid 0
Kona LH, Second system w AJA ioLA
Sony Z-1

[Jerry Alto]

sporoco22- Edit the audio tight and cover the jump cuts with b-roll cutaways.
Jerry

G5 Dual 3GB Ram
FCP5 Studio
External 1 TB SATA Raid 0
Kona LH, Second system w AJA ioLA
Sony Z-1

[Jerry Alto]

David- You are right with his/her reference to ‘young’….. but I’m struggling with hungry.
Jerry

G5 Dual 3GB Ram
FCP5 Studio
External 1 TB SATA Raid 0
Kona LH, Second system w AJA ioLA
Sony Z-1

[Jerry Alto]

Chris- The time spec. for our 1/2 hour outdoor show is 28:30 with three two minute commercial breaks.

Jerry

G5 Dual 3GB Ram
FCP5 Studio
External 1 TB SATA Raid 0
Kona LH, Second system w AJA ioLA
Sony Z-1

[Jerry Alto]

Brian- If you are running FCP6 there is an interesting option in your HDV project sequence settings. Select the render control tab and under render>codec> choose Apple ProRes 422. This new option may be just what you are looking for.
Jerry

G5 Dual 3GB Ram
FCP5 Studio
External 1 TB SATA Raid 0
Kona LH, Second system w AJA ioLA
Sony Z-1

[Jerry Alto]

Lightning Ad- You probably know this but hold down the ‘shift’ key when you drag to the new track and everything will stay in synch.
Jerry

G5 Dual 3GB Ram
FCP5 Studio
External 1 TB SATA Raid 0
Kona LH, Second system w AJA ioLA
Sony Z-1

[Jerry Alto]

Tor- Do you have any other hardware sharing the firewire bus? To establish stable HDV firewire digitizing we have learned that ALL other firewire devices must be removed from the computer’s built in firewire bus. If you need other firewire devices to be operational install an inexpensive firewire card in an open PCI slot to establish a totally separate firewire bus. And as Jerry suggests use the secondary INTERNAL sata drive as your scratch drive.

Hope this helps.

Jerry

G5 Dual 3GB Ram
FCP5 Studio
External 1 TB SATA Raid 0
Kona LH, Second system w AJA ioLA
Sony Z-1

[Jerry Alto]

Wolf- Tom is right. Not enough post roll. Have you noticed when you digitize HDV from the Z-1 or a Sony HDV deck that there is a delay…. the camera/deck LCD is 1-2 seconds ahead of what is showing in the log and capture window. We always watch the LCD when marking our ins and outs.

Jerry

G5 Dual 3GB Ram
FCP5 Studio
External 1 TB SATA Raid 0
Kona LH, Second system w AJA ioLA
Sony Z-1

[Jerry Alto]

Bill- Looks like your conflict is coming from io/LA and machine control on the same firewire bus. To solve this we installed a separate firewire bus via a PCI card ($20 at the local computer store) for our machine control of the M10U. Hope this helps.

Jerry

G5 Dual 3GB Ram
FCP5 Studio
External 1 TB SATA Raid 0
Kona LH, Second system w AJA ioLA
Sony Z-1