[John Fishback]

While the Canopus box will capture the video I can’t attest to its quality. We use an AJA I/O to capture analog video. It acts as a frame sync which is very good for capturing VHS. If you want virtually no loss of quality, you should capture 8-bit uncompressed. DVCPro 50 would also do well. A possible codec option for capture on a Windows platform that would be compatible with FCP on the Mac is Photo JPEG at 75%.

John

MacPro 8-core 2.8GHz 8 GB RAM OS 10.5.5 QT7.5.5 Kona 3 Dual Cinema 23 ATI Radeon HD 3870, 24″ TV-Logic Monitor
ATTO ExpressSAS R380 RAID Adapter, PDE Enclosure with 8-drive 6TB RAID 5

Final Cut Studio 2 (up to date)

Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neumann U87, Schoeps Mk41 mics, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN

[John Fishback]

flv is a codec. It’s not mpeg-4. Neither is it h.264. The latest Flash Player, however, plays both the flv codec AND the h.264 codec. That is why if you make an h.264 mov and change the .mov to .flv, it will play in Flash Player.

John

MacPro 8-core 2.8GHz 8 GB RAM OS 10.5.5 QT7.5.5 Kona 3 Dual Cinema 23 ATI Radeon HD 3870, 24″ TV-Logic Monitor
ATTO ExpressSAS R380 RAID Adapter, PDE Enclosure with 8-drive 6TB RAID 5

Final Cut Studio 2 (up to date)

Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neumann U87, Schoeps Mk41 mics, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN

[John Fishback]

Compressor will produce a higher quality result. FCP’s scaler is nowhere near as good as Compressor’s. This is why you switch on Frame Controls and select Best for the quality settings in Compressor.

John

MacPro 8-core 2.8GHz 8 GB RAM OS 10.5.5 QT7.5.5 Kona 3 Dual Cinema 23 ATI Radeon HD 3870, 24″ TV-Logic Monitor
ATTO ExpressSAS R380 RAID Adapter, PDE Enclosure with 8-drive 6TB RAID 5

Final Cut Studio 2 (up to date)

Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neumann U87, Schoeps Mk41 mics, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN

[John Fishback]

Here are 3 Cow Tutorials by Walter Biscardi. You should find your answers here:

#1 https://library.creativecow.net/articles/biscardi_walter/FCPTravelMat1.php

#2 https://library.creativecow.net/articles/biscardi_walter/FCPTravelMat2.php

#3 https://library.creativecow.net/articles/biscardi_walter/FCPTravelMat3.php

John

MacPro 8-core 2.8GHz 8 GB RAM OS 10.5.5 QT7.5.5 Kona 3 Dual Cinema 23 ATI Radeon HD 3870, 24″ TV-Logic Monitor
ATTO ExpressSAS R380 RAID Adapter, PDE Enclosure with 8-drive 6TB RAID 5

Final Cut Studio 2 (up to date)

Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neumann U87, Schoeps Mk41 mics, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN

[John Fishback]

I’m not familiar with Prism. I use Sorenson Squeeze to encode flvs. My suggestion is export a QT ref or self-contained mov and then use Compressor to make an h.264 file. In the Inspector, in the Frame Controls tab, turn on Frame Controls and select Best for all quality settings. Set your web frame size and datarate. A higher datarate produces a higher quality result. After the encode, simply change the .mov extension of the encoded file to .flv and you should be good to go.

John

MacPro 8-core 2.8GHz 8 GB RAM OS 10.5.5 QT7.5.5 Kona 3 Dual Cinema 23 ATI Radeon HD 3870, 24″ TV-Logic Monitor
ATTO ExpressSAS R380 RAID Adapter, PDE Enclosure with 8-drive 6TB RAID 5

Final Cut Studio 2 (up to date)

Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neumann U87, Schoeps Mk41 mics, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN

[John Fishback]

I’m not familiar with AVCHD, but here are some general questions and observations. What version of FCP are you using? Are you using Log & Transfer? It helps if you completely describe your system and workflow. Clearly FCP doesn’t like the file you created with Elgato. It could be a file format that isn’t real time in FCP, or an incorrect sequence setting.

John

MacPro 8-core 2.8GHz 8 GB RAM OS 10.5.5 QT7.5.5 Kona 3 Dual Cinema 23 ATI Radeon HD 3870, 24″ TV-Logic Monitor
ATTO ExpressSAS R380 RAID Adapter, PDE Enclosure with 8-drive 6TB RAID 5

Final Cut Studio 2 (up to date)

Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neumann U87, Schoeps Mk41 mics, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN

[John Fishback]

We use the Duel Adaptor. There have been reports of failures so we have 2 in our kit just in case. We’ve had no problems in over 2 years. We are very careful with the adaptor. We don’t let it hang by its cable over the edge of a work space and pack it carefully.

John

MacPro 8-core 2.8GHz 8 GB RAM OS 10.5.5 QT7.5.5 Kona 3 Dual Cinema 23 ATI Radeon HD 3870, 24″ TV-Logic Monitor
ATTO ExpressSAS R380 RAID Adapter, PDE Enclosure with 8-drive 6TB RAID 5

Final Cut Studio 2 (up to date)

Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neumann U87, Schoeps Mk41 mics, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN

[John Fishback]

Have you adjusted the audio level up in the camera menus? If not, try that. Also, there might be a switch to go between the built-in and external mic, although, it’s probably a mechanical switch in the mic-in connector. Here’s a link to the page with the camera instruction manual. https://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelInfoAct&fcategoryid=177&modelid=16206#DownloadDetailAct

John

MacPro 8-core 2.8GHz 8 GB RAM OS 10.5.5 QT7.5.5 Kona 3 Dual Cinema 23 ATI Radeon HD 3870, 24″ TV-Logic Monitor
ATTO ExpressSAS R380 RAID Adapter, PDE Enclosure with 8-drive 6TB RAID 5

Final Cut Studio 2 (up to date)

Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neumann U87, Schoeps Mk41 mics, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN

[John Fishback]

If you scroll to the right, next to the clip in FCP’s browser, you’ll see a column labeled Anamorphic. Click to set a check there. When you drag the clip to a new sequence if you’re using FCP6 it will ask if you want FCP to match the sequence settings to your clip. Click OK and you should be good to go.

John

MacPro 8-core 2.8GHz 8 GB RAM OS 10.5.5 QT7.5.5 Kona 3 Dual Cinema 23 ATI Radeon HD 3870, 24″ TV-Logic Monitor
ATTO ExpressSAS R380 RAID Adapter, PDE Enclosure with 8-drive 6TB RAID 5

Final Cut Studio 2 (up to date)

Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neumann U87, Schoeps Mk41 mics, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN

[John Fishback]

One problem that contributes to diminished video quality is the image is not the best size for encoding Flash. Both the horizontal and vertical dimensions should be evenly divisible by 16 (640×360 for instance). Take my word for this. There’s a long-winded technical explanation. Obviously, increasing the data rate will increase the quality. At the image size you’re using your data rate should be at least 500 to 700kbps. As for cropping, in Flash Encoder > Settings > Crop and Resize use the controls in the Crop section. You’ll notice a line descends (and rises) as you adjust the controls. If you have black on the sides, crop in that direction, too. Crop to a pixel or two past the black (keep the numbers even top and bottom) and Flash Encoder will take care of scaling the image. Also, be sure to use the On2 VP6 codec (In Settings > Video). Hope this helps.

John

MacPro 8-core 2.8GHz 8 GB RAM OS 10.5.5 QT7.5.5 Kona 3 Dual Cinema 23 ATI Radeon HD 3870, 24″ TV-Logic Monitor
ATTO ExpressSAS R380 RAID Adapter, PDE Enclosure with 8-drive 6TB RAID 5

Final Cut Studio 2 (up to date)

Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neumann U87, Schoeps Mk41 mics, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN