[Johnny Clark]

Well it’s good to hear that you’re considering all of your options BEFORE you dive in, always the right thing to do. I personally use the Fujinon 13x HD Lens and love it. The standard lens isn’t great but you have to keep in mind that it is still a manual lens with everything you’d want at your fingertips. If you already have some 16mm or 35mm primes then get the PL Mount and use those, I’ve heard good things, considering it myself. It’s going to come down to what you need and can afford. The Panny is a great camera too, but these really are two different cameras. Are you in S. America currently?

Johnny C

[Johnny Clark]

The JVC cameras are great. For DOC’s they work because you can attach a hard drive and record for hours without worrying about tapes or dropouts or anything. I don’t think FCP5 supports the JVC Codec’s for 24p, 25p, 50p or 60p. An upgrade in software would be a good plan if you’re considering the JVC HD200. I personally use the HD250 and love it. For factor, lens options, accessories and value are all considerations for this camera. And if you are buying a new HD200, they come with SD card slots for direct recording to the SD’s. Pretty cool. Let us know if you have more questions or which route you choose.

Johnny C

[Johnny Clark]

Hey Dave,
Any luck with the tripod plate?
Does Sony make one that’s identical to the JVC?

Johnny C

[Johnny Clark]

If the tapes were recorded in regular DV and not HDV on a JVC camera would this still be true?
Any deck will recognize SD from the JVC HD100u, but HDV is a different story.

Would I have to capture in StreamClip and then import those files into Avid?
Streamclip will convert just about anything to anything.

I would suggest converting the HDV format to whatever you’re used to for post work.

As far as capturing the footage, you only have tapes correct??
If so, find a HD100u and get the footage that way.
How did your producer record the footage?
Someone had a deck or a cam or something, see if you can get your hands on that for a few hours.

Last but not least, if the footage was recorded in 24p then make sure that you capture it in 24p. DO NOT pulldown to 30p from 24p at the capture stage. This will cause you so many problems later on it’s not even funny! If it’s 30p though and things look good through the 10U then I guess give it a try….

For the future I would recommend that your producer by a Firestore Hard Drive and just pass that along to you after the shoot. Saves so much time for everyone, and you could easily convert using streamclip or just dump straight into AVID.

Johnny C

[Johnny Clark]

Hey Matt,
Sounds like an interesting problem.
From what you say, the tape works when played from the deck but when captured it breaks.
If the tape was toasted it would be dropping, popping and out of sync all the time.
Definitely not ruling out the tape but something seems wrong from deck to capture.
Are you capturing through Firewire or HDSDI?
If you have the option to do one or the other then try the other and see if the problem persists.
Let me know what you come up with and keep us posted.

Johnny C

[Johnny Clark]

No problem.
Thanks for coming to CCow for some help!
Keep us posted.

Yeah that is weird about the Sony thing….
Good luck though.

Johnny C

[Johnny Clark]

Can 720P footage even be recorded to regular mini dv tapes?
Yes, JVC HD100 records HDV to MiniDV tapes.

When I attempted to play back the footage on a DVX and HVX the audio would cut in and out over and over. There were video glitches when the camera panned or tilted. When I tried to capture using these cameras the same glitches and audio dropouts appeared as in camera.
You can’t play back the JVC HDV footage tapes on other decks.

I recognize that DVX & HVX tape decks can’t play 720p footage, so this is a potential problem. But why was the Producer able to capture the footage successfully with a camera that was not HDV or capable of 720p recording?
Huh???

Since you have the footage on a hard drive try using MPEG Streamclip and import the footage to something useful. Why was everything in WMV files?? Was everything in HDV format?

I’ll look forward to hearing from you soon.

Johnny C

[Johnny Clark]

JVC is doing their thing with the ProHD and it’s working for them.
I would like to see the HD300 at 1080p at 60fps and 720p at 120fps.
Wouldn’t it be great if someone could build Apple’s ProRes directly into the cam????!!!!!
My plan was to start capturing through the HDSDI from the HD250 into the AJA IOHD, but with red announcing all of this upcoming stuff I may just wait a while. Just when you think things aren’t going to change for a while…… boom, new and better technology at lower prices. Awesome.

Johnny C

[Johnny Clark]

Hey David,
Are you using the AJA IOHD straight from the HDSDI from the HD250 live?
If you are, could I get a 4-5 second clip in ProRes 720?
I am interested to hear how you are liking this setup.
Thanks for posting.

Johnny C

[Johnny Clark]

Hello Peter,
Sorry to hear about your problem.
My suggestion would be to use a less wattage light, say 40w instead of 50w.
DONT USE A TIME DELAY FUSE. Only fast acting fuses.
The reason for using a fast acting fuse is so in case some crazy shock jolt went into your system the fuse would blow before it got to a sensitive electronic and smoked it.
Let us know when you get the setup working and how you did it.

Johnny C