[Jonas Cox]

You might be too far along for this to still be of use, but next time, you shouldn’t bother with timecode. In your sequence, do an add edit on your (empty) V1 track at each audio edit (you can use fast forward keys, or control click near each audio edit, to go straight to each one). Then do match frame on your sequence audio track to bring the master clip into the source window, then do a replace edit to V1 of your sequence. Repeat all the way down the sequence.

[Jonas Cox]

Thanks, David and Job. Exactly the simple advice I was hoping to hear!

As for your question to ultimate output, Job, this is a documentary that doesn’t yet have a “home”. Ideally, it will end up broadcast (which will probably require me to upres to HD) but it will probably live first, and perhaps solely, on the Web.

One other question. I no longer have the original P2 files; because of drive space limitations, I converted them all to Quicktimes via FCP and then deleted the P2 originals. Would you expect appreciable image loss importing these Quicktimes into Avid? Data-wise, the Quicktimes are about 6MB/second.

Thanks!

[Jonas Cox]

Had the same problem. Previous poster is right; you need to upgrade. If you can’t afford the upgrade (I think you can only go to 6 from 5.0.x, and that $$s), find someone with FCP 6 (you might be able to do it with 5.1.x, but not sure). Use their system to do the import; the clips will retain any special formatting (like pulldown of regular 24p) that you imported them with, and playback fine in 5.0.x.

[Jonas Cox]

That’s good news. Thanks, Noah.

[Jonas Cox]

Thanks, guys. Do you think media properly pulled down in FCP 6.0 would play in 5.0.1? (I can afford to rent ingest time on an FCP 6.0 system, but not edit time).

-Jonas

[Jonas Cox]

I had no luck copying P2 contents over FireWire from the HVX200 to a Macbook. Set camera to “1394 device” mode, got Macbook to read it as the “NO NAME” volume (though this was sporadic; sometimes it worked, sometimes I had to power camera on and off several times), but then Macbook (or camera, or both) would crash on the copy.

Maybe I was missing some kind of software utility? I saw the NO NAME volume and figured that it would be a simple drag and copy operation. I even tried going into the Contents folder and dragging over the smallest MXF file (30 MB) and it hung up.

So now my only media are QT files I imported via FCP (had to send the rental camera and P2 cards back), which I will back up. Is the meta data from the P2 media lost now? (for instance, the 24p pulldown?)

TIA,
Jonas

[Jonas Cox]

Yes, I’m pretty sure it’s 24 p standard- I consciously set it that way when I shot, and it’s showing that way in the camera’s playback display. If I’d done a little more research, I would have learned (before the shoot) that 24 pa yields better resolution than 24 p standard.

To remove the pulldown of the 24 p material, I opened up the files in Cinema Tools, but the remove telecine option (or something to that effect) is grayed out; plus, as I mentioned, Tools>Remove Advanced Pulldown in FCP gives an error message.

I’ve since used After Effects CS3 to do pulldown, but that appears to create a color shift– even before I do the pulldown in AE, the imported QT, when played from the AE project window, shows as darker and more saturated than the QT does in either FCP or QuickTime. And then, if I render out from AE as DVCPRO50, 23.98 fps, it does a heavy compression. Setting compression to “None” ends up with a clean, but huge file (unfortunately, AE does not, to my knowledge, have the equivalent of Avid’s QT reference movie, which would eliminate the need to render from AE). So this is not a great workaround for getting stuff into FCP.

Any thoughts?

TIA,
Jonas

[Jonas Cox]

Do these MXF files contain data not contained in the QTs that FCP creates from the MXF files? Reason I ask is that I’m having trouble cloning the P2 drives contents (including MXF files) through Finder to an external or internal drive. I have the QTs in FCP and in Capture Scratch, but I was unable to remove the advanced pulldown to get FCP to read the 24fps of the P2 media. If I find an FCP system that can do the advanced pulldown (ideally through FCP’s P2 import dialog box), would I be able to do that on the QTs or would I have to have the MXF files?

TIA,
Jonas

[Jonas Cox]

Hi Eric,
I am attempting the same workflow you described in this thread: editing 8-bit uncompressed Kona media on an FCP that doesn’t have a Kona card. So, if I am to understand correctly, all you had to do was change the sequence settings to 8-bit uncompressed (codec not specified) and you didn’t have to render the 8-bit Kona media? And you didn’t even have to have the Kona codec loaded on your Mac?

TIA!
Jonas