[Joseph Jamieson]

I don’t really know what Free Run is, so I don’t think it can do that. Do you mean write timecode as the current date/time? Hmm. I don’t know, that doesn’t sound like the best solution here.

The FX1’s have LAPC connections for remote control and (I believe) some sort of time code system. I think you can get adapters to convert LAPC codes to SMPTE time codes, but I still don’t know what I’d do what that. Are there wireless timecode sender units or something?

What is used on the large production cameras? They usually appear to have some sort of antenna and a box on the back – what is that? I mean, I can’t imagine that the guys editing reality TV shows sit there for hours lining up multi-cam video clips before editing. They must have something to help them along the way.

I don’t care if we’re talking about a $10,000 system right now, I just need somewhere to start looking.

What were the other (non-wireless) ways of syncing cameras that you mentioned?

Thanks.

[Joseph Jamieson]

My problem is that FCP is breaking up the tape into seemingly random clips – there’s no TC break. Most of the tapes are a full recording from beginning to end, with no pauses or stops on the camera. It still happens.

I’ll check out CatDV though, it looks like it might be useful either way – but if it can make full tape video files without breaks I could use FCP. But, I shouldn’t have to spend $275 for something that I shouldn’t need.

[Joseph Jamieson]

I’ll definitely check for the option on the two cameras. One is the HDR-FX1 and the other is the HDR-HC1, so hopefully these have the option since they’re the “consumer” versions of the cameras (I just couldn’t justify $2000 more for the “pro” FX1 for some XLR ports and 50i.)

I’ve ended up not using FCP for now because of this issue. I firmly believe this is a FCP issue – it doesn’t happen when I capture HDV with any other software. It is doing something that other software isn’t – whether or not it’s because of some camera start/stop thing.

I cannot accept that this is just “the way it is” because it COMPLETELY disrupts the entire editing process. You can’t use milti-camera, you’re left with 3 second gaps at random places, and with 12 tapes to capture it’s insurmountable.

Apple support says that’s just the way it is. So I’m forced to use something else, and that’s just the way it is too. It’s too bad. Hey, maybe the new Premiere for Mac coming out will be better then the Windows version! (ie HDV is workable.)

[Joseph Jamieson]

Wow, are you serious?

First of all, the Panasonic is a Plasma TV. It’s not an LCD. This doesn’t make for a great computer screen – but add that to the fact that it doesn’t use square pixels and you’re really asking for it. The native resolution of this plasma screen is 1024×720.

Maybe you could somehow mess with it and make the computer non-square pixels at the right aspect ratio, but I wouldn’t hold my breath. While a PC has all sorts of crazy tools to fudge those things into working, this is the the FCP forum, so he’s using a Mac (Or at least MacOS.)

So you’d rather use a single, non-square pixel plasma TV with 1/4 the pixels as a single 23/24″ Computer flat panel, not to mention two of them?

Let me tell you – when you are video editing, the second monitor comes in very handy. Not only can you view a full screen sample of screen of your project, but you also get 2x the desktop space. And, it’s useful far beyond video editing – studies have shown that any computer user is a good percentage more productive when you add all that desktop space together. Even office workers.

Big != better. I’m sure the Panasonic is a fine TV, but I wouldn’t buy it.

[Joseph Jamieson]

Note that this only appears to be a problem with Final Cut – other HDV NLE’s do not have this problem. Premiere Pro and all the other capture software on Windows seems to be fine with HDV.

So it’s not a hardware issue.

[Joseph Jamieson]

Yes, this is all HDV material with either an HDR-FX1 or HC1. Those are the two cameras we’ve been using.

This isn’t a problem with the cameras – so what do you mean “for most cameras there is no way around this?” I can use any Windows capture software and capture entire tapes just fine. But I don’t want to use Windows, I want to use this Mac, and I want to use Final Cut. Grr.

Is there an alternative method of capturing video besides Final Cut? Is there a 3rd party software I can use to capture the entire tape which I can then turn around and use in Final Cut?

[Joseph Jamieson]

So you’re saying that even after you deleted your preferences, it was still broken?

What a pain this is. I mean, I have a tape here from a camcorder that ran the entire tape from start to finish with no stops, no stream breaks (tape hiccups, etc) while sitting on a tripod. I get no less then 4 clips when I just do a “Capture Now” to try and grab the whole tape.

I’ll try deleting the preferences tomorrow and see if it helps.

[Joseph Jamieson]

Note, I also tried capturing using the apple intermediate codec, and it does the same thing.

Is there any way to capture without FCP? Some utility app or something?

[Joseph Jamieson]

Well, you’re right. I think this is a bug in FCP.

I have several tapes that I’ve tried now, and I know at least some of them are fine – the camera was on the tripod the whole time and the recording went from beginning to end without stopping. The timecode on the tape is correct. All of the tapes do this. The odd thing is that FCP will mark new clips at seemingly random points even with the same tape.

I am able to take the same tapes into Premiere and capture the entire tape without issue. (All of them.)

It might not be exactly a bug in the strictest sense – there might be some anomaly with the some piece of hardware or a driver, but FCP is not resilient enough to handle it.

Because of this problem, FCP is sort of going to be very inefficient. I was planning on using the multicam features, which are really easy to use, but now I’m going to have to somehow combine each tape’s video files into a single one – which is going to be difficult because the clips don’t cut perfectly from one to the other. There’s a gap of missing video at least a few seconds long.

If anyone knows of an alternate way I can capture the video, in a way that produces HDV files that are native to FCP, please share. Maybe there’s a simple capture tool I can use to capture the tapes? On windows you can use capdvhs to at least grab m2v streams which you can use in Premiere Pro. (Too bad editing HDV with Premiere Pro is like cutting the lawn with nail clippers.)

Help =)

[Joseph Jamieson]

Great, I’ll try it tonight when I get home. I really hope I can get these tapes dumped; it’s going to take over 10 hours to get them all done so this issue has really put a damper on my progress.

Thanks for your help guys! That was fast. I guess this is *the* forum for help with this stuff.