[Lawrence Mcdonough]

Thanks Enzo! That worked great. You are right about the lower resolution photo’s, they got somewhat grainy when I resized them, but all worked well.

Larry

[Lawrence Mcdonough]

Thanks again Matt, that was the trick!

Larry

[Lawrence Mcdonough]

Thanks Matt, The QT Live Type clip I am dissolving from is 10 seconds long and the clip I am going into is about 2.0 minutes long. I did try setting the “in” point of the dissolve 2 seconds back into the Live Type clip and that did not work. Do you think the only solution would be a freeze frame and then dissolve over it?

Larry

[Lawrence Mcdonough]

Jeff, I do not believe a direct capture from your XL2 via firewire is causing the problem. It is when we bring the video back into FCP from an external deck via firewire ( not connected via the motherboard’s main bus, like your second internal one is ) that a dropped frame issue can come up. It sounds like your hardware set up is perfect. Sometimes trashing the FCP preferences is the majic bullet and the process is fairly quick and painless. As far as capturing firewire 400 or 800 better/worse, I have not heard/read either way is better. One tip I read on a forum was try not to have an abundance of short timed video clips strung together in a row on the timeline, it may cause audio sync drift. How short timed or many is a limit I do not know. This issue is so widespread I think it is time for the Wizards of Cupertino to publish a white paper first of all known fixes and then crank out a bullet proof update to FCP!

Larry

[Lawrence Mcdonough]

Hi Jeff, I shoot with XL2’s and have ran into audio sync drift in FCP 4 and 5. I do not think it is your camera. There are MULTIPLE ways you can lose sync during capture and editing. I will lay out the most common questions and refer you to some help sites. FCP prefs: are u capturing audio at the same bit rate as you recorded it at? (48khz/16bit vs 32khz 12bit) Are you storing the media files on your MAC’s hard drive or an external drive connected via firewire? On an external drive via firewire you are vunerable to dropped frames during capture and editing, eventually the audio can drift. Word is Apple does not recommend storing on an external drive via firewire, although I have not verified that. It is recommended by some to have a separate dedicated internal hard drive just for your media files “scratch disk” Have you enabled “report dropped frames” during capture in FCP settings? Then at least you will know if you are dropping. Capturing clips over 20 minutes at a time seems to be a culprit for some people. There is a rather lengthy list on Apple’s FCP support web site addressing the entire sync drift issue. Quickest way to that site location is select the Help drop down file from FCP tool bar and there is a link. When all is said and done and nothing fixes it you will need to trash your FCP preferences. After you have reset prefs you may have to go to the unsynced clips and de-link them from the video in the timeline and slide them back into sync. First go to https://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/trashing_fcp_prefs.html a very well described walk through. Then later you can download free a utility that auto trashes and restores your FCP preferences. It is called Final Cut Pro 5 Rescue at https:// http://www.macupdate.com Good luck

Larry

[Lawrence Mcdonough]

Thanks everyone… I shall download immediately

Larry

[Lawrence Mcdonough]

I found an article at dvinfo.net. describing how they accomplished it. Although a good one, I found it missing a few points of information to complete the puzzle and plan to contact them direct. It does seem as though they have it figured out. I too like you, have a couple of XL2’s and want to do this, but have found the Canon camera manual explanation completely inadequate. Good hunting.

http://www.dvinfo.net/canonxl2/articles/article11.php

Larry

[Lawrence Mcdonough]

Hi Marilyn, One option that you can also keep permanently, is an XL1 training DVD produced and sold by Birns and Sawyer in Hollywood, California. I have a copy and it is very helpful to introducing the camera and giving some tips. You can find them at http://www.birnsandsawyer.com Best of luck!

Larry

[Lawrence Mcdonough]

Hello Ty, I’ve been reading the posts and thought I would toss in my two cents worth. I own two XL2’s and made my sticks/head purchase based on recommendations and my budget. I chose the Manfrotto 3193 tri-pod, with spreaders and a rolling dolly. Aluminum, but very sturdy and a bit beefy. I use the Bogen 516 fluid head with a 100mm bowl. I shoot weddings, sports, interviews primarily. So far, I am very happy. When I film football games I need to move the camera quickly and smoothly. With the tensions adjusted properly it is working great. I am certain the other more expensive heads and sticks perform flawlessly, I just did not have that kind of capital to invest, but I am certainly happy with what I have received for my money.

Larry

[Lawrence Mcdonough]

Hi Don,
Did the TRV 900 solution work out? I have the XL2 and edit on an Apple G4 with Final Cut Pro. I load the tape media to my G4 with that Sony DSR-11 vtr deck. It all works perfectly. I have also loaded directly from an older consumer Sony camera with no issues on the G4. By the way, the XL2 is an amazing camera, the best part is being able to change lenses, but you will need a good budget!

Larry