[Mark Simon]

There is a good discussion of this at
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2545461?start=0&tstart=0

The most popular solution seems to be using JES DeInterlacer which is available free at https://jeschot.home.xs4all.nl/home.html

JES DeInterlacer seems to provide handles for controlling gamma expression. Gamma is not necessarily baked in to the image, but is influenced by metadata that is attached to the file. I’m not deeply knowledgeable here, be warned… It seems FCP is messing with the gamma metadata without letting you decide the specifics. JES DeInterlacer gives you back some control.

[Mark Simon]

Tried Compressor Repair and it helped a bit.

But new renders still took an extremely long time.

What worked: Opened up Compressor and under the Compressor menu, selected “Reset Background Processing…”

All better now.

[Mark Simon]

If you use the Magic Lantern firmware, you will have usable audio out from the “A/V” out on the camera.

The 4-conductor plug is in the following configuration, with the colors referring to the colors on the A/V cable supplied by Canon:

Tip = Left audio (white)
Ring 1 = video (yellow)
Ring 2 = common sheild
Sleeve = Right audio (red)

This is a very unusual configuration, and it means that simply plugging in your headphones will not work. But if you use the Magic Lantern firmware, the signal is there and you can monitor what is being recorded by the camera, whether it is from the camera mic or from the camera’s input jack. I used an adapter to re-combine the white and red RCAs on Canon’s A/V cable (left and right audio) into a stereo mini jack, which I can then either plug my headphones into (I actually never do this, not sure if there’s enough volume there) or send to my mixer’s return audio input.

Sending audio to the camera is a different story. Make sure you go into the Magic Lantern menus and turn every gain, digital and analogue, down to 0. Otherwise you will get buzz. Now, use a real mixer to feed the camera the level that the camera expects (it’s some sort of weird prosumer level, like -14db). If you don’t use a real mixer, you will get buzz.

[Mark Simon]

Here’s what I learned from another user group, posted by Attila Mezei:

“The settings have been confirmed for 720-24P/PN, 720-25P/PN, and 720-30P/PN:

Menu setup of HDX900:
MAIN MENU > SYSTEM SETTING > SYSTEM MODE : 720-59.94P *
MAIN MENU >SYSTEM SETTING > CAMERA MODE : 24P **
OPTION MENU > OPTION > FRAME RATE UB : MENU (FRAME RATE as default)
MAIN MENU >VTR MENU > TC/UB > UB MODE : FRAME RATE (USER as default)
MAIN MENU >VTR MENU > TC/UB > VITC UB MODE : FRAME RATE (as default)

Switch position of HDX900:
TCG : F-RUN

* For 720-25P/PN, this must be set to 720-50P/PN.
** For 720-30P/PN, this is set to 30P. For 720-25P/PN, this is set to 25P.”

That was Attila’s post.

I tested 720p/24p/PN in free run and it seems to be fine, but when TC is set to rec run mode it has problems: there are duplicate frames every 2nd, 4th, and 4th frames (repeats this cadence) when I import to FCP. I don’t see these duplicate frames when in free run. In 30p it seems to work fine in either free run or rec run TC. Haven’t tested 1080.

Also, in v3.0 the Firestore crashes every few hours but usually restarts okay. Hold down the ON button to force it to shut down if the OFF button doesn’t work, and hopefully it restarts as version 3.0. I’ve had it revert to 2.0 or whatever is native, then recorded some clips, then re-installed 3.0 and was able to recover every clip.

I’m also seeing the problem that Rike Jokela noted: no matter what “TC video syncro” setting I use on the camera, there is still a multiframe discrepancy between timecode on tape and timecode on the Firestore files.