[Michael Gissing]

Jason, every digital video machine except D1 records audio at 48khz. Although the music industry chose 44.1 for CD, the video world decided to use 48khz as the native or standard rate for digital video a long time ago.

This is because it is already a pain dealing with frame rates with decimals (29.97 etc). 48khz data blocks are neater when divided by NTSC frame rates so the standard was set and adopted by all machine makers and broadcasters many years ago.

I don’t know why FCP even has 44.1khz as an option but please never use it and always convert all audio to aif 48khz before putting it any where near a FCP timeline. A good percentage of “strange audio…” posts are caused by the lack of this simple procedure.

[Michael Gissing]

For a PAL DVD shoot 25fps. 24, 23.976 & 29.97 frame rates are a world of pain and anguish compared to the utter sanity of staying 25 fps.

[Michael Gissing]

In the HDCam setup menus, there will be a setting to lock to external reference or input signal.

I don’t know the particular model as it is different to mine, but I can set the input type and input reference from front panel menus.

So without a black gen, find the setting to lock to input not external reference.

[Michael Gissing]

I have my Kona3 and HDW 1800 HDcam deck both locked to SD color black for synced edit to tape of 55 minute docos without problem.

If you have no reference then set the HDCam to lock to input SDI signal and they will stay locked together.

[Michael Gissing]

Slow the audio .1% not 1%. There are many ways to do this but try Compressor.

[Michael Gissing]

First, find a setting that works with capture off tape. The change the device setting to uncontrolled device.

Then put the camera into EE and see if the signal still comes through. Worst case, you might have to run a tape in record to capture live, which will give you a backup in case of disaster or a crash during capture.

[Michael Gissing]

I suspect that you will need a basic authoring software package after Compressor to combine ac3 5.1 tracks to your mpeg file. This is likely because you will need to be able to encode the option to select the 5.1 as an audio option as I would be surprised if it was a default.

A muxed audio with the mpeg file is another matter, but the 5.1 stream needs to be syncronised and that sounds like a job for authoring software.

[Michael Gissing]

I am guessing that Canopus DV codec is basically DV codec wrapped with some Canopus meta data. I am surprised that it doesn’t appear as straight DV in Quicktime or Mpeg Streamclip.

Have you tried the Canopus web site to see if they have down loadable codecs or asked the person who sent the files if they can supply the codec or preferably quicktime DV files.

My Google search came up with this as top item –https://www.free-codecs.com/download/Canopus_DV_Codec.htm

[Michael Gissing]

FCP is quicktime based so it would be best to convert the files to quicktime DV before editing

[Michael Gissing]

I’m down on DV for two very good reasons. Practical experience shows me that graphics, particularly text goes pixelated compared to ProRes or uncompressed timelines.

Secondly in PAL (which is where I do nearly all my work) it is the only codec with lower field dominance which is a total pain.

All that said, if you shoot DV, capture via firewire and edit in that codec, it looks OK until you want to grade and add titles. At that point move to a ProRes or 10 bit uncompressed timeline. I recommend ProRes over 8 bit uncompressed as I can see the advantage in the extra grey scale resolution when grading.