[Ray Siposs]

Yes, it’s the numbers that matter.

I would hope we all recognize that “no actual frames were lost or harmed” in the making of this film. 🙂

Thanks for the followup.

Ray

[Ray Siposs]

Well here is the solution.

I went over to ProMax in Irvine, CA and talked to their tech department. Yes, it is true that there is indeed a conflict still existing with recording DVCPro HD 720p 30 59.94 Drop Frame and Firewire. Both Apple and Panasonic are aware of it too.

Firewire likes all the frames – including the ones that are dropped (missing).

We took the same 1400 deck and tapes, ran an HD SDI cable out to a Kona LHe and everything worked flawlessly. HD SDI solved everything. The time code ran via RS422, and the video/audio ran down HD SDI. No major deck menu changes were required.

So… lesson learned is: Shoot every HD project in Non Drop Frame (to be safe) and adjust if for Drop Frame in post. (Fix it in Post).

As a side note, the engineer also shared another horror story of a similar event with a JVC 250 camera and 35 recorded tapes. Same issue – shot in Drop Frame – except the JVC deck didn’t even play it back. The camera did however. They ended up taking the camera with an HDSDI path out and everything worked. Since then, they strongly suggest to shoot all HD projects in Non Drop Frame to be safe.

I learned my lesson… painfully well. I come from the old school of broadcast. HD throws away many of the very basic rules. I can live with NDF just fine, now that I know.

Cheers – and thanks for all the suggestions.

Ray

[Ray Siposs]

“Note: Drop frame timecode is supported when capturing 720p60 DVCPRO HD.”

But we shot 720p30. So I assume we are not supported.

[Ray Siposs]

Stuck – for the moment. I think that is about to change if it will solve the problem.

[Ray Siposs]

…is the 1400 still setup to downconvert when trying to ingest HD? make sure you are sending HD out of the deck…is the output of the deck set to 720, not 1080? if your deck is setup to output correctly, and your FCP is setup to ingest correctly…and your capture preset is firewire…then try HDSDI and 422 control…

I tried it as a down convert and normal. The only way I got picture was down convert to DV or DV50.

720p – not 1080i was the output setting.

The SD HDI is probably my next path. Can I send HD SDI out from the 1400 and capture using DVCPro HD format in FCP – and recapture Time Code as NDF in FCP (in other words can I re-stripe the Time Code at time of ingest by using HD SDI through a card)?

[Ray Siposs]

It is called:
“FCP6 HD and Broadcast Formats” and is buried in one of the FCP operation pdf files. I originally found it on the apple.com site.

[Ray Siposs]

I agree. That’s what it says, yet the Apple document I read says FCP does not support DF. I don’t know if that is still the case in v 6.0.5.

I suspect that Drop Frame is the issue since nothing else makes any sense. If it is, then I need to figure out a “Plan B” on how ti ingest the footage. Would some path using HD SDI work?

[Ray Siposs]

Yes, I tried that Easy Setup as well as countless others. I went through the list one-by-one trying almost all of them.