[Russell Lasson]

FCP sometimes goes into the mode of lying.

Example: When I’ve tried to digitize something that has continuous timecode, FCP stopped the capture and told me it has a timecode break (sound familiar?).

DON’T LISTEN TO IT!!!!! IT’S LYING!!!!!!! IT’S REALLY A HARD DRIVE SPEED ISSUE!!!!!!!

For me the real problem was my hard drive was so full, it couldn’t keep up. FCP didn’t know what to call it, so it lied and called it a timecode break.

I’ve fixed it in the past by cleaning up my hard drive (full hard drives have lower transfer speeds) or getting a better hard drive or connection.

This might not be what is happening to you, but from my experience, it sounds like the same thing that happened to me.

So how full are the drives you’re using? What speed are they? 4500, 5400, or 7200RPM? Is the connection USB 1.1, USB 2, FW400, FW800, SATA, Internal? Is it a full moon tonight?

-Russ

[Russell Lasson]

Need more info.

It sounds like you shot it at 60i and not 60P. Is that right? Is it 1080i?

Was it shot in 24P (meaning it has a 2:3 pulldown in it)? From what you’ve described it sounds like it. Can you verify it?

If you have 60i footage with a 2:3 pulldown in it, you’ll need to remove the pulldown from each clip instead of just exporting the whole sequence to 23.98.

You might try importing the P2 footage into FCP again and having it remove duplicate frames.

-Russ

[Russell Lasson]

I’ve had good and bad experiences too. I would probably buy a refurb desktop but not a used laptop. Desktops just sit there so not much abuse. But buying a refurb laptop is like buying a used laptop.

We’ve purchased about about 3 desktops refurb and 3 laptop refurb. (I’m typing this on a refurb MacBook Pro that needed a new display after I purchased it.)

-Russ

[Russell Lasson]

The only camera that I know of that shoots more than 60fps is the Pantom. I was blown away by the quality of it at NAB. It shoots up to 1000fps as a 2K image sequence. From there you would want to convert to whatever you’ll finish to (1080i or 720p). The camera really kicks butt. It might be overkill for your budget at $2000/day or $6000/week.

https://www.visionresearch.com/index.cfm?sector=htm/files&page=camera_HD_new
https://www.abelcine.com/store/product.php?productid=1000203&cat=785&page=1

For a lipstick camera, the HD-RH1 by Iconix is something to consider. You’ll need to bring a recording system with you. (Does the HVX-200 support component in?)

https://www.iconixvideo.com/products.html

The rest of the questions really depend on what cameras and workflows you end up using.

-Russ

[Russell Lasson]

Heavens no!!!! Don’t re-edit!!!!! You just need to change the distort values along with the scale values.

There is a really great short cut to help you out here: PASTE ATTRIBUTES!!!! I would vote for it as the biggest time saver short cut.

First, sort your sequence by putting all of the footage that is 1440 on one track and all of the 1280 on another.

Now paste your sequence into a 1280 timeline. Everything should look pretty messed up.

Now open up the Motion tab on the first clip of the 1440 track. Does it look right? If not, you might need to change BOTH the scale AND the DISTORT values. Once it looks right, select the clip and hit edit-copy. Now select the rest of the 1440 clips and select edit-paste attributes. Select both the basic motion and the distort boxes and select ok. It now pastes those values on all of the 1440 clips.

Repeat that process for the 1280 clips and you should have things right within a minute or two.

Let us know how it works out for you.

-Russ

[Russell Lasson]

I only buy memory from Crucial. After all, it has been one of the suppliers of “Apple” RAM. (Apple doesn’t make RAM; they just repackage it.)

I’ve had great success with Crucial.

-Russ

[Russell Lasson]

This is from a thread from just a couple of days ago.

Open Cinema Tools. Select cancel when it asks you to open an database. Select File-Open Clip. Select the Conform button on the right. Then select 25fps.

Be sure to duplicated your clip before you do it. Some times Cinema Tools is destructive when it deals with clips.

-Russ

[Russell Lasson]

I wonder if you could put FCP in an external timecode mode like you can a deck. Then have FCP split the file up when it’s done.

Just a wish. I’ll go ask the AJA guys.

-Russ

[Russell Lasson]

Of course. That’s why professionals put together editing systems, not just computers with editing software.

If you’re going to be dealing with AVCHD on a regular basis, then it would be well worth your time to purchase a Mac tower with PCI-Express and a Blackmagic Intensity card.

-Russ

[Russell Lasson]

It’s probably not very helpful, but both Walter and Shane are right. It really depends on what’s important to your producer. It comes down do a balance of the delivery timeline and the creative timeline.

-Russ