[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

What disc did you capture to?

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

You can re-focus manually, but on a PD170 it is VERY difficult.

The focus ring on the camera is not physically connected to the lens.
Instead, it controls servo motor which rolls the lens focus…
not the best method for critical focus changes.

If you can use 2 cameras, that would be easier and better.

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

I’m sorry to have troubled you to explain how to build breakout cables.

When you asked about “alternatives” I assumed you were looking for all sorts of alternatives.

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

You can build cables for this.

On the camera end-
1/8″ mic-level, unbalanced low impedence, “stereo”
Tip is Left “hot”
Ring is Right “hot”
Sleeve is common ground/shield.
———————–
On the XLR end-
Connect Pin 1 and pin 2 to shield.
Connect pin 3 to the “hot.”

(Do this: one for the Tip (left) and one for the Ring (Right.)

This will “un-balance” the mics but it should work fine with most mics.
If you’d like to stay “balanced” you can connect a mic transformer to the cables (connect a female 1/4″ jack in place of the XLR connectors on the end of the cables and plug in the following.)

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/68647-REG/Shure_A85F_A85F_Microphone_Matching.html

It will be slightly off “impedence-wise” but it should keep out the “hum” on longer cable runs.

If you need to feed LINE into the camera, you can add a “line-level-to-mic-level pad” on one or both of the inputs.

https://cameras.pricegrabber.com/general-professional-video-equipment/m/8100700/

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

[Ken Zukin] “When it’s time to set the audio level, I’ll always ask what she had for breakfast — it’s a friendly question that usually helps offset the tension — esp. with someone who’s never been interviewed.”

For the past 28 years, I have usually said, “Count to 176 by three’s.”

The next response is… silence.
A great time to record “room tone.”

😉

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

[Rob Grauert] “My question is: I can either go from the F connection from the deck to the TV OR RCA from the deck to the TV. Is there a difference in picture quality between the two?
“

Use the RCA, for sure.

But, if you have, or can get, a monitor with “S-video” that would be much, MUCH better.

————————–

Monitoring DV video from FCP on an external video monitor is as easy as:
Mac > Camcorder > Monitor.

Here’s how to connect it, step-by-step:

1. “Quit” the Final Cut Pro program.

2. Connect your camcorder to the Mac via FireWire.

3. Hook any standard monitor or TV (with a video input) to the outputs on your DV camcorder.
You can use the standard (usually colored yellow) video cable, but the “S-video” output from the camcorder (if the monitor has one of those kind of inputs) will be a much higher quality image.

You should ALSO hook up the AUDIO outputs from the camcorder to the same monitor, or any “amplified speakers” so you can monitor the FCP audio along with the video.

4. Turn ON the camcorder. Switch it to the VCR (player) mode, but don’t put a tape in it (unless you intend to record from FCP to a DV tape.)

5. Turn ON the Video Monitor and set to view the “Video Input”.

6. Open Final Cut Pro on the Mac.

7. In FCP, make sure under the pulldown menu: View > External > ALL FRAMES is set.

You should now see the output of FCP on the camcorder’s viewfinder screen AND the external monitor.

You will also hear FCP’s audio from the speakers that you connected to the camcorder.

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

The infamous “Canon Drift.”

“Sync-slippage” can happen during some longer captures.

Tapes recorded on certain camcorders from Canon have been somewhat more problematic but it also can happen with other brands of cameras as well.

To reduce the problem on capture, break your captures into sections no longer than about 10 minutes each.

You can then “reconstruct” the full tape’s recording (or any longer takes) quickly if you need to.
Mark (and log) your first clip to End (Out-point) about 10 minutes or less from its In-point.
Continue to mark (and log) your clips this way throughout the rest of the tape.
Just make sure the In-points of the subsequent clips are EXACTLY ONE FRAME LATER than the Out-points of the previous clips.

You can do all this while actually scanning the tape(s) or just by inputting arbitrary TC numbers, logging them… then use Batch Capture to bring in all of your clips.

Its very easy to then “reconstruct” the shorter clips back to any “continuous” length you want on the timeline by just “clicking” them on in order.
EVEN FASTER… select ALL successive clips at once in the browser (with the browser column-order set to “Media Start” highlight all clips) and drop them, all at once, on the timeline… they’ll all pop up in continuous order.

Also read this link:
https://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58640
It contains more “sync-loss” info.

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

[Trevor Ward] “One of my clients is a church and they have a special blanket license that lets them use almost ANY song for use during an event.”

I’m just highlighting that one line for emphasis.

Anybody else find that just a bit “interesting?”

I also direct your attention to this COW post-

https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/30/858109

in Audio Pros forum.

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

There is a function in FCP that is often overlooked… and it can help with many audio and video “skipping”, “sticking” and “missing” problems.

You should “Mixdown” the Audio for playback before you dub out of FCP, or during the edit, if you have audio/video stuttering, drop-outs, sync-slippage, or freezes.

NOTE: Mixdown has even been demonstrated to help with slipping, skipping problems (or “missing” audio clips) for files being EXPORTED as QT (or similar) files out of FCP.

First, SELECT ALL of your audio tracks (highlight them) on the timeline, then:

Sequence Menu > Render Only > Mixdown.

You should see a dialog box telling you its rendering.

It might seem to make little sense that “Mixing down” even simple audio tracks will “fix” complex video “freezes” or random audio dropouts to tape or export, but it CAN.

NOTE: It does not matter of you only have one audio track, if there are random freezes during output, you should try the Mixdown.

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

[Bob Flood] “and i have to disgree with thax, as when i reduced the dpi to 72, the imgaes did not have enough resolution to do moves, so whe you drop the dpi in Photoshop, you must be reducing the resolution.
“

Try it.