any way to make FCP capture from USB2?
by alex delvaux
on
Dec 17, 2008 at 10:42:42 pm
i'm looking into buying a prosumer HDV camera for the purposes of having an inexpensive way of capture my client's HDV footage with out renting expensive decks. however, all the cmaera's i'm seeing are using USB and have no firewire, a trend i'm noticing more and more. is there a way to capture through FCP using USB?
Re: any way to make FCP capture from USB2? by Shane Ross on Dec 17, 2008 at 10:48:00 pm
Is this a hard drive camera? Or SD card camera? Because if you are recording onto tape, you can ONLY capture via firewire....not USB. If this is a tape based HDV camera, it will have a firewire connection. It might be called iLink or 3394.
Re: any way to make FCP capture from USB2? by tutu rurah on Mar 18, 2009 at 9:09:14 am
hello shane
I'm new to this forum,
i have a panasonic hmc151 with usb 2.0 only, is the first time using a panasonic, (is the company I work for that bought this camera) on the other hand I've always worked with MAC, how do I get to transfer data from the sd card to FCP?
Re: any way to make FCP capture from USB2? by Kevin Monahan on Dec 17, 2008 at 10:48:54 pm
USB cameras use USB to connect to drives, tape is ingested via Log and Transfer.
HDV cameras use FireWire cables to connect to drives, tape is ingested via Log and Capture.
Re: any way to make FCP capture from USB2? by alex delvaux on Dec 18, 2008 at 4:20:22 pm
well, the camera we're looking at here is the Canon VIXIA HF100. The spec sheet only lists "USB 2.0 Hi-Speed Terminal for digital video streaming and ultra-fast transfer of movies and photos."
so is the answer simply that i cannot hope to use this camera as a capture deck on my Mac? or is there a way to trick FCP into capturing through USB? would a USB to Firewire adapter work/exist?
Re: any way to make FCP capture from USB2? by alex delvaux on Dec 18, 2008 at 4:26:12 pm
wait, i think i just answered my own question. i missed that the camera wasn't tape based cos the one i had been looking at was. ha! thanks for all the help guys!
Re: any way to make FCP capture from USB2? by Kevin Monahan on Dec 18, 2008 at 6:06:06 pm
With that camera you ingest via USB 2.0, but you want those files living on a faster drive than a USB 2.0 drive or the Mac HD. FW800 would be a minimum for me.
Re: any way to make FCP capture from USB2? by Jason Debon on May 11, 2009 at 7:26:52 pm
I know this thread is a little old, but it relates to a question I have about the trend for these HD cameras to have only USB connections. I'm wondering if the cameras can be used to monitor the output of the Final Cut Pro timeline on a television?
Currently I use a miniDV camera, by connecting the firewire cable from my mac into the miniDV camera, and then connecting the miniDV camera to a television via RCA cables I can view everything I do on my timeline on a television for quality controll. If I buy an HD camera that doesn't have firewire connectivity, but only has USB, can I use it to do the same thing connecting to the camera via USB? Will FInal Cut know how to output the timeline via USB?
And just to make sure, it sounds like I definitely can use the USB to capture into Final Cut Pro, correct?
Thanks for any light you can shed on this subject.
Re: any way to make FCP capture from USB2? by Shane Ross on May 11, 2009 at 11:07:10 pm
[Jason Debon]"I know this thread is a little old"
Yeah, but everyone who replied still subscribes to it. And us leaders get ALL the posts.
[Jason Debon]"I'm wondering if the cameras can be used to monitor the output of the Final Cut Pro timeline on a television?"
Nope. Not even for DV. The only formats you can view on an external monitor via firewire are DV and DVCPRO HD. If you have a proper DV or DVCPRO HD device at the other end of that. This will not work at all over USB.
[Jason Debon]"If I buy an HD camera that doesn't have firewire connectivity, but only has USB, can I use it to do the same thing connecting to the camera via USB? Will FInal Cut know how to output the timeline via USB?"
No, and no. FCP does not output via USB.
[Jason Debon]"And just to make sure, it sounds like I definitely can use the USB to capture into Final Cut Pro, correct?"
IMPORT...footage shot on HDD cameras or SD cards, yes. But not any tape format.
To view HDV on an external monitor in high definition you are going to need to purchase a capture card, like the ones Decklink (http://www.decklink.com) or AJA (http://www.aja.com) offer. They will both play out HDV in real time. The catch is that you cannot view this on a regular TV or NTSC monitor. Since this is HD, an HD monitor will be needed. HOWEVER, both cards are capable of down converting the signal so that it can be displayed on an SD monitor. This won't be color accurate
HDV cannot be played out of FCP as HD via Firewire because it's Long GOP structure is too taxing on your processors to spare the system resources needed to drive an external monitor.
The best option you have is the Matrox MXO...$1000. This coupled with an Apple 23" display gets you color correction quality.
And there are the Decklink Intensity and Intensity PRO cards as well.
You can, however, view HDV out via firewire as DV...lowering the resolution to that of DV, but still viewable. This is not full quality nor should it be used to judge the quality of your footage or used to color correct to. This is just a way to view the footage on a large monitor.
Here are some examples of some of the possibilities:
- DV or HDV sequence output to an SDI signal on a third-party interface
- An uncompressed NTSC or PAL sequence output to a DV FireWire output
- An HDV sequence output to a DV FireWire output
Sequence and output formats must have compatible frame rates. For example,
sequences with a frame rate of 60, 30, or 24 fps can be output to a 30 fps device,
but not to a 25 or 50 fps device.
Re: any way to make FCP capture from USB2? by Chris Martin Martin on Jul 22, 2009 at 9:06:18 pm
I just found this post and I have a related question that I hope someone can help me with. We just purchased a Panasonic HDC-HS300, hard drive & SD card HD camcorder. For outputs it has HDMI, Compsite and USB, NO Firewire. We want to be able to to Log and Capture directly to our MAC Pro hard drive. Can I do this with the USB connection to Final Cut Express or Final Cut Pro? The Apple store told me that it was not possible with FCE and the USB but was not sure about Final Cut Pro. It that does not work can I do Log and Capture with a Blackmagic Intensisty Pro card. Is that my only option?
Re: any way to make FCP capture from USB2? by Shane Ross on Jul 22, 2009 at 9:38:57 pm
Tapeless formats can use USB, because they are converting as they come in, or you are copying the information off of the card onto a hard drive as backup. Firewire is for tape formats like DV, HDV and DVCPRO HD. Tapeless can use USB all they want...it isn't streaming video, but rather data transfer.
Re: any way to make FCP capture from USB2? by Chris Martin on Jul 23, 2009 at 4:23:23 pm
We want to Capture and Log each shot directly into Final Cut Express (Final Cut Pro if I have to) as we record. So we can immediately replay the shot to see if we like it without having to do it from the camera. I do not want to record 10 shots then have to transfer then from the card or HD to the machine, Log and Transfer and then watch them. I want to use Final Cut to control the camera, record, Log right in Final Cut.
With the camera we have when you plug it in Final Cut Express see's it and I can Log and Transfer the files that have been recorded, but I cannot record or control the camera from within Final Cut Express.
I do not know if this is a driver issue with the camera being new, It will not work with Final Cut Express but will with final Cut Pro? I do not have a copy of Final Cut Pro to try it with.
The Apple Store was not help other than they said final Cut Express would not work with Log and Capture and USB. But with most camera's moving to USB that does seem right either.
