FCP 7 batch capture issue
by Steve Tottingham
on
Nov 4, 2009 at 11:11:39 pm
Hi All,
We've been using FCP quite happilly for some time and although it has it's nuances it works well for us... until now. We were recently robbed of a couple of our Macs and although we had the project backed up we lost a lot of the media for a major project. The original project was over 200 hours of HDCAM in various frame rates shot all over the world. We decided to base the project on 23.98 as this was what the majority of rushes originated in although there are instances of 25 and 29.97 frame rate material in the original sequence that had to be converted. However, we took most of the tapes in using a HDV codec (after lots of experimenting) to save space while the offline edit took place.
So now, we've got the backup project file that we tried to batch capture the tapes back in to. Having worked around the arduous media management tool (all is forgiven Avid!) we finally started capturing material back in but this time at HD Pro Res 10bit using the AJA IO HD (same card we used to capture original files) as the project is nearly finished and needs onlining soon anyway. But it constantly had the drop-frame error and wouldn't capture a single clip. Even trying to capture a single clip in the sequence wouldn't work unless we converted it back to the HDV codec we originally captured in (we've set the new sequence to ProRes 10bit etc). Plus, even when we try to batch capture everything in the original HDV codec so as not to have to do each clip individualy and at least get our project back together in some shape we get errors relating to drop-frame and non-drop frame conflicts again. Surely this should be possible on a tape by tape basis? We are currently only able to capture each clip in the sequence one at a time and in the HDV codec which isn't very productive and will cost us a lot in terms of a digitiser.
As far as I can tell FCP is great working in native formats (we use XDCAM EX all the time and it's very good, we had over five realtime streams on a multiclip working fine, not through the AJA though of course!) but when it comes to converting low res offline to high res online it doesn't seem to work. Has anyone any suggestions/thoughts? We've read and learnt a lot from these threads in the past but this is the first post, thanks.
Re: FCP 7 batch capture issue by Shane Ross on Nov 5, 2009 at 1:56:38 am
Well, the project files are all set up for HDV data, so it might be trying to capture to that? Dunno...
PLUS, didn't you say that your footage was 23.98? How did you get it to 23.98? Capture, then reverse telecine? I didn't think you could do that with HDV. HDV as an offline codec? Odd...DVCPRO HD would have been a better choice. BUT, that is neither here nor there.
if you only want to capture the footage used in the cut, you use the Media Manager to MAKE OFFLINE, and set it to the codec you want. Then FCP knows what format to capture as. With your current clips, it might be trying to capture HDV, AND 23.98...dunno if it can do that. Offline/online workflow works fine, but that is if you do the traditional LOCK PICTURE, then recapture the footage used in the cut at high res. Not sure about this trying to capture all the footage you initially captured at offline res, and at 23.98, now capture at full res, or ProRes.
