Recording directly to my NLE with no P2 card or hard drive

[Michael Hurdle]

I bought my first HVX200 this morning. I have the camera in my hand with no P2 cards or FS-100 drive. I want to be able to record DVCPRO HD direct from the HVX200 to my Final Cut Pro time line using the firewire port. I'm using the intel iMac 20". When I go to log and capture, the capture screen says (waiting for time code, device must be in VTR mode when device control is enable) I don't see any option on the HVX200 that says VTR mode. I spent over 4 hours playing with all the settings on the camera and FCP and still no capture was successful. Am I doing something wrong? or is it that I just can't do it at all? Do I need a P2 card or FS-100 to buffer out the video first? Has anyone ever captured DVCPRO HD direct from the HVX200 to FCP without any P2 cards or hard drive??? Please help! I'm new to all this. Now that I have the camera what should I get next for it? I already have a rain guard for the camera, I already have the HVX hand book, and the HVX Boot Camp DVD. I'll take any good suggestions. Thanks

[Jason Ramsey]

You don't need a p2 card to do live capture. FCP does support live capture from the HVX. Just to be sure, you're not trying to capture pn mode are you. Firewire doesn't support pn. You can do p or pa live capturing, but not pn.

Other than that, I'm not a MAC dude, so I can't help you anymore than that.

Later,
Jason

[andy_starbuck]

You can record in HD over firewire to FCP.

Go into the FCP "Log & Capture".
Click on the "Capture Settings" tab.
Pull down the "Device control:" menu and select "non-controllable device".
Now click on the "Logging" tab.
And you can use capture "Now".

The problem is that FCP expects a deck which will send a "play" message when you press the play button. But your camera is not in "play" mode. It's in "pause" mode. So it doesn't send a "play" message.

By changing the capture settings in FCP to "non-controllable" device, you are telling it not to wait for a "play" message. Of course that means it doesn't know when to start recording. So you have to manually tell FCP to start recording with "capture now".

There are a number of other settings that have to be correct. [1] The camera has to be told to provide output to its Firewire port, [2] whether or not to send control overlay (like on the LCD) implying there is an external monitor attached, or whether to just send the video image for external capture. [3] Also, the format (480, 720, 1080) being sent out the firewire port has to agree with the recording mode on the camera, and [4] a compatible "easy setup" configuration in Final Cut.

If you've checked these four items, it should work fine. I've done this in many modes including 1080 and 720. The only thing I didn't try is doing this without *any* card in the camera. I had a P2 in there. But I kept the camera in "pause" mode, so it wasn't trying to record to the P2.

You may have to look in the menu if there is a power-saver timeout enabled that turns the camera off if it's been paused too long. If you are recording for 10 minutes and the camera goes into standby or shuts off -- that's the problem. And I recall there being a menu setting to change this behavior.

Oh... and as Jason said... the camera cannot be in "Native" mode (ie 720pN) because that format doesn't provide the consistent timing necessary to pass the video over firewire.

And... depending on the version of FCP you have... there are no "easy setups" for some of the formats. Notably, 1080i60p and 1080i24p mode did not exist in my version of FCP, and I had to create my own setups, which was not trivial, and required some expirementation to get right. There were easy setups for 720 and 480 modes.


Hope that helps!

at your service,

Andy

[MrVideo]

Go into the FCP "Log & Capture".
Click on the "Capture Settings" tab.
Pull down the "Device control:" menu and select "non-controllable device".
Now click on the "Logging" tab.
And you can use capture "Now".

That's for sure! I called Panasonic USA tech support and talked to their HVX support guy. He told me to go into MCR mode first, and when the thumbnail screen comes up, use the Audio Dub/Thumbnail Reset button on the camera or remote to clear the P2 usage, then hit the Record button to take the camera back into Camera mode and the streaming will be there.

Seems to be a slight difference whether there is a P2 card in camera or not, but the Capture Now works great!

[Michael Hurdle]

It worked like a charm. Thank you for all you're help. This is how I learn.