Capturing Live to FCP on Laptop - FIRST STOP

Alex Fuchs

Alex Fuchs

Member
LETS TRY TO BUILD THE SINGLE STOP THREAD FOR HVX -> LAPTOP real time capture

Could we try to put together on this thread the exact (a) prerequisites and (b) procedure to setup a HVX-200 through firewire capture on PowerBook/FCP real time capture (studio setup obviously not field)

To get started:
1) What mode does the camera have to be in to be recognized by FCP for capture - VCR does not seem to be it, PC seems for P2 offload, not live streaming
2) Any specific presets in capture settings, particularly for pN (Native Capture). Can it do native capture?
3) Can you daisy chain the Camera along with an external Firewire drive (only one firewire port on a PBook)
4) If not does the PCMCIA card bus with fireward card/external adapter handle the video through pout
5) Obviously the questions above may have diffferent answers for 720 and 1080.
6) Any 4G limitations for saved fiels, what are people's experience in max shooting time and file sizes.
7) Experiences with RAID setups
 
PROBLEM #1: When in Log and Capture in FCP (5.0.4), the image from the HVX shows up properly in the frame, but when you hit "NOW" (Capture Now), a new window - blank except for a message saying Camera should be in VTR Mode. Yet, if you press start/record on the camera, footage starts getting captured into FCP

Two issues:
1. if the only way to capture to FCP is to start the P2 capture, then we are still limited by the size of the P2 cards - no help there. What is the setup/sequence to capture Camera footage into FCP without having to start/stop on the camera (which activates recording to P2 cards) -
2. Recording in FCP stops after a few seconds (not always the same amount of time) saying it has gotten to the end of the tape. Again, here, any suggestion how to capture into FCP with no time limits/constraint --> continuous shooting
 
FACT: Camera will not capture into FCP in Native mode. No 24pN modes, only the N ("over 60") modes. Leaves all the Log and Capture previews blank when Camera in Native mode. Switch to a P mode to see camera output in Log and Capture
 
You need to set your capture settings to 'non-controllable device' in FCP, but you will lose timecode information. The firewire port is always outputting 60p, try using the 720p24 easy setup and see if FCP will remove the flagged frames as long as your camera is in 24p mode, not native mode.
 
Thanks. Changing to "Non-Controlable Device" did the trick.

Would you know what "Removing VFR Duplicate Frames from source media" mean - It appears in the new capture window.
 
That means FCP is removing the Varibale Frame Rate duplicate frames. If you are in 24p mode and you set fcp up to capture 24p, then you will be capturing and editing 24p material as FCP will remove the duplicate frames from the 60p cadence. If you shoot in 60p mode and FCP is set for 24p mode, you might be able to capture the slow mo in real time, but I highly doubt it (try it and see as my laptop cannot handle FCP5 and I'm cuirous to see if it works). This is possible with something like an AJA Kona card, but not on a laptop. If you want over or undercranked footage, then set up FCP for 720p60 and then use the free frame rate converter to conform the offspeed footage to 24p later.
 
Continuing on my experiences with this setup.

File are captured by FCP combined into Quicktime format. No six different streams like MXF.
Codec seems to be DVCPro HD which seems to be installed automatically with FCP
Accordingly you can preview the captured footage directly with Quicktime (outside of FCP)
However, if you transfer this footage to a Windows box running latest Quicktime Pro - won't video preview - audio ok.
The size of the Quicktime files is in line with P2 stored files. A 720p/24pN file on P2 is about 338MB/minute while the 720p/24p stream (pN not captured by FCP) captured into FCP (with 24p) settings is also around 340MB/minute. FCP seems to know to drop the right 36 frames to save a 24p DVCPro HD Quicktime file.
Can't see visible differences between the P2 footage and the captured footage - any other experiences?
 
I got this off of one of the threads here or on DVinfonet and I didn't put down who said it. (My bad) but perhaps it will help someone like me that is a bit new to this equipment to capture to a external HD via firewire from a G4 Powerbook. It sure helped me.

It's easy to capture via firewire:
Hook the HVX up to the Mac via FireWire
Launch FCP
Set your Capture Scratch location
Open Log and Capture
Go to the Capture Settings tab
Set Device Control to Non-Controllable Device
Set Capture/Input to match whatever HD variant you have the HVX set in (DVCProHD 720p24, DVCProHD 1080i60, etc )
Frame up your shot
Hit the Capture Now button
and away you go!

Cheers!
 
As of now, there is no native DVCPRO HD quicktime codec for windows. You must convert the files to a common 'shared' codec.

There shouldn't be any difference between the P2 files and the captured files, they are both 'bit for bit' transfers of the same exact data.

Can you do me a favor? Put your camera in 720p60 mode and FCP in 720p24. What happens? Do the clips come in offspeed (slow motion)?
 
I followed the above procedure capturing 720p24 in FCP 5.0.4 However when I play back my footage, the audio has an echo and there is ghosting of the image about 30 pixels above the image. Has anyone else had this problem?

Thanks

Peter
 
David,

Did you capture to an external HD or only to the internal drive?

Fact: The HVX does not output Native formats through the firewire connection.

Great stuff guys!
 
First up, if you do more than a few moments of "live" capturing on a Powerbook, you'll have to get a PCMCIA Firewire card. The video stream will glitch a LOT running off the built in FW ports. As both ports (cam on one, HDD on the other) share the same buss. I've been doing a LOT of live capturing of late in preperation for a huge documentary project we're about to do.

Another issue, you HAVE to match your log & capture settings to the settings of the camera. If you want variable frame rate, you don't change the format (720p240) on the camera nor in FCP. You can change the frame rate on the camera (Scene Settings) and use the FCP built-in fuction of stripping the un-needed frames on capture. But this will give you regular motion footage. Capture normally, don't strip the un-needed frames at capture time! Once captured, use FCP's Frame Rate Conversion Tool (in the Extras folder on the 5.1 install disk) to change it all back to 24fps. THAT will give you your in-camera slo-mo clips.
 
Last edited:
Please, I must be doing some dumb-ass thing wrong here.
I've been trying direct capture/stream from the camera every now and then with no luck. All my footage sofar has come from my P2 Store on the Quad G5, or PCMCIA and P2 on the Powerbook.

I set the camera to /Other Functions/1394 control / Ext
(If I hit record now at this point I get 'External 1394 Disconnect', (even if it's not connected), and a refusal to record. If the setting is 'Both' then I can record aswell.)

Is there anything else in-camera to set?

I match my FCP settings to the camera settings (1080i 50 for example)
I go to log and capture in FCP, but the window tells me 'No Communication' at the bottom.
I play a clip from the VCR on camera and hit 'Capture Now' in FCP. All I get up is a black window with 'Now Capturing' displayed. I expected that.

I kill the window and go back to the drawing board...

It's the 'No Communication' bit in FCP that gets me, telling me that the camera 'just 'aint talking right', but I've mounted the P2 cards in camera via Firewire with no problems.
What am I missing here? It's got to be a concept thing for me having never ever done capture on any camera before, and I totally put it down to user error at the moment.


please help

mike.c
 
Last edited:
Don't forget guys you can digitize directly to QT in HDLog as well. This has the advantage of easier, automated clip naming, organization, and annotating, less the overhead of FCP.
 
Dan do you mean using HD Log for live capture?

Where is this in the manual? I take it Video Assist doesn't work with the HVX, as do most of the Deck control stuff, but I was hoping for a little section for setting up the camera and HDlog for live capturing.
 
Yes, use it for live capture via FireWire. And yes, the 'Video Assist' section is pertainent, the settings are the same. HDLog will start capture when it "sees" tc starting and stop the clip when it stops. It can auto-name the clips for you, embed the reel name and timecode, etc.

Alternately you can set the software to just 'capture now' just like in FCP. But who needs all those annoying dialogs?

I don't know about duplicate frames, pretty sure that's the codec's job, but the overcrank definately works.
 
epplegacks said:
Does HDlog automatically remove the duplicate frames and properly handle the slo-mo overcranking?
Click to expand...
I'm new to this forum. In fact, I don't even have my camera yet. It's coming tomorrow. But, where do I find HD log? Is it a Mac application?
I'm going to try and capture live to a new MacBook pro 17". Is it possible to capture 1080p to this computer?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top