Capture Now instead of Log and Capture?

B

borax

Active member
I just captured my first tape of HDV footage in FCP 6 and was pleased to find that it divided all of the footage per clip as if I did a lengthy log and capture session by selecting in and out points per clip.

Is it possible to capture all of my tapes this way, after appropriately naming the tape, and use the resulting clips to recapture from the original tapes in an EDL?

The idea would be to let each tape be a bin.

That way I could save time, and retain the option of re-importing from tape.

Would this work?

Thanks
 
This is also working for me as well. I hope there is a way to do this with my DV footage as well. Its also interesting to note that the Log and Capture tool for HDV looks completely different than the one for SD and it also looks different than the rest of the final cut GUI. Hopefully there is a way to use this version of the log and capture tool with SD footage as well. Anyone?
 
Does anyone know the drawbacks to using Capture Now in terms of recapturing from the source tapes?

I am thinking of just naming the tape and using capture now for about 70 tapes and just want to make sure if we take it to a proper online facility everything will work properly if we need to recapture the footage in our final timeline.

Thanks
 
borax said:
I just captured my first tape of HDV footage in FCP 6 and was pleased to find that it divided all of the footage per clip as if I did a lengthy log and capture session by selecting in and out points per clip.

Thanks
Click to expand...

Did you do any special settings to get this to work? When I import 24pa footage from the DVX100 via capture now it just imports it as one long clip.

davide
 
Davide,

I imported HDV footage from a Canon HV20. Maybe this only works for HDV?

But the fact that this works is such a timesaver, I always hated logging footage first because I mostly edit my own material and am very familiar with the content. This new feature improves my workflow with tape in FCP.
 
adkimery,

Can you tell me if the start stop detection is useful for maintaining sync when you have to go back to the original tapes. For some reason nobody can answer that?
 
As long as you gave each tape a unique name and don't have any TC breaks capturing using the start/stop detection shouldn't be any different than logging & capturing your clips, AFAIK. Since you have 70 tapes you might want to do a test though just to make sure.

-A
 
It does this with HDV because it has to, being a long GOP codec. Since it compresses over multiple frames, (instead of DV which only compresses single frames) when you stop the deck you are breaking the mpeg compression stream so it has to make a new clip. You can kind of do this with DV after the fact. After capturing a tape with Capture Now, highlight it and select Mark>DV Start/Stop detection, which will add markers at every tape stop.
 
Thanks!

That is what I assumed as well.

Having never had to capture from back from the original tapes I am not even sure how to properly test this. I just didn't want to find out that I made a huge mistake from some guys at a post house.

Can anyone confirm that Capture Now would hold up in a professional workflow?
 
The only trouble you can have with capture now is if you do it right at the head of the tape. If you don't give at least five seconds of pre-roll at the beginning, when they go to recapture at the online, the tape deck won't be able to back up far enough to get a head start and record. I've never had to recapture HDV, but I'm guessing because of the MPEG compression, you'd be better off not using anything captured in the first five seconds of the clip. Leave plenty of pre and post roll when you're shooting.
 
Bututta,

That is interesting that you say that cause I would have thought that hitting Capture Now then starting the tape would help it start at the very first frame. Which is what I was doing. (well for 1 tape anyway)

So I should start by naming the tape a unique name. Then start playing the tape and let some footage roll before hitting the Capture Now button. This way the start of the first clip will occur several seconds into the tape ensuring proper timecode sync?

I don't really plan on having to go back to tape anyway, but I know how some post houses love to throw that into their workflow.
 
borax said:
Bututta,

That is interesting that you say that cause I would have thought that hitting Capture Now then starting the tape would help it start at the very first frame. Which is what I was doing. (well for 1 tape anyway)

So I should start by naming the tape a unique name. Then start playing the tape and let some footage roll before hitting the Capture Now button. This way the start of the first clip will occur several seconds into the tape ensuring proper timecode sync?

I don't really plan on having to go back to tape anyway, but I know how some post houses love to throw that into their workflow.
Click to expand...

The purpose of letting a few seconds roll at the top of the tape is so it can be recaptured. When you recapture a clip, the deck typically backs up three to five seconds before the in point and then starts rolling so it can start on the correct frame. If you are using a shot right from frame 1 of the tape, the deck can't back up far enough to record it and you're screwed.
 
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