Canon A1 and Final Cut Express

M

miloca

Active member
I posted it in another thread with no luck, hope someone can help me here...

Hi everyone,

Can anyone tell how to solve some issues with FCE?

I am trying to capture direct to disk form my Canon A1 in HDV format, but it is impossible. Every time I try to capture, I got a message saying "end of tape has been encountered". I don't understand why, first of all I am trying to capture direct-to-disk, and second of all I have a full tape.

What am I doing wrong? I tried all HDV easy setup, which are HDV Apple Intermediate Codec (1080-60i, 1080-50 and 720P30) and nothing happens.

Do i need a specific plug in?

Hope someone can help me out with this, it is driving me crazy.

Thanks in advance,

CCC
 
I frequently videotape stage shows and recitals, and i've also realized that going direct to disk saves time, money and videotape. I'm not quite sure how to fix your problem exactly, but what I do is record the signal with Quicktime Pro. It makes a quicktime movie in the camera's native format and resolution. In your case, 1080i HDV.

Simply set up the Recording source and microphone in the quicktime preferences to your XHA1. Start a new video recording, then the HD image should pop up on screen. Click the red record button and shoot to your heart's content (or until your disk gets used up!)

Not sure on the reason for your FCE problems, is it because the computer can't handle the real-time AIC conversion?
 
Thanks for your reply...

I am not able to record HDV using quicktime pro. When shooting SD I have no problem, but once I switch to HDV Quicktime Pro does not recognize the format. I like Quicktime Pro, but thats the only issue I don't use it much.

Any tips in how to fix this problem???

Thank you very much,

CCC
 
I did a bit of testing, and found that when i connected the A1 to a powerbook with quicktime pro in HDV mode, all i got was a black screen. However, the powerbook did not have the proper codecs installed, i.e. HDV, DVCPRO, ProRes 422, etc.

Also, I did some research, and found that you might not have the necessary HDV codec for recording direct to disk. I believe that it is only included as a part of Final Cut Studio, as HDV native support is one of the things that FCS offers over FCE.

So there you go, sorry to say it, but I'm not sure if you'll be able to record HD from the camera without Final Cut Studio. You could try looking around for some open source caputure programs, but none really come to mind right now.

Good luck!

here's some more conversation in an apple forum:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6745100
 
I am not sure if you have found a solution yet. If so let me know what your solution was.

I had the same problem as well. What I started to do was record in IMovie and then just drag and drop into FCE. Or FCP.

Hope that helps.

miloca said:
I posted it in another thread with no luck, hope someone can help me here...

Hi everyone,

Can anyone tell how to solve some issues with FCE?

I am trying to capture direct to disk form my Canon A1 in HDV format, but it is impossible. Every time I try to capture, I got a message saying "end of tape has been encountered". I don't understand why, first of all I am trying to capture direct-to-disk, and second of all I have a full tape.

What am I doing wrong? I tried all HDV easy setup, which are HDV Apple Intermediate Codec (1080-60i, 1080-50 and 720P30) and nothing happens.

Do i need a specific plug in?

Hope someone can help me out with this, it is driving me crazy.

Thanks in advance,

CCC
Click to expand...
 
I experienced a similar situation. When I purchased my A1, I also purchased a firestore FS-C (Direct-to-Edit). The DTE provided two recording formats: MPEG2 (.M2T) and Quicktime (.MOV). Unfortunately, FCE did not recognize either format. After talking to firestore tech support, I was told that the FCE does not support either format.

FCE will not support the Quicktime 1080i format either. Not sure why! But it appears they were correct when I tried to import the HD Quicktime. The picutre showed up but no sound.

I was instructed to do the following:

I was instructed to output MPEG2 (.M2T) to disk. Then download Apples free MPEGStream download that converts MPEG2 to a compatible format including Quicktime. Therefore, the $1200 I invested in the FSC was a waste of money.

The workflow works though.

Recording via TAPELESS operation to DTE in MPEG2 (.M2T) format. Run MPEG2 through MPEGSTREAM converting it to a format compatible with FCE.
Edit in FCE.
Burn DVD in iDVD.

Ultimate solution is to upgrade to FCP which can read MPEG2 and Quicktime HD 1080i natively. Once I do this, my Firestore FSC investment will be worth the money.

I hope some of this post applies to your situation.
 
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