URGENT - Printing to Mini DV

[j8chan]

Hi, I have a sequence on FCP at 960X720 and 23.98 DVC PRO HD 720p60.

I have around 5 hours to print this to mini dv through my camcorder.

I can get audio and I can get a single frame. I have tried all types of options to no avail. I think it has something to do with the frame rate or some HD settings.

I am running final cut 5.1.1

Can anyone give me some advice?

 

[andy_starbuck]

I would take a small -- tiny -- clip in a separate sequence to expirement with so that trying to find a solution doesn't take up too much time. A few seconds of clip is all you need.

Then I'd try rendering it out to a plain old 720x480 29.97 DV format -- uh, what -- letterbox. Import that into a plain old DV easy setup project/sequence. And test output to the camcorder. The will help you to figure out whether the problem is from FCP-out to the camcorder or if it is from the timeline-to-the-firewire. Plus, if it works, it will possibly give you one solution to get the sequence to tape. And if you track the render time for the sample, and the length of the sample, it will give you an estimate about whether rendering for the sequence is possible during the time you have left.

If you can't get that out to DV better try recording, capturing, and playing back a few seconds of plain DV using capture etc. See if firewire is working and if everything is set right for getting back out the firewire port to the camcorder.

You need to understand what FCP is playing back out the firewire. If its playing back 720p then a DV camcorder isn't going to record it. I don't know if there is a setting to play back an HD sequence in SD or whether its a render. But that is what to find out from the FCP manuals.

If you could record it to a P2 MXF file you could just dub it over in realtime. Don't know if this is possible either.

Good luck.