URGENT - Problem capturing DVX footage

P

Peter Reynolds

Well-known member
Hi Everyone.

I'm hoping you can help. I've just a shot a whole day of video on my DVX100b and my editor can't capture the footage properly.

The footage was shot on the DVX100b, 4x3, 30p Thin
The editor's computer is a Mac Book Pro, 4GB RAM, 300 GIG HD, etc.

My editor is capturing using Final Cut Pro. The uncaptured footage looks great on the Mac (very clean and smooth) when played through the deck. But it looks horrible when being captured (artifacting around the edges). The quality is still poor even when the footage is brought into the timeline and rendered.

Neither of us have ever experienced this before. Is it the project settings, the capture settings, the codec?

We're on an extremely tight deadline so any advice you can offer would be appreciated. Hopefully there a "combination" of settings you can suggest to solve this problem.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Peter
 
First, the log and capture window is a proxy image. Don't judge based on that.

The opened captured files in QT look good? Great!

Render the sequence? What? Why are you rendering? If the capture settings match the sequence settings you should be fine.

What settings is your sequence?

CaptM
 
Captured files have artifacts

Captured files have artifacts

Hi Capt.

No. The captured QT files look terrible.

I believe the settings for the sequence are DV 640x480 NTSC.

* If I recall correctly, there wasn't a preset for 30p. We had edit an existing preset and change it to 30fps and Progressive.

If you have specific settings to suggest, I'll email my editor to try it out.

Thanks.

Peter
 
Help

Help

Any other suggestions? We're really in a bind here.

It's got to be something simple - I've captured footage from the DVX for years, just never with FCP.

Thanks.

Peter
 
DV NTSC Option

DV NTSC Option

Hi Capt.

Ok. I'll suggest that to my editor. I'm a little concerned about having a 29.97 project when I shot the footage 30P. But it's worth a try.


So what are my capture settings? What codec do I use?

Thanks.

Peter
 
Me Myself & I said:
Ok. I'll suggest that to my editor. I'm a little concerned about having a 29.97 project when I shot the footage 30P. But it's worth a try.
Click to expand...

It does not matter what mode you used on the DVX. 60i, 24p, 24pA, 30p... they ALL go to tape at 29.97. And the codec is DV NTSC 48kHz.
 
Wow.

Ok... so you DO realize that miniDV IS 29.97?? Right?

The capture setting is DV/NTSC 29.97. No codec. Just use that. Same for the sequence. There are easy setups that will wok fine.

CaptM
 
Thanks

Thanks

Hi Capt.

Thanks.

It may be lack of sleep, but your advice doesn't jibe with my experience. The frame rate of Mini DV is what you recorded it at. In this case, 30 fps.

In the past, if I've shot footage in 24p, I open a 24p project.
If I shot it at 29.97, I'd open a 29.97 project.

Also, you say no codec, but the capture preferences list about 150 codecs, again depending on your original footage (i.e. XDCAM, DVCPRO 50, etc).

However, I'm willing to concede that I may be wrong about all of it.

I'll keep you posted.

Thanks again.

Peter
 
Yup... bottom line is you are wrong. Just accept that and do what I say. It's YOUR deadline, NOT MINE!!!

This is all my mistake. When you said you've never seen this before I figured you had some experience with capturing in FCP and basic understanding of codecs. If you had said that first we wouldn't be here right now and I'd have just given you the answer you needed. Be a little up more upfront in your questions to avoid this from happening again.

The codec IS DV. When I said NO, what I meant was do the DV/NTSC and don't worry about any of the others.

Look.

Open Log and Capture. Hit the CAPTURE SETTINGS tab and select DV NTSC 48khz as your Capture/Input.

Capture your video.

Create a NEW SEQUENCE. Select it in the browser window and hit COMAND-ZERO ... then, lower left corner... LOAD SEQUENCE PRESET - DV NTSC 48 khz. Hit ok, and then - if you shot (and ONLY IF YOU SHOT) in SQUEEZE mode, hit the anamorphic button and close out the dialog box.

Edit at will.

No rendering... beautiful video... no issues.
 
Thanks

Thanks

Thanks Capt. This is the response I was hoping for - clear, concise and detailed (a little snarky perhaps, but I can accept that :)

We'll try that today and I'll let you know how it works out.

Best.

Peter
 
Sorry about "Snarky"... wanted to make sure you took what I was saying for real... no questions.

Yes. The DVX has unique (well, not THAT unique) but misleading naming ideas for how it records.

Best way to think about it --

EVERYTHING the dvx shoots goes to tape as 29.97 and needs to be captured OFF the tape in some form of 29.97.

30i - of course 29.97 interlaced frames per second.
30p - 29.97 progressive frames per second

Both of those should be captured at dv ntsc 48k 29.97.

24p and 24pA are again, both sent to tape at 29.97. The DIFFERENCE here is that the 'shutter' shoots 23.98 fps but the camera adds a CADENCE (pulldown cadence) where it combines frames togehter and adds them to the stream from CCD to tape, so what ends UP on the tape in, indeed, 29.97.

24p mode should be captured with dv ntsc 48k 29.97 and edited in a 29.97 sequence. You'll end up with 3 progressive and 2 combined (interlaced) frames for every 6 sets of 5 frames per second.

24pA mode is the mode you want to use if you really want a 23.98 progressive sequence. Again, a cadence is added, but this time you'll end up with 4 progressive adn 1 combined (interlaced) frame for every 6 sets of 5 frames per second. THIS should be (but not always - I'll explain that in another thread if you need it) captured with the DV NTSC 48k Advanced Pulldown Removal option. This WILL CAPTURE IN 29.97... but as it does, it will remove the cadence on the fly giving you back 23.98 progressive frames per second and should be edited in a 23.98 sequence.

Good luck,

CaptM
 
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