XHA1 and FINAL CUT --- Problems?

John Scott 3

John Scott 3

Well-known member
I'm about to purchase the A1, but haven't even thought about any problems I might encounter with editing. Are there any? I'm used to importing via a DV deck, but as I don't have access to that anymore, I have to connect via camera, so that might pose problems. Anyone have any great information for me, or any links to send me to in order to read? Thanks much.
 
Fcp 5.1.4 & Xha1

Fcp 5.1.4 & Xha1

I'm using Final Cut Pro 5.1.4, currently, but I'm not afraid to get Final Cut Studio 2 if need be. I have Studio 1, and like all technology, I bought it 2 months before Studio 2 came out. Before that I just used my friend's studio (and my school) in order to edit. Will this sufficiently work for editing from my XHA1, or will there need to be a few "fixes?" I read a few threads about problems with FCP and XHA1, so I wanted to get the scoop. Thanks!
 
I havent read of any major problems with editing in FCP, you do know that capturing via camera is your ONLY option at the moment with the A1 right? No decks support the Canon HDV right now.

The upgrade to FCS2 is pretty well priced considering what you are getting, FCP6 alone would be worth it but all your Studio1 programs AND Color, that right there is too good to pass up.

Have fun!:beer:
 
That's good. Have there been any problems uploading data from the A1 to FCP? The upgrade to FC Studio 2 would cost me the exact same as FC Studio 1 cost me, because I work for NASA/Smithsonian and Harvard, so I get the educational discount. $500. It just makes me mad that I finally purchased FC Studio 2 months ago, and now I have to repay that to get FC Studio 2. Guess I should have done more research before I bought it to find out if anything was coming out sooner.
 
I'm being told by everyone that Final Cut 5 will edit with the canon A1. You might have to get Final Cut pro 6 to edit 1080/24f.
 
Yes to reiterate, FCP 5.1.4 will edit 24f shot on the A1 using the HDV 1080p24 easy preset.
 
Hazard said:
I havent read of any major problems with editing in FCP, you do know that capturing via camera is your ONLY option at the moment with the A1 right? No decks support the Canon HDV right now.
Click to expand...

Actually, you can also capture A1 video into FCP in 4:2:2 from the analog component out through a BMD Decklink Extreme HD card.
 
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can you get a firestore for the a1 and record 1080/24f and bring in the footage into FCP that way?
 
Here is the email reply from B&H

"You need FinalCut 5.1.4 or later to edit 24f."

"You will not be able to work with that camera in HD without 5.1.4. You can down convert to DV and use it with an early version."
 
Earlier versions of FCP 5 worked with Canon 24F footage if you used third party capture and conversion software like HDDVXDV, Virtual DVHS and MPEG streamclip and converted to AIC or DVCPROHD.

Toast Titanium 8 recognizes the XH-A1 and you can burn SD DVD's from the camera output.

With FCP 6, MpegStreamclip works with Prores422 codec , so you can batch convert to Prores 422 HQ and SQ.
 
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I also have an XH-A1 and I am capturing my HDV footage to Apple Intermediate Codec for editing (I am only using a 1.8 GHz G5 iMac so the camera plays at normal speed but the computer lags behind and takes a few minutes to finish transcoding to AIC after the camera has stopped playing). I plan on getting a MBP with FCP2 as soon as Leopard is released, but does anyone know will I be able to capture to ProRes 422 in the same way I am capturing to AIC or will I need a hardware interface to do the HDV to ProRes422 transcoding? OR.. Am I better off using AIC? Is ProRes 422 just a new improved/replacement for AIC?
Thanks,
Alan
 
Do you know about avid xpress pro 5.7. on a mac. I have both, my fcp is 5.0.4, I know i have to update to at least 5.1, but what about the avid? thankyou, e,
 
You need a dual Xenon Mac to encode Prores directly. So conversion is required on slower Macs. There's some chatter around that you don't need to use Prores unless you're doing effects.

Check out Cinema Hill's new trailer. It was shot on Canon XL-H1 to HDV tape . They are using AIC.

http://www.tripleoseven.com/trailer_qt.html
 
AlanSla said:
I also have an XH-A1 and I am capturing my HDV footage to Apple Intermediate Codec for editing (
Click to expand...

I just got FCPS2 and a new Macbook Pro. I am about to get a camera and I am leaning heavily toward the XH A1. I just have a couple of questions.

Are you able to batch capture using the Apple Intermediate Codec?

Can PRO Res work on a new Macbook Pro? (and..can you batch capture)

From reading the Final Cut manual, it looks like you can only 'capture now' when you are transcoding like this.

Thanks in advance for your help!

M
 
As far as I can tell, you can only batch capture to AIC with 1080i and 30F, not 24F.
That said, the new FCP 6 works wonderfully with the new ProRes codec, but in my tests I've found you can't capture directly to it via firewire with HDV 24F mode. You can, however, capture your HDV and very quickly transcode via the Media Manager to 10 bit ProRes 4:2:2 HQ (20 MBs) or regular ProRes. (15-16 MBs)

The best thing about transcoding via Media Manager is that it allows you to keep a redundant copy of the original HDV files for a final conform or online, while also converting the media to ProRes and retaining clip/log info plus timecode. And the codec is full raster and snappy!As far as I can tell, you can only batch capture to AIC with 1080i and 30F, not 24F.
That said, the new FCP 6 works wonderfully with the new ProRes codec, but in my tests I've found you can't capture directly to it via firewire with HDV 24F mode. You can, however, capture your HDV and very quickly transcode via the Media Manager to 10 bit ProRes 4:2:2 HQ (20 MBs) or regular ProRes. (15-16 MBs) ProRes is a higher quality codec than AIC, but it also creates signifigantly larger files.

The best thing about transcoding via Media Manager is that it allows you to keep a redundant copy of the original HDV files for a final conform or online, while also converting the media to ProRes and retaining clip/log info plus timecode. And the codec is full raster and snappy!
 
Elton said:
As far as I can tell, you can only batch capture to AIC with 1080i and 30F, not 24F.
Click to expand...

Thanks so much for the answer.

Call me naive but I honestly can't believe that this is how everyone works with HDV. Transcoding or 'cuts only' editing with GOPs? I am sort of shocked.

I havent built up a system in several years so I was assuming that HDV would be just like DV. Just shoot-digitize-output. I posted here after reading all of the disclaimers in the new Final Cut about cutting with HDV.

Wow. Transcoding a hundred of hours of footage for a documentary is probably going to really suck for me. I hope that something better comes along.

Sorry for the rant.

Thanks so much for the info.
 
Native HDV editing isn't nearly as bad as a lot of people think. Unless you have an edit that require a lot of multistream RT effects, it's not so different from DV editing--other than the conform/print-to-tape process.

With a MacBook Pro you should be able to get real time fades, dissolves, CC, and some filters too. It's also easy to copy/paste an HDV timeline and drop it into a Pro Res sequence and the HDV renders quickly...which means you can rough things out in HDV, but render higher quality with less compression in a ProRes timeline. You can do the same thing with AIC, but I don't recommend AIC because it's simply not as good as ProRes, nor does it seem to offer any higher quality than a native HDV edit. (even with GOP conform/recompressions)

Going the AIC route is even worse if your intent is to print back to HDV tape. It's because it involves transcoding to AIC, then transcoding back to HDV. This is much worse than rebuilding GOPs here and there.

Transcoding isn't nearly as bad as it sounds, but in general, my approach to post with a doc would be to edit native HDV and convert some material/sequences when needed to ProRes. (for AE, Shake etc.) If you want to capture directly to ProRes you can get a new AJA IO HD. It has the codec integrated into hardware.

If you go to an Apple store you can try out HDV editing on one of their laptops. They usually have one or two projects with footage available.
 
jleo said:
There's some chatter around that you don't need to use Prores unless you're doing effects.
Click to expand...

That's my basic assessment. For truly fx-heavy real time HD editing--as a bare minimum--you'll need a 4 disk SATA RAID, an HD capture card from AJA or Blackmagic, along with a really fast Mac. Even with DVCPRO HD editing, to get reliable multistream performance you basically need all of the above.
 
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