We are a multimedia company specializing in the production of royalty free footage. We have a workflow issue that needs to be resolved and everywhere we turn seems to be a dead end. Really hoping that someone here has had a similar problem and has found a solution/workaround and wouldn't mind sharing their knowledge.

Here's our scenario...

We are shooting the bulk of our footage against a green screen on a Panasonic AG-HPX500 P2 camera. The footage is coming out of the camera via sdi and into an Ultimatte 11 compositing device (http://www.ultimatte.com/UltimatteMain/11%20Main.html). From there it is ingested into final cut pro 6 via sdi and a Black Magic Decklink HD Extreme capture card for (hopefully) a live capture.

Now here's the problem...

Our preferred capture format is 720p/60 or 720p/50 uncompressed 8 bit but the only format that we can capture live using the above method is 1080i/50 - Apple ProRes or DVCPro. All other formats inform us that there is no video input (yes, when we try to capture 720p in Final Cut the camera is set to the same).

The whole thing is just very frustrating. Any answers/workarounds to my questions or any other ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Have you tried capturing directly from camera to the BM interface via SDI? If that works then it sounds like the issue would be with the Ultimatte device/software and you should consult with their tech support.

We use AJA cards and have successfully captured uncompressed from the HPX500 and 2000 cameras without issue.

I have the same card.

In a multi-camera shoot sometimes I mix HDV 1080 and DVCPRO HD 720. I have tried capturing the HDV 1080 through component out with the DVCPRO HD codec with the same results you had.

I think it has to do with the native ship being 1080.

Have you tried capturing uncompress 1080?

HPX does not support 720 on HDSDI/Component out, so you would have to set it at 1080 and record with Decklink HD Extreme with 1080 format.
Was the analog component input more forgiving with the format? Maybe set the cam at 1080 but record at 720/60p with FCP/DecklinkHD?
Maybe the mew multibridge can do the conversion from 1080 down to 720. I will check on that.

Hi people,

Thank for your replies.

We had the mac people come and visit us to help setup a system for the above mentioned issue and other workflow solutions. Basically I looks to be the blackmagic card we use to capture with doesnt seem to support what we require along with FCP, so we are looking into AJA capture card.

At this stage we will stick with 1080i 50i using Apple ProRes 422.

Thanks again,

Ivan.