Hi all, I have been lurking around this forum for a while and gathering alot of usefull information. I recently got the XH-A1 and I have been shooting landscapes, waterfalls etc. for stock footage.

Anyways, sorry if I posted this in the wrong forum. I'm not sure if I have a Camera problem or an HDV aquisition problem.

Problem:
When I play composite out of my camera to a monitor my footage looks great, its sharp and vivid.
When I capture it to FCP and play it back it is sharp until I hit play. As soon as its playing it blurs (like "I need to get my eyes checked" kinda blur). When I stop it looks ok again.


My HDV Aquistion : I have tried every workflow I can find info on and the only one that I can get to work is -

1. Capture over firewire using the DVHS app from the Apple Firewire SDK
2. Use Mpeg Streamclip to export to an HDV resolution Apple Intermediate Codec (1080i 60)
3. Import into FCP


Is it me, the camera or my workflow......or all of the above ; )

Any help would be greatly appreciated.


BTW: These are all locked shots with focus at infinity.

It could be a few things but I don’t believe it’s from the camera.

It could be your display or preview settings. The actual file might be just as sharp but your monitor or editing app may be giving you a low res display.

It could be your capture settings, bringing in the footage at a lower resolution.

It could be the Intermediate Codec.

If the source footage from the camera looks tight, you can rule out the camera.

thanks! I'll try different monitoring for sure.

I find this same problem whenever there is a filter or motion setting applied to the clip. Basically FCP can not show you the full quality at playback, but when you stop it looks great. You probably have a light or dark green line above your clip in the timeline. Try rendering your timeline and see if that makes a difference.


Jon Schwartz
CA Video Productions

Yes, the above post is right, also try setting your timeline to "unlimited" preview if you have the processor speed.

That was it, exported a QT movie of the sequence and it looks great, thanks for the help.

That was it, exported a QT movie of the sequence and it looks great, thanks for the help.

Yes Luke, that's the dynamic real time preview reducing resolution to maintain frame rate. As you discovered, your rendered material looks fine.

-gb-