I borrowed a friends HF-10, shot some test footage, and imported the clips into FCP using Log and Transfer.

The clips imported fine but on playback in the viewer, the clips look like some sort of stylized effect has been applied. Same holds true when brought in to iMovie.

Is there a setting somewhere along the line I might have missed? The footage plays fine in the log and transfer window.

Would appreciate any guidance here as I have worn out a spot on my head due to all the head scratching!

Thanks

I spoke with the folks at Canon tech support and they tell me the camera is fine. It DOES playback properly on my HD TV through the component out. Canon says it is an Apple problem. Spent 30 minutes on the phone with Apple and they say it is a camera problem. Preview on log and import is fine. Playback with QT or through FCP is NG.

Is it possible that my older Mac Pro 2 x 2.8GHz Quad Core is at fault?

Anyone have any thoughts, please share.

Thanks

Is the "stylized" effect small lines- are you talking about interlacing?

Reed,

Your computer is unlikely to be defective. How about doing a screen capture and saving it as an attachment in this thread? This will give people here a chance to take a look at what you are seeing, and possibly allow us to assist you.

Larry

Here is a link to a page with three screen grabs of a sample clip. I opened a clip with QT after importing it through FCP Capture & Transfer

Photos http://web.me.com/jrgidez/HF-10

I am taking the camera to my local Apple Store to load footage on one of their machines to see if the same thing happens.

The problem is clearly visible in the 2nd and 3rd shots. It looks like some form of severe motion artifacts, which ordinarily should not be a problem with a dual quad core 2.8 GHz Mac Pro. My first thoughts would be possibly insufficient RAM, possibly a highly fragmented hard disk, or some playback codec problem, all of which are computer and NOT camera related.

Let's see what you find out at the Apple Store. Possibly others here also have opinions.

Larry

Thanks for your observations Larry. I did go to the Apple store and the clips from the camera loaded and played fine on a Mac Pro there so the camera is not at fault.

I have 8GB of ram on board so I don't think that is at fault. I just finished a complete reinstall of FCP and that did not make a difference on a re-captured clip. I don't have time to call Apple back today as I have an appt in NYC at 6 but I will try them tomorrow.

In the meantime, I will run a diagnostic on my drives. Could MXO be monkeying with things? I may remove it from my system and see.

The Matrox MXO is a device I am not familiar with, but I would consider it highly suspect. Can you disconnect if and see if the problem persists?

Larry

I did indeed disconnect the MXO and tried the transfer again. Same results. I suspect a either a corrupted codec or possibly a conflicting program. Since the results are the same when I transfer the complete directory to my desktop and then invoke the file transfer, I don't think there is a USB conflict.

Could also be the video card I suppose.


Reed

Here is a link to a page with three screen grabs of a sample clip. I opened a clip with QT after importing it through FCP Capture & Transfer

Photos http://web.me.com/jrgidez/HF-10

I am taking the camera to my local Apple Store to load footage on one of their machines to see if the same thing happens.

A very bad case on interlace combing. It looks like the MXO may be not playing nice with QT player. MXO is a very good product for use with FCP.

So you may not have the latest software or settings may not be correct. Reread MXO docs.

Disconnecting may not be enough.

Removed hardware and software. BTW, software was up-to-date.

Smearing on video worsens with motion on the playback.

Guess I'll be on the phone with Apple tomorrow.

Reed,

I might suggest taking a look at settings everyplace to be sure that camcorder, monitor, FCP, etc. are all set for the same frame rate, field order, resolution, etc. Maybe reinstalling newest QuickTime also since FCP installer has older version.

Hello Larry

That was one of the first things I did. Funny thing in all of this (maybe not really 'funny') is that my iMac (intel core 2) behaves the same way. As I write this, that machine is undergoing an archive and reinstall of Leopard. Since BOTH machines should be able to handle this footage (albeit one slower than the other) I find it curious that they behave the same.

Not going to monkey anymore with my Mac Pro as I have a couple of big deadlines looming.

I'll keep you posted on the outcome.

Reed

Wow!!

This certainly seems to incriminate Apple software based on the other tests you have reported.

I would welcome a chance to take a look at a short clip from your camcorder in which this flaw is evident. You could take the .mts file found in the STREAMS folder in the BDMV folder and email or post it.

It would be very useful for other FCP users here to see if they run into the same issue.

I very deliberately and joyfully dumped my most recent 8 core Mac Pro Xeon 3.0 GHz machine and FCP after finding it to be so painfully slow for doing AVCHD work, and also had a prior quad core MacPro as well as a dual processor G5 MacPro running FCP, both of which handled HDV with relative ease. I frankly detested the way Apple AVCHD was handled and how slow Compressor was, even on their highest performance MacPros.

Therefore I have no hardware or software here to repeat your experiment, but will be glad to see how the clip itself behaves, and also think that others here might be willing to spend a bit of time taking a look as well.

Larry

.... to ZERO my hard drive and reload everything! He suggested this over taking it to the Genius Bar.

I do have the original drive that came with the system which was replaced with a bigger drive when my system was delivered. I can put that it, update it, and see what happens.

Anyway, in the interest of all, I will keep this thread updated.

Reed

The files transfer OK with the original drive and OS (Leopard, updated) so the bug rests within both my iMac and Mac Pro. Disappointing.

Now need to find out if I can isolate the problem program or files and remove them without having to back everything up and zero the drive.

rg

Reed,

Are you saying that 2 different installs of FCP both have the same display issue? If I understand your last post correctly, you would need to "zero" the drive on both the MacPro and iMac to fix it on both machines.

This is pretty incredible...

Larry

Hey Larry

When I bought my new Mac Pro this past spring, I immediately replaced the 320GB drive with a 750GB and installed my apps on that drive, keeping the stock drive on a shelf 'just in case".

After unsuccessful attempts to correct the transfer problem, I reinstalled FCP on the current system drive to no avail. To rule out any hardware issues with the Mac Pro, I removed the working system drive and put in the original drive (without FCP - pretty much factory standard) updated the OS and then plugged in the HF10. Files transferred and played perfectly. This tells me there is a problem with a corrupt or outdated file on my main system drive. Apple says the only way to fix it is to Zero the drive. I don't want to have to do that if possible.

What I am now looking for is a way to possibly ID the errant files or program and remove and replace. I suspect this is not going to be possible so I will have to back up my data, clear the drive, and reinstall everything.

I will call Apple once more and see if I can a more knowledgeable tech.

That's where we stand at the moment. This is not a 'mission critical' problem now and I can continue the two projects I am working on. Just an annoyance because now that I have bought the camera, I want to be able to integrate it into my projects. Size alone makes it a great POV cam.

Reed

Reed,

Sorry to hear of the grief you are having. I still am puzzled at the coincidence (?) of two machines becoming corrupted in the same manner. Your iMac apparently suffers from the same issue, and it is nearly incredible to me that this would occur except if there is some software bug, in which case I would expect most if not all other users to see the same issue as you do.

Like many things Apple-related, cause and effect are not neccesarily obvious. And Apple certainly does not expose a lot of details which would allow users and 3rd parties to provide a lot of repair or diagnostic tools for these types of problems.

As a purely defensive strategy, I did precisely what you did with each of my MacPros, namely, remove the factory disk, and then install a larger (in my case 500 GB) drive along with a couple more 500 GB drives as well, as soon as the machine was unboxed and initialized with my user account.

After installing FCP and other apps and confirming that they are working, I then immediately ran SuperDuper (a superb product) and also Carbon Copy Cloner to image the disks and make backups. More than once I had to resort to using them to do restores, particularly after Parallels, Bootcamp, and a lot of other early release software screwed things up.

I had a lot of problems with my first MacPro, ultimately resulting in Apple allowing me a trade-in for an 8 core machine. The MacPro would suddenly, without warning, totally shut down, often in the middle of long rendering sessions when the fans were going full speed. After 3 back-breaking trips to the Apple Store and unsuccessful attempts to fix it, followed by escalation by my son (an attorney) who made some legitimate legal threats, Apple admitted to a problem and gave me nearly full value in a trade. The newer 8 core was very stable, but the rendering speed was way too long for me to suffer. And any comparisons I made to my better PC software such as Vegas convinvced me that Apple was not the way to go. This is / was especially true for BlueRay, AVCHD, and other advanced / recent stuff, which Apple has not embraced and has, in Steve Job's case personally, dismissed.

Sorry for the long winded reply. One would presume that a reinstall of FCP and Quick Time with the subsequent updates applied should restore your environment, but obviously such is not the case. I hope the "Zero" process works!!

Larry