So I am trying to get my footage into FCP. I am setting my in/out times in the batch capture screen, only when I hit the capture button it rewinds the tape all the way to the beginning and starts capturering from there...

I guess I should tell you. The tape with the footage on it was removed a couple of times and the camera was turned on/off a few times. I am at about the 5th section of the tape that starts counting 00.00.00.00
I am trying to capture about a 3 minute piece of film and the camera or software rewinds at the way to the beginning and starts to capture from the first place on the tape that reads 00.00.00.00

Is there a way to set the camera to not start a fresh recount everytime a tape is inserted, or am I missing a step

FC Studio (recent) Canon XL2

Hi Chris. What happens is that the camera is seeing a section of tape with no previous recording, and it will reset the timecode to zero at this point.

One way to avoid this is to stripe the tape before using it, by recording the lens cap for the entire duration of the tape.

Another way, which is what I prefer, is to get in the habit of recording a short segment of black video (lens cap again) after shooting a session, and definitely do this before removing the tape from the camera for any reason. Then when you reinsert the tape, you just need to restart shooting from the black segment and the timecode will not be broken.

As far as capturing into FCP is concerned, I suggest you don't use batch capture for this tape. Just manually capture the whole section of interest and then trim the clips after you get them on the timeline.

Richard

so when you say to start shooting from the black portion of the tape after I put it back in, you mean record about 10 sec's of lenscap, and the next time I insert the tape start recording somewhere in that lens cap section..???
I think what your trying to say is not to start recording when the screen is blue, (as in no footage), is this correct

Do people really record the whol tape (lens cap) before they actually use it..??

You can always capture in analog fashion, and have FCP digitize it. (I don't use FCP, but assume you can capture analog video in it...) You won't get original timecode on your transfer, but I think that's a moot point anyways.

so when you say to start shooting from the black portion of the tape after I put it back in, you mean record about 10 sec's of lenscap, and the next time I insert the tape start recording somewhere in that lens cap section..???
I think what your trying to say is not to start recording when the screen is blue, (as in no footage), is this correct


Yes, exactly what I meant.



Do people really record the whol tape (lens cap) before they actually use it..??

Some do, and recommend it. Personally, I have never thought it necessary, but thought I should at least let you know of the practice.

Richard

You can always capture in analog fashion, and have FCP digitize it. (I don't use FCP, but assume you can capture analog video in it...) You won't get original timecode on your transfer, but I think that's a moot point anyways.

Hi Bill. I'm not familiar with FCP either, but every other NLE I've used let's you capture DV manually, without having to seek for a particular timecode. Hopefully Chris will be able to find a way to do this in FCP and doesn't have to resort to capturing analogue (assuming he even has a capture card in his Mac).

Richard

Chris

I've noticed that the batch capture in FCP is a little unreliable....(at least in version 3 it was, I haven't tried to use it in HD yet). It seems whenever I would attempt to do a batch list, the timecode would add numbers where it shouldn't have. Like adding an hour to a one minute clip. But anyway the easy way to do it is cue up the clip and hit "now" in the bottom of the capture window. When your done hit esc. Just make sure the your preferences are set to "not abort on dropped frames" since it sounds like your tape has some timecode issues.

Rich

I seem to have got it figured out. All I needed to do was set my in point to at least 5 seconds into a new set for it to catch the time code, thanks for your help everyone, but I think from now on I will record some Lens cap just to be safe