This is a program which captures HDV 24f into FCP, so they say.

http://www.hdvxdv.com

I can't manage to get it to capture, but apparently other people have had success with it on the Canon, JVC and other HDV cameras.

Please try it and report your successes and failures. I don't want to wait for Apple to cough up their codec for the Canon.

best

Harry

I shot 24F footage today, plugged a firewire into a G5 and used the FCP Apple Intermediate Codec to bring it in. I set the frame rate to 23.98 in the AV settings, and it captured my clips without a problem.

So what am I missing? Is it corrupted?

I know what you mean. I can digitize 24f - or so it seems, because I can see the material while capturing ...

However -- can you create an FCP sequence and edit it in FCP? If you can, you are a better man than me.

Cracking out the Prozac here .... sharpening the razorblades ---

best

Harry

Cory: I haven't been able to get a 24F capture that looks exactly right. If I choose HDV - Apple Intermediate Codec, I can capture but there's something wrong with what I get. If I compare it to what I get by capturing in HDVxDV, the FCP captured stuff is aliased like crazy, esp. on any edge involving the color red.

Can you give a full report on what settings exactly you're choosing for sequence and capture presets?

Ok, thought I'd summarize my current results:

1. Can't capture in FCP with capture preset "HDV". Stuff is visible, choppy, doesn't actually capture.

2. Can indeed capture in FCP when capture preset is "HDV - Apple Intermediate Codec". If dropped onto a sequence with settings: res 1440x1080, par 1440x1080, and timebase of 29.97, then it'll edit without rendering.

3. I can capture in HDVxDV, export to DVCPRO HD 1080, use Cinema Tools to conform to 23.98. (Note that the clip claims to *be* in 23.98 already, but doing the conform does something, and it's something good.) After that, that clip can be dropped onto a sequence configured for DVCPRO HD 1080 ( res 1280x1080, par 1280x1080, editing timebase 24). And that'll edit without rendering as well.

4. Heads up: the DVCPRO HD path above looks better than the AIC path. Way less visible aliasing. Would appear to be completely a coded issue, because if I export from HDVxDV using AIC, I get the same aliasing problem I see via HDV AIC capture in FCP.

5. I still feel certain that the actual correct technique for extracting 24fps from the Canon simply doesn't exist yet for FCP. I am getting strange sound sync problems when using the files that come via HDVxDV. Sound plays out of sync sometimes in FCP, but pausing and using arrow keys to bump back or forward a bit fixes the sync problem.

6. The HDVxDV people asked me for an .m2t file from the Canon in 24f mode which I supplied them. Hopefully someone like them, with the tools to crack into the data and understand what Canon has done, will shed light on what's really happening.

Finally, for me, for now, the DVCPRO HD path is giving me the best results, so I ponied up the $80 for HDVxDV. But that was before I realized (thank you Cory) that I could capture using the HDV AIC preset. Had I known that, I probably would've limped along on that until Apple delivers true Canon 24f support.

Finally, for me, for now, the DVCPRO HD path is giving me the best results, so I ponied up the $80 for HDVxDV. But that was before I realized (thank you Cory) that I could capture using the HDV AIC preset. Had I known that, I probably would've limped along on that until Apple delivers true Canon 24f support.

I've had no sound problems with this workflow:

--Playback HDV tape and capture SDI output into DVCPRO HD w/KonaLH card
--Capture audio from the H1 analog outputs into Kona

Works great and saves the extra step of software conversion.

btw, DVCPRO HD is my favored post format for H1 HDV too. Just works better.

I wish Cineform codec was part of FCP.

HDVxDV has 2 components. The first captures an m2t file and the second converts it to a Quicktime format. I have two Macs (dual G5 and laptop). HDVxDV will not capture on the G5 but will convert. The laptop captures but will not convert.

I have been able to have HDVxDV both capture and convert on my quad Mac.

Which reminds be of an alternative to HDVxDV I heard about (but have not used myself):

DVHSCap (a free Apple utility) can capture into .m2t files and MPEG Streamclip (another free utility on the Apple website) can convert the file into DVCPRO HD or any other codec of your choosing.

So, it would appear that as a stop-gap measure one could use the two free utilities from Apple instead of HDVxDV.

You may have heard that alternative from me :)

Yes, indeed capture your 24F HDV footage using DVHSCap. Then convert that .m2t file using MPEGStreamclip into a DVCProHD 1080 codec (make sure to keep the 23.976 frmerate) and then drop it into a 1080/24p DVCProHD timeline in FCP (you'll know it works if you don't have to render). It works flawlessly, with exact 24P motion rendition. Its great ... and it is a lot easier codec for Final Cut to work with than native HDV as it is less processor intensive. Just realize though, that the files become 4x the size because of the codec.

You may have heard that alternative from me :)


I definitely heard that alternative from you! If had been able to easily find your original post, I would have pointed people at it.

By the way, I was a little put off about installing DVHSCap because the only download I found had it wrapped up in a firewire dev kit and I feared installing it would somehow mess up my Mac in some subtle and hard to undo way. How did you go about getting DVHSCap?

I had no problem finding and installing MPEG Streamclip, which by the way works on .m2t files that HDVxDV captured.

Just to be sure, I presume you loose your timecode information if you do the capture/re-encode thing via both the HDxDV and DVHSCap way?

Just to be sure, I presume you loose your timecode information if you do the capture/re-encode thing via both the HDxDV and DVHSCap way?

With HDVxDV for both capture and converting, the timecode information survives.

When I used MPEG Streamclip on a HDVxDV .m2t file, the timecode info was lost.

Allright! Good to know! So in the future when FCP is natively supporting the 24f thing you can just do a batch capture to get the footage in the HDV format.

Thought I'd try HDVxDV one more time and now both parts work on the dual G5. New OSX version? Who knows? Guess I'll give them their $80.

Thanks for the word guys. On location, needing to get it set up fast, and didn't go beyond capturing before I thought I'd figured it out. Apologies. Team in the next hotel room trying to figure it out now and giving me shit because I'm getting information from a chat room, but it doesn't appear to be getting figured out. Looks like I'll be getting some software. Regards.

I sent $80 for the fully licensed HDVxDV only to find that it is not an unqualified success on the (or I suppose I should say my) dual G5 system. HDVxDV will not capture through the Firewire400 ports built into the machine. The system sees the camera and can control it but will not capture any data. A file with the appropriate .m2t extension is created but it is empty. Capture is possible through a Firewire800 expansion card but if anything else is on that card (i.e. scanner, disk drive, audio interface...) data is dropped. This manifests itself by the appearance of improperly encoded or decoded square blocks in the captured video. I guess the next step is to see if a separate firewire card dedicated to video capture is the answer.

The system sees the camera and can control it but will not capture any data. A file with the appropriate .m2t extension is created but it is empty.

I have had the same problem a couple of times -- can control the camera but no data comes in. When my Mac was in this mode, both FCP and HDVxDV couldn't get video bits off the camera. Rebooting made the problem go away.

Being a recent PC to Mac switcher, I am, of course, quite comfortable with this workflow!

A bit more info on HDVxDV. The reason I couldn't convert on my laptop is because the CODEC is actually apparently part of Quicktime. When I upgraded QT on the laptop the conversion became available and works fine except that it takes forever. The only format I can go to which does not require rendering by DCP is DVC Pro HD.

hey all,

i'm trying this DVHSCAP - MPEGSTREAMCLIP thing for getting 24f footage into FCP, and it's making me render everything.

Once captured with DVSCAP, I try exorting with Streamclip to a Quicktime file using the Apple Intermediate Codec and Apple DVCPRO HD 720p, 1080 (50i and 60i). The AIC and 1080 stuff comes up beatifully in FCP with time code, but it still needs rendering. My FCP sequence presets are 720p24 with 23.98. There is no 1080/24p option.

Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong?

Also, I don't see any updates on the H1 to FCP problem. Anyone know when/if the patch is coming?

Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong?


Two ideas from things that have happened to me:

1. Actually check the properties of your sequence and the clip in FCP. For the sequence, right click on it and choose "Settings...". For the clip, right-click and choose "item properties -> format...".

I find that sometimes the clip doesn't have the properties that the exporting dialog claimed it would have. Most commonly, I think the clip is going to 1440x1080 when its actually 1280x1080. By changing the sequence settings to match, I no longer get the red line above the clip and no rendering is needed.

2. I have also had problems that were solved by using Cinema Tools to conform the clip to 23.98. This step has been needed even when the clip already appears to be at 23.98. Go figure. Anyway, consider conforming the clip while waving a dead chicken over your keyboard.

Hope this helps. It took me several tries to get matching clip and sequence, and the above two issues were the trickiest. If you're lucky one of them might be your issue.

Heads up: the DVCPRO HD path above looks better than the AIC path. Way less visible aliasing. Would appear to be completely a coded issue, because if I export from HDVxDV using AIC, I get the same aliasing problem I see via HDV AIC capture in FCP.

AIC has a well known "issue" with interlaced HDV which you have found. It works fine with progressive HDV, however.

I sent $80 for the fully licensed HDVxDV only to find that it is not an unqualified success on the (or I suppose I should say my) dual G5 system. HDVxDV will not capture through the Firewire400 ports built into the machine. The system sees the camera and can control it but will not capture any data. A file with the appropriate .m2t extension is created but it is empty. Capture is possible through a Firewire800 expansion card but if anything else is on that card (i.e. scanner, disk drive, audio interface...) data is dropped. This manifests itself by the appearance of improperly encoded or decoded square blocks in the captured video. I guess the next step is to see if a separate firewire card dedicated to video capture is the answer.

A.J.

I had the same problem on our G5 at work. However, I was using DVHSCap. The .m2t files were seemingly created but were 0kb in size with no data.

Doing a firwire capture into FCP 5 worked fine. I was able to log and batch capture but it broke the files into separate clips at scene breaks. The interesting thing is that on my Mac Mini at home, the DVHSCap work flow worked fine but not the FCP Capture. In FCP when trying to capture over FW, I was presented with a very basic and limited capture window. I could not log and batch capture. The only option even shown was the capture now option. It appears that FCP configures itself according tho the processor type.

AIC has a well known "issue" with interlaced HDV which you have found. It works fine with progressive HDV, however.

Any reason that you might know of, Steve? I've heard speculation that AIC might actually just be 4.2.0 encoding and subsequently have some issues with interlace.

Is AIC a wavelet codec of sorts, or something completely different?

Boy do I stink at trying to find things through search...

I know that people are going out of the camera through the HD...SDI route... and taking the footage into FCP by way of DVCPROHD... going into Cinema Tools for the pulldown and then dropping it onto a 24p time line in FCP

But I was wondering I might have missed it... that's why the search... but how are you resyncing your audio and how would you put new time code or the original time code into FCP also...

Thanks Gary