Filming with XL-H1A and Focus FS-4 Pro HD

[Mitchell Yazdani]

HI,

I just purchased a Canon XL-H1a, Firestore FS-4 Pro HD and Adobe Productions Premium CS4 can some one please tell me what is the best setting to record and capture it to the Firestore, there are a few format what is the best please? Also how can I capture it from tape?

I have used Canon XL1s, Canopus card and Premiere 1.5 but this is totally different, I can not even capture it.
For Firestore FS-4, Canon XL-H1s and editing with Premiere CS4 what is the best format, M2T or Quicktime?

Many thanks in advance
Mitchell

[Mitchell Yazdani]

sorry, I meant XL-H1A not S.

For Firestore FS-4, Canon XL-H1a and editing with Premiere CS4 what is the best Firestore format, M2T or Quicktime? I downloaded some footage I recorded on my Firestore in Quicktime (.MOV), but I can not see it, I can hear the audio but video is black! I even downloaded CineForm plugin for Quicktime.
Any idea please

Cheers
Mitchell

[Andy Johnson-Laird]

I shoot with three XLH1a and I use the Focus Enhancements FS-CVs -- which is the Canon specific version of the FS-4 as far as I am aware. I tried the FS-4 first and discovered the hard way what you discovered. Audio but no video.

I'm shooting HDV at 30F and, according to the sales rep (who I have no reason to doubt), this is a Canon-specific standard, hence the need for the FS-CV.

Short answer: I think you need to get an FS-CV, but others on the forum may have a workaround for you.

Regards
Andy

[Mitchell Yazdani]

Hi Andy,

Thank you for your info, I contacted Focus before I buy it and they told me that it will work with Canon XL-H1!

What is the difference between Quicktime and M2T, which one is better?

Thanks
Mitchell

[Andy Johnson-Laird]

Originally Posted by Mitchell Yazdani

Hi Andy,

Thank you for your info, I contacted Focus before I buy it and they told me that it will work with Canon XL-H1!

What is the difference between Quicktime and M2T, which one is better?

Thanks
Mitchell

I'm not sure of the technical differences (you may have to Google search for that), but I chose to work in Quicktime because I'm editing on a Mac Pro using Final Cut Pro 7 and Quicktime is a format native to the Mac.

Regards
Andy

[Jeff Tarpley]

I have a bunch of tapes that I want to record onto my FS-4. Am I able playback from the XL-h1s and put the FS-4 into record mode and capture? Thanks in advance.

BTW I'm ner here and love the site!
Jeff

[Noa Put]

If you have a Mac use quicktime, for a windows pc use M2T, I use premiere cs3 and it handles M2T files just fine. Don't know how cs4 performs now with a bunch of clips but my cs3 gets very unstable if I import a lot of small files from my hvr-dr60 drive. Therefore I use Womble video wizard to combine all the small files into one big one after I transfered everything from ext drive to pc. Womble does this in more then 4x realtime on my q6600 pc.
After that premiere acts much more stable. (since it only has to deal with one file instead of 200 or 300 short files (incase of a wedding for example)

Would find it strange that not all firestore versions can't handle the progressive format, my sony hvr-dr60 takes the interlaced and progressive format and that's also "just" an external harddrive.

[Dave Gosley]

I have an XL-H1 and recently bought and have met with an obstacle I thought would never exist with the FS-C. The first batch of footage I sucked into my pc from the FS-C was in the obligatory 2Gig files - BUT they all lost 8 frames of audio at the end of each file and I enquired with Focus tech support as to why. This is what they sent me so all is not lost - (even if it ain't right..):

Firestore Contiguous File Transfer;

----------------------------------------------
The Firestore FS-4, FS-C, DR-HD100 are FAT32 based, giving an approximate 2G file limit.
There can't be clips longer than 2Gs, resulting in multiple files per clip.

The Open GOP structure of the 1080 stream requires information that contained in these
multiple files to have a truly contiguous video/audio file. Because of the nature of Open GOP compression.

Some NLE systems do not combine the m2t files when imported, so this needs to be done
prior to import.

Some people are using the following method to combine the files. All this does is combine the files at the binary level, using a DOS command, to over come "seamless" obstacles. It does not change or modify the MPEG.
***********************************************
Command example:
"copy /b 001.m2t+002.m2t v:\CompleteClip.m2t"

Some detailed Steps:
The following assumes drive "V" is the destination video work drive , and the FS-4 HD is
drive "F". Also the destination file will be named, "cam1.m2t". Type the command, without
the quotes. So "command" is simply typed as command.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The destination drive drive (V:) must be a non-FAT32 file format,
such as NTFS.

NOTE: The purpose of steps 1 and 2 are to avoid hassling with the default and long original
file names, reduce typing. So they are not required.

1) Mount the FS-4 HD to a Windows 2000/XP computer. FS-4 normally mounts as drive "F".
Rename the folder with the video files to "fs". (just for simplicity).

2) Rename the video files to 001.m2t, 002.m2t, 003.m2t, 004.m2t, 005.m2t, 006.m2t and
007.m2t. This assures that they stay in order. (just for simplicity)

3) Close the window and then click Start, Run and type "command" and press enter.

4) Next type "f::" and press enter. You should now be at the root dir of the FS-4 HD's drive.

5) Next type "cd fs" and press enter. You should now be at the "f:\fs" folder.

6) Next type "copy /b 001.m2t+002.m2t+003.m2t+004.m2t+005.m2t+006.m2t+007.m2t
v:\capture\cam1.m2t" and press enter. Be absolutely sure to include /b which is for binary.

7) Import cam1.m2t into your NLE.

I gather this is because mine is one of those systems they mention at the front end of the advice...
It may help with dragging in the large number of files as contiguous rather than loads of mini files - I don't know...
Hope this helps someone...