Capture Utility Beside FCP
 

I have two Macs, a Quad for editing and a MBP for capturing. I have FCS2, but cannot have it on both computers unless the airport is off, which is unworkable. Is there another utility for capturing FCP HDV clips?

You might be able to use Quicktime Pro; iMovie can capture HDV but I don't know if you can transfer those files into FCP. My guess is not, but others on this forum have discussed it; try searching for the info here.

iMovie is quite functional for capture software... it captures in the Apple Intermediary Codec in the appropriate resolution and will break the clips after every stop in recording.

Also they are fully compatible with FC, just set your project to work in the appropriate AIC codec and you're good to go.

I hadn't considered those. Thanks! iMovie looks promising. Time to play...

All the best!

I was excited that iMovie was capturing, but now I have a big problem. I captured five HDV miniDVs and it created one massive file (over 100g). I have to drag each clip to another folder, and that takes forever. Is there any way around this?

control click on the 100Gb File, and select the option "show package contents" in the resulting popup menu. The "huge file" is actually a folder with a bunch of stuff in it. Including the actual clips you've captured. You can drag them out of there (Either copy them so they still reside there if you need them later again, or move them if you don't...knowing they'll disappear from the iMovie project once you've done so).

Thanks bro, that was the fix.

Question though...these clips are a lot larger than clips I capture in FCP, and I don't have much say in the specs. I'm capturing HDV from an FX1 and burning to standard DVDs. I imagine this is a compression issue. FCP gives me a prompt asking if I want to modify the clips for the timeline, which I don't normally have to do. Thoughts?

You have no say in the specs in iMovie...in fact the old version had audio incompatabilities with FCP that made it so you had to render every single clip you put in the timeline every time you made a change. :( Ask me about my 47 hours of logged footage for my feature sometime...ick. I ended up having to re-export everything to quicktime full quality which ballooned the size unhappily.

The best way though is to get used to using the log and capture workflow wihtin FCP (unless you're doing event shooting - in which case I use capture now). I've just switched to it and it makes me happy...turn on the audio preview in the capture settings (tabs on top right of capture window). Mark your in at action, mark your out at cut, hit log clip...repeat throughout the tape, then hit batch capture and they will all magically pull in. This saves Hard drive space as well as you can elect not to import specific takes if they got botched and had no value for the production.

iMovie only captures in AIC (which is bigger than native HDV) and capturing in AIC loses the TC from the tape, IIRC.


-A

I would rather use FCP, but I can't afford to buy a second copy just to capture on a second computer. I have to be connected via Ethernet to make it work, and it won't let me have two versions open at once. (see http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=108783).

I seem to recall folks using a sample app from apple's developer tools firewire SDK to pull in footage from some camera before the built-in support came to pass for it...DVHSCapture or something like that. You'll need to go to apple's developer's website and download the firewire SDK (free) from there to get it...but the app is free.

I downloaded and installed it. I got it to work after quite a bit of reading, but when I captured it came out as M2t (Vegas). Of course Final Cut will not accept M2t.

I've pretty much concluded that outside FCP, nothing will capture for FCP unless you want to add a conversion to your workflow. iMovie files are unworkable -- they are just too large.

My last hope is Quicktime Pro.

You might want to rethink your workflow.
Maybe incorporate something along the lines of a Firestore to shoot with to cut your capture time down to nothing.

I'd like to, but I live and Phoenix and they'd fry in the sun. I also film three camera weddings, so that's like $4,500. I wish it was workable.

My options are:
1. to capture at night while sleeping
2. to buy a second (perhaps older) FCP version for capturing only
3. to capture on my PC, converting each file from M2t (sell my second Mac)

How long does it take to convert from M2t with the mpeg download?

Dana,
 

I went with your option 2. When I purchased the upgrade to FCS I only installed it on one computer and left FCP5.1.4 on the other. Now I can keep my network up and running while I import on both machines.

Just out of curiosity, why do you need your airport on while you are importing. When I had the same version on both machines I would just turn airport off of one and capture to an external 500gb drive. When all capture was done I just hooked it up to my main computer via FW800 and after lunch all my footage was on one computer.

Good luck in whatever works for you.

Jonathan Schwartz
CA Video Productions

My Macbook Pro has only one firewire, so I cannot capture via firewire and go to an external. So I am connected via ethernet to my Quad, so it's the ethernet connection that won't allow it.

It would be far less expensive to go PC and convert, but the unknown is how long the converter would take with each hour-long HDV capture.

How about a Firewire hub, or daisychaining the external drive and the camera? For this case, I'd even consider capturing to the built-in drive as opposed to an external scratch disk, and moving them over to the editing computer later.

I feel your pain, Dana. I, too, shoot with up to three cameras and routinely have six tapes for a single show that I record. The two things that have saved me so far are that I don't have more than two or three of those to cover in a single month, and the fact that I work out of my basement, so I try to capture during normal activities - capture one tape while cooking dinner, the next while eating, the third while I watch TV, etc.

- Martin

What about Final Cut Express?

That would only capture using Apple Intermediate codec. So not really different from iMovie, right? BTW, Dana, I still don't understand what's wrong with iMovie?
Dino

Are you sure it isn't usable if you just change the file extension? Isn't it a quicktime m2t file and therefore usable in FCP?

Correct me if I'm wrong (I've never actually used the newer HD version of FCE), but doesn't it support native HDV as well as AIC?

Hmm...I'm 99% sure FCP doesn't support M2t. I'll try it. If it did/does, I would sell the MacBook and capture on my PC. I just don't want to have to convert anything after the fact.

iMovie gives me huge honkin' scratch files, and captures slowly. I.e., capturing an hour minidv can take 1.5 hours.

As far as daisy-chaining, my WD drives have problems doing it. Sometimes it works, but more often it doesn't detect the drive after a restart. Hit-miss quirks drive me nuts. A hub is a possibility -- perhaps the best.

No, it doesn't - otherwise this would be a great (read: cheap) way to capture to Dana's second computer.
- Martin

FCS2 is the first version of FCP I've owned. When was HDV capture included in FCP. I'm thinking that I don't need FCS2, but that an older version would do.

I believe that was first added in Final Cut Pro 5.0:

http://images.apple.com/finalcutstud...rs/HDV_FAQ.pdf

That was my first version of FCP, and I've been working with HDV natively ever since I got it. So yes, maybe try to snag a copy of FCP 5.0 on eBay...

- Martin