G4 Powerbook FCP4 Editing

[Heath Hays]

im thinking i could have frame rate discrepancies.

[Glenn Chan]

How does it look on a TV?

If it looks fine there it's probably a computer issue.
It could be a performance issue, so you see the image "tear" horizontally since it can't keep up. Try setting the viewer/monitor to 100% or less zoom.

[Boyd Ostroff]

<<<-- Originally posted by Frank Vu : Quick side question. Heath, can you capture by connecting the camera to the FW HD -->>>

See the discussion in the following thread:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...threadid=31596

I see that you also asked the same question in this thread http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...threadid=32781. We generally try to discourage cross-posting...

[Heath Hays]

Hey all,

im reposting the info behind the general issue more clearly in hopes that someone has an idea of what to do.

I received my camera back from Canon for mysterious mechanical repairs. I shot footage the next day. This footage looks fine when viewed through the rca outs on a TV. After logging, however, when played back in the viewer, its got a tear in the image rather often. I got the urge to copy and edit a 48k capture setting in FCP4. im capturing frame, and i thought maybe if i set it to 30 fps it just might work. (although i never had to do this before) Does anyone have any idea what else i could have setup wrong? id say its more likely to be on the camera than in fcp seeing as ive captured tons of video fine before and no changes have been made to my system. ANYONE? ANYONE?

Im editing on a dual g5 with 1 gig ram.

pwa pwa pwaeeeze help me.

[Heath Hays]

also, a quick note.. setting the capture preset to 30 fps didnt work.

[Jeff Donald]

What frame rate did you capture at? Did you use the preset for DV in preferences? Do you have an audio mismatch (12 bit vs. 16 bit, 32kHz vs. 48 kHz)? Is the tear only seen on the computer screen? Is it seen on tape after you output to tape? How are the drives formatted?

[Heath Hays]

I captured the video on the preset ntsc dv 48k 16 bit at 29.97 (default) and then i tried it with 30fps and still the same results. the tears are there when i export as a quicktime video. They are present on every monitor in the house... 3 lcds 2 crts and the 17 inch powerbook. I captured to a 160 gig drive (that came directly out of another g5 and i put it on my g5. i use it for data only. i've not had this issue before with this drive.) the cam was set to 16 bit. do i need to change anything in final cut if im doing 16:9. i thought, since its not anamorphic, that its not neccesary to change that. I have done 16:9 in the past. Maybe i should note that this is the first footage shot with a used (but new to me) 3x lens. Again, there are no problems when viewing the video on a tv through the rca out of the camera.

does this negate all of your hunches? god i hope not.

heath

[Glenn Chan]

Again, there are no problems when viewing the video on a tv through the rca out of the camera.

If it looks fine on a TV then your final output should also look fine on TV (depending on what your output format is).

2- If you have not done so already, you should probably hook up a TV (anything will do) to your editing system.

Computer ---(firewire)---> deck/camcorder ---(RCA/S-Video + 2RCA)---> TV

If you don't know about the issues to watch out for (under/overscan, interlace flicker, etc.) then I highly recommend you do this.

Don't trust the color accuracy of a TV though, unless you have a calibrated NTSC monitor.

3- You probably have some sort of performance 'problem' on your laptop. It could be something simple like having the viewer/canvas window too big.

[Heath Hays]

thanks glenn.

Im curious though, if it has the tear in a quicktime, wont it be visible on dvd? I havent burned one, but i cant see how it would be different. there has to be some sort of a capture issue. I get the same identical problem whether im on my g5 or my laptop, and im rather certain its not a performance issue, as previous projects still look great. Has anyone ever heard of problems the digital transfer on the xl1s end? i took the cam to another studio and used a canopus via rca and got a tearless, (although degraded) image. What should the frame rate be set to in fcp4 to capture footage shot in 48 k 16bit FRAME mode on the xl1s? Do i need to do anything in the Sequence Presets? in the Capture presets?

This is tiring.

heath

[Heath Hays]

i imported it into imovie and it looked ok... it has to be final cut. why me?

[Jeff Donald]

If you have it in iMovie then yo can get it to FCP with no loss of quality. Choose File>Share>Quicktime Tab>Compress Movie for:>Expert Settings>Share>(Select name of file and location to save file to)>Export: Movie to Quicktime Movie>Options>check video, click settings>Compression Settings>DVCPro NTSC>Quality>BEST>FPS>30>Click OK>Check Sound>Settings>Compressor>none>Rate>48 kHz>OK>OK>Save

iMovie will save the file to your desktop and you can then import it into FCP. Make sure you set up FCP the same as your iMove export (same audio, FPS, etc.) Glitch should be gone. If its not I would suspect a hardware problem, maybe bad ram or maybe FCP needs to be reinstalled.

[Glenn Chan]

Maybe FCP is trying to mirror the video on your firewire device when it's playing back? Take a peek in your XL1 when Final Cut is playing to see if this is the case.

[Heath Hays]

ok, going to reinstall fcp4 today. i turned off the firewire outs long ago on video. i dont use a tv monitor here. Ill reinstall fcp and let you all know wht happens. I just cant be using imovie to capture, thats assinine.

you guys have been very helpful in my troubleshooting endeavors and i thank you all.