JVC Pro HD with FCP / FCE

[Ken Chan]

Hi Sam,

Thanks for the info, I haven't got my 101E yet, still doing the research, but I am gearing towards it. Just wondering if you shoot in 30 fps (which is what FCP can capture right now), is it compatible with the PAL format?

Keep me posted on your 25 fps clip.

Thanks

[Eugen Oprina]

Hi guys,
I finaly decided to buy a mac so I got a quad system with FCP Pro5.
I have the following problem:
When I am trying to color corect or even if I put a fade to an image a major blocking (big compresion like squares) appear during the fade.
I recorded the same image on my old primiere pro Matrox RTX100 based system and cc and fading are smooth and clear.
What am I doing wrong?
Is there any seting for the FCP that I supose to know.
I am recording from BR50 images shot with GY HD 101.
Any help is welcome,
Eugen

[Tim Dashwood]

You probably have your playback quality set to medium or low. "Dynamic" is the default for FCP5, but if you want to insure the highest quality of real-time renders, then set it to "high."

This setting can be adjusted in the "RT" pulldown menu on the left side of your timeline (above the video/audio track identifiers.)

[Eugen Oprina]

Tim,
Does the playback quality settings count when playing a rendered footage?
The quality of a footage that I play through the firewire port depends on the same settings you told me about?
I friend of mine who works on the same FCP told me that he has this problem only with JVC GY hd 101 footage, Is it possible?
Thank you very much for your help, I am newborn in the mac world.
Forgot to say that the images are DV 25P not HDV.
Thanks again,
Eugen

[Tim Dashwood]

DV is DV, no matter what camera it is shot on. At the point the Apple DV encoder captures it, it is all the same.

If you have rendered the effects and it still looks blocky, then the culprit is probably "Render Control" tab in your sequence settings and user preferences.

Open your User Preferences and click the "Render Control" tab and make sure that Frame Rate and Resolution are set to 100%. The User Preferences will affect all NEW sequences created.
To check the sequence you have already created, open "sequence Settings" (CMD+Zero) and check the render control.

[Eugen Oprina]

Thank you very much Tim.
I'll try your advice first thing in the morning at the studio.
Have a nice day,
Eugen

[Eugen Oprina]

Tim,
Everything is set the way you said but the result is unfortunately the same.
The image looks blocky even during a fade.
What should I do?
Your help is very much appreciated,
Eugen

[Tim Dashwood]

Originally Posted by Eugen Oprina

Tim,
Everything is set the way you said but the result is unfortunately the same.
The image looks blocky even during a fade.
What should I do?
Your help is very much appreciated,
Eugen

In that case I'm stumped. The only other thing I could suggest is to confirm you didn't capture your footage with "OfflineRT?"
As you look at the columns in your bin you should see "DV-NTSC" or "DV-PAL" as the codec.

[Randall Brown]

Ok I searched and looked for a workflow to edit 24P from the JVC with sound, without buying any other software and couldnt find anything. The workflow I found didnt keep sound.

So I ended up doing a lot of trial and error. Here is what I arrived at and other than MINOR tweaking of audio timing (over LONG clips ~1 hour) sync is perfect.

1. Capture from tape with DVHSCAP (you can get it at Apple Developer Site in the FireWire SDK)
2. Demux to m2v & aiff with MPEGStreamClip
3. Open m2V file with MPEFStreamClip and convert to Apple Intermediary Codec- DON'T change the frames per second, dont do any scaling
4. Open newly converted clip in Cinema tools. Play it back. It should playback faster than normal. If so proceed to step 5. If NOT you probally didnt demux it. I found some wierd things when I would convert the file with the audio.
5. Conform clip to 23.98 FPS in Cinema tools
6. Launch FCP 5+, and select easy set-up 720P 30P HDV AIC
7. Create a new sequence. Change the FPS setting to 23.98
8. Import the converted conformed file, as well as the AIFF file. Link the two.
9. Drop in timeline and play. Should be spot on without any rendering. if you see rendering bars. you most likely scaled it in MPEGStreamClip

I just used this workflow for 4 hours of footage, and it works. You will find that at the end of the each our you may need to sync a bit, I found that at the end of the hour I was off by about 19 frames. Wasnt hard to fix at all.

Your mileage may vary, but it worked for me! Any questions just ask. I tried to title it so it would search easily.

[Matthew Groff]

I'm looking into the JVC HD100 camera but am dismayed at the lack of a suitable workflow for the camera. I'm wondering if anyone out there is using a workflow similar to this:

Using Firewire control, capture analog from camera through KonaLH card transcoding to DVCPRO HD 720p60 on the fly and then using Cinema Tools to batch remove pulldown?

This is a hypothetical scenario, but I'm wondering if this workflow would work and maintain accurate timecode for later recapture of material from tape?

If not, any idea when Apple is going to get into gear and hook up the native 24P HD editing?


mg

[Steve Benner]

Originally Posted by Matthew Groff

I'm looking into the JVC HD100 camera but am dismayed at the lack of a suitable workflow for the camera. I'm wondering if anyone out there is using a workflow similar to this:

Using Firewire control, capture analog from camera through KonaLH card transcoding to DVCPRO HD 720p60 on the fly and then using Cinema Tools to batch remove pulldown?

This is a hypothetical scenario, but I'm wondering if this workflow would work and maintain accurate timecode for later recapture of material from tape?

If not, any idea when Apple is going to get into gear and hook up the native 24P HD editing?


mg

I do not have a KonaLH Card, but I think it will work. It is probably easier just to record right to HDV on tape. It can then be captured with DVHSCap and converted using MPEG STREAMCLIP without the hassle of bringing a computer and capture card with you. Both programs are free, and the newest MPEG STREAMCLIP has a frame rate slot where you can put 23.98 in it.

Apple demo'd HDV 720/24 Native at NAB. The update will likely be unvailed in August at the Apple Conference. Apple said imment release which turned at to be a lie since it has been two months since NAB, but it will be sooner rather than later.

[Andrew Young]

Originally Posted by Matthew Groff

Using Firewire control, capture analog from camera through KonaLH card transcoding to DVCPRO HD 720p60 on the fly and then using Cinema Tools to batch remove pulldown?

Hi Matthew,

I too am wondering about the Kona workflow, but I can tell you that Cinema Tools will only remove pulldown from NTSC material and the the DVCPro frame rate converter plugin for FCP will only work on Firewire captured Varicam material. So if you use the Kona card to get DVCProHD and TC from the HD100 into your Mac, you'd have to work with that material at 60 fps. Someone please correct me if you know otherwise, but I know of no easy way to remove that pulldown other than going to a post house and running it through a Teranex.

The MPEG Streamclip solution works OK, but I haven't had as good luck as Steve with it. I get a sync drift of about 1 frame per 5 minutes when I use it. HDVxDV drifts even more for me. This can be a real pain if your working on a long form doc with hours of footage. So there is no perfect solution, if you want to cut on a Mac.

[Daniel Roviriego]

cool Randall, sound great..
I just have a question.. What did you do to conform the original mpeg2 when you finished editing?

Tahnks in advance
Daniel

[Tim Gray]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that you probably don't conform the original hdv file. You just use the AIC.

[Aaron Clement]

Sorry wrong thread! See the JVC HD-100 thread if interested in a 24p workflow for the PC.