Captured ok - doesn't preview

[Jeff Mack]

I recently captured 50 hdcam tapes via firewire to an external drive through my MBPro. I used log & capture and the capture now feature to capture the entire tape. I did not use scene detect since my timecode doesn't match. I did a 3 cam shoot. My workflow was that I created 7 folders for 7 episodes. I then went into easy setup and set the scratch disc for the first folder. I then captured DV anamorphic for the three angles, naming them seperate to the scratch disc. After the three tapes captured, I noticed that one had the correct duration in the browser but the other two were like 30 seconds of the 40 minute tape. I loaded the angle into the previewer and the canvas, and only the first 30 seconds played like thats all it captured. I went to my external drive and double clicked on the mov file and it opened in QT and the entire 40 minute capture is there.

Any suggestions? I even tried to drop the file from my external drive right to the timeline and it still only plays the 30 seconds.

Jeff

[Adam Oas]

In the finder check the size of the files on your drive & report back here.

My bet is that you'll find that somehow you only captured the 30 seconds of material that you're seeing. You'll likely have to redidgitize.

[Jeff Mack]

Thanks for the response. I don't have my laptop with me so I don't know what the clip properties say but I remember looking at the actual file on my external drive and they were about 8 + gigs. I know the whole file got captured because I can play the whole thing in QT. I don't understand why it won't play in FC though and Idon't know how to redigitize. Tell me I won't have to re-rent the deck?!

Jeff

[Adam Oas]

ok, now that I re-read your post I see that you can see the whole file in QT.... that tells me that you probably won't have to redidge. (Phew!)

I might try to open the file in QT and export it to a different file (Self contained). Then import that file into FCP and see if you can play it all the way thru.

The only other thing I can think of is that you might have a corrupt FCP project. I might first try to create a new project in FCP and try to import the files off of the drive to see if you can see them all then.

What kind of external drive are you using? FW? SATA? How full is it?

[Jeff Mack]

I tried creating a new project and then importing the file into it. I then placed it on the timeline and the same exact thing happened. I am using a Lacie 1.6TB drive and only 400 G are used. I would also note that some of the files worked just fine. When I first saw this problem, it was when I just finished capturing a file and saw in the preview window that it was only 7 seconds long. I played the clip and sure enough it was only 7 seconds long. I went back and recaptured it (the full 40 minute HDCam tape) and again it only showed a duration of 7 seconds. I then clicked on the external drive and saw the actual file. I double clicked it and it played complete. It almost seems that the only thing showing up is the first segment of the tape.IE, when the camera operators started filming, they kept shutting off the record to save tape. When I first started to capture, I was getting messages of the timecode breaks and it was taking forever to capture that way. I then changed the system preference to note timecode breaks after capture. Since my timecode isn't sync'd anyway, this allowed me to go straight to capture now for the entire tape.

Jeff

[Nate Schmidt]

That same type of thing happened to me I capture a few minutes of a tape, realized that I hadn't rewound it (duh!) then recaptured giving it the same name and I guess somehow FCP just kept the link between duration and the original clip so I just created a new project and imported the clip into it, but it should have the same effect if you rename the clip in the finder.

[Jeff Mack]

Thanks for the help. I renamed the file and deleted the project and created a new one. Then I imported the renamed file and it came in fine. Strange. Thanks for the help.

Jeff