"ClipWrap" m2t to Quicktime HDV wrapper NOW AVAILABLE!

[Robert Adams]

Sorry, forgive my inability to get my head round this. I want to shoot on my HD111 in 720 24p on tape, and capture entire tapes without a break into Final Cut Pro 5.1.4.

Is there any way I can do this? It looks like I need to download DVHSCap, capture the material using that as m2t files; then download Clipwrap and rewrap the clips; then import the clip-wrapped m2t files into FCP....

This is not a viable workflow on a tight news deadline.

I have used a Firestore for the first time on a HDX200 this past few weeks in Rwanda, and loathe it. The fan is incredibly noisy, it sucks dust, overheats, and seriously encumbers the camera - and that's before adding the constant concern that the firewire cable will break or fall out. we brought four for this shoot, and one failed out of the box, and we're having problems with two of the remaining three. In this case this is the production company's problem - but I'm reluctant to spend my own shilling on such an unreliable device, especially given the kind of places I work.

I have a problem with holding a camera system together with gaffer tape and elastic bands, but that's the only way I can mount the damn thing on the camera.

So what's the way forward? I don't really want to bin FCP. I don;t really want to bin my JVC...

But I must say, the Sony HVR 270 S is starting to look like a smart replacement... At least, I understand it does what it's meant to do without requiring gaffer tape, elastic bands, and transcoding footage...

But please, if there's an easy way of doing this, I'd really love to hear about it.

[David Allen Smith]

Originally Posted by Tim Dashwood

You can use MpegStreamclip to manually trim and re-export pieces of a m2t but that would be very time-consuming if you captured a whole tape with multiple start/stop breaks.

Ideally it is best to capture each take separately. You will save yourself time in the long run.

Thanks Tim, I will give it a shot. Great HD100 training video by the way!

[Mike Woodworth]

First, there's an update posted to the site 1.0.1. It fixes some of the bugs you guys have listed here - capitalized extensions now work, time breaks should be properly skipped over. If you've already downloaded 1.0, it should autoupdate.

Next, it sounds like people would like a preference to toggle between combining all the shots into one long qt, vs splitting them into multiple destination movs - each with their own TC. Does this option make everyone happy?

This should be a fairly easy addition, those of you who are gunning for the split clip option, contact me off list (mike [at] divergentmedia {dot} com ), and I'll try to have something for you to test with your footage by early next week.

-mike

[Tim Dashwood]

Originally Posted by Robert Adams

Is there any way I can do this? It looks like I need to download DVHSCap, capture the material using that as m2t files; then download Clipwrap and rewrap the clips; then import the clip-wrapped m2t files into FCP....

This is not a viable workflow on a tight news deadline.

The absolute quickest workflow for news is obviously tapeless. If you're not happy with any of the direct-to-disk or solid-state solutions available then yes you will have to spend the time to digitize.
FCP 5.1.4 will automatically split your clips while you digitize but as you may have read above many have had data integrity issues from tape (which FCP won't tolerate.) If you are using the ProHD tape and don't have these issues then you will only spend 1 hour per tape to capture it. If you do have split-clips as a result of data breaks then you will want to go the m2t capture route.
If capturing with an m2t capture tool (real-time) and spending a little bit of extra time to wrap into quicktime (probably less than 10 minutes per hour) is adding too much time to your workflow then the only other suggestion I have is to use either the DR-HD100 or Scopebox 2 to capture in post while simultaneously wrapping to QT HDV.

[Gary Nattrass]

Thanks for the update Mike I am a very happy bunny now with a fully working compact flash workflow from my Z7 to final cut pro.

[Joni Partanen]

When I use ClipWrap I can see the blue bar going till about 20% and then it halts but when I look at the output file is seems to just get larger and larger. Even 3 times the size of the original file. With another file it stops at 70% I tried with two different files, both a 30p 720 HDV m2t file.

Any ideas on what could be wrong?

MPEG Streamclip can use the file without any problems.

I use an iMac G5 with FCP installed

[Tim Dashwood]

Originally Posted by Joni Partanen

When I use ClipWrap I can see the blue bar going till about 20% and then it halts but when I look at the output file is seems to just get larger and larger. Even 3 times the size of the original file. With another file it stops at 70% I tried with two different files, both a 30p 720 HDV m2t file.

Any ideas on what could be wrong?

MPEG Streamclip can use the file without any problems.

I use an iMac G5 with FCP installed

Have you run the update to v1.0.1. Your file may have a break in it. v1.0.1 addresses this issue.

[Joni Partanen]

Originally Posted by Tim Dashwood

Have you run the update to v1.0.1. Your file may have a break in it. v1.0.1 addresses this issue.

Yes, I'm using the latest version, 1.0.1

[Tim Dashwood]

Originally Posted by Joni Partanen

Yes, I'm using the latest version, 1.0.1

Do you have a Intel system to try it on?

[Joni Partanen]

Originally Posted by Tim Dashwood

Do you have a Intel system to try it on?

Unfortunately I don't. I could upload the video file if needed for analyzing.

[Tim Dashwood]

Originally Posted by Joni Partanen

Unfortunately I don't. I could upload the video file if needed for analyzing.

Please do. I'm sure Mike would like to analyze your file.
Do you have a ftp server?

[Joni Partanen]

Originally Posted by Tim Dashwood

Please do. I'm sure Mike would like to analyze your file.
Do you have a ftp server?

I've uploaded the file to Mike to be analyzed.

[Greg E. Smith]

I have found a few files from my JVC 250 camera (720p60) captured on the DR-HD100 (.m2t) that caused similar issues within ClipWrap.
When processing they show no progress past a certain point, but the file created keeps getting larger and larger.

As a test I took them into MPEG Streamclip and fixed timecode breaks and they all worked fine thereafter.
Unfortunately, since I don't know ahead of time which clips will need further attention I can't use ClipWrap unattended.

[Mike Woodworth]

Hey guys,

We've gotten the first clips in that exhibit this problem, a few more are coming by carrier pigeon as we speak. Once we have some of these hangers in the test suite, it should be a matter of days before we can get a fix out.

Thanks for your patience.
mike

[Greg E. Smith]

Mike,

Been a while since this was discussed, any news on the fix?