HD 251 and Final Cut Studio 2

[Fabrice Hoffmann]

Hello Everybody,

I finally bought an HD 251, and i'm testing this camera (mostly with Tim's CDM28 colors), and i start playing with Mpegstreamclip and VisualHub to compress and put footage on the web (this will be on other posts).

For those who have this camera and an hd 200-251, can you tell me if the 50-60p things really works for you with Final cut pro studio 2 ?

Is it REALLY working ?

Thanks,

Fabrice.

[Justin Ferar]

It's really working well with the Black Magic Intensity Pro (8 core Mac Pro). Right now there is no support for 720p60/50 so you need a card to work effeciently.

However you'll need the JVC deck too.

[Fabrice Hoffmann]

So if i understand you well, if you playback your tape through the deck and hdsdi to the Black Magic Intensity Pro and convert in what format you want.

But i don't have the deck, and i am still on G5 bipro 2,5 so i don't have pci express bus.

I baught this camera because a jvc guy, few days after nab, told me that there will be no problem because final cut studio 2 supports 50-60p. So if it's not true, i ended with the wrong camera !

Other informations ?

[Justin Ferar]

Fabrice,

Apple does not yet support 720p50/60 over firewire. Maybe later.

You can still work using MPEG Streamclip. Just search this forum for MPEG Streamclip and you will find the correct workflow. It works but I don't use it anymore since I aquired the Intensity Pro. The only caveat is that you will lose your timecode and you will not be able to reload the project at a later date.

[Javier Tabares]

Actually you can work with final cut 720p/50 o 720p/60, it is possible, i work in 50p. you must convert with mpegstreamclip m2t to AIC quicktime 50p or 60p, then in final cut pro you import this quicktime, and select clip and open multi sequence clip, now final cut work with 50p or 60p with real time. you´ll have a timeline ready for to work 50p, 25p etc...

[Djee Smit]

And how do you digitize the footage from the cam to your computer? You can't do that with mpegstreamclip right? So what do you use?

[Fabrice Hoffmann]

No, you can't do that with mpeg streamclip, you need to use dvhscap. For that, you need to download and install the Firewire SDK from apple. It's free, you only need to register.

http://developer.apple.com/sdk/#FireWireX

That's the workflow i started to work with.

OK, so Final cut studio don't (yet ?) capture 50-60p through firewire, but edit in 50-60p. Half bad.

Hope...

[Javier Tabares]

ok final cut not capture 50 or 60p now, you can capture with capsdvhs and mpegstreamclip convert AIC 50p

[Tim Dashwood]

Final Cut Studio 2 (FCP6) will eventually support the native ingest of 720P60 (and likely 720P50.)
Apple demoed a working 720P60 HDV version of FCP6 at the NAB JVC booth this past April. I know that it wasn't "smoke and mirrors" because they were showing 720P60 footage that I had shot at Sundance and recorded to tape.
There is no official ETA on the release of the update.

In the meantime capturing m2t via firewire with the usual tools (DR-HD100, DVHSCap, HDVxDV, etc.) and converting to AIC, ProRes422, or PhotoJpeg with MpegStreamclip will work just fine, but you will lose any TC reference.

You can also capture 720P60 directly from a ProHD camera or deck via firewire by using the Apple Intermediate Codec capture mode in FCP5 or 6. This works great, maintains audio sync, but once again loses TC.

Blackmagic Decklink or Kona cards are also an option.

[Dave Beaty]

Is it possible to play back tapes with the 250 and output the playback on the built in HDSDI output? Not that it would offer any benifit in this case, but perhaps it would be a better capture than analog component capture via AJA or Blackmagic. Same problem with TC.

Dave B