Article Focus: One of the features that snuck into the new edition of Final Cut Studio is that you can now capture HDV directly to ProRes over FireWire! There are a couple of issues you'll want to consider, but Chris Poisson, a Cow member since 2001, takes you step by step through a process that can make a big difference to the way you edit HDV in Final Cut Pro from now on.
This was a pleasant surprise coming with the latest update to Final Cut Studio. I've played around with it a bit and have invented my own workflow for it that's fast, easy and efficient. So I thought I’d share.
NOTE: This process gets you out of the MPEG 2 GOP world, and unlike capturing with dedicated hardware, leaves your footage at 1440x1080 instead of bringing it to full raster.But, it still works great.
I am capturing from a Canon XH-A1, with which I nearly always shoot 30p. That way, even if the material is going into an SD timeline, fields don’t come into play.
This workflow assumes you want to capture a bunch of things off a tape. If you only need to grab one or two things, just cue up your tape and capture it.
This workflow also makes up for the lack of a full capture window when capturing multiple clips.
Capture set-up
Make sure your camera or deck is properly set up for FireWire capture. In the case of my Canon, it must be set to HDV playback standard and plugged in and turned on before going to log and capture.
(You'll need an LCD monitor if you’re using a camera or a monitor hooked up if you’re using a deck, since capturing is going to lag way behind the camera or deck.)
You need not use a ProRes project setting to capture this way. What’s important is that you open up the audio/video settings and select HDV FireWire for control and HDV-Apple ProRes for your capture setting.
Cue up your tape to the place where you want to start capture. Go to File>log and capture and a little window will come up.
Type in a general name for the material. In this case, I spent about 20 minutes shooting footage of a Mission South of Tucson, so I just called it that, and let it rip.
Shortly after capture starts, you will see an alert at the bottom of the window,
It will be around 30% or so behind the camera, but this is normal.
Organizing the results
Let it go until your material is done, at which point you can manually turn off the camera, and the capture window will continue doing its thing for a few minutes.
You will then see several clips in your browser, numbered consecutively.
FCP makes a new clip at every camera start/stop. Toss all the master clips from the browser.
Now open the capture scratch folder, and go through each clip in the finder and re-name or toss them. This only takes a couple of minutes. When done, drag your clips to the browser, and you’re done.
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You now have beautiful ProRes 1080 clips with audio and timecode!
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Feel free to add your comments here.
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Hi I also use the XH-A1 and shoot in 30fps. Um I see that your sequence preset is AJA KONA LH. Just wondering what is that?? Second off what is Apple Pro Res 422? What is the image size of that? You know what I have been doing to create a better workflow is I have been exporting my 1440x1080i to 720HDV and it does not seem like the most efficient way so I am researching and Shane sent me this link. Could you use a Apple Pro Res 720 30fps?
Really? Capture HDV to ProRes in FCP? Over FireWire?! Yes!
by Chris Poisson on Mar 16, 2009
Hey Burk,
Well, I have not encountered this, but maybe it's because I have been re-naming the clips one by one. But good to know, thanks.
Really? Capture HDV to ProRes in FCP? Over FireWire?! Yes!
by Burk Finley on Mar 16, 2009
Hey Chris,
One more thing I've come across in relation to Paul Hawke-Williams' comment on renaming original source files to match clip names in the browser.
The process is to right click on a clip in FCP browser, scroll down to Rename, then select File to Match Clip, and rename the source QT file on your scratch disc. (Select yes when window pops up asking if you want to change the name of the source file).
I have found naming in this direction to be a little buggy. It seems to work when renaming 20 or less clips at a time. But if I try to rename more than 20 or so at a time, the source file has the new clip name plus a bunch of old jibberish attached to the end of the new name. It's as though FCP has hidden information attached to the end of the clip name in the browser.
The only way I've found to clean up such a mess is to rename the clips in Finder, and drag them into FCP like you (Chris) originally suggested, which can lose color coding, etc. But renaming less clips at a time seems to work to avoid such a step. Just thought I'd share.
Final Cut reminds me of an old Volkswagen sometimes.
Burk Finley
FCP 6.0.5
Mac G5 Dual 2.3
4.5 GB ram
Really? Capture HDV to ProRes in FCP? Over FireWire?! Yes!
by Chris Poisson on Feb 12, 2009
Hey Burk,
Yeah, I haven't tried the dubbing route, but it should work.
Really? Capture HDV to ProRes in FCP? Over FireWire?! Yes!
by Burk Finley on Feb 11, 2009
Thanks Chris,
That's sorta what I thought.
This article has served the community well--lots of mileage on this one.
Burk
Really? Capture HDV to ProRes in FCP? Over FireWire?! Yes!
by Chris Poisson on Feb 11, 2009
Hi Burk,
The workaround would be A. shoot more pre and post roll or B. dub the tape to a new one.
Really? Capture HDV to ProRes in FCP? Over FireWire?! Yes!
by Burk Finley on Feb 11, 2009
In capturing HDV off my Z1U to ProRes over firewire with the setup Chris explains in this article, I am having the same problem Sam Zimman noted a while back. Each clip captured excludes EXACTLY 17 frames between shots (on the start and stop of each new shot).
The loss is mostly in the form of 15 frames (or so) of pre-roll at the beginning of each clip, as opposed to the end of the previous clip.
Is there a workaround for this to include all frames shot when capturing ProRes via firewire?
Thanks,
Burk
Really? Capture HDV to ProRes in FCP? Over FireWire?! Yes!
by Samuel Hall on Dec 11, 2008
Thanks Chris. I can't wait to start using this.
Really? Capture HDV to ProRes in FCP? Over FireWire?! Yes!
by Chris Poisson on Dec 11, 2008
Samuel,
All of my captures have been shot in Canon's 30f format, FCP seems to sense and set the frame rate to whatever it was shot at. In an earlier HDV via FW capture test I did I shot 3 scenes in a row on one tape in 60i, 30f and 24f and when captured all at once FCP set the right frame rate for each clip, and cut them up as individual clips.
HTH
Really? Capture HDV to ProRes in FCP? Over FireWire?! Yes!
by Samuel Hall on Dec 11, 2008
Has anyone tried using this method with footage shot in Canon's 24f mode? If so, should any of the capture settings change?
Really? Capture HDV to ProRes in FCP? Over FireWire?! Yes!
by Chris Poisson on Nov 29, 2008
A comparison of ProRes to AIC will show you the obvious answer. Start here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ProRes_422
Then Google Wiki for AIC and see the difference. AIC is 4:2:0 and ProRes is 4:2:2 for starters. AIC was Apple's first attempt to make sense of HDV in an editing environment, and was geared to non-professional uses. I have never used, nor know any professional who has used AIC in their workflows. Size of files and bandwidth pale in consideration of quality and reliability so we just buy fast enough and big enough hardware to make it work.
If AIC works for what you're doing, rock on.
Really? Capture HDV to ProRes in FCP? Over FireWire?! Yes!
by Alvaro Lanciai on Nov 27, 2008
hi to everybody...
why not use Apple Intermediate Codec instead pro-res....? It seems to be faster and light...anybody experienced ?
I've been using it since 2 moths and it's working fine...
thanks
Alvaro
Really? Capture HDV to ProRes in FCP? Over FireWire?! Yes!
by Chris Poisson on Sep 2, 2008
Hey Andy,
If you go back and look, (and it was 8 months ago, my bad) at the time I answered you kind of smugly, which I regret, because the renaming does work really well. But when I do this I still rely on the part of my article which involves keeping the browser and the capture scratch windows open, so I can toss any of the clips I don't need or want. Saves space and cleans up the browser!
Really? Capture HDV to ProRes in FCP? Over FireWire?! Yes!
by Andy Mees on Aug 31, 2008
Gee Chris, Thanks for the vote of confidence mate! Glad to see you've finally discovered this just 4 months after I noted it 8 moths ago in the very first comment on your article! He he, just joshing with you mate. Have a great day. Andy
Really? Capture HDV to ProRes in FCP? Over FireWire?! Yes!
by Chris Poisson on Aug 31, 2008
Paul,
Yes, I discovered this feature about 4 months ago, now use it all the time. I should really update my article, but thanks.
Really? Capture HDV to ProRes in FCP? Over FireWire?! Yes!
by Paul Hawke-Williams on Aug 31, 2008
Hi Chris
Just to go back a bit to the comment Andy made about not trashing your clips from the browser, there is a function in FCP 6 (new for this version) that does allow you to rename the original media in your capture scratch to match the new names you've renamed your clips in your browser (and also to rename the clips in browser to match file names in capture scratch if you want to)
Right or control click on the clip you've just renamed in your browser and there at the bottom of the contextual menu you'll find a rename menu item - choose the one you want!
Sorry if you've already found this!
Cheers
Paul
Really? Capture HDV to ProRes in FCP? Over FireWire?! Yes!
by Nick Meyers on May 14, 2008
" don't see my system being the problem for this freeze"
could be your drives aren't up to the extra bandwidth.
don't sweat it.
it's almost impossible to see the difference between them anyway.
nick
Really? Capture HDV to ProRes in FCP? Over FireWire?! Yes!
by Julian Pinder on May 14, 2008
...And is there a difference between ProRes and ProRes(HQ) capture? When I try to capture in ProRes (HQ) the preview screen freezes halfway through the tape and FCP seems to crash / freeze. Any ideas why???
Working with a dual core intel - 5g RAM -external drives etc... I don't see my system being the problem for this freeze -it should be able to handle it?
Thanks again.. J
Really? Capture HDV to ProRes in FCP? Over FireWire?! Yes!
by Julian Pinder on May 14, 2008
Does anyone know what the quality difference is capturing from HDV ProRes as opposed to a full quality HDV capture (I'm using JVC HDV 720 24p format)?
And if there is a quality difference, how significant is it?
Many thanks.
Really? Capture HDV to ProRes in FCP? Over FireWire?! Yes!
by chris gorman on May 14, 2008
I just did a short test capture of hdv to ProRes std (8 bit yuv) using my dual 2.3 PowerMac G5 and FCP 6.0.3.
How nice that the screen told me to watch my vtr"s lcd for correct progress. It also displayed what % lag time. On this short 48 sec.clip the lag was approx. 18%.
I pushed stop on the cam vtr at the end of what I wanted to caputure. Worked great.
The numbers on the 48 sec sample clip comparing an hdv capture vs ProRes Std capture: hdv 3.2 MB/sec. vs. ProRes 795 MB/sec. File size: hdv 155.2 MB vs ProRes 795 MB when I view "item properties" for each clip.
However, when I look at file sizes of the QT files in the capture folder, the hdv clip is 258.6 MB, and the ProRes clip is 795.8 MB I don't know why the hdv file was smaller in the TL than in the capture folder - the clip was not trimmed.
Anyway, I'm more concerned with the large file size of the ProRes. At that size it seems I could not capture and work in ProRes for this project.
So far, I can't really see any difference in quality between the ProRes cap and the hdv captured clip.
Really? Capture HDV to ProRes in FCP? Over FireWire?! Yes!
by Chris Poisson on May 14, 2008
Julian,
There's no difference in quality between native HDV and ProRes captured via FireWire that I can see. ProRes is just a better format to edit with and for compositing etc. than native HDV. Regarding ProRes HQ, I don't think that would buy you anything quality-wise on ingest, and I don't know if FCP can do it anyway. Never tried it.
Really? Capture HDV to ProRes in FCP? Over FireWire?! Yes!
by Jay Grey on Apr 29, 2008
My settings are the same, with the exception of the Sequence Preset. But for some reason, it's not working for me.
It was working for me, but I had to force quit FCP, and now all my setting are lost.
Any suggestions?
Thanks, all
Really? Capture HDV to ProRes in FCP? Over FireWire?! Yes!
by Erik N on Mar 3, 2008
This is really cool. I tried it out and worked great. I do have the same concerns about not batching in case a media drive dies but I see timecode is listed for each clip. I want to do a test and delate the material the see if I can batch capture the lost footage. Has anyone tried this yet?
Really? Capture HDV to ProRes in FCP? Over FireWire?! Yes!
by Chris Poisson on Feb 14, 2008
Tony, if you're using FCP 6.0.2 it should be in there.
Scott,
I don't think it can do HQ, never tried that.
Really? Capture HDV to ProRes in FCP? Over FireWire?! Yes!
by scott blass on Feb 13, 2008
does it work for Proress HQ? everytime i try it FCP closes/shuts down and quits with no error message showing......
Really? Capture HDV to ProRes in FCP? Over FireWire?! Yes!
by Anthony Wood on Feb 12, 2008
Lee;
I don't have the ProRes capture preset in my menu. problem?
Tony Wood
Really? Capture HDV to ProRes in FCP? Over FireWire?! Yes!
by Lee Berger on Feb 6, 2008
Derek,
You are quite welcome.
Really? Capture HDV to ProRes in FCP? Over FireWire?! Yes!
by Derek Haager on Feb 5, 2008
Hey Lee Berger,
Thanks so much for posting your update. It was my first time capturing HDV and not my camera, I would have never figured that out by myself. Thanks again!
Really? Capture HDV to ProRes in FCP? Over FireWire?! Yes!
by Kevin Boyd on Jan 10, 2008
I encoded a second tape with ProRes 422 and HDV codec and agin the ProRes 422 was out by several seconds!
My settings are:
Camera: Sony HVR-V1E
Video source 1080 50i PAL
Sequence preset: Apple ProRes 422 1440x1080 50i 48Khz
Capture Preset HDV-Apple ProRes 422
Device Control Sony HDV 1080i50 FireWire
Have reported this issue to Apple UK and am awaiting a response.
Really? Capture HDV to ProRes in FCP? Over FireWire?! Yes!
by Chris Poisson on Jan 9, 2008
Nick, thanks.
Shane, no bad blood, you only made it better.
This clip name thing is something that DV Monitor does automatically, change the clip name in the capture window and it changes it on the scratch media.
Really? Capture HDV to ProRes in FCP? Over FireWire?! Yes!
by Shane Ross on Jan 9, 2008
Yup..right under the MODIFY menu. And Choose FILE to match CLIP. The FILE is the QT file on the scratch disk, and the CLIP is the clip name in the Browser.
Sorry Chris, I didn't mean to knock this tutorial. I think it is really cool that I can capture HDV as ProRes via firewire. And I was having fun doing it. I just get a bit scared when it comes to the ability to recapture media if it is lost.
Really? Capture HDV to ProRes in FCP? Over FireWire?! Yes!
by NickM on Jan 9, 2008
Shane, you wrote:
"FCP has a new feature that when you rename a clip in the Browser, you can have the master clip name on the Scratch Disk change to match that name."
I tried this but it doesn't seem to work. How do you do it?
it doesn't happen as a matter of course,
you have to ask for it.
go to Modify Menu > Rename
or right click on the clips in the browser.
(cant be done from the timeline)
Nick
Really? Capture HDV to ProRes in FCP? Over FireWire?! Yes!
by Chris Poisson on Jan 9, 2008
Shane, you wrote:
"FCP has a new feature that when you rename a clip in the Browser, you can have the master clip name on the Scratch Disk change to match that name."
I tried this but it doesn't seem to work. How do you do it?
Kevin,
That's really strange, maybe you should run another test and see if it's the same.
ProRes422 time code out by 5 seconds
by Kevin Boyd on Jan 9, 2008
Just had a rather disturbing experience with the proRes422 codec. I firstly captured my tape as a standard HDV and then as ProRes422 as described in this article. I wanted to do a quality comparison so I grabed two clips with the same timecode and found the time code was out by 5 seconds on the proRes422 clip! So my claperboad claped at 01:02:10:18 on my HDV capture (and on the original tape) and the proRes had it at 01:02:06:05
What on earth would cause that?
Kevin
Really? Capture HDV to ProRes in FCP? Over FireWire?! Yes!
by Shane Ross on Jan 8, 2008
OK...more on this, as I am using the tip now to capture.
FIRST OFF...you needn't delete the clips from the Browser, rename in the finder, then re-import into FCP. FCP has a new feature that when you rename a clip in the Browser, you can have the master clip name on the Scratch Disk change to match that name. I forgot about that handy feature.
Now, onto my big issues with this tip. I blogged about my experiences on my main blog and cow blog (which is a copy of my main blog), and I have this to say:
"When you do this capture, you do it pretty much as a CAPTURE NOW. Roll the tape and let it go. There is no LOG AND CAPTURE, no place to add REEL numbers. So let's say that you lose a drive, and your footage is lost. How will you get it back? With logging and capturing, simply BATCH CAPTURE your footage and it will reconnect in the Browser and timeline. But with this method, CAN you batch capture? Because of the camera starts and stops will the recapture start on the exact same first frame and last frame? If you have to recapture the footage and try to reconnect it that way, how can you assure that you get the same TC start and end times...and the same clip names?"
"I think if I have the time, I will also capture the footage (only 8 tapes) via HD SDI as DVCPRO HD 1080i 29.97 and see how things look. At least with this format, I can log and capture, label my clips, assign reel numbers as I capture, have the ability to capture the b-roll as one long clip. And piece of mind that I can re-capture via "batch capture" in case footage is lost."
-Shane
Really? Capture HDV to ProRes in FCP? Over FireWire?! Yes!
by Kevin Boyd on Jan 8, 2008
Hi Steve,
"In the log and capture settings window you can uncheck the stop start function which I hate in the log and capture process."
Except you can't "uncheck the stop start function" option in the log and capture screen as it does not appear when you use the ProRes422 codec!
Really? Capture HDV to ProRes in FCP? Over FireWire?! Yes!
by Stevesteve on Jan 8, 2008
In the log and capture settings window you can uncheck the stop start function which I hate in the log and capture process.
Steve
Really? Capture HDV to ProRes in FCP? Over FireWire?! Yes!
by Chris Poisson on Jan 8, 2008
Thanks Tim.
Kevin,
No lag, huh? Must be my G5. By tossing the clips I mean the clips in the browser after you capture, but only if you want to re-name them. Turning off the make new clip feature is not an option I can see.
Really? Capture HDV to ProRes in FCP? Over FireWire?! Yes!
by Tim Wilson on Jan 8, 2008
Or we can just leave the clarifications here for all to see. :-)
With Shane's safety tip in hand, coming up with a solution that SHOULDN'T work but DOES work is definitely worthy of 5 Cows.
Really? Capture HDV to ProRes in FCP? Over FireWire?! Yes!
by Kevin Boyd on Jan 8, 2008
I captured using your advice Chriss on my new Intel Mac Pro with two Xeon 2.6Ghz processors 9GB RAM and got no lag at all. Though I did loose some frames (around 12) between each take from a PAL 1080i50 HDV tape on my Sony V1
1. Is there anyway to turn off the "New Clip on each camera stop" feature with ProRes422?
2. Chris, what do you mean by "Toss all the master clips from the browser"?
Really? Capture HDV to ProRes in FCP? Over FireWire?! Yes!
by Shane Ross on Jan 7, 2008
Chris, you need to add that when you capture this way, no REEL information is placed on the clip...so you have no way to tell what tape the clips came from. After you re-import you need to add the reel name to the clip (click yes when it says you are changing the time code information on the master clip). Otherwise if you lose a clip, you have no clue what tape it came from.
And BTW, I am capturing tonight from a Sony HVR-1500 via firewire to ProRes on my Dual 2.0 Ghz G5. No problem whatsoever.
Really? Capture HDV to ProRes in FCP? Over FireWire?! Yes!
by Chris Poisson on Jan 8, 2008
Hey Shane,
That's a very good point, thanks. I'll send a note on that to Tim.
Really? Capture HDV to ProRes in FCP? Over FireWire?! Yes!
by Chris Poisson on Dec 26, 2007
Hey all, been away for the Holiday, will try to address all of these here.
Lee B.
There must be a menu setting in the V1U that needs to be tweaked. Sorry, I don't know that camera.
Michael E.
I have not had a multi-tape capture session using this workflow, but I will report back if I have the same or a different problem when I do. Hope you got this sorted out.
Nick,
I captured a 45 minute tape the other day, and it was always around 30% behind the camera. When the tape is done, it will take a few minutes for the capture to finish, I suppose it could be as long as 20 minutes for a 1 hour tape.
Arti,
I believe FCP will detect your frame rate etc., it does from my A1. Note in my article I said an easy setup is not required, device control and capture settings are all you need to worry about.
Steven,
This tutorial was done on a 2 year old G5 2 Gig with 4.5 gigs of RAM.
Sam,
In my experience, FireWire capture of HDV demands more pre and post roll on shots in general. A painful lesson I learned when I started using my Canon A1 last Spring. Does this ProRes thing exacerbate the situation? I don't know, but you should add time to the front and end of shots just in case.
Andy,
I didn't know renaming clips in the browser would change the name of the QuickTime clips in the capture scratch folder, is that what you mean? The method I describe does not take any (or much) more time, and anal me goes to bed knowing my manual media management is correct. And I sleep great.
Thank you all for your comments, this is a brand new procedure, all of your concerns and suggestions will only help perfect it. Thanks!
Really? Capture HDV to ProRes in FCP? Over FireWire?! Yes!
by Lee Berger on Dec 23, 2007
Opps, sorry. It does work on my G5 2.0! I forgot to turn off the down convert function on my V1U.
Really? Capture HDV to ProRes in FCP? Over FireWire?! Yes!
by Lee Berger on Dec 23, 2007
It doesn't seem to work on my G5 2.0 and Sony V1U. The capture window comes up, the tape plays, but no video ever appears. At the bottom is says Cueing Tape (press 'esc' to stop). It played all the way to the end of the recorded tape about eight minutes without capturing anything.
Really? Capture HDV to ProRes in FCP? Over FireWire?! Yes!
by Michael Escher on Dec 22, 2007
I'm running a dual core 3ghz intel machine with a kona LHe card (not that it matters much capturing via firewire) and found that after each tape that I needed to re-boot the computer otherwise I got a "you have reached the end of the tape" error message when I tried to capture a second tape. This is coming from a canon camera with material shot at "24" frames a second.
I have one problematic tape that I am trying to capture for the third time that when it gets close to the end of the tape final cut just quits and when I look at the capture scratch folder it didn't get anything from that tape. I'm baby sitting and watching the tape through the whole capture now to see if there is a time code break.
Has anyone else had this sort of problem? What happens with this sort of capture strategy when the computer encounters a time code break?
Michael Escher
Really? Capture HDV to ProRes in FCP? Over FireWire?! Yes!
by NickM on Dec 17, 2007
hey, chris
"It will be around 30% or so behind the camera, but this is normal."
what does this actually mean?
if i capture an hour long tape,
will the capture window stay open 20 minutes after the tape runs out?
nick
Really? Capture HDV to ProRes in FCP? Over FireWire?! Yes!
by CATWALK on Dec 13, 2007
Hi!
I have a question from PAL, 25fps country.
Can I use this feature with 1080i 25fps HDV video?
I've found setups only for 30p footage...
regards
ARTI
Really? Capture HDV to ProRes in FCP? Over FireWire?! Yes!
by steven on Dec 13, 2007
Chris,
was this done with a G5 or a MacPro?
has anyone tested this with a dual 2 GHz G5?
thanks.
Really? Capture HDV to ProRes in FCP? Over FireWire?! Yes!
by Sam Zimman on Dec 13, 2007
When I tried this feature a week ago (or whenever it was that 6.0.2 came out) I was very excited, but I quickly noticed that at the points where the camera was stopped and started again (i.e. the beginning of a new clip) capturing in this manner missed some footage. If you captured just as straight HDV you will not miss a frame of video footage, but using this HDV->ProRes feature I was missing quite a few frames. I just chalked this up to a problem because I have a 2.3 Dual Core G5 and not an Intel machine. Does anyone else have this issue? Does this problem exists on Intel machines?
Really? Capture HDV to ProRes in FCP? Over FireWire?! Yes!
by Andy Mees on Dec 13, 2007
Chris, Good of you to take the trouble to write this up. I think the "toss the master clips, open the capture scratch folder, view and rename the files, then reimport them to the project" routine all sounds a bit unnecessary tho. It would seem more sensible to rename the clips, as captured, directly in the browser, then (if really needed) you can use FCP 6's ability to rename the master clips according to the clip names. (And you can delete any unwanted clips directly from the browser window by using the Make Offline command. Just a thought. Andy
