Batch Capture (Re-Capture) with Free Run TC

I'm batch capturing footage from 5 years ago for a client that wants another copy of their video. 1 tape was shot REC RUN timecode and it batch captured without issue. However, the 2nd tape is FREE RUN timecode and the capture utility bounces all over the place trying to find the in point. 50 clips, 0 successful captures.
Have adjusted handles, etc....no dice. I actually had re-captured this tape in CS4 a few years back and it worked fine, might have lost one clip total. Now in CS5, nada.
Let me know if anyone has an idea what I can do to make PPro park the playback right on the in point without trying to preroll, because nothing I've tried so far has worked.
For all I know it's a specific issue with CS5...dunno....I turned my back on MiniDV tape a while back and have not tried it since.
Using CS5, PC, Panasonic camcorder is the capture device.
Thanks!

Ann Bens wrote:
Why not capture the whole tape with scene detection.
Then chuck out the clips you do not want.
Ultimately this is what I intend to do if I can't find a resolution for this issue by the time I start working on the project again tomorrow. It should work, re-linking clips doesn't involve preroll or handles so I don't expect any problems going that route. I do expect to capture about twice as much footage as I actually need, as you indicated, so that will be a small hassle but that seems to be the workaround for the moment.
Thanks for the responses....if anyone else has something they'd like to add (or if anyone is aware of this kind of thing being a recognized bug) feel free to weigh in here. I might file a bug report...it seems to be that the preroll settings are not being recognized, or something along those lines.
Oh, I should also have noted that this is a fresh (er...4 week old) install of CS5 on a fresh (ahem...also 4 week old) install of Win7 x64. So there's not an application conflict...this is just an Adobe computer for all intents and purposes.

Similar Messages

Working with Free-Run Timecode

We have a multi-camera event coming up which will consist of 3-4 cameras. There is downtime between each segment that we are covering and I'd like to set each camera to free-run timecode so I can synch them in post. The Free run will be manually set on each camera so they won't be in perfect sync.
Once each event starts, the cameras will start rolling and roll continuously through the event and then stop and wait until the next event.
However, I know that FCP is slow in capuring footage with TC Breaks. Is this the best way to do this, or is there a better way? it looks like I'll be manually syncing anyway, but the TC's will at least get me in the ballpark. We're expecting 12-15 events, some of the cameras are lock down on particular items (clock, crowd, finish) so having a common synch image will be difficult.
Thanks.

Jake,
I don't know what kind of experience you have shooting events like this, but I'll relate some of my experiences for anyone who's interested.
Shooting live events with multiple cameras can be a lot of fun, but many times things have fallen apart for me once the event gets rolling and there's an intense pressure to not miss any of the action, even if it meant forgoing steps that would have helped me later. Preparation was key, or I'd be cursing myself in post. I've repeatedly found that there's no such thing as too much set-up time.
In the past I've used a cable to send free-run time-code from a master camera to a slave camera, but once the cable is disconnected the cameras always drift out of sync. You've stated that you're only using it to get in the ballpark though, so it should serve that purpose reasonable well. I've done a lot of multi-cam event shooting that required extensive post production and the thing that killed me was cameras shutting off and turning on at different times. Try to synchronize your shooting as much as humanly possible and you will be MUCH better off in post. TRUST ME on this! The on's and off's don't have to happen simultaneously, but the more consistent they are (and there less there are of them) the less confusion there will be in post. If a camera has to be turned off unscheduled to change the battery or something, have the shooter shoot into his hand for a few seconds after re-starting it to leave a nice visual cue of the edit point. (Also, don't wait as long as I did to learn about FCP's DV Start/Stop Detect feature!) I should add that I didn't have any problems working with free-run footage in FCP, but it depends a lot on your workflow goals and how you choose to capture it.
Also, I find that the most accurate way to synchronize video tracks in these messy situations is often by listening to their associated audio (even when using a wireless I try to always use one channel for the onboard mic)--unless you use a clapboard consistently it can be much easier to hear when audio is a frame out of sync than by looking at a visual cue in different footage from different angles (assuming the sound is reaching each camera at roughly the same time).
Part of my preparation for these events involved developing a pattern by which the event would be edited, and sticking with it. Most events involve some sort of activity which repeats, and I learned to shoot with each cycle's edit pattern in mind. I'm the first to encourage editing creativity and variation, but there have been so many times where I wished I had shot with a clearly-defined edit pattern in mind as opposed to chasing after creative shots that I then had to struggle mightily to even make use of in post.
I also learned to ensure that each shooter has a clearly-defined role. When everyone would swing around wildly trying to catch whatever eye-catching thing happened next, I'd end up with 4 identical wildly-swinging shots! Also, having one shooter assigned to cover the whole event with only a very smooth, very wide, "as-if-this-is-getting-broadcast-live-right-now" shot will save your butt many times over in post.
Another thing--you can never have too many cut-aways. If you think about it, if you come back with 60 different wildcard shots, and you're producing a 1-hour program, that only leaves you with one cut-away per minute! These are easy to get if there is a crowd involved by moving from person to person and rolling for about 10 seconds on each, but they have to be recorded while an actual event is taking place. When I would try to grab my crowd shots during downtime, it resulted in cut-aways that made it seem like the audience was entirely uninterested in the event taking place. Another thing I never seemed to have enough of were crowd reaction shots, like applause and laughter, because often all of us shooters were too busy frantically zooming in on the bucking bronco or the rodeo clown.
Didn't mean for this to get so long, but post-producing live events can be a real beast and I made a whole lot of mistakes before finally starting to get the hang of it. These days, I think recording live-to-tape with a field switcher is the only way to go, but that's just not always practical.
Good luck!
Zap
Dual 2 GHz PowerPC G5 Mac OS X (10.3.6)

Can you batch capture with Final Cut Express?

I'm new to Mac and FCE,
I'm used to running through my dv marking in and out points to create a batch and then hitting capture at the end and the computer rewinds and captures each in/out point. At this point, I usually start editing pics, etc for the video on another machine (videos are very short turnaround time).
Is this type of batch capture possible with final cut or does the user actually have to wait while the video is captured or better yet go to the end of each out point only to have the tape rewind for each clip captured. Seems like a very inefficient way of doing, so i'm guessing I am just unaware of how to do it. Please give me the steps if possible and of course all help is much appreciated.
Thanks,

This is very irritating. The more I get into the Mac side of video the more I think I have been sold a bill of goods. Mac seems to be good for lots of stuff, but I have to say that iMovie and Final Cut Express seem to lack some pretty basic functionality found in Windows software like Ulead MSP.
I even asked this specific question to the Apple store personnel and they guaranteed me that batch capture is possible on FCE.
I have to ask myself at this point why am I considering paying 900.00 for FCP when a 300 dollar Windows Program does the same thing. I guess live and learn, but it sure helps when people tell the truth and don't make stuff up when they don't understand it.
I am very disappointed at all the Mac video hype I have yet to see the wonders.
Thanks for the reply,

Unable to batch capture with Premiere Pro CC via Kona LHi

AJA's web site claims Premiere Pro CC is compatible with the Kona LHi card, but I can't get the two to work together properly. After repeated tries, I uninstalled and reinstalled everything AJA, but still no luck.
I need to batch capture DV clips from some mini-DV tapes on my Sony MVR035U tape deck. But I also need to upconvert them from 480i to 720p60 using my Kona Lhi card. I should be able to do this with Premiere Pro CC. But the PPCC Capture window won't give me any audio feedback when I select "AJA Movie Capture" in the Capture Settings pull down menu. I only get audio feedback when I enable "DV capture" but then I'm no longer able to upconvert.
Looking forward to any feedback on this issue. Been tying all day to trouble shoot this problem.
[Text formatting removed. Please type your posts here, rather than pasting.]
Message was edited by: Jim Simon

And now with CC June 2014 you can't even capture from HDV, I need to go back to Premiere CC 2013 for that....Adobe might think tape capture is over... but it isn't totally yet...

Automatic batch capturing with scene detect

Hi,
I'm new to FCS and used to work with Ulead's MSP. But since that's EOL I moved over to the Mac.
I'm looking for a way to "batch capture" a DV tape to the hard without letting FCS know all the start and stop points.
MSP used to capture every shot as a single clip to the harddisk just because it used the timecode on the tape. FCS can't do that it seems.
My camera is a Sony VX2000. Don't know if that's the reason.
If there's a utility that can do it, outside of FCS, that would also be nice.
Thanks for your replies.
Mic.

Hi,
Thanks for your reply. Looks good. I will have a try
Kind regards,
Mic.

Batch Capturing with gap in recording

So I just spent a lot of time labeling and describing clips. They are all offline. So I go to Batch Capture them and I'm getting the beginning of the tape rather than what I wanted which was in the middle.
I discovered that there is some blank space in my tape that changed my camera's timecode back to 0:00:00:00 and therefore is confusing the batch capture.
Is there a way to tell FCP to capture at the "new" 0:00:00:00 and not the "real" 0:00:00:00?

Welcome to the discussions.
Just select the clips before the timecode reset, capture them, select those after the break, manually shuttle past it, then capture them.
Patrick

Batch capturing with little pre-roll?

Hi, I just got some tapes that are supposed to be recaptured to online an old project. The problem is when the tapes were captured they weren't given any pre-roll.
Does anyone know a good way to get the batch capture to work? I've tried changing the pre-roll/post-roll from 3 seconds to 1 second but no luck. I've also tried changing the media start on the offline clip but it won't let me. Any ideas?
Thanks.
Caleb

If you've moved the preroll to one second then I think your options might be spent. If you capture now then that should work only you'll probably have to recut them by hand unless you could trick FCP into a reconnet on the new files.

Free run timecode - batch capturing

Hi, In FCP I'm trying to capture a whole tape shot with free run timecode and several breaks. I've set On timecode break to 'make a new clip' in preferences/general. When I click 'capture now' it captures the first clip then goes into an eternal loop trying to capture the second. What am I missing?

Free run code has it's uses, don't hate it, just hate it when it's used where it doesn't belong.
For example with the DVX and/or hvx, if you are shooting, for example, a concert with a bunch of cameras, that all have to be moving around and not able to be tethered to a single code source, if you put all the cameras in a little pile and, using ONE remote, preset a code and throw them all into free-run, then they're all locked together. Just fire them up and shoot. Tape and card changes are a snap and fast too, and when it's time to make your multiclips, they fall right into place.
Another good use is two or three camera big long corporate meetings, where the beloved clients drone on for hours.
But some ninny doing a run and gun with free run is just begging for someone to do him serious bodily harm.

Batch Capture from a FCP sequence

When I select a sequence for batch capture with no handles, the system reports much more media to be captured than the total running time of the clips. Why should this be?
Alternatively, suppose I wish to import an off-line sequence at a higher resolution, how should I re-capture just the media+handles that's used in my sequence?

Create a new sequence and delete all the audio in the timeline. This should reduce the amount of media needing to recapture. It still may show a time larger than the length of your sequence. Even with out handles. Not sure why.
Also, make sure all the clips have timecode and a reel number. It won't deleted the unused portions if it doesn't have it.

Canon Camera - Batch Capture Problems

Hi. I understand this is a common issue: I am using a Canon XL1 for interviews. I black out the tape in advance to avoid TC breaks, but when I use Batch Capture, I still run into "broken time code" messages. So, I end up using Capture Now, which is less efficient, so far as I can tell. I'm using a G5, 2.3 Gz, Dual Processor. As to Michael Grenadier's answer below, what does a firewire card do?
Thanks, as always!
Scott
This from Michael Grenadier:
There have always been issues with canon cameras. Try capturing with firewire basic device preset and see if that helps. The broken timecode error can also indicate some other thruput problem. Making sure your camera and hard drive are on seperate firewire busses can often help this problem. You need to add your equipment and os/software configuration to your profile to help analyze the problem. If you're using a tower, even though there are multiple firewire ports, there is only ONE firewire bus. Adding a firewire card can help.

Maxx, Thanks. In the past, I've taken the pre-post
TC break approach, but I always end up with an error
and no batch capture. I thought Batch Capture
doesn't work when there are TC breaks? Is there a
setting I'm missing?
We don't have a deck, so we use the XL1. I can try
my small camcorder though.
Very good to know about the XL2 - can we have yours?
hanks!
PLease take them both... I've been looking for an excuse to push for some new gear.
Typically I log all of my clips and then batch them from the browser. That way I can select a couple of clips at a time if the tape is that bad. And it has been before. We've got 1 shooter that likes to review shots but never rolls off any xtra tape before he does this. So everytime does it there's a TC break. But if the tape is bad or just doesn't have solid TC then you may be screwed.
Your camcorder will work just fine. I suggested this b/c that way you would at least know if you have a playback issue with your xl1 or if the tape just doesn't have solid TC.
Take a gander at Kevan's post as well. He asks some good questions and makes some good points as usual. I agree with what he said about blacking the tape. Back in my news days we had to do this and it was to be able to assemble edit deck to deck. No need to do this now though in this day and age of instant gratification. Boy I miss the days of blacking tapes, taking feeds, and sprinting through the news room with a tape as the anchor was leading into the story and tossing the tape to the tape op just in the nick o time... Ahh good times!

Batch capture settings do not match project settings

Batch capture audio settings do not conform to project settings-
PROJECT SETTINGS ON CREATION OF NEW PROJECT:
For editing with IEEE1394 (FireWire/i.LINK) DV equipment.
Standard NTSC video (4:3 interlaced).
48kHz (16 bit) audio.
Drop-Frame Timecode numbering.
General
Editing mode: DV NTSC
Timebase: 29.97fps
Video Settings
Frame size: 720h 480v (0.9091)
Frame rate: 29.97 frames/second
Pixel Aspect Ratio: D1/DV NTSC (0.9091)
Fields: Lower Field First
Audio Settings
Sample rate: 48000 samples/second
Default Sequence
Total video tracks: 3
Master track type: Stereo
Mono tracks: 0
Please note audio setting for project 48kHz (16 bit) audio.
When I set for batch capture by creating off-line clips using the "Log Clip" option the off-line clip shows audio as
32KHZ 16-bit everyting else is correct as project settings.
Just prior to creating the off-line batch capture clip I had sucessfully captured from the same device using the same tape shot with the above settings including 48khz 16-bit audio by using standard " Capture" by setting in & out then clicking Capture>In/Out.
I've looked at capture settings etc...unable to determine to change audio settings etc or why the audio settings under batch capture do not conform to project settings...
Any ideas?
Tnx,
mick

Thanks for your reply, Harm....
Well now...having negated all the possibilities you listed, I decided to do a an actual batch capture with clips which I previously logged which reported audio at 32kHz instead of the project setting of 48kHz:
1. two clips were selected from the same device/tape ( both selected from the logging util which erroneously reported audio at 32kHz) for the batch
2. both clips captured "flawlessly"
3. both clips after the batch capture then reported audio as being 48kHz
Btw, I also did a batch capture from the same device/tape in Pr 6.x...and it reported and captured at 48khz...I must say, I must prefer the legacy version of Pr 6 for batch capture which creates a log .pbl file which can then be easily exported as a csv to and .xls etc..IMO, much more useful...and useable..
Mi dos pesos(.002US)
So it would appear there is some kind of bug in the Pr cs4 batch capture util that is erroneously reporting audio settings?
Should this go to the devel as a possible bug?
Tnx,
mick

Batch Capture Error: Timecode Error: End of Tape Reached

I have been having issues doing batch capture with my JVC VS30U. I logged all my clips on the fly and did the entire tape, so the OUT point of one clip is the same as the IN point of the next clip. When I attempt to batch capture it gives this error between every clip.
I have to hit retry, sometimes more than once, in order for the deck to properly cue and FCP to start the digitize. I don't know if this is a weird pre-roll issue, or something else, but it completely defeats the purpose of a batch if I have to sit here and hit retry after each clip.
There are no TC breaks, and obviously its not really the end of the tape. I've read where people have similar problems, but didn't find a solution. Have already trashed prefs, but to no avail. Using FCP 5.0.4 with OS 10.4.3 and said JVC deck via firewire.
Any ideas? Thanks in advance!

I don't know the deck but a simple test would be to move a couple of i/o points so they are not adjacent. Or test with a single, longer clip and break it up into subclips.
Tell us what you've tried so we don't waster your time and ours with fruitless suggestions.
Errors displayed by FCP are usually irrelevant and rarely helpful.
bogiesan

HDV Batch Capture Preroll

Others have had the problem of not being able to do effective Batch Captures due to the computer's inablity to locate the timecode (it seems especially true of Canon cameras and HDV--so, the XLH1). The solution is to just capture the whole tape and then delete the unwanted clips. I'm wondering if there is a smoother way of fixing this problem.
I can get FCP to batch capture as long as I'm willing to sit by the computer and tell it to "Continue" 3-5 times each time it has to fast forward. The computer fliddles around the timecode point until it finally decides that the timecode indeed exists.
Thus, it's not that the computer doesn't know what the timecode is at that moment. Rather, it seems to get hung up on just when to strat rolling so it can begin capturing at the right time. This, as far as I can tell, would be a Preroll problem.
So, is there a way to force FCP to give the tape a little more space and just start rolling? Or, could we petition for Apple to give the computer a bit more time? Or... something.
Any other ideas, thoughts, comments? Am I way off?
Sorry for such a long post.
~Luke

Hi everyone,
Just thought i'd take a minute to post back and update the forum with the outcome. After many more tries and batch capturing with HDV and DV and in great frustration, I came upon a wonderful post (sorry can't remember who/where) in which the OP said they were having the very same issues as me. The solution was staring me in the face the whole time: Quicktime.
All I did in the end to overcome my problem was to plug in the camera, check QT preferences were set to source: HDV camera and Native resolution, then just hit play on the camera and start up a new movie recording!
This captures the tape in one complete clip. Though obviously it does not pull across timecode, and due to the nature of manually hitting play on the camera and record in QT, would make it difficult to reconnect media in the future, however it HAS successfully captured footage in its original resolution, ready to be imported into final cut and subclipped.
Hope this helps someone. It was by no means my ideal workaround, but having backed up the file taken from QT, has at least saved me this once!
Thankyou for all your help,
Best,
Adam

Recommendation for HDV vtr or camcorder for batch capture

I currently own Premiere Pro CS3 and am using the trial version for PP CS4 on a Mac. One of my biggest problems is batch capturing HDV footage with my Sony HVR-Z7U HDV Camcorder or HVR-M15AU HDV Deck. It just doesn't work properly for CS3 and was disappointed to find out it doesn't work for CS4 either (unless it's a trial version issue?). Both versions I can capture on the fly, but not a batch capture. Even the adobe website say's so. So my question is, what reasonably priced HDV camcorder or VTR can I get that is compatible (let me batch capture) with both versions? Does anybody know? Thank you.

The problem I've found when capturing from the M15 is that the deck does FF and REW at such high speed that it frequently overshoots the mark by as much as two minutes, and then ends up capturing about one minute off. I usually only discover this when I look at the captured clip and find it isn't at all what I said it was when I named it.
So I just take the clip offline and recapture. This usually works. Sometimes I will manually cue the deck up to about one minute before the "in" point, and this helps the deck/Premiere find the correct timecode.
Anyhow, that's my workaround. I have handles set at 150 frames and pre- and post-roll set to the same.
(But note this is for CS3, although I assume this part is the same with CS4.)

Mixing formats, free-run TC

Hello everyone,
I need some technical advice before I begin the monumental task of editing 20 hours (three days, three cameras) of wedding footage. My wife and I decided to edit our wedding movie together!
Wedding was shot primarily (90%) on two DVX-100A cameras (set at 24pA, 4:3) and a third camera, the Canon XH-A1, was used for the ceremony (set at 24f 1080i 16:9).
The final movie will be 90% DVX footage; distributed on SD NTSC DVD - 4:3 Letterbox
If I capture the DVX footage at DV-NTSC 24p (23.98) Advanced Pulldown Removal, what is the best way to capture/downconvert the Canon HDV footage to edit with the DVX-100 SD footage?
Will Canon's "24f" be compatible with Panasonic's "24pA"? Or is that irrelevant after I capture DVX-100 footage in to FCP 5.1.2?
Also, the two cameramen shooting the DVX-100s shot with free-run timecode (time of day timecode), and after capturing a few tapes I could not find a way to sync the clips (from the varying cameras)...in other words, I could not find the "time of day timecode".
I could only find "Media Start" and "Media End" which do not correspond.
In the Browser Window I opened a "Show TC" column and it just says, "Source" and "Aux TC 1 & 2 say "None".
Is there something special I need to do during or after capture?
Finally, after all is captured, should I use Multliclip to sync and edit the DVX-100 footage?
I can always sync the Canon footage by eye, as that camera was primarily used during the wedding ceremony.
BIG THANKS to all who can shed some light on my questions. : )
And thank you for bearing with me through all of my questions.
-Daniel
Mac Book Pro Mac OS X (10.4.8) FCP 5.1.2
iBook G4 Mac OS X (10.3.9)
Mac Book Pro 2.16GHz Mac OS X (10.4.8)
iBook G4 Mac OS X (10.3.9) FCP 5.1.2
Mac Book Pro 2.16GHz Mac OS X (10.4.8) FCP 5.1.2

the argument that 24pa is only meant for a film out is really sort of irrelevant. 24pa was devised as a way to reverse telecine by dropping a frame, rather than reverse telecine processing in cinema tools that 24p standard requires. it takes almost zilch processing power to get a 23.98 fps sequence back to 29.97 anyway as fcp adds the pulldown automatically when previewing via firewire or printing to tape so i don't understand why folks make the argument that 24pa is for film out only. is it not.
for your project, 24pa makes a heck of a lot sense as you edit in a 23.98 fps sequence after stripping the pulldown. you end up with video that has a lower data rate hence less compressing is done which means better looking video or more time capacity fits on a dvd.
your main problem stems from a lack of pre-production and planning. the best scenario would have been to use three of the same camera but as your main wide camera is hdv 16:9, you'll need to find a way to get it to the same frame rate and aspect ratio as the other cameras.
regarding your time code, you'll have to sync by eye.

Batch Capture (Re-Capture) with Free Run TC

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