Capturing Gaming Footage

Hi,
I want to capture a some game footage to use in a movie.
I have tried snapz and btv but i'm not having any luck in capturing smooth footage, it jumps really bad, or doesn't capture at all. Does anyone have any ideas on what i could do to improve it or if there is some better software out there..
Thanks
Kelly

What, exactly, do you want to do with the game footage after you've captured it? Since games can be processor and graphics intensive, you'll probably have a difficult time capturing the screen while you're using the Mac mini.
Final Cut Pro will only import video from a FireWire connection to a DV camcorder. It won't really help you with a project like this.
My first suggestion: Use the Apple DVI to Video Adapter to play your Mac mini's screen on a TV through a VCR. Then you could simply record the action on a videotape in the VCR. If you have a DV camcorder, you may be able to capture the footage to your camcorder instead of the VCR and then play it back directly to your Mac mini and capture it with iMovie. (Or, capture the footage on the VCR then play the VCR back to your camcorder to record it on DV and then play the DV tape back to the Mac mini/iMovie with a FireWire cable.) There are several different configurations like this that may work for you. Again, it will really depend on exactly why you're trying to capture the footage...
-Doug

Similar Messages

Unable to capture HDV footage with FCP 5.1

I've captured HD footage onto my old computer (10.4.11) without any problem but now I'm trying on my new one and it doesn't want to know.
First off there was a problem with the Firewire port ejecting my hard drives randomly so I took it to be repaired and they replaced the logic board and the port works fine.
I've looked at all the posts I could find, I've trashed my preferences, reinstalled Final Cut Studio ( after uninstalling then updating the software). I've made sure the camera is set to HDV playback rather than auto and that the iLink HDV/DV conversion is off. I've tried all the easy setups and all the custom ones I could think of but still FCP (5.1.4) won't allow me to capture. On some settings I have had device control but no image, on others it said the camera isn't connected. The only way I've captured footage is by using the HDV Apple Intermediate Codec 1080i50 which works fine.
The camera is a Sony HDR-HC7 connected directly to the iMac with a Firewire 800 / iLink cable or daisy chained through my external hard drive with a 400 / iLink cable (neither of which makes any difference) I can also capture SD footage from both the HDV and a Panasonic SD camera when in DV-PAL setup. The HDV camera also shows up as connected in the system profiler.
This is driving me nuts so any help would be appreciated and if there's any other info I can help with to make this clearer let me know.
Message was edited by: MrMajesticMole

I just got off the phone with a friend of mine who was having the same problem as you. Although you say the camera playback is set properly, please recheck this. go into your camera's playback menu>menu>standard set>VCR HDV/DV. Unplug your firewire from the camera. Make sure camera is set to HDV NOT auto. replace firewire cable. Now open FCP. Go in Audio/video settings>A/V devices (farthest tab on right). In box for playback edit to tape different from video output (make sure it's checked) mirrored (checked) Video playback 1080i50, Audio HDV. I hope that works now.
Steve

Cannot capture dv footage from canon ax h1 on final cut pro

hi there,
i shot a wedding over the summer on a canon ax h1, which belonged to the bride and i didn't have much experience with it. i shot the whole wedding, and now when i went to capture the footage the audio and video are not showing up.
there is timecode there, and i was definetely shooting to the tape when i recorded the wedding as the camera told me how much time was left on the tape and displayed the timecode. if anybody has any ideas on what this problem could be, please let me know, thanks alot.

Hi ..
Have a look at this .. I had the same problem ..
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=10804559#10804559
Jim

Capture dv footage on hdv camera audio disappearing ?

Problem with audio while capturing dv footage to fcp7 from my Canon xha1s
The footage is shot on down conversion dv settings from the Canon xha1s
The tapes also contain footage shot on a Sony vx1000 and a Canon gl-2
Heres where it gets weird
The footage from all three cameras plays back with audio perfectly no issue on the camera
The footage captures into fcp7 with audio synced and everything
everything i even put it on the timeline and it played back perfectly
BUT when i go to file the footage from the "capture scratch" folder Theres NO audio
Where normal clips read "untitled01.mov" These clips read "untitled01-v"
I get it. Video only. Can't find any settings change to fix this.
I found a way to make fcp7 press out the "untitled01-a" & "untitled01-v" which i could then file. Sync in editor and use just fine
But the type of footage im editing literally gives me hundreds and hundreds of clips and that process is simply too meticulous
And is out of the queststion
Please How do i capture both of these -a -v files as one simple .mov format video in this instance
It seems like because im getting the audio captured at one point, this problem would be solved by some obscure box that i need to check that i just can't find for some reason
Message was edited by: AntwonDogg

In FCP, go to the menu Final Cut Pro > System Settings and on the scratch disks tab, make sure Video Capture and Audio Capture are routed to the same drive destination:
Then click OK.
MtD

FCP unexpectedly quits when I try to capture HDV footage

I'm trying to capture HDV footage shot on the Canon XHA1 and my FCP unexpectedly quits every time. I've used this type of footage and camera before with no issues.
I've trashed the preferences, tried setting the scratch disk to an external drive and on the hard drive.
I'm not sure what to try next?
Do i have to re-install?
anything would help!
Thanks

FCP version?
OSX version?
QT version?
x

Capturing HDV footage with incorrect timecode

Rookie mistake. I started shooting a new project on my brand new canon xh-a1s, and in the excitement I forgot to stripe my first few tapes. And it being a film project I've been constantly using the playback to look at the takes I just did. So what's happened is I don't have a nice clean 0;00;00 to 1;04;00 timecode on all the tapes, rather there are frequent spots on the tapes when it's started a new timecode at 0;00;00. So when I capture my footage into premiere pro cs3, it gets confused and either drastically unsyncs the audio or repeats the same 4 seconds of sound through the whole clip.
Oddly enough when you play the captured footage outside of premiere, in windows media player say, it looks and sounds fine. But premiere chokes on it everytime I import it or capture it.
Right now I've managed to capture successfuly going clip at a time with the capture now function, and staring at the timecode waiting to hit stop just when it gets to a new timecode. Sometimes I hit stop on time and it captures cleanly, sometimes I don't and it doesn't sync or skips the audio. But obviously trying to go through 8 hours of footage this way is an arguous, unreliable, and incredibly time consuming process. Logging clips doesn't work either because it never seems to stop the capture on time to save the clip.
Does anyone have any suggestions as how I can get the audio into premiere properly without doing what I'm doing now?

...or, always look at the timecode display in the viewfinder or the LCD before you press REC. The nice display will ALWAYS indicate when you've reset the timecode. If the display is 00:00:00.00 or similar and you are NOT the very beginning of the tape, pressing record will start a new time code sequence everytime.
If you have END SEARCH, use it. this will usually work as long as you haven't removed the tape. Either way, rewinding the tape until a non-zero timecode appears and then pressing REC works. The camera will increment the timecode from that value..
I'm not at my editting station, but I seem to remember that PPPro has a capture setting that will cause it to ignore timecode breaks--you then edit out the rough section at each break when editing. Unless you're going to do something clever like recapturing HDV after capturing SD, you're not going to use the timecode anyway.
Then in the future, always look at the timecode display before you press REC. There is really no reason to stripe if you always remember this.

What are the best sequence settings in FCP 5 for exporting screen capture video footage?

I capture video footage of websites in order to showcase in a demo reel. Using Snapz Pro, the compression type I have found to have the best quality is H264. When I take this footage into FCP (v5.1.4), I choose DV NTSC 48khz for the sequence setting. If I then select H264 for the sequence compression type, when I go to render I get a 'Codec error.'
The only way I am able to render properly is by choosing DV NTSC 48khz for the sequence setting and DV/DVCPRO-NTSC as my sequence compression type. The problem with this though is I get a perfect picture in the Viewer, but the picture quality in the Canvas (and the subsequent exported video) is slightly blurred.
I've been trying to find a solution to this problem off and on for years. I've finally decided now to get to the bottom of the issue. If you can solve this one you are my hero!
Ted

Thanks for the suggestions. I've tried using DVCPRO HD in the past, but the picture quality of the captured screen footage turns out blurry. The only codecs I've found that provide a perfectly clear image are H264, Animation and Uncompressed 8-bit. The problem with the latter two is that video files lasting only a few seconds measure in the 100s of MBs. Working with files that large would slow my editing and rendering down to a non-workable length.
I just don't understand why I can't edit H264 video if my sequence codec is set to H264. The 'Codec error' I get is baffling.

15" Brand New (June 2009) Macbook Pro and Capturing HD Footage

Right now I capture HD footage in FCP from my Canon XH A1 via firewire 400 onto an external 7200 rpm hard drive connected via firewire 800. My iMac is getting a bid dated and I would like to upgrade to the highest end 15" MBP - except I'm not sure how I could still capture like this since there is only one firewire port. Also, I've been told that capturing over the same bus as that which is running the OS can slow things down and was therefore recommended to go with an eSATA express card - well the 15" doesn't have that now. What other options are there? Would I firewire hub work - can it capture and output to an external HD at the same time?
I've chatted with some people at the apple store who just said to capture it to the internal HD and then export it, but I don't like that solution for all project. Is that the only solution?
Also, do I need the 3.06 or is the 2.8 good enough.
Thanks in advance for the help.

There are two factors: how well does the Canon play with other on firewire, and is there enough bandwidth.
1. The other responder suggested a test at the Apple Store. I concur. You should also check out the iMovie or Final Cut Pro forums, depending on what you use for editing.
2. Bandwidth: you need about 25Mb/sec (3.1MB/sec) out of the 800Mb/sec available on the FW800 chain. However, generally, the whole buss slows down to the slowest device: FW100 in the case of video cams. But I still think that is fast enough.
3. Capturing to the internal drive should work: the MBP is supposed to be designed to do that, even with 5400rpm drives and iMovie (don't know about FCP). But I don't like doing that, either because the OS is running there.
As an experiment, try using your existing MBP with your external HDD and Canon XHA1 daisy chained and see if it works for long transfers (like a whole 1 hour tape). The speeds should be the same, and unless your a transcoding on import (to AIC or ProRes 422), the CPU speed should not matter much.
Eddie O

Disk full message capturing miniDV footage

Hi,
This is my first attempt to use FCE and I have a network setup that is primarily Windows XP.
I set a new FCE project to capture miniDV footage from a cheap JVC camcorder. The capture started okay but terminated after approx 9 minutes reporting an error message indicating the disk was full.
My Macbook had 9.9 gig free (which was not set as the location for scratch) and my Maxtor Shared Storage II drive had 250 gig free. This is set as scratch.
I had a look at the files created by the capture. It had created a quicktime file, named "Untitled1" in the folder "Untitled Project 1" that was 2 gig in size.
I seem to recall that Windows files are limited to 2gig and suspect this is the actual error.
I have also read in the FCE help re a similar type of problem that can be resolved by formatting the drive using the Mac disk Utility.
The drive I have been using is a 500gb mirrored Maxtor Shared Storage II connected via a network router. However if I need to dedicate a drive over to FCe / Mac usage I will be using a 500gig (unmirrored) Maxtor Shared Storage Drive (previous model) also conencted to the network via 10/100 network connection.
Could anyone confirm I have got this error correctly interpreted and if anyone has any experience with these drives and Mac's that would also be helpful.
The drives are spec'd to support Mac files but do not specifically support AFS. They show as NTFS via Windows XP interface but I do not know how to get this info via the Mac as yet. I will also be contacting Maxtor support via this. Its the FCE help I would really appreciate.
Thanks
Eric
macbook Mac OS X (10.4.8) white & shiny & brandnew
macbook Mac OS X (10.4.8) white & shiny & brandnew

Hi,
Thanks for the replies everyone. I was rather hoping direct connection to the mac would not be essential as the drive does not have a firewire port, only USB2 x 2 and the ethernet connnection.
What if the connection is 100/1000 mbits. Would this comms method still be unreliable?
If I do need to get a new drive, what would be the minimum size you would recommend? I guess a type with a small footprint would be good so that, if it must be directly connected, I might as well take advantage of portability too (as I only have a MacBook).
cheers
eric
macbook Mac OS X (10.4.8) white & shiny & brandnew

Can't Batch Capture 24p Footage

I recently crossgraded to Final Cut 5.1 (now using the most recent version, 5.1.4) and my JVC BR-HD50 deck seems to be having issues when it tries to cue the tape for batch capture in 24 frames. All of the settings on the deck are as they were before, when I could batch capture 30p footage, but I haven't yet been able to batch capture anything shot on 24p. Capture Now works fine but is very tedious when importing a lot of footage.
Appreciate any suggestions..
Thanks.
G5 Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Well.... NEXT TIME you'll know to always have adequate pre-roll on your footage.
THIS TIME, first, change the inpoint on the batch capture that contains the offending portion to a place where you can reliable capture the clip you need. Then do a capture now of the head of the tape up until the new in point of that clip. Be sure to give yourself adequate overlap so you don't lose any frames.
Does that make sense?

Are there any benefits to using optimized media when capturing SD footage?

I am going through old MiniDV tapes and I have to say, going through my first project using FCPX has been very good. I have made use of proxy media, but I wanted to see if anyone might weigh in on if creating optimized media is a good idea with SD footage.
And my question might be answered with a bit of a better understanding of what optimized media is. The way I understand it is that the footage is of the same quality of raw footage but much less smaller in filesize (megabytes wise.) Is that correct? In that case, if I capture footage and check the optimized media box, does it capture raw footage and then also create optimized media?
Many thanks!

Nope, DV footage wouldn't benefit from Optimized. Optimized Media is designed for formats that are not especially well-suited to editing, such as AVCHD or H.264- mostly because these formats are more optimized for in-camera use and don't hold up as well to multiple generations in editing. Plus they require much more CPU power to decode and playback.
DV doesn't have these issues as much, is ideally suited to editing and so wouldn't benefit. Proxy mode on the other hand would help a little as it knocks down the file size and amount of processing power. But to be honest the difference in file sizes and CPU requirements between Proxy and DV in standard definition are so minimal that personally I wouldn't bother to use it. Stick with pure DV.

Capturing Varicam Footage

hey guys
we are trying to capture Varicam footage shot at 40fps and 60fps through a AJA LHE card when we capture it not all the clip is there, we have tried setting in and out points, capture now and nothing works, and the preset is at DVCProHD 720P 23.98 Varicam. so what are work around is capture everything at DVCProHD 720P 59.94 and use the Varicam plugin to convert everything. but we should be able to just capture it, and the Deck we are using is the 1200A and it is outputting 720P 59.94.

so then what is the 23.98 Varicam setup for.
For when you shoot 24p at 23.98 with the Varicam. FCP will remove the redundant frames from the 59.94 frame rate to get you the proper footage.
if we want the other frame rates we always have to capture at 59.94 and then convert.
Then you need to do that. Capture them at 59.94 and convert to 23.98...meaning that both will be in slow motion. Unless you shot 59.94 24p (another possibility), in which case you can have the FRC remove the pulldown...redundant frames...for you.
But if it is 60 and 40 for the sake of slow motion, then you need to capture at full frame rate and convert later.
Shane

How do I Extract Raw Clips of my captured HD footage?

This is probably a newb question, but what I want to do simply is to get raw pieces in the original format of my captured HD footage. I shot with the Sony F900 in 1080 true 24p (not 23.97) and captured with the Sony JH-3 deck. I captured the footage uncompressed in true 24 using the AJA Xena LH in Quicktime and in 8-bit yuv with square pixels.
My way of trying to extract the raw clips was to import the captured footage into CS3, edit out the clips that I wanted, and then try to export them as "movie." As I export them, I set the general format to Quicktime (not AJA Quicktime), and for "video" chose "uncompressed 8 bit yuv," and in the pixelation, chose square pixels. For the h/v ratio I chose 1920 x 1080 and for frame rate, true 24. However, when I start to save it and it starts to process, it will freeze a few seconds, and then I get an error message and CS3 automatically shuts down. I can avoid this if I choose either another h/v ratio, frame rate, a different form of pixelation (like DV/NTSC .9) or AJA Quicktime. But, of course, what I'm really hoping is to match my original footage.
Any idea what I'm doing wrong or is this a software bug? Or is there a completely different way to get my raw clips?

On the Export Settings' Source tab, click the Crop button; you can select 4:3 from the Crop Proportions dropdown. This will shove the crop way over to one size, but you can adjust the size and position of the crop as needed to center it up.
Once you pick your Format and Preset (or tweak as you like for 4:3 output), toggle back and forth between the Source and Output tabs to make sure you're getting a clean crop. Once you have it how you like it, save yourself some trouble and create a new preset, which you can then apply to as many clips as you like.

Captured 24A footage wildly out of sync in FCP, but fine in QT

I just captured a bunch of 24A footage I shot on my Panasonic DVX100A and was dismayed to find that the clips were all wildly out of sync when I opened them in FCP--even though they are fine when I open the captured files directly in QT on my desktop. But when I play these same clips in FCP, the audio slips so steadily out of sync that on one 47 minute take, the video ended seven minutes before the audio, so the clip ends with seven minutes of sound against a black screen!
I actually found a workaround for this problem in a thread started by another poster with a similar sync problem. On that thread someone suggested that if I simply opened the underlying file as a QT movie on my desktop and then edited a second or two from the beginning, and saved it as a new Self Contained QT movie, I could import that one into FCP and it would have no sync issues. For reasons I still don't quite understand, that workaround solved the problem almost every time.
Until now, when not even that convoluted solution seems to help with this latest clip. Even after shaving the ends and saving it with a new name, the resultant QT file still imports into FCP with the same off sync problem.
Obviously, the best solution would be to figure out why clips are capturing with bad sync in the first place. For the record, I've shot and captured many, many hours of 24A footage from this camera in the past without experiencing any syn issues. As far as I can tell, the audio was shot and captured at 48.0 KHZ, just like always. (And the out of sync clip shows up as having 48.0 KHZ audio in the FCP browser.)
Since it was shot at 24A, I captured it using Advanced Pulldown removal as always. (Oddly, I notice in the browser info window that the clip shows up as 29.97 fps and not 23.98--if that's a clue to anyone.)
Thanks for your guidance on a sticky issue that has me stopped in my tracks.

Hello GeeFor,
I was browsing for a different audio sync issue and came across your post. It caught my attention because I believe that I've ran into the same problem before and figured out what causes it, so I thought I'd share my experience.
You said that you've noticed that FCP initially recognizes the problem clips as 29.97, even though you've captured the 24PA footage with Advanced Pulldown. I've found that if, while you are capturing 24PA footage, you allow the capture to go beyond the recorded footage and into blank tape, that FCP recognizes the entire clip as 29.97. This causes audio sync problems, and if you end up trying to do a final export, will cause video problems as well.
I've successfully duplicated this problem and the solution is to make sure to stop your capture before your 24PA footage ends and blank tape begins. One way to avoid the problem is to record black to the entire tape while on the 24PA setting prior to filming. I normally just record an extra minute or two while on location at the end of the footage.
I think your work around in Quicktime works because you are effectively removing the break in timecode at the end of the clip, therefore FCP sees a start and end timecode that matches the 24PA settings.
I hope this fixes your issue, I'd be curious to know if it does. I did a lot of trial and error to figure out what my problem/solution was and I couldn't find anything in the forums that helped with my particular issue.

FCP keeps capturing my footage in 30fps instead of 24!

I'm recording onto miniDV with a Panasonic HVX. I recorded in 480i/24PA. When i open up final cut pro and go to 'log and capture', once i capture my footage onto the computer, i open it back up (just the .mov file), and i can clearly tell it's in 30fps!
because of this, it's doing that thing where it makes about every few frames have those lines on it, so my video looks so weird when people are moving
even when i open final cut pro and drag and drop the .mov files i captured into the timeline, and it asks me if i want to set the timeline to the same settings as the video, and i click yes, the sequence settings now reads 29.97 fps
how can i get Final Cut to capture in 24fps like i recorded!

The sequence and/or clips should be @ 23.98fps (23.976 to be exact). it seems as maybe the file is corrupt. if you shot in 480i 24PA on a miniDV tape, it should be able to remove it with no problems. another option you can try is to re-ingest the tape and select the advance pulldown. when you are in your log and capture window, go to the clip setting tab and select under the capture/input drop down menu and select "DV NTSC 48kHz Advanced 2:3:3:2: Pulldown removal. if you shot anamorphic make a duplicate and add that property in.
try that. hope it works.

Capturing Gaming Footage

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