FCP6 – HDCAM deck (J-H3) – Kona 3 : No Comm?

I've just started the process of capturing and logging my HDCAM tapes, but I'm having trouble with the J-H3 deck communicating with my system. It's going though the Kona 3 card, using the HD-SDI connection. I'm using the ProRes codec, and have Tiger not Leopard, so none of those issues. I can play the footage into the capture & log preview window, but there's no time code coming through and I can't control the deck from FCP (only manually). The message under the preview window is 'No Communication'. I've tried numerous setups in both FCP and the AJA control panel, but nothing works. I've checked the cables and redone them to make sure they're hooked up properly from the deck to the Kona 3 breakout box and then from the breakout box to the computer. Sheesh, this is driving me nuts as this ought to be the easy part. (I've been messing with this all weekend and am at my wits end.) Any ideas out there? (And yes, there is time code as this was shot with the Sony 900R and I can see the code on the deck.) Thanks.

Try setting the RS-422 device control setting to LTC+VITC.
Jerry

Similar Messages

Unable to capture HD 1080 video from HDCAM deck using Decklink HD

I have an original decklink HD capture card with SDI I/O. I have a rented Sony HDCAM F500 deck for the weekend. I can not get FCP to digitize even a frame. All my QT, FCP, OSX and Decklink software is up to date and compatible with one another acording to Decklink's website.
The capture tool shows no video input. I am conecting via SDI from the HD output of the deck to the SDI input on the card, the capture settings are set to the HD format I need to work in, 23.98 PsF. I get the error mesage when I select the setting I want: Unable to locate the capture device Blackmagic HDTV 1080. Your system config may have changed or your deck/camera may be disconnected or turned off.
The system will work in SD using the downconvert output of the deck, but this does me no good on this job. I hope someone has experience with this problem and can help because I am out of ideas!

sorry mate, if I was in the office I would try to help troubleshoot this thing, but here at home its a bit pointless.
other than suggesting you check that you really do have an Declink HD card an not the Declink SD card, or th epossiblity the card may be faulty, the best I can offer is to point you to the Decklink forum at the Cow.
http://forums.creativecow.net/cgi-bin/newviewposts.cgi?forumid=124
have you tried to capture any other HD flavour with this card? how about capturing via the downcoverted SD and using the card to upconvert to HD? (this is not a suggested workflow, just trying to ascertain whether the card is working in HD at all)

HDV/ sony ZIU workflow for editing & mastering

I'm new to this forum so first off thanks for having me.
I'm trying to develope a successful workflow that will carry this studio throught the upcoming year of producion.
We wil be shooting HDV w/ the Z1U and editing in FCP 5.0...
We need to edit webisodes weekely as well as log and master the HDV footage for stock footage, broadcast use and other future applications.
Here is my initial game plan:
I was planning to work in SD by capturing the footage with the downconvert option (HDV-DV) strait off the camera. I'm doing this to keep my logging speed and disc space low. Also, I'm assuming that for exporting QTs for the web the quality will still look great.
Then later for my HDV masters I will open a new project in FCP, compile all my clips and re-capture the footage in HDV.
At this point I would be running all my FCP setups for native HD, 1080i60, etc. Then, Print to Video from my FCP project back to the Sony Z1U camera.
Does this make sense to other out there, considering we can't afford and HDcam deck or AJA Kona at this juncture?
Has anyone had issues re-capturing footage in HDV and/or printing back to tape?
Thanks and Aloha,
BGP Editor
G5 Mac OS X (10.3.9) AJA Io, FCP 5.0, Sony Z1U

Welcome!
I can't comment on you workflow,
however since you are looking towards the future, I would strongly recommend that you upgrade your OS X to 10.4.8, and purchase the FInal Cut Studio 5.1 crossgrade for $50.00 (before offer expires sometime in Dec I believe).
http://www.apple.com/universal/crossgrade/
FInal Cut Pro 5 was last updated to 5.0.4, there will be no more updates.
G5 1.8 DP (PCI-X) Mac OS X (10.4.8) ATI X800 XT, 4GB RAM, 20" & 23" ACDs, M-Audio Revolution 5.1, Fostex D15 DAT

Motion menu: interlaced or progressive?

I'm coming from Sony DVD Architect which required progressive video when using as a motion menu. Is there a preference when using motion menus in Encore?
Thank you, Marc

Well, even going from HD interlaced to SD interlaced can cause problems, so going to SD progressive is riddled with more problems and not necessarily possible to be done properly. If the footage has been flagged with a pulldown pattern, then absolutely get it 23.976 PsF in After Effects (or something) for your final outputs (dvds, compressions, etc.). Once clips are edited together and exported as a self-contained movie, any pulldown pattern that existed for the individual clips won't necessarily be detectable or removable.
The only way that I have found to make a great encoded file when going from HD interlaced to SD is to master to HDCAM, and then capture back as SD 29i anamorphic (NTSC D1 720x486 ProResHQ). Then I encode this file in After Effects as an m2v, with the render output cropping out the 6 lines. This is not very practical for most people because you need to have an HDCAM deck and a Kona 3 (or equivalent) card. Again not practical for most, but a DigiBeta deck could be used instead and do the downconvert on the way out to tape.
There are other ways to de-interlace a video, but I am talking about getting proper motion and titles/credits to look as close to perfect as possible.
When the source file is progressive to begin with, I drag the file into a new comp in After Effects. Change the comp settings to 720x480 (1.21 PAR) 23.976, scale the video to the correct size, and render out an m2v.
The motion menus could be progressive even if the rest of the dvd is all interlaced.

Frame Rate Conversions Nightmare!

Hello Everyone. I'm in a pickle! I have multiple formats and frame rates that I am trying to combine into one project. I have at my disposal an HDW-f500 HDCAM deck and a Kona LHE card. I have projects that include PAL SD, HDV 1080i60, Apple HDV 1080i50, HDV 720p24, and ProRes 1920 1080, and XDCAM 720p24.
This is a global project that I have been charged with combining into one output. I don't know what the final output has to be, but I am looking at moving toward HDCAM 23.98psf. But, if anyone has a contrary suggestion, I am open to it.
So, what is the workflow here? Can I spit each to tape at their respective framerates and then reacapture them all use the Kona LHE to 23.98 ProRes HD? If so, what is the setup required. I am nearly at the end of my rope with this. Any and all help is greatly appreciated

HOLY COW....what a mess! I certainly don't envy you in this task.
You have the wrong capture card for the task. The Kona LHe captures analog, but won't convert 720p to 1080, or 1080 to 720...nor upconvert SD to HD. Only the Kona 3 can do that. But it cannot do any frame rate conversion...no 29.97 to 23.98.
With the Kona 3 I capture at the native rate, then either use Compressor to convert (29.97 to 23.98), or Cinema tools to conform (25 to 23.98). And I capture everything to the SAME codec...DVCPRO HD or ProRes.
Gotta get a Kona 3.
Shane

Setting up XServe out of the box for Video

Our station just purchased an XServe RAID 1TB for storage of a documentary shot on HDCAM. I've connected the HDCAM deck to a Kona 3 breakout box and everything seems to work fine. I have the XServe connected by fiber channel, but not Ethernet.
I open Disk Utility to set up a RAID and it won't let me "Create" it. The RAID Admin Utility doesn't show the XServe either.
I waited a day for the XServe to finish its initial drive indexing (although there wasn't any pop-up or warning saying it was in the process of indexing drives).
I am just a "video" guy...so I'm certain I am missing key information about setting up a RAID. Can anyone talk me through the set up? Does the Ethernet cable make a difference?
The end use will be just to store video for this project. The XServe will not be networked until we add drives next year.
Thanks in advance for your help!
Kevin

Kevin,
I believe you're talking about Xserve RAID, not Xserve.
The only way you can manage/monitor Xserve RAID is over Ethernet, using the RAID Admin application.
At any rate, when you first plug in Xserve RAID it will do a surface scan of the disks -- this takes about 36 hours. The unit is usable during this time. You plug it in to the fibre channel card in your machine (G5? Must be if you got a PCI-Express Kona 3 card in there), and go to Disk Utility, and you should see a big volume (actually, when you boot you should get a "you have inserted a volume that OS X cannot read... format it?" dialog). From there you can initialize it... it will be ~700 GB in size (a 1 TB XSR comes set up as RAID 5 from Apple which loses 250 GB of space to parity, and thus it's about 700 GB). No need to do RAID in Disk Utility... the RAID is done in hardware inside the Xserve RAID itself.
So format it, and then just treat it like a very big firewire hard drive. The RAID with 4 drives cannot handle uncompressed SD, but you should be able to capture HDV or DVDPRO HD or uncompressed SD to it. If you want to capture uncompressed HD you need 14 drives in the RAID for the bandwidth.

Kona DVCPro HD to HDCAM Cross-Convert Question for Shane Ross

Hi Shane (Or anyone else whose done this)... Shane posted the comment below at Creative Cow Oct'06:
Quoting Shane: "...because with FCP I can capture DVCPRO HD 720p 23.98 and edit at full resolution. When I lock picture I can, with the use of a Kona 3, cross convert to 1080p 23.98 via the hardware and output to HDCAM."
GREAT! I want to mimic this workflow!!! I have a completed project that was edited as above in FCP (based on your creative cow video tutorial). I shot with the HVX200.
1. Are you happy with the cross-converted 960X720 DVCPro HD footage to 1080p 23.98 quality? I'm assuming this is 1920X1080...
1b. Why not 1280X720? The original .mxf. Seems like that would provide better resolution . What am i missing?
2. Any Artifacting/aliasing? How did titles and transitions hold up? Did the reds bleed?
3. Are there any new advances that you've come across that i should look into as well?
4. And, can you be more specific about how you did question # 1. What codec; Does it come with the card or is it in FCP? What VTR do you suggest?
5. Can i do the above with a BlackMagic card? Which one?
6. What am i forgetting to ask?
Big fan, your posts have saved me hours of headaches over the last 5 months. Cheers...
Hayden
Mac Pro 2.66, 2GB ram, 250GB system, 1TB internal raid, ATI x1900xt and NVidia 7300GT Mac OS X (10.4.8)
Mac Pro 2.66, 2GB ram, 250GB system, 1TB internal raid, ATI x1900xt and NVidia 7300GT Mac OS X (10.4.8)

1. Are you happy with the cross-converted 960X720 DVCPro HD footage to 1080p 23.98 quality? I'm assuming this is 1920X1080...
Absolutely. It looks great. But, this is HDCAM, so it is anamorphic HD...1440x1080. Since DVCPRO HD is anamorphic as well...it all works out.
1b. Why not 1280X720? The original .mxf. Seems like that would provide better resolution . What am i missing?
The network delivery specs require a 1080p 23.98 master on HDCAM or D5. They chose that because you can convert that into anything.
2. Any Artifacting/aliasing? How did titles and transitions hold up? Did the reds bleed?
No artifacting or aliasing whatsoever. Titles and transitions all held up. No bleeding in the reds.
3. Are there any new advances that you've come across that i should look into as well?
ProRES...that will come with FCP 6. I'll be playing with that codec when I get my hands on it.
4. And, can you be more specific about how you did question # 1. What codec; Does it come with the card or is it in FCP? What VTR do you suggest?
It was really VERY simple. The Kona 3 has an option in the Kona control panel to cross convert 720p to 1080p. We chose that. Then we blacked the first 3 min of the tape, then used EDIT TO TAPE to output. The card did everything. Not sure about the model of the VTR...it was the Sony HDCAM deck (not HDCAM SR).
5. Can i do the above with a BlackMagic card? Which one?
I don't know if any of the Blackmagic cards can cross convert. You'll have to ask them.
6. What am i forgetting to ask?
Where you can send the check for all the workflow advice I am giving to you (and everyone)
Also, how did we deal with our downconverted masters we were also required to deliver. While the network wants an HD master, they don't air HD. They air in SD from a digitbeta master. We had to do a separate output to digibeta with all the graphics properly sized for letterbox output.
Shane

HDCAM capture with KONA LH. Recomended storage.

Hi all
I am about to undertake capturing and editing footage from a HDCAM source. I am used to working with Uncompressed SD footage normally from DIGIBeta, capturing using a AJA kona LH card with KONA KLbox connecting decks, etc. The computer is a 4 x 2.5 GHz PowerPC G5.
I can hire in relevant HDcam deck. Was planning to capture via SDI, using the AJA KONA 1080i 25 10bit (1080 50i is what the footage is recorded in). I believe they want to deliver it the same way, so hope to not do any down conversion for editing.
My main concern is storage. Normally when we work in 625 25 10bit setting we just capture onto externall drives conected via Firewire800. I believe however this would not be a fast enough connection when working with 1080i. If so can anyone recomend a decent solution which is on the cost effective side?
I am also wondering about the AJA Kona 1080i 25 ProRess (HQ) setting. Is this meant to be a loss-less compression, reducing file size whilst still maintaining HD resolution? Will this work with the current Firewire800 storage connection, as the file sizes, data rate, will be reduced? Bear in mind the program is for broadcast.
Any suggestion will be very much appreciated.
Neil

For UNCOMPRESSED you will need SERIOUS fast storage. Talking at LEAST eSATA, but really something like MiniSAS or Fibre. CalDigit VR or GRaid 3 via eSATA will work. up to 2TB. Or you can look into the HD One from them, or the EVO HD from MaxxDigital. Firewire won't cut it anymore for Uncompressed.
HOWEVER...prores is pretty lossless...compresses well. And you can capture that to firewire 800, or internal SATA drives. Caldigit VR will work, as will G-RAID 3. But it might be a good time to get good solid RAID 5 storage...so a tower like the maxxDigital or Caldigit ones.
Shane

Issue printing ProRes to HDCam SR

Hello all,
I'm seeing an issue turning up when I print footage out to a 5500 HDCam Sr deck. We're running tiger (10.4.11) FCP studio 2, and using Kona 3's.
The Issue seems to be a grain 'sharpening'. It seems to hit the grain structure and not as much the picture overall as much. Although there seems to be a very slight luminance shift as well. It looks fine on our panasonic BH monitors, but when capturing back from tapes that were printed out, it's there and easy to see when A/B-ing the footage.
At this point, I'm not sure if it's the render settings in fcp (10 bit YUV, RGB, superwhite vs white etc) Kona control panel (v 5x and 6x) settings, or on the deck itself.
The effect does not show up when capturing dailies, so I'm pretty sure it's on the printing out and not on the capture.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have tried playing with various settings in all three, but have stumped myself.

Hey Shane,
Thanks for the quick reply! ^^
I considered the generational loss thing too, but the interesting things are that we don't have this with our HDCam deck (HDW f500) and the fact that we had it on a print out to tape (on the 5500) with some wipe transitions on a 1st gen print out. (which is where we first discovered it- the interesting thing is that we found it again on a recapture)
Those settings(YUV hi precision 10 bit) are what I was running before we found it, and then I changed it in testing to the RGB setting and it seemed to lessen it. Another interesting point is that it showed up on another 1st gen printout (dailies captured, cut and output) where we had FCP generated titles.
Hope that makes sense and helps narrow things down,
thanks a bunch!

DVCPRO HD to Sony HD deck

hey guys,
we shoot everything on HVX200, edit in DVCPRO HD 720p 23.98, and have to deliver on HDCAM.
So far we have been doing an edit-to tape on Panasonic AJ-HD1700 deck via Kona3 card- then sending to dub house to transfer to HDCAM.
But we now have access to a Sony HD-1800 deck, so can we edit-to-tape w/ these assets/project settings? Will the deck even recognize the footage,timecode, etc. b/c of it being DVCPRO footage in aDVCPRO timeline?
Is there an advantage to having the kona 3, that allows us to communicate such footage to an HDCAM deck??
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated--thanks in advance
Zack

Noooo...ignore what he said. Sorry budakhan. I have output DVCPRO HD to HDCAM several times, every time taking my 720p 23.98 timeline and cross converting it to 1080psf 23.98 that the HDCAM accepts.
Have FCP set up as you always do. Timeline DVCPRO HD, External Video set to AJA Kona 3: 720p59.94 8-bit. The trick is in the AJA Control Panel. There is where you convert the signal for the HDCAM deck. In the big center area called the FRAME BUFFER, you right click or CONTROL click on that and choose the format you need to output...in my case 1080sf23.98. Now the card is cross converting the footage to 1080psf 23.98, and the deck will recognize and record that signal. If you set it up properly and black the tape properly.
How do you set up the deck and do all that? I haven't a clue. I have someone manage that for me. HDCAM decks take engineers, or people who really know them well, to record onto properly. I tried once, but fumbled for a day and figured that paying someone to manage the output was cheaper than renting the deck for a day and not knowing how to use it. Because one tricky thing is that because you are cross converting the footage, there might be frame slippage...generally it is one one frame, and it generally means picture starts one frame LATER than expected, but that isn't always the case. My guy has a trick to figuring out if we are spot on right away...so that we don't output the full hour or two hours only to find that we are off.
If you know the deck...have at it.
Shane

Working with HDCAM tapes

Good Afternoon!
My experience is limited to SD capturing and editing.
Now, however, I have been given some HDCAM tapes to capture and I am unsure how to proceed. I will be renting a HDCAM deck. Do I need a Kona card? (I have one, but have never used it.) What capture setting do I use? Do I edit offline?
I know these are elementary questions, so I respectfully appreciate any guidance.

I need an HD capture even if I am editing offline?
You need an HD capture card if you intend to capture HD. They are the only thing that can interpret the HD signal...even if you capture as DV...you still need an HD capture card.
I was under the impresssion that one does not actually edit with uncompressed HD footage, instead you work offline with compressed codecs, and then somehow batch capture only the HDCAM footage that was used in the timeline.
It is typical to offline...yes. DVCPRO HD is a decent offline codec. HOWEVER, some people edit at full quality if they only have a small amount of footage to work with. Or, you can now opt to capture as ProRes and work in that resolution. Full HD quality, but a fraction of the HD filesize. This would be a good option to go with, because FCP isn't the best at the offline/online workflow. It works for some, not for others...and has a variety of hiccups. If you have time to deal with those hiccups, then offline/online is a definate possibility. One that I'd look into if I had a LOT of footage...and I tend to have a LOT of footage.
Not sure on the delivery format, but I do know that it is playing in a theater.
You need to know this BEFORE YOU CAPTURE. This determines the entire workflow. Find this out before you do anything.
And you will need an HD monitor if you intend on doing the online/color correct yourself. If you don't, then no worries...you can do without it. The place you finish it will no doubt have one.
Shane

Editing HDCAM with final cut pro 6?

Hi all,
We have been offered some post work on a music video shot in HDCAM, we use Final cut pro 6 and have a HDCAM capture deck (Sony J-H3 (JH3) HDCAM Compact Player), I am in the process of researching this work flow.
Would any one be able to shed some light on editing HDCAM in final cut Pro 6, the settings, things to look out for, and the overall work flow,
i very much appreciate your help
The mac to be used is a Mac Pro, mac os x 10.5.6 with final cut pro 6, duel core intel 2.66 Ghz, 8 GB memory, 2 NVIDIA GeFource 8800GT, with a 3 TB of internal HD Space

we don't take in HDcam, but we do use it for output archive and transmition.
the workflow we use is, Shoot in AVCintra 50 onto P2 cards transfer into FCP 6
edit in Apple Pro Res 1080i50 and output to HDcam via an AJA Kona card sending out as HD-SDI
ian

Am I HDCAM project capable?

I have raid drives internal - 1 terabyte. I plan to buy a capture card if I get the job. I have someone wanting me to edit thier feature but this is my first time approaching an HD project. They're shooting with the panavision HD F900.
Can my systems edit the project? As far as the the offline flow goes (I'm guessing):
I buy the AJA or decklink card.
Rent a HDCAM deck.
Get more drive space if needed.
Capture it, edit it, EDL it, and online it elsewhere.
Or is their a better way offline, (without renting the HDCAM deck)?
What can I do - to do it online?
They don't know the final project format but they're guessing 35mm film.
thanks.

When I down convert footage, My project file is able to recapture at the highest quality online, right? Yes. Make sure you enter the reel names for each tape, this is important for reconnecting later.
When I get 5 disk raided, I'm able to capture HD Uncompressed with the Kona LHe card?
If you haven't purchased the raid I would recommend Max Upgrades to help you. They have solutions for both Internal and External raid setups that really deliver high performance.
http://www.maxupgrades.com/istore/index.cfm?fuseaction=category.display&category _id=313&CFID=3649947&CFTOKEN=58951206
I have 4 internal drives and a Rocket Raid card they helped me with and it works great with my Kona LHe card. Don't forget to reward who's above here for helping you with the down converting info with Solved or Helpful options. I think you are ready for HDCAM from reading here. Go for it and good luck.
Z1&V1user

FCP to HDCAM Question!

Hello,
I'm cutting a 4 min short film in FCP 6.0.5. We've recently been accepted to a fest that wants HDCAM. We shot on the XDCamEX1 1080p24 (35mb/s) and set our sequence settings to match this.
I have two questions:
1. I'm doing the mix myself in FCP, with some sweetening in SoundtrackPro. It is a fairly simple mix, but how should I monitor the overall sound? The loudest point in the film hits about -6db on FCP's audio meters. Is that correct? Also, we're projecting in a large theater, so I've been mixing with high quality headphones in order to hear any hiccups within our production audio. It sounds decent. Do you think we will be okay or theater speakers projecting a stereo mix pick up more discrepancies?
2. I'm color correcting the film myself. Considering our master will be on HDCAM, should I use my 720p LCD TV as an external monitor or my 23" 1920x1080 apple cinema display? Those are the only two options I have. What pitfalls should I look out for?
Thanks for any help you can give.

Well, if it were me and these were my options, I would probably use the cinema display to color correct because at least I'd be able to get a pixel for pixel simulation of the picture since you're editing 1080p.
However, when you output, I'd rent an HD QC monitor in addition to the HDCam deck to double check my work and ensure a good-looking master. You won't be able to control the environment that it's being projected in, so your best bet is to produce a good-looking tape.
Andy
PS: As for the audio, find out if the festival has tech specs on audio levels. Also, it's ok to mix with headphones on, but you'll really need to hear the film on speakers. Preferably a good set, and an old, beat up set. That will give you perspective on how it's likely to sound in the theater.

Hdcam workflow

Hi all,
I'll have a project comes in as hdcam source but the final is sd dvd so I am thinking of this workflow:
1- capture as proRES hd - edit - export to qt as is & compress in sd- author in dvdsp. back up the project in the hard drive with that proRES hd qt, so i don't have to pump back to hdcam deck.
2- same as option 1 but consolidate the project & recapture as full hd & pump to hdcam for back up.
3- capture as full hd. but don't know if my sonic sata enclosures can handle it. I have 1 promax 5bay sata enclosure & 1 sonic 5bay enlosure. thinking raid them together with 1Tgb then i'd have 10Tgb there.
please help.
thanks
JP
ps: with option 1 can i edit proRES HD in new macbook pro or have to be mac pro quad? I have both. thinking of using g5 to capture & edit on laptop too.
Message was edited by: JPNG
Message was edited by: JPNG

As long as you have the proper equipment (HD capture card, high speed drives, HD broadcast monitor) and the skills needed to online, then you should be fine. If not...then you are just shooting yourself in the foot. This isn't a MONEY GROWS ON TREES thing. If you think money grows on trees here in CA, you got another thing comin! Just figure that it'll be cheaper to hire someone with the proper equipment to work on this for a couple days, rather than go out and buy, or rent, the equipment needed to do this...possibly doing something wrong...and ending up hiring someone anyway to fix it.
You won't believe how often I or someone else is hired to come fix something that was done incorrectly.
This isn't to say that you don't have the experience. There is no way of knowing this from the short postings you have made. But unfamiliarity with the online process indicates a lack of knowledge in this area, and we just want to give you fair warning.
Shane

FCP6 – HDCAM deck (J-H3) – Kona 3 : No Comm?

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