Jerky capture with DV converter

I'm using a Canopus 55 to convert VHS-C tapes, which look fine on the TV monitor. I have a Macbook Pro connected to an external drive using Firewire 800 which daisy chains to the Canopus using Firewire 400. The Canopus connects to the video recorder using SCART.
I have DV-PAL DV Converter selected in easy Setup.
The capture is jerky - it runs OK for a few seconds then it'll shimmer or the frame will slip upwards. It's unusable.
Any ideas where I'm going wrong?
Mike

First, check the DIP switch settings on the ADVC-55. For PAL video, SW 1 and 2 should be ON, SW 3-6 should be OFF. NOTEs: Only change the DIP switch settings when the ADVC is disconnected from power. Power is normally supplied by the FireWire cable (unless you bought the optional power supply.) The Mac's Firewire bus is powered even when your Mac is shut down, so you should disconnect your Mac from power before connecting or disconnecting your ADVC from your Mac.
Second, "shimmer" and "frame slips upwards" are usually caused by a signal problem from the tape or deck; or an old or bad tape. Check all your cables & connections. Check your tape. Check the SCART adapter too. If you are using the S-video out, try the Composite out; or vice-versa.
Third, capture 5 or 10 minutes of video. Then open the video in the FCE viewer and play it. If it plays fine there, your video is ok. The video in the Capture Window during capture is not always completely smooth - that's normal.

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Capturing with a converter

I set up my capture so its set for dvNTSC dv converter, and am running a signal through my converter and connecting the output fire wire to final cut express. It's not reading the signal. The converter is accurate and adjusted properly (i know this, because i can capture in windows software on a different computer, but in FCE, i'm not getting any connection.
Any Ideas?

At first I wasn't, but yes, then I switched to it, and it still didn't work. When I try
it with the DV Converter Setup, there is no preview, the capture window says
"No Communication" and if I press Capture, a window says there is no video.
In DV-NTSC, or DV-NTSC Firewire Basic, it says "VTR OK", but no preview
and if I press Capture Now the capture window that opens up is just black,
and below it says "Waiting for Timecode"
Some more info, I don't know if this applies: I first tried this today with my old
Dazzle Hollywood Bridge converter which I used successfully several years ago on
a G-4 in an older FCPro not FCE app. I gave up after trying to download Media Star
software but only PC versions seem to be available....I don't know. So I bought the
Canopus, tried everything I could think of, I keep thinking I am missing some step,
or that something is set wrong in my Mac.

VHS Captured With DV Converter Judders In Compressor/DVDSP, OK In iDVD.

This is more a statement than a question.
Some people will be familiar with my inability to produce judder-free DVDs from HDV or AIC footage burned in iDVD ........ which I have previously described +ad nauseam.+
Well here's something entirely different!
Yesterday I copied an old, very poor quality VHS tape to DV via my DAC 100 converter.
Apart from the lousy colour and pictorial quality, the video played OK in the timeline so I exported it to Compressor and burned in DVDSP.
The DVD exhibited the same kind of judder I get when I try to encode HDV in QT Movie and iDVD.
I wasted another DVD getting the same result, so in desperation I exported my project to QT Movie and burned it in iDVD.
The results - PERFECT - at least as far as image steadiness was concerned!

iDVD 7.0.1 and Compressor 3.0.3
I was hoping this would crack the old problem, but no.
I used a 40 second sequence with the camera panning very slowly across a street of houses with strong contrasty vertical and horizontal lines formed by windows, doors, drainpipes and rooflines etc. in the first half and a person walking across the frame etc. slowly in the second half. The 6' walker was a fair distance away only filling about 45% of the height of the frame.
4 test QT Movies were exported and burned in iDVD on one DVD. These were the straight video and then 3 versions with the Shift Filter in the +1, None and -1 settings.
They all looked the same, with jitter not so much on the vertical lines as the horizontal ones, which was a little surprising. The person walking across the frame definitely exhibited jitter.
All these problems disappear when encoded in Compressor or down-converted to DV by the camera during capture and burned in iDVD.
Still, it was worth a try.
I'm wondering whether it is possible to hack into iDVD and maybe alter field etc. settings in there!
There has to be some simple reason why there is a dramatic difference between Compressor/DVDSP and iDVD and it's nothing to do with quality or power or cost.
Incidentally a friend of mine went on a world tour, using an identical HV20 and rough-editing on her MBP as she went. The resulting rough edits were burned in iDVD and the DVDs sent back to her family. These DVDs apparently were jittery but the family didn't mind!

Quality capturing with FCP & an analog converter?

i am making VHS(PAL) -> DVD transfers using a Canopus ADVC110 analog converter with iBook G4 with Tiger. previously i was using iMovie HD in capturing which worked fine and gave me good quality DV files, but since i needed more editing possibilities i turned to FCP. i was surprised to find out that it looks like i cannot maintain the quality nowhere near where i've used to since FCP (i have FCP 4 only unfortuntely) only produces me small-sized Quicktime Movie files with mediocre quality compared to the huge but good-looking DV files i got with iMovie. the quality of these is simply way too low for me. and i cannot use iMovie HD for capturing and then import the files to FCP because FCP 4 doesn't understand iMovie HD projects. now am i just being stupid and missing something with the FCP settings here? or is updating my FCP a solution?
i don't need to work with DV cameras, just with VHS->converter->iBook combination.
i'd be very grateful for quick tips/solutions.

A few points: [cliff notes version: get a monitor]
1. Without a TV (aka NTSC/PAL Video Monitor) to see your footage sent out via Firewire, you have no way of know what your footage looks like. QT may do a better job of representing DV stream files, but it in no way means they are of higher quality.
2. Capturing in Final Cut Pro IS computationally intensive. Here's why. DV stream, (the stuff iMovie uses) is a direct write out of the muxed (mixed audio & video) as it is written on the tape by your camera. FCP (or more accurately Quicktime) takes that Muxed stream and separates the audio and video into individual streams IN REAL TIME. If the computer can not keep up, dropped frames or corrupted files are the result.
3. This demuxing does not change the QUALITY of the video. The file started as ones and zeros and remains as ones and zeros. There is nothing to convert at this point - it still is a direct digital transfer - just pulling apart the strings.
4. Playing these more complex Quicktime files places greater demands on your system than iMovie's DV stream.
5. The people who wrote FCP recognized that displaying a high data rate file on a limited computing platform may overwhelm that platform. So, in response, they designed FCP to create a low resolution proxy for the display.
6. Why do this? Now listen closely .... because FCP is designed as a Professional application and professionals (or serious dilettantes) will invest in the proper equipment to monitor the audio and video components of their work This is how a SOFTWARE based editing solution can compete with very, very expensive hardware based systems. FCP is quite scalable. It will run on the minimum configurations but really works much better with more horsepower.
Now, the limited ram, video speed, hard drive capacity and frontside bus speed of your computer is being tested by this process and is not holding up well. A second hard drive to be a dedicated media drive will help. More RAM will help. A faster CPU will help. A machine that is configured from the beginning to run these kind of applications will help.
I'm not trying to be mean here, just trying to explain the complexity of the situation. I really do hold the Apple marketing people responsible for over selling the program. It is NOT rocket science, but does demand a much greater understanding of technology than most people I know to able to actually grasp.
good luck,
x
[cliff notes version redoux: get a monitor]

I am attempting to convert 8mm video cassettes to dvd using a video cassette player, elgato video capture with rca/usb connections to the mac, editing in imovie and burning on idvd. The picture quality is awful. What can I do?????

I am attempting to convert 8mm video cassettes to dvd using a video cassette player, elgato video capture with rca/usb connections to the mac then editing in imovie and burning dvd-r using idvd. The picture quality is awful. What can I do??????

At what point is the video quality bad? Is it bad on capture? I would recommend using an s-video 1394 firewire converter instead. They capture the video at a higher bit rate. If you have a lot of 8mm tapes to capture, invest in a stand alone DVD recorder. They capture and compress in one shot. If you need to rip it back from the DVD into iMovie again, I would recommend using DVDxDV.

I can capture with iMovie 6, but not with FCP 6.0 ('no data from device')

I didn't have any problem with FCP 5, but am getting nowhere with FCP 6 using the same settings (I think). FCP seems to see the camcorder, but can't control it and, even if I manually start the camera, reports 'no data from device' when I do a 'Capture Now'. Device control isn't critical, but I'd sure like to find out why it doesn't see the data stream from the camera (Sony HDR-HC7 / FW400). I must be missing a setting some place, but sure can't find it. On the other hand, I have full device control and zero dropout capture with iMovie (exact same hardware configuration). Any ideas?

Wolfgang Matzl wrote:
canopus works fine, as well as all other devices.
i have tons of tapes and tried a few, none worked.
i tried to capture on both my new imac and my mbpro, no way.
but now i'm sure there is something wrong with the sony handycam, i tried to import with my old final cut studio, and it's not possible, also. fc pro says: waiting for timecode.
so i'm confused now. does the sony dcr-trv not send a timecode? maybe, and this will explain the troubles. but on the other hand i imported successfully some footage with exact this device.
maybe i used the canopus then to correct the timebase, i can't remember how i did it. but this would mean i have to accept loss of quality, since i have to connect the sony with s-vhs with the canopus and convert it.
right now i'm importing a tape with imovie and will have a look how the result is, but as far as i remember, the audio has to be re-rendered when importing in fcpx…
My finger is pointing to a Timecode issue.
Is timecode enabled in the camera?
Is it continuous on the tape?
Al

Can I capture with Final Cut Pro and edit in Premiere Pro?

Since it appears that Premiere has issues with capture - at least for me but as I see it for others as well - and that I can capture with iMovie, can I consider using Final Cut Pro for capture - then cross to Adobe Premiere and the suite for editing, finalizing ? Or is there a problem to copy the shots/files from one program to the other (would they remain identified clearly so I could just import shots into Premiere afterward ?)
Thanks
Rob

Hi Rob,
When you capture HDV in FCP it creates a specific Apple HDV codec. This is a codec that is only available if FCP, Motion or Compressor is installed.
The two workarounds would be to use Premiere Pro on the Mac with one of the above mentioned apps installed on the same system or convert to a codec that can be read in Premiere.
Best,
Peter Garaway
Adobe
Premiere pro

Strange Problem capturing with Apple Intermediate Codec

We have the following problem:
We capture with a blackmagic decklink studio card (but I could reproduce the same problem using a MacBook Pro and the internal camera) with a MacPro and CS4. When capturing a live video feed (1280x720) with the apple intermediate codec (set to 29.97fps or to 59.94fps) everything seems to work just fine. But the resulting videoclips happen to be exactly ONE half of the total capture time. So if we capture in Premiere for about 1 our the clip is only 30 minutes long. If we capture for 10 sec., the clip will be 5 sec. long. It's not that the captured clips play with double the framerate. Half of the actual footage is missing.
Any suggestions?
By the way: we live in a PAL50Hz country, but our video signal that needs to be recorded comes in as a 60hz signal.

Hi,
Well I did some googling...and I would bet that the problem is the 50hz vs 60hz...
Unfortunately most if not all info I got that even BRUSHES on this subject with the sort of material you're dealing with is the opposite....where they are in 60cycle land with pal stuff....rather than in pal land dealing with 60hz ...
This is a lot of misc stuff but if you get a little bit of info from various posts and make some notes you might be able to get an idea how to solve the problem...
In particular I was looking at how frames are flagged and new frames are created later ...( toward very end of these posts - the last four or so )
Also noted some timecode reading that was "doubled"....so if your deck thought you had a specific length and then it read the timecode doubled, it would be your problem in a nutshell... have you checked the last frame you captured and compare that timecode to the overall length ??
anyway, here is a TON of stuff to breeze through...good luck...
THIS IS EDIUS RELATED..so keep in mind re: specific presets etc
Steve Sherrick
03-03-2008, 11:14 AM
Hi chaps,
Can I just confirm that the SDI/HDMI outputs are only live in build 14? I'm on 13 and going SDI - HDLINK - DELL24" gives me nothing. I'm in PAL land so have tried switching between 50hz and 59hz in camera.
So do I need build 14 or is it something else?
Cheers
Jeff Brown
#708
I'm in NTSC land but that same setup gives me picture just fine. Which Dell model is it? Is everything set up right from the camera side?
Jeff Brown
03-04-2008, 12:42 PM
Hi Steve,
I believe so. Set to Preview in th viewfinder settings, plugged in on preview mini sdi, cam set to 50hz..
Anything I'm missing?
Cheers
To counter this, the AJ-HD1400 offers two modes specifically for this called '25(SD)' and '25(HD)'. They output the 25fps signal with new timecode on a 50Hz carrier (only over SDI/Analogue the Firewire doesn't work in that mode).
It only works with 25fps material too, any other 'offspeed' rate has to be dealt with separately with the deck operating in 59/60 mode.
When operating in either of these 25 modes, the deck generates new 25fps timecode from the tape (although our tests have indicated that it is frame accurate of multiple playback passes).
Basically, Varicam, while a very nice idea, has only ever been properly designed to work in a 60Hz environment. It is pretty much a nightmare in 50Hz environments.
I think I may have found the cause of the problem.
For some reason when I started my project it had a Device Control profile set to 720p50 (rather than the 1080i50 that the deck is operating in).
What this seems to have done is double the frame number on any clip it encountered. So if I took a clip with in marked at 01:02:40:22 and dropped it in the Log and Capture tool the In Point that FCP decided to look for was 01:02:40:44 (which isn't going to exist on a 25fps timecode obviously).
Since you are using Pal
Go :
Generic OHCI HD 50hz -> 960x720 25p over 60p
Because if I am right you can't do Pal over 60hz but you can do PAL over 60P at 50hz.
( but I could be wrong)
But the other problem is that you are using an ntsc profile to capture pal recorded footage.
50 hz 960x720 over 60P yields a frame rate of 25 progressive
60 hz 960x720 59.94p yields a frame rate of 59.94 progressive which is far from your original footage . Mostly used for countries using natively ntsc
Neither myself, nor Ricksta (I don't think) are using NTSC-rate profiles.
The Preset setting I've been testing with is:
Generic OHCI HD 50Hz 960x720 25p over 60p
Indeed, I've just tried what Rick mentioned, and with the deck in 59.94Hz operating frequency, I can capture with all three 720p 59/60 input settings. This is technically wrong however, as the tape has been recorded at 60Hz. But like I said before, until Rick hears from the big geeks at Panasonic about this, I don't know what the real outcome of that difference in frequency is.
I've also tried a 50p over 60p project setting (as 720p50 is what I will be editing with in Avid) - but, predictably, this works but gives me double-speed footage. Which, while amusing, isn't a lot of help for me
A large part of the problem I'm facing here is to do with the Varicam format. It will record any framerate from 1-60fps. It has to operate and a system-frequency of 59.94Hz or 60Hz. That is what Rick and I are referring to. The limitation I face is that the Varicam format is not widely supported for PAL-based rates (25/50) as it requires communication with a deck operating in an NTSC-based system frequency (either 60Hz or 59.94Hz). This difference (between project/timeline framerates, and deck operating frequencies) is enough to ensure that IEEE1394/Firewire/OHCI capture is not possible in these modes in Final Cut Pro, Avid (any version) or any other NLE I have found.
We realise that the framerate and frequency we're working in has to be 50-based, and we're not making any mistakes in that respect.
So far Edius is the only NLE on the market, that I have been able to find, that supports Firewire capture from 60Hz DVCPro HD material in a 50Hz based framerate.
When you have captured the file in that project select a clip in the bin press alt+enter go to video info and tell me what the framerate is .
In a 50p over 60p project, when I capture footage shot 25p over 60 with the 'Constant Rate' capture profile I get a clip in the bin that is 50fps, but that plays at doubletime - which is what I'd expect.
I can change the framerate in the properties to 50fps, and it plays at the correct rate, but I'm not happy with the way to refactors the timing in that mode. It seems to create interpolated frames to fill the gaps, which provide an unusual appearance that I don't really like.
At present if I capture into 25p over 60p project, then import the resulting 25p footage into Avid, Avid doubles up the frames to produce 50fps material.
Some clarification here. The Varicam does indeed record at a constant 60fps. If the frame rate is set to 25fps for example it simply flags the active frames. This flag is carried in the vertical interval data. The reason for this system, is as suggested, it is very difficult to vary the speed of tape in a helical scan recording system. With the advent of solid state recording that Panasonic introduced in the AG-HVX200 it is now possible of course to only record the active (native) frames and this would be called 25pn for example.
Originally with the Varicam you used to use a device called a Frame Rate Converter. This box contained a hard drive with HD-SDI I/O. It would recognize the active "flagged" frames in the incoming signal and buffer them through the hard drive and then play them out at the correct frame rate.
More recently NLE's such as Avid, FCP and Edius have incorporated this flagged frame recognition and perform the extraction automatically. Thus when I tested a 25fps Varicam ingest on a 25 Frame timeline I am getting realtime playback. If I had recorded at 50fps and I placed that on a 25 frame timeline I would have very smooth half speed. Also the newer DVCPRO HD decks such as the AJ-HD1700 and AJ-HD1400 have the ability to decode "on-speed" frame rates such as 30fps, 25fps and 24fps.
The issue that Dylan is facing is that the NLE's will not accept a firewire input at 60Hz, they only accept it at 59.94, this is a .001 frequency difference and should be negligible. The other alternative is to ingest via HD-SDI via a Black Magic or AJA Kona card etc. These boards also support the variable frame rate function.
I hope that this helps clear things up a little.
Rick Haywood
Manager Broadcast & Display Systems
Panasonic New Zealand Ltd.
Further to what Rick is saying... The issues with most NLEs for PAL users is the disparity between the 59.94/60Hz operating frequency of the deck and the 50Hz based framerates the applications are working with in PAL framerates.
As for the constant 60fps - it is indeed recording 60 images per second to a tape, but as I said before, only a certain number are unique - only the flagged frames. In 25fps, the camera samples the sensor 25 times a second and records that frame to tape. Essentially you get frame 1 recorded for 2 frames, frame 2 recorded for the next three frames, frame 3 recorded for 2 frames, etc... The first frame with each unique image is 'flagged'. To rebuild the recorded framerate, only the flagged images are captured.
The big bonus of Edius for me here is that it can capture the PAL framerates from the 59.94Hz deck over Firewire directly. Something that Avid and FCP are unable to do.

Capture with QT import to Final Cut ?

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Thanks

I tested it and Device Native with a DV feed gives an MOV with a DV/DVCPRO - NTSC, 28 megabit track. It also stores a sound track which is PCM 16 bit 48KHz track. That's with a Hollywood Bridge converter.
With an HDV camera doing HDV/DV, the track is the same type, but how the picture looks depends on the camera setting. It can either be letterboxed or anamorphic. Curiously the bit rate is different for the two, with letterbox being the usual 28 megabits, but the anamorphic is 21 megabits.
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I'll ask the authorities about this...
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Excise Invoice is captured with another Po -During MIGO- Only refer Excise

Hi,
I have did a PO with two line item say Material M1 and M2..
step1- We did J1IEX with capture excise invoice option for material M1 and M2.
step 2- We did GR for material M1 only where i have selected my excise tab as Only refer Excise
step 3- Now we are trying to do GR for 2nd line item material M2, where we getting error msge as
*Excise Invoice is captured with another Purchase Order
Message no. 4F278*
I have searched in forum and found related info in the belw links
CIN related error at the time of GRN
GR for Import PO,
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Please let me know if any note available or any other methods to solve my issue (we don't want to put the excise invoice with suffix of * or /1).
regards
Jay
Edited by: Jayakumar Raju A.S on Sep 6, 2010 11:28 AM

Hi,
System takes only single excise invoice in system.
here i suggest wat u can do ( very tricky)
for first goods receipt excise invoice is 123
then u cant give same for other GR it will give an error at this time u can provide excise invoice as (123.).
Means one dot at beginnig or at the end.
Note : Hence forth for same excise invoice u should have only one GR.

Excise Invoice is captured with another Purchase Order

Hi
We have a scenrio, transfer the material from debond plant to mfg plant after imported material in kept in Bonding area. STO po is raised to from imported plant to mfg plant with Imported duties as delivery costs.
Bill of entry is provided for all the materials as one. While capturing the excise amount at line item level is difficult so, captured at first line item level as total because material is Same (Material is Split valuated materials with 3 batches). First GR is done properly but next GR for 2nd and 3 rd line items are refered with earlier Bill of entry, system promprts the error message "Excise Invoice is captured with another Purchase Order".
Please do the needful.
Regards
Mohan

Hi,
Please be informed that for one a GR document wrt PO only one excise invoice can exist.
Ex PO-4500000010
GR no 5000000010
only one excise can exist and if the same excise invoice is reffered to another GR with the same PO system will throw an error message. Please let me know the exact business requirement in detail.
Naveen

Log and capture with Sony A1U camera, Sony HD700 HDV deck

Hello,
I am still having problems capturing HDV from a Sony GV HD700.
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thanks

[Read this|http://documentation.apple.com/en/finalcutpro/professionalformatsandworkfl ows/#chapter=2%26section=0] to make sure that you are doing everything right.

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From that faq:
http://helpx.adobe.com/creative-suite/kb/camera-raw-plug-supported-cameras.html
I see that you need the DNG converter 8.4 to convert Sony Alpha 6000 raw files.
Download that version of the DNG converter to replace your version 8.1.
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Adobe - Adobe Camera Raw and DNG Converter : For Windows for Windows

Issues Capturing with Final Cut Express

Hi
I am currently having issues capturing with Final Cut Express. I am using a Firewire 800 gold speed cable 9pin/4pin with my Sony LSF-S58 camera. I use mini DV tapes and usually capture on other computers with no problems. However this time I am using Final Cut Express version 4.0.1 along with a Thunderbolt to Firewire adapter so it'll connect with my MAC Book Pro (Operating system OS X 10.6.8). The issue is when I open Final Cut's capture option there is a message at the bottom that says "No Communicatin" I have tried various settings within easy set-up and nothing seems to work as well as browsing this help board along with others looking for the answer. Any help anyone can provide would be great. Thanks.

When I Google LSF-S58, I get a Sony Lens Hood, not a camera. Are you recording in HD or SD?
Have you used the Thunderbolt to Firewire convertor successfully on your computer with other devices?
Have you used the Thunderbolt port successfully with other Thunderbolt devices?
I don't know if this is applicable to your computer, but there is a Thunderbolt software update for 10.6.8 here:
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1452?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
MtD

Jerky capture with DV converter

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