Capture HDV into Final Cut Pro X

In this micro Final Cut tutorial, Larry Jordan -- http://www.larryjordan.biz/app_bin/Store/catalog -- answers the question, "How do you capture HDV footage into Final Cut Pro X?"

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Category:

Education

Tags:

• Event Manager X
• philip hodgetts
• Larry Jordan
• editing
• final cut pro training
• film editing
• digital editing
• final cut training

[james078159]

Hi Larry, what settings would you suggest for importing HDV and DSLR to combine in the timeline? Should I convert both to ProRes 422 (which requires MPEG streamclip for the HDV conversion) and use a prores timeline or just optimize the DSLR footage and and import the HDV raw using a prores timeline?

[LarryJordanFCP]

@james078159 You should be able to optimize BOTH media - the DSLR during import and the HDV after it is imported and stored in the Event Browser. Standardizing on ProRes is a good idea.

Larry

[kramsneggij]

Larry, in your FCP X tutorial you say to select "create optimised media" which I did. (assuming it would transcode to 1440x1080 ProRes422). Could it be this? I'm shooting 50i PAL by the way.

[LarryJordanFCP]

@kramsneggij I'm not sure what problem we are solving here. Creating optimized media always means converting to ProRes 422. It will match the image size, frame rate, and scanning (interlaced / progressive) of your source media.

[cleigh0719]

Thanks you for your informative videos.

I tried to capture HDV (shot on a Sony Z1) from a Sony HVR-M10U deck, using FW, and FCPX brought it in as standard definition DV. Any idea why? I'd like it to be HD.

[LarryJordanFCP]

@cleigh0719 I posed your question in Twitter. First answer that came back was: "Deck set to down convert on output?"

[kramsneggij]

Ok, after further research it seems this got broken in 10.0.3 update.

[kramsneggij]

Sorry, forget that - "Create Optimised Media" is greyed out - you can't deselect it. Seems there is no way to import HDV into FCP X. What a body blow that is. Spent the last month learning to use it. Back to 7 or over to Premiere then.....

[kramsneggij]

I have exactly the same problem - Z1 HDV footage comes in as DV. Because the monitor window is so crappy and I didn't have "frame size" column turned on in the media window I did 2 complete edits before I noticed (on making DVD I realised just how rubbish it looked). Created project using "use first clip format" so didn't even think to check. Now I have 3 days of re-editing to do. Assuming I can even find out why this is happening... And do - the camera isn't set to down convert..

[LarryJordanFCP]

@cleigh0719 Sorry, no idea. Any Sony people out there?