[ This article was first published in Larry's Final Cut Pro HD Newsletter,
Dec. 2004. Updated 2/211/05 with new info on capturing 24P.]
[Larry writes:] I was involved in a discussion recently about the
best way to capture from a DVX100 camera. Noah Kadner, one of the forum
administrators
on 2-pop generously shared his experience with capturing from this
camera.
(By the way, you can check out his indie movie website, which features
this camera, here: http://www.formosamovie.com).
Noah writes:
Just got a note from one of our users at 2-pop saying he had spoken
to you regarding capturing 24p Advanced DVX100 footage in FCP and
you had advised him to capture at 23.98 FPS. That's not the right
way to do it.
I'll give you a quick background on me. I wrote the very first review
of the DVX100 and it's use with FCP back in November 2002 and have
been advising people on 2-pop on its use for the past two years.
I've also worked directly with Jan Crittenden, the DVX100 and SDX900
national product manager for Panasonic during the past two NABs.
So hopefully you'll dig my credentials in regard to FCP and the DVX100.
:)
DVX100 24pA footage should always be captured at 29.97 because that's
what's on the tape. When a user wants to cut at 23.98 they need to
properly remove the 2:3:3:2 pulldown introduced by the DVX100 during
filming. The DVX100 flags these extra frames and embeds these flags
into the Firewire data stream. FCP can read these flags back during
ingest and conform the 29.97 pulldown footage back to the 23.98 captured
by the camera. That is what the Remove Advance Pulldown from 2:3:3:2
sources checkbox in the capture settings is for. But in order to
do this properly, the FPS setting in FCP must be set at 29.97 to
give FCP the full firewire data stream and allow it to properly recognize
the flags and remove the Advance pulldown frames.
If you set the capture FPS at 23.98, FCP will randomly delete frames
to get from 29.97 to 23.98 but they will not be the correct frames.
You'll wind up with a 23.98 file that looks odd during playback from
FCP because the 2:3:3:2 interlaced pulldown frames are still there
along with randomly missing progressive frames. This has become the
number one issue plaguing FCP users with DVX100 footage who want
to cut at 23.98 and has resulted in a lot of confusion. I've hoped
to lobby Apple on this issue so that they might include a warning
pop-up in FCP giving notice that 23.98 FPS capture will result in
improperly digitized DVX100 footage but haven't made any headway
and Panasonic hasn't been able to either- maybe you can help with
that.
I know it seems counterintuitive that one would use 29.97 as the
capture frame rate in order to ingest 23.98 footage but that's how
it must be done because of the way the format is recorded to tape.
And FYI- there are very few tape formats that run at 23.98 natively
so it would be not be a proper FPS setting for most "24p" formats.
The only ones I know of that actually can record to tape at 23.98
without introducing a pulldown are D5 and Sony HDCAM and HDCAM-SR.
If you'd like, I can put you in touch with Jan Crittenden from Panasonic
and she can give you more information on how the process works so
that you can help spread the word on the proper settings to FCP/DVX100
users you consult with. Let me know.
Larry replies: I stand corrected and very much appreciate
your letting me know the right way to capture DVX100 footage.
Update
One of my readers asked how to capture straight 24P, rather than 24P
Advanced. Noah responded:
For 24p standard you still capture at 29.97. Then if you
wish to conform the captured footage to true 24p you do this in CinemaTools,
according
to the manual. That's why 24pA was designed because it can be conformed
automatically by FCP. 24p standard requires more work.
This tip is from "Larry's Final Cut Pro HD Newsletter," a
very cool FREE monthly Final Cut newsletter -- subscribe at Larry's
web site: www.larryjordan.biz.
Larry Jordan is a post-production consultant and an
Apple-Certified Trainer in Digital Media with over 25 years experience
as producer,
director and editor with network, local and corporate credits. Based
in Los Angeles, he's a member of both the Directors Guild of America
and the Producers Guild of America.
Any references to trademarks or products are used
for editorial purposes only. Text copyright 2005 by Larry Jordan.
All
rights reserved.
Larry Jordan is a post-production consultant and an Apple-Certified Trainer in Digital Media with over 25 years experience as producer, director and editor with network, local and corporate credits. Based in Los Angeles, he's a member of both the Directors Guild of America and the Producers Guild of America.
The information in this article is believed to be accurate at the time of publication. However, the author assumes no liability in case things go wrong. Please use your best judgment in applying these suggestions.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. This newsletter has not been reviewed or sanctioned by Apple or any other third party. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners and are mentioned here for editorial purposes only.
Links to my website home page or this article are welcome and don't require prior permission.
