capturing with XL2

[David Grantham]

Im' having trouble batch capturing from my XL2 via firewire. It's hit and miss. Most of the time miss lately. Prestriped Tape.

 

Doing copious troubleshooting with software (Premiere Pro) and computer, but I'm beginning to wonder if it's the camera or it's port.

 

There's slightly more play in the firewire connection than I'd like to feel, but not a lot more than my identical laptop port, which works fine. I"ve taken lately to using a cable holder (hair elastic) tohold fix the cable in place over that wimpy little connector.

 

I've tried a new cable - same problems.

 

The camera is in good condition, not used a lot, and I haven't used that connection much.

 

Any experience of troubles with the connection?

[Josh Bass]

What problems exactly are you having? Capture starts, then stops before it's supposed to, or what? Have you investigated broken timecode issues? Breaks in timecode make computer ANGRY!

 

P.S. There is no need to prestripe tape. Recording on the tape in the first place lays down timecode, and the only time you should have to worry about breaks is if you're reviewing the tape after shooting, and don't leave it parked on a spot where timecode exists. Even turning the camera off, then back on, the tape should continue recording from the last TC laid down.

[David Grantham]

Sometimes the problem will occur on the first clip of a batch capture. Sometimes on the third or fourth. I can seldom capture more than that. Sometimes I can automatically capture one clip, sometimes not even that.

 

The tape will always run back to a cue point well before "In" and begin rolling. Then no capture happens, the interface crashes, and the camera keeps playing. Sometimes it doesn't crash and I get an error message on the batch capture log, but it simply says that it failed to capture.

 

Manual capture (hitting record on the capture interface while the camera is playing) always works, but it starts every clip at 00:00:00, so without the original code on the captured clip it makes finding the same location for more material later, and matching consecutive clips, difficult.

 

I've been investigating many computer software and hardware resolutions without success.

 

Even if I am batch capturing several parts of the same long take over a period when the camera did not stop, this is still what happens, so it doesn't seem to be related to time code issues related to stop/start while recording.

Edited November 26, 2008 by David Grantham

[Josh Bass]

I was just throwing ideas out there. Just for fun, could you try, on a new tape, just record five or ten minutes of whatever, and try to capture it. Maybe even make several clips out of it. DON'T PRESTRIPE, is what I'm getting at, and then try capture. If you still have issues, that'll at least be one variable taken out of the mix. It sounds from your description like the software isn't reading your TC correctly, or the software itself is goofy.

 

By the way, what NLE/software are you using for capture?

[David Grantham]

I'm using Premiere Pro 1.5.1 with a matrox rtx.10 card, capturing in Adobe mode. Matrox mode (reputedly more reliable in this configuration) won't display 16x9 at the proper aspect ratio while previewing. I've recently done a clean install of windows and only this software, no luck.

 

Just did another fresh install with only the first version of SP2 and am now trying that.

 

I"ve rented a brand new Canon HV30 to see if that works, in which case it might point to the port on the XL2.

Edited November 26, 2008 by David Grantham

[Josh Bass]

I assume this is on a PC?

 

If so, just for fun, my try downloading the trial of Sony Vegas and see if you can capture using that. I'm not even sure the trial will let you capture, or if it does, puts a watermark on the footage, or something, but just as a troubleshooting tool it might be useful.

[David Grantham]

Maybe so. Thanks for the idea.

 

I know those that swear by that programme. I've just taken everything else off the machines in an effort to purify it for running PPro/Matrox on the advice of matrox and others, so that would be a last ditch effort.

[David Grantham]

Thanks for the comments.

 

The problem was a Premiere Pro setting for matrox Device COntrol. They are buried in several different places and all don't appear in each place. It turns out that Project>settings>Capture>DeviceControlSettings isn't the complete list of settings one would have every reason to think it is. There's also Edit>Preferences>Device Control>Devices>Matrox1394DeviceControl>Options> where Drop-Frame or Non-Drop frame is set separately for the Matrox Device Control as opposed to setting that for the entire project. Changed that setting and that appears to have fixed Batch Capture. My footage is drop-frame but this was set to non. That explains why there was actualy more of a problem capturing footage from long sequences with continuous time code (that's where Drop-Frame codes drops them out.)

 

Incidentally, the canon HV30 I rented to test my tapes with couldn't be recognized by Premiere Pro - at least not on the early SP2 install I'm now working with.

 

And yes, it's a PC.

Edited November 27, 2008 by David Grantham

[Josh Bass]

Glad it wasn't anything that would have cost you money to fix.