Recapture HDV without pre-roll on every clip

Why are you batch capturing?

It's simpler, quicker and kinder to your camera to use Capture Now and rapidly delete superfluous clips from your computer where you have instantaneous random access to everything.

One of the original reasons for batch capture was to conserve space on the tiny hard drives of a decade ago but that no longer applies.

FWIW I use a virtually identical camera (HV20) sometimes and my operating procedure is:-

1. Shoot video.

2. Rewind tape.

3. Capture everything using Capture Now.

Result is quickest and easiest way of importing the video coupled with minimal wear and tear on camera's transport mechanism and tape.

It's much faster and simpler assessing clips on the computer rather than in the camera.

First, if the OP uses capture now, he'll have to reedit all the clips into his sequence. Shouldn't be a big deal matching the timecode, BUT timecode will not match if there's a timecode break and he uses capture now without "create new clip on timecode break" enabled. There can also be problems using capture now. For frame accuracy and audio synch, you must have "create new clip on timecode break" and "abort capture on dropped frames" enabled. If there's a timecode jump, fcp will use preroll and create a new clip. If there's a break in control track (a space where there's no signal on the tape), without abort capture on dropped frames, audio synch issues will result.

And I'm not sure fcp can capture HDV material over timecode breaks cause of the nature of mpeg compression. Not sure, cause I don't work a great deal with HDV material.

I think the OP is overly worried about camera wear but in most cases you can reduce the preroll amount to 3 seconds without much problem which will save you some wear on the camera.

I was assuming he could use Capture Now for new clips, not ones he has already captured in an existing sequence.

FWIW I have never had any timecode breaks or dropped frames capturing from my Canon HV20 onto USB 2.0 hard drives. (Or FW 400/800 ones either).

The camera wear is caused more by stopping and starting and rewinding (whilst deciding where to cut and later during the capture) rather than simply playing, and my first Canon failed that way, so I completely understand his concern.

ah, but the OP did say "recapture." You're probably right about the mechanisms of cameras. I've almost always used decks rather than cameras to capture and they're usually sturdier.

Glad you've never had timecode breaks, but many people don't pay attention to having continuous signal (checking tape can cause this problem) and many cameras will have a minor timecode fluctuation when the camera stops and then starts.

You are getting the gaps between the clips because you are regularly reviewing the footage you shot (during shooting sessions) and are stopping the tape past the end of the clip, creating a gap in the timecode.

It is virtually impossible to manually reset the camera exactly to the end of the last clip.

Your camera has an option (called End Search, around page 30 of the instruction manual) to enable it to reset itself exactly to the end of the last clip so that nothing is cut off or a gap left.