MiniDV Capture problem & capture "flicker" with footage loss

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MiniDV Capture problem & capture "flicker" with footage loss

Hello,

I searched but have not found the answer. I am using the trial version of Final Cut Pro X 10.1.3. My camera is connected via a firewire to Thunderbolt on a 27" iMac with a fusion drive. I am trying to capture my MiniDV video and I am having a problem during the capture process. Everything is going along fine until the video playback in the capture screen starts to (for lack of a better term) "flicker". It looks as though a previous single still frame from earlier in the capture is quickly alternating with the new video in a "flicker". The sound tracks keeps on playing perfectly. The capture counter continues to count, and when it is done, it says everything on the tape was captured correctly. It was not. It looses all the video at the start of the "flicker". Everything captured prior to the "flicker" is OK. Everything looks fine on the video camera's monitor while it is flickering in the capture window. It has done it on several of my tapes. I tried to capture the same tapes in iMovie and they work fine. The only problem with iMovie capture is that it is one long file and each day is not separated out. I prefer each day marked with the date. I would like to purchase Final Cut Pro X, but I am concerned.

David

iMac (27-inch, Late 2012), OS X Yosemite (10.10.2), 3TB Fusion Drive / 32GB Memory

Posted on Feb 9, 2015 6:18 PM

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Answer 1

Russ H

Level 7

22,432 points

Feb 10, 2015 9:07 AM in response to Janked

FCP X is probably having capturing trouble with timecode breaks. FCP relies on timecode but iMovie does not. You could try another camera or deck to see whether that makes a difference.

Russ

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Answer 2

Janked Author

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Feb 10, 2015 9:50 AM in response to Russ H

Thanks for the reply, but it isn't happening when there is a timecode break. It actually happens somewhere in the middle of the continuous clip being captured. The capture screen flashes and then starts the flickering between the same frame earlier in that particular clip and the news frames.

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Answer 3

Feb 10, 2015 10:13 AM in response to Janked

I would suspect a problem with the or the camera or deck playing it, just like Russ. If you do not have access to an alternative camera or deck, you may also try importing into iMovie or Quicktime Player instead of FCP X.

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Answer 4

Janked Author

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Feb 10, 2015 10:25 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

It captures fine in iMovie with the same camera, but it does not break scenes and date them which I prefer. Do you know why it would work in one program and not another on the same computer? Does any know how to make iMovie record clips and add the date to them?

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Answer 5

Russ H

Level 7

22,432 points

Feb 10, 2015 12:52 PM in response to Janked

I don't work much these days with tape, but I recall a project about a year ago where I got some pretty strange results from tape capture. It wasn't all tapes – just a few out of many cassettes. Using a different playback device allowed me to capture those as well.

Try Luis' QTX suggestion to see whether that works better for you.

As to your iMovie question, you might get better feedback by posting it on the iMovie forum. There are some people here who are knowledgeable about the app, but obviously there are far more in that forum.

Russ

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Answer 6

Feb 11, 2015 9:10 AM in response to Russ H

Know anybody with an old copy of FCPv7? It captures easily and efficiently from DV tape. You can then export the clips to ProRes422 or just move them to your FCPX machine and import them.

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Answer 7

Frank K

Level 1

39 points

Feb 14, 2015 12:36 PM in response to Janked

I am also using the trial version 🙂 I see the same problem with flicker but that only happens if I start import process while FCPX is doing background processing. And I am loosing footage/clips with or without flicker problem. I do not have any reason to believe it is my HV20 that is at fault. I am able to capture same tape on my Linux box using dvgrab without missing footage. And the footage that is lost is playing fine on the capture screen of FCPX. But when the tape ends and I go look at what was imported there are missing footages. Very strange problem. I am seeing a lot of logs from FCPX, but these look interesting:

2/12/15 7:13:51.000 PM kernel[0]: process Final Cut Pro Tr[18957] caught causing excessive wakeups. Observed wakeups rate (per sec): 432; Maximum permitted wakeups rate (per sec): 150; Observation period: 300 seconds; Task lifetime number of wakeups: 45001

2/12/15 7:13:51.505 PM com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: (com.apple.ReportCrash[18977]) Endpoint has been activated through legacy launch(3) APIs. Please switch to XPC or bootstrap_check_in(): com.apple.ReportCrash

2/12/15 7:13:51.506 PM ReportCrash[18977]: Invoking spindump for pid=18957 wakeups_rate=432 duration=105 because of excessive wakeups

2/12/15 7:13:51.885 PM spindump[836]: Saved wakeups_resource.diag report for Final Cut Pro Trial version 10.1.4 (254423) to /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Final Cut Pro Trial_2015-02-12-191351_users-MacBook-Pro.wakeups_resource.diag

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