I’ll start a new editing project.

1. Capturing the tape. I first connect the mini-DV camera (which I use to play the tape)  to the external harddrive (via Firewire) and that hard drive is connected to the computer. When I use “Final Cut Pro Log and Capture” ->Capture Now tool, it would start playing but stop after 2 frames, you only see “locating timecode break” but nothing happens even if you wait. I tried a couple times with no luck.

Based on what I found online, I unplugged the drive and connected the camera directly to the computer. Now it seems to be working. Sucks that I only have 100G left on the internal drive. Hope that would be enough…

Still, when I’m recording it (using DF mode since NDF mode is not any better), FCP would get stuck in random spots (often right at a new slate) and displays “locating time code break”

http://thefinalcutpro.com/troubleshooting/avoid-video-timecode-breaks-and-headaches/

———————–

I rather learn a new programming language (or maybe not, I don’t like learning Smarty for example, ha) than learning this whole messed up video stuff. But I should log this to keep a record:

DF v.s. NDF

Well, it takes an old fart like me who saw it all happen, to teach you DF vs. NDF…

Way back when B&W TV was invented, TV signals in North America were broadcast at 60 interlaced scans per second to create 30 complete frames per second. This was very convenient because the transmitters and home receivers could use the available 60 cycle AC power to keep everything in sync. Then along came colour (or color) as the Yankees call it. It was then discovered that a 30 fps color picture when received on a B&W set had an annoying hummm.

So the politicians of the day, being politicians, and not wanting to offend their aged voters by telling them to chuck their old B&W sets and buy colour, decreed that the new color signals had to be broadcast in such a way that grandpa could see a B&W picture of a young Johnny Carson on his 12 inch TV set with the round picture tube. So came into being the FCC law that color programs would have to be broadcast at 29.97 frames per sec. which eliminated the audio hummm. We have been burdened with the immense consequences of this stupidity ever since.

For example a one hour production recorded at 30 fps would contain 30(frames) x 60(seconds) x 60(minutes) or 108,000 frames. The problem was that if this tape was broadcast at just 29.97 fps, at the end of the hour only 107,892 of the 108,000 frames would have been broadcast – with the last 108 frames or 3.6 seconds never seeing the light of day. While missing the last 3.6 seconds of credits would not have been the end of the world, the points at which commercials and station breaks were to be inserted would be a mess because they would be out of sync from anywhere from 0 to 3.6 seconds depending where in the hour show they were placed.

The solution was to skip certain frame numbers (NOT TO DELETE OR DROP THE ACTUAL FRAMES) so at the end of the hour as the 107,892nd frame was being broadcast, the time code would read exactly one hour, zero minutes, zero seconds and zero frames. (01:00:00:00), and if in editing, you fast forwarded the tape to the 15 min. or 30 min. point as shown by the time code, then you would have reached the 15 min. or 30 min. point in the show that the real broadcast would be at as seen by grandpa on his B&W set and by the affiliate stations who were inserting local commercials at these points.

The exact formula as to which frame numbers (not actual picture frames) to drop so you would end up with a 107,892 frame tape that would last a full broadcast hour is as follows :

Two frame numbers – “00” and “01” – are dropped every minute ( 2 x 60 = 120 frame numbers ) EXCEPT for
minute points that have a “0” number – 00, 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 minutes – ( 2 x 6 = 12 frames). This results in 120-12 or 108 frame numbers (not frames) being skipped.

Hope you all got it now…

Robert Rouveroy csc
The Hague, Holland

http://techdigs.net/content/view/53/42/

progressive v.s interlaced.

http://ddisoftware.com/tech/articles/march-2009-video-frame-rates-(24p-25p-30p-60i)/

more 24p, 30p, 60i, etc.

capture 24p:

http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/8/1005514

http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/24p_in_FCP_nattress.html