FCP 3.0 w/ Canon Elura

[crazytom]

I've scoured the net looking for help on this, but it seems to be too bleeding edge, I thought I'd pose my question to the wonderful, ever helpful MacRumors community:

I'm using FCP 3.0.4 w/ Panther 10.3.1 and a Canon Elura. Since updating to Panther, I haven't been able to capture a long clip without the audio sync going way off. I've tried capturing 10 minute sections, but the sync is still of enough to be a problem (it's a video of my band playing live). I've tried just about everything to make this work. The only thing I found that works is booting into OS 9, capturing in FCP 1 and exporting an MPEG-2 from there (I'm making a DVD).

Oddly enough, in FCP 1, the sync is perfect, but if I open the video file in Quicktime, the audio is out of sync again.

Any insight would be appreciated!!!!!

Thanks!

 

[wbrowne1]

do you have the FCP 3 manual?

I remember in my FCP 2 days you had to put a special script in a certain folder if you were using a Canon camera as a deck/VTR.

It has to do with the differing firewire standards. Canon's causes an audio drift when capturing directly into FCP.

Check and see if the "FCP help" or manual address this Canon issue.

 

[LethalWolfe]

wbrowne1 is correct about the source of the problem. Canon, for whatever reason, did not make their cameras completely to DV spec so that can cause problems when programs are expecting "DV" and instead they get "Canon DV" so to speak. Every time I've gotten source tapes from a Canon camera the footage has either been 3 frames out of synch across the board, or it starts out in synch and then drifts over long captures.

In your FCP 3 perferences you can enable "Synch adjust movies over 5 minutes" to try and solve the synch drift problem (this option was specifically added for Canon cameras IIRC). If you still have problems do a search over at Apples help section and/or ask around in the FCP forums over at Apple.com. This is a well documented and common problem. I'm surprised you didn't find any info on it already.


Lethal

 

[crazytom]

Thanks for the input. I didn't want to say what I've tried already, because I've spent a good 40+ hours trying to knock this thing down. I've tried it with the extra plug-ins (CMP Override + DV Tuner 2), with/without FW control, with/without sync adjust and just about every combination under the sun. Part of the problem is that sometimes the Canon will corrupt the FW buss, especially if I forget to turn off another piece of DV gear, so each test I've tried, I've had to reboot my machine to make sure everything is good. In the past, I've had successful captures, it's just I can't remember what I did. The manual says that as long as I have the Sync Adjust box checked, that FCP will take care of the calculations to ensure proper sync....

A bigger problem is that over on Apple's site, those who aren't having problems don't go there. I think I saw one 'helper' even go as far as saying: Sell your Canon gear.

I'm just disappointed that I can make it work, but only in OS 9 and FCP 1.

Again, thanks for the input.

 

[crazytom]

The one thing I didn't try...

Of course, it's always the last thing you do that makes it work: I broke down and did a complete archive and install of Panther, now my captures are on time again. I guess my system was that screwed up. Very bizarre. Thanks to everyone for their input!