User Guide

Chapter 1 Working With HDV 25
Recapturing HDV Footage
Recapturing HDV footage is similar to recapturing other video formats. It is important
that your clips contain accurate timecode or you may have difficulty recapturing. For
more information about recapturing footage, see the Final Cut Pro 5 User Manual,
Volume I, Chapter 19, “Capturing Your Footage to Disk.”
Important: Some HDV camcorders do not record timecode, so recapturing media files
from tapes recorded by these camcorders may result in new media files with an offset
of one or two frames.
Editing HDV Footage
For the most part, editing HDV footage is identical to editing any other format in
Final Cut Pro. However, because of the GOP structure of MPEG-2 media, edits in
HDV sequences require some additional processing during playback and output.
These processes happen automatically, but it is a good idea to understand why
they are necessary.
How Clips Are Named When Start/Stop Indicators
and Timecode Breaks Are Detected
Filenames for new media files and clips generated by start/stop indicators and
timecode breaks are appended with a number to ensure they have unique names. For
example, suppose you are capturing a media file named “Cafe Wide Shot” when a scene
or timecode break is detected. At the break detection point, Final Cut Pro begins
capturing a new media file named “Cafe Wide Shot-1.” If there is already a media file
named “Cafe Wide Shot-1,” the new media file is named “Cafe Wide Shot-2,” and so on.
Using an HDV Camcorder to Capture or Output DV Footage
You can use an HDV camcorder as a standard DV device. However, before doing this,
make sure that:
 The Log and Capture window is closed.
 The camcorder is set to DV mode, not HDV mode. For more information, see the
documentation that came with your camcorder.
 You choose the proper DV Easy Setup before opening the Log and Capture window.