I'm having trouble capturing DVCPro 50 tapes using a Panasonic AJ-HD1400.  I'm on Avid Xpress Pro v 5.7.5, Mac OS 10.4.10, QT 7.2.0 and attempting to capture dv50 through 1394.  Anyone have any suggestions?  The capture tool sees timecode and I have deck control, but I'm getting no video and can't capture anything.  When I hit capture I get the error message "Video is unexpectedly no longer coming into the system." 

Thoughts?

Thanks in advance...

B

Have you checked the Menu Settings to make sure the deck isn't upconverting out the Firewire port?  Under the DIF settings (DIF is Panasonic for Firewire) make sure the 50M to 50M setting is checked.   Let me check on our 1400 and I'll get you the exact menu number....

Menu Setting 895 "50M -> DIF OUT"  should be set to "50M"

Also try adjusting menu setting 880 to S400 or S100, one of those works better for the Avid but I always forget which one and have try both before it works... =)

HTH.

Thanks, Scott.  I had just noticed this in the manual when I read your advice, that has to be it.  Problem is, now that I check my deck I can't find the DIF menu.  It says it's there in the manual, but on the deck there are no 800's on the menu, and nothing between 700 (Audio) and A00 (Menu.)  Is it possible I have a deck that came out before that was added?  Maybe I'm using an earlier HD1400?  I'm not super familiar with these. 

B

I'm not super familiar with them in general, just the one we have =\   It's always had the 800 menu, right out of the box. 

It's really weird you don't have it - maybe the deck isn't seeing the Firewire port?  I don't believe there is a basic vs. extended menu set-up like the Sony decks - you should just have it.   But I am definitely not an expert on Panasonic decks - I know what settings to change/check on our 1400 pretty well but that's about it. 

I hate to say it but perhaps a call to your reseller or local Panasonic rep might be in order...

Good Luck.

Thanks a lot for jumping in on this.  This must be it - though I have no idea what I'm missing with this menu, it even looks different than the one in the manual (I downloaded the manual online though, so it's not the one that came with the deck.) 

Anyway, time to rent another deck...:)

Thanks,

B

Ugh, I found it.  If you have menu 0025 set to anything other than 59/60 or 50i/25P, then the 800's disappear.  These menus are complicated...:)

Thanks,

B

Ahh yes ..  the deck really really doesn't want to do anything at 23.98, since all DVCProHD on tape is really based on 59.94 or 50 anyway.   It'll add/remove pulldown (flagged frames) via the firewire port though, which is nice, and it can upconvert/downconvert via firewire as well.

We use ours quite a bit and are very happy with it, especially as a tape-based backup / counterpart / assistant to our P2 Workflows.

Glad you got it working!