Hi. I am running Avid Media Composer 3.5 on a PC. I shot footage in HD with the Canon XH A1. It was set to 60i. I need to import this footage. How do I do this? Can I just plug my camera into the PC and open the capture tool and set the deck to find my camera or os there something alse I need to do first?

Thank You for any help/advice you cna offer.

Depending on if you purchased a boxed version of the software or the download, I recommend the manual or the HELP files. Try looking for CAPTURE. Once you have learned the very basics of capturing, then come back with a question that does not ask for the simplest answers on the silver platter.

I already know how to capture.  When I tried to import my footage, my avid wouldn't recognize my camera. I just wanted to see if anyone knew what might be causing this. Is it a deck setting or some other setting I need to change. I'm not looking for answers on a silver platter - gold would be just fine

I thought these forums were about helping others out. While it is true this person has options for looking for help, they chose the forums. Perhaps a different response would have been more helpful. Maybe like "I have no idea about the question you are asking, I just felt like being a dink"!

Sorry were not all natural born editors like you are.

For the record, I have no idea about the question he asked.

This is a question that very often is coming up on the froum, maybe time for a new tut from Douglas ...

Some basics:

If you have shot in HD be sure to set the output for the cam to HD , same but contrary goes for SD.

Boot up your system, have your cam turned off, connect it , turn it on and wait for your OS to find it, make sure that it is recognixed by your os and that it is placed into your device manager, Sd cams looks different than HD cams in the device manager, even the same cam looks different when configured as Sd or Hd cam.

If all looks well, with the cam still turned on, start up Avid and make sure that your project has the same settings as the media into your cam.

Now, go to capture mode, if the cam still isn´t recognized as a generic device, it is time to start asking questions and do some searching.

Tomas answered the question - which is not any different from how to capture from SD camera (of course having your camera set to HD is a given).

"I thought these forums were about helping others out."

True. But it seems that more and more users seem to hit the forums without a single idea what they are doing (this is not aimed at peanut91 directly - just generalising many new forum users). This thread is a clear case-in-point, 'how to capture HD footage into Avid'.. not much different that SD footage (which the user later states they know how to do).

"Sorry were not all natural born editors like you are."

This statement is as useless as it is pointless.

"Perhaps a different response would have been more helpful. Maybe like "I have no idea about the question you are asking, I just felt like being a dink"!"

I knew what the answer was... the same as Tomas knew (and posted).. I feel that if you are not even willing to find the answer yourself (which is fundamental to use the software) perhaps you need nudging in the direction of RTM.

What would have been better for peanut91 to post would have been their 1st post and response at the same time... their initial post made it seem as though they had no clue how to capture - which they later clarified their knowledge with that they had attempted to capture and were running into difficulty. The SEARCH tool is also a good friend (on the forums - top-right of the screen).

The use of nudging users to 'help themselves' before asking for help is also a method to limit the same, simple questions (that could easily be located using the manual or help guide) appearing over and over again in the forum, clogging up the search terms for much more complex issues that are not explained in any manual.

And peanut91, the gold platter is on it's way.. just took some time to pan-handle enough gold.

 my 2 cents kent your over the top take a deep breath and relax  it was just a question  silly or not just a question  no need to belittle anybody alot of amatures are using avid now and the need a little amature help  kinda like the saturday clinics at home depot esay if you are a pro overwelming if you are just learning

I understand and agree (somewhat) with your point... however, if you read the manual (for Avid) or even use it as a reference tool [again this is a moot point as the user (later) disclosed they have knowledge of the capture process and was having issues with this particular job] any amateur can do it. Reading the manual is very clear and concise on how to perform the process without the need for tips from 'experts'.

In your analogy of construction, reading a manual on how to build a deck is not so cut-and-dry unless you get tips from an expert.

I do breathe, on a regular basis, but (again moot point) when such a simple query comes along it annoys me that more and more amateurs just want that answer immediately and don't want to do the work to get the answer. "Help those who help themselves"... a lot of these amateurs don't want to help themselves. I am bordering on ** RANT ALERT ** and so I am going to stop and breathe.

Hi all,

Peanut91, you're new, so it might help to take a look at this post which tells you how to fill out your system specs in your profile and how to write a more detailed description of your problem.  As Solopost did, I assumed from your first post that you hadn't tried capturing already.

If anyone else would like to chime in with some help for Peanut91 regarding the capturing issue, feel free.  Otherwise, everybody move along.

adios,
Carl

Are you now able to capture with MC?  If not, here is a procedure that helped me (I was having problems with MC timing out while I was capturing):  Capture with HDVsplit (freeware, just run a net search for "HDVsplit").  You'll get a M2T file.  Select a bin in MC.  Go to 1st dropdown menu and select import the file you just created.  Worked like a charm.  If I can be of any further help, please do not hesitate in contacting me.  I am a newby and I'm sure there are better ways to capture, but this was not hard and it worked.

This is the solution that every Xh-A1 owner needs to accept.

Let me guess... You dont habe Vista Business? You installed Vista Premium Home oder Ultimate, right?