Frequently Asked Questions

When do I have to make media files?

The reason behind making media files is to prepare the footage you've recorded in VTR mode for your computer to read off the Quick Capture's HDD mode. Making media files functions by placing a ‘wrapper' around all of the footage on the drive. This wrapper tells the computer where everything is and how it is organized. For this reason, you do not have to make media files for each bin – it works for the entire drive. However, if you record new footage after you've made media files, you do need to make media files again in order to include the new footage within the latest make media file ‘wrapper'. Only the footage that was on the Quick Capture when you made media files will appear in HDD mode.

Quick Captures record any and all video signal coming from the camera, following the tape's movement. In most cases, when a camera pauses its tape does a pre-roll so that the tape is properly cued for the next record command. Some cameras will rewind, pause, fast-forward, and pause again every time they are put into STANDBY mode. Other cameras will do some combination of pause, rewind, and fast forward. As it should, the Quick Capture registers the tape's movement and records accordingly. Since most users do not realize that cameras do pre-roll, they do not expect to see these tiny clips on the Quick Capture. This problem does not exist with more recent firmware revisions as they include a minimum clip length of 60 frames. The Quick Capture still records the camera's pre-roll, but it wont appear as separate clips.

Currently the Quick Capture line is based on the Fat32 file system. Within the Fat32 file system, there is a 2GB limitation for computer's importing video files. In order to get around this limitation, you will find that clips in VTR mode that are longer than 2GB (appx. 9 minutes) appear in HDD mode as multiple files, partitioned into segments of 1.99 GB each. The file's name will indicate which clip it belongs to by placing an 01, 02, 03, etc. on its end. For example, if Bin 01 (B01) has one clip (C01) that has been partitioned 4 times, you will see 4 files in HDD mode with common beginnings, but ends that indicate the partition (B01C0101, B01C0102, B01C0103 & B01C0104). The first three will be 1.99GB and the last will be smaller as it contains the remainder of the footage.

This is called clip resolution and is referred to in the manual. Basically, in VTR mode clip in and out points are exact, dictated by when you press pause on your camera (sync-to-tape on) or drop a mark. However, in HDD mode, the files that are created from those clips are created in 2-second segments. Since they have to be cut every 2-seconds (4 seconds for larger capacity drives), sometimes you will find that (HDD mode) files' in and out points vary from (VTR mode) clips' in and out points by up to 2 seconds. The best way to avoid this causing problems is to allow yourself a ‘buffer' of a few seconds when pausing to create individual clips.

This is a warning message prompted by Final Cut Pro because the Quick Capture's .mov files have a different audio interlace than Final Cut Pro would have generated itself. While you can proceed as they recommend and use Media Manager to create new copies of the files, this step is not necessary and will not change the quality of the files. The quality of the files are not effected by the difference in audio interlace and the message can be ignored.

When Service Pack 2 was first released it had problems mounting 1394 drives. Classic model Quick Capture and Quick Capture A2D's were effected by this for a short time period. Firmware updates have since resolved the issue with classic models. The issue never existed in the current product line. If you have difficulties mounting to your PC, it is more likely to be a problem with your 1394 port, or the chips associated with that interface. Please contact support.