Advice on importing old mini dv tapes with timecode breaks

I've dug out mini DV tapes from storage which contain priceless (at least to me) family footage. Some of these tapes are close to 11 years old.
Before these tapes degrade and rot further, I'm trying to generate tape archive files on my hard drive using Final Cut Pro 10.1 from these old tapes.
The issue I'm having is with timecode breaks on some of the tapes. After a few minutes of an import, sometimes the video will go a little wonky and I'll get a timecode break and the import process aborts itself. When this happens, I'm forced to start the archive all over again from the beginning, as far as I can tell. If I get lucky, sometimes I'll get through the import after another try but other times the tape is so badly damaged that I can't get through the entire tape.
I believe there used to be a setting to tell Final Cut Pro to ignore these breaks. It now appears this setting is gone. Or am I missing something? If it's gone, is there some kind of workaround I can employ?
Otherwise, if Final Cut Pro isn't up to the task, can someone please recommend software that will help me convert my tapes to archives on my hard drive?
PS. I've used a head cleaning tape on my camera to limit the problem but it still happens with some of the tapes.

You need a DV device to be attached and recognized by your Mac.
Open QTime X.
File>New Movie Recording.
In the control bar click the small triangle.
A list of devices appears to record from.
Make the DV/camera selection and start capturing.
It's all manual start stop and very basic but does capture.
Al

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No luck altering the On Timecode Break setting in User Preferences, from (the default) Make New Clip, to Warn After Capture?
I think that setting, couple with a Capture Now attempt, might be your best best. Log and Capturing - even if you set the whole tape as one clip - might get tripped up by the timecode break.
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Hi I'm A Mac wrote:
Borrowed a friends camera and shot some wedding stuff, (ours) and wanted opinion on how to do this.
Congrats on the wedding
Is it best to import as one full TAPE (1 hour) and let it run and then have 5, 6 large files?
What is the best way? If I import to iMovie instead of FCP, would I lose quality?
If you have Final Cut and are making all the things you are doing I would go with capturing into Finall Cut. If you use iMovie it needs to be rendered in Final Cut for audio, extra steps.
I will be cutting up all 6 hours down to 1 version that will be somewhat reality, voice overs, FX (tips on where to create some great FX, (ADOBE, Motion) and it should be 1~2 hours total, and like a reality show.
The other will be the extended, with extra footage for close family so we won't lose anything.
Last SET of DVD's might be the RAW video, all 5-6 tapes.
Questions are, how large will these files be?
As others mentioned capturing DV would be about 12-13 Gigs per hour
One would think dual layer or single layer are normally 2 hours at 4GIGS, so wondering how to do this or do I want RAW footage and what is the best way to import for use in other programs such as:
On a DVD the running time (amount on DVD) is tied to the compression used to make the m2vs. Depending on the type of footage (quality, movement etc.) you can tweak things in the encoder.
Take a look here
http://dvdstepbystep.com/faqs_7.php
Also here about some caveats
http://dvdstepbystep.com/faqs_3.php
So with AC3 audio at 160 and a video rate of 4.9 (or so) you can get 2 hours on each layer. The chances are you can drop the rate of the video encode and still get good results. For instance if you have sections where people are just speaking into the camera wishing you congrats it probably can look fine
• iMovie
• Final Cut Pro
• Motion
• Color
• Premiere
• After Effects
I would go for Final Cut import then use the other things as needed. There are some other things to keep in mind/get used to in terms of retaining quality (such as making text or other things) but you may be best off tackling those as they comee up. In general the DV Codec will compress some things and make them look bad (think text in Final Cut) so there are workarounds, tweaks and export settings to use if those come up.

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I've got an HDV tape that looks perfectly normal, can't see any timecode breaks, but FCP seems to think there are and captures the continuous shot into segments - missing a bit of material each time. There are no breaks I can see on the tape, and it runs fine through the camera.
Is there a way to import the tape into FCP such that FCP 'ignores' any timecode breaks?
I tried a capture on-the-run ('now') but FCP does the same thing - break the continuous shot into segments (with gaps between each segment).
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Ben

HDV (Sony Z1U). Tape looks fine, timecode doesn't seem to have a break.
Trying to capture on the fly I'm now getting an error reading:
"Capture was aborted due to lack of incoming data."
Mmmm? And yet everything LOOKS normal and correct. I wonder if it might be the capture cable giving problems here ... ??
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How to export to DVCAM tape with timecode from Premiere CS 6?

I am having a lot of trouble with this. I need to give a dvcam tape with proper timecode to a television station for a Show I edit. I am editing for this station for last 7 years. Before they accepeted betacam, but now they changed to DVCAM. I have Premiere Pro 6 (or CC) and SONY HVR M15U deck. I connected it via firewire, then realized firewire can't export timecode. Now I am in a pickle.
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Raman

realized firewire can't export timecode.
Sure it can.

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Hi all i write from italy and have a little problem, i hope someone can help me.
I need to make tape "digital betacam" with timecode offset, need the tv spots start at 10:00:00:00, i use betacam DVW-500P
in embedded mode.
can help me?
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Alessandro

I'm sure you guys are right, but I'm shocked. Made an assumption there. Also making assumptions that EBU time code works in similar ways to SMPTE, which I'm sure is wrong.
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I am trying to capture different clips in the footage i have on my camcorder but there are timecode breaks. I am not sure how to get the clips i need because everytime i enter the in and out points and then press capture clip it doesnt work just rewinds my camcorder and wont capture. If anyone could tell me how to fix this it would be much appreciated.
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Jennifer
Are the breaks on the tape or is FCE reporting the breaks?
Which capture style are you using, NOW or CLIP?
Have you tried different places on the tape other than the start?
You need at least 3 seconds pre-roll from the start.
Al

Q: When importing old digital 8mm tapes, audio is only mono. How do I

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A Digital-8 camera should have had a stereo mic built in, but maybe the tapes were recorded with an extra external mono mic connected. It happens.
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YOu can easily do this with Toast. Just create a data DVD.
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Thanks Andy for giving the time and energy to try and solve this. I really appreciate it.
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I'm not sure exactly what you are asking about for the Inspector view information. I will try to attach an image of my screen. It appears that each clip has the label of what day it was shot and what time. The Master video however has clips arranged completely out of chronological order and so there lies the problem. Perhaps you were asking about something else though and I'm just not sure what it is.
THANK YOU FOR GIVING ME YOUR THOUGHTS! It's kind of impossible to find help on this or a complete definitive answer so your time is very much appreciated. If you travel to McCall, Idaho for a ski trip I will buy you a lunch or copious amounts of microbrewed beer.
~Nate

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That depends on what you mean. iMovie imports in stereo (which is two channels), but those can't be separated.
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NEVER use 12-bit audio:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61636

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JLens

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What is the best way to convert mini dv tapes to digital

I have a Canon ZR800 that I have created several mini dv tapes with. What is the best way to convert these tapes I made to a digital format? I have a Macbook to use for the digital format.

Hello Jhoslter,
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Did this answer your question? Please click the Accept as Solution button so that others may find the answer as well.

How can I prevent my Camera Archive import from being interrupted by timecode breaks?

I'm trying to create Camera Archives from my old mini-dv tapes. I have a Sony Handycam DCR-TRV22 connected via FireWire. When I start the Camera Archive import process, everything is fine for a while but then the process stops with a message about a break in the timecode preventing the archiving from completing.
Solutions to this problem I've seen online relied on changing import preferences in Final Cut 7. Unfortunately, I only have Final Cut Pro X and I'm not sure how to control this setting.
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To clarify, this problem is not simply making me get involved more, but is preventing the Camera Archive operation from completing.

Advice on importing old mini dv tapes with timecode breaks

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