Analogue Capture

I am switching from PC to a Mac Mini, I will mainly be video editing with iMovie. Does anyone know if the Belkin USB2 High Speed DVD creator can be used with the Mac Mini to capture Analogue movies from a Hi-8 tape?
Many thanks in advance

Never heard of it, though if it turns something into MPEG-2 (DVD format) you wind up with a file you still cannot use in iMovie anyway.
Normal protocol, connect output of analog source to A/V inputs on a DV camera, set that to do A/D conversion, and output via Firewire to the mac/iMovie. Or just record it to a new DV tape and then capture later.
Also the specs seems to say it is a Windows comaptible device anyway. It is like a WIndows version of the LaCie Fastcoder which is for mac/firewire and which also would be the wrong tool, e.g. making MPEG-2.

Similar Messages

Analogue capture card recommendations?

I would like to import some old VHS/Hi-8 analogue tapes into my Mac and edit them in iMovie (if I get the bug them maybe FCE). Any recommendations for a suitable capture card?
I have a late 2005 PowerMac, so a PCI card would be preferable, but not essential.
Any recommendations?
Thanks
Mark

Simpler and more flexable would be the use of an external Analog/DV converter.
Canopus and Datavideo make reasonable ones. Look into the Canopus ADVC300 - it has a time based corrector built in which is very important in cleaning up mistimed frames (the 'tearing' effect you see)
Cheers,
x

Firewire device control with analogue capture?

Please please help.
I am trying to capture HDV footage (shot on a JVC HD251) in SD via our KONA LH.
It seems farily easy to get the KONA to downcovert but i don't currently have any device control so therrefore have no timecode.
On the AJA website this article seems to suggest that it is possible to have device control over firewire whilst capturing via the KONA.
http://www.aja.com/html/supportkonaLHedoc.html and navigate to the WHITEPAPER: HDV Workflow
Any help would be more than very welcome!
Thanks in advance
Mike

sadly we are currently using our JVC HD251E camera which does not have RS422 as it is not a deck.
it is the device control via firewire that is hinted upon in the whitepaper from the link at the top of this post that i am most interested in as it would be really useful if it is in fact possible.
We don't intend on using our cameras as a decks for much longer and are looking at the possibilites of purchasing the BR-HD50 which has RS422 which will be ideal.
Even with this we will still be using our Kona to downconvert...unless the JVC deck can downconvert via the firewire...which i guess i will only find out when trying it!
Thanks for the suggestion all the same...but please please someone tell me if this is indeed possible. I don' tunderstand why AJA would hint at it if it is not possible.
Mike

Video Capture with WinProducer

Hello,
I just bought a Ti4200-VTD8X and I'm trying to capture DV type 2 avi using WinProducer. The hard drive that I am capturing it to has 50gb free but yet I am getting an error after 30-40 min that my hard drive is low on disk space. The resulting AVI file is a little over 9gb in size so there is still plenty of space left. I have captured DV type 2 avi using Studio 8 and Edition 5 with no problem. Does anyone know a fix to this problem?
WinProducer 2.0
WDM driver 1.08 (driver without Macrovision)
Detonator driver 45.23
Windows XP SP1
Thank You,
-pjman

I have found WinProducer 2 to be feeble at doing anything other than the most simplest of editing. I did try analogue capture using the DV codec and had simular experiences. It may be memory/harddrive space but I am very sceptical though as using a decent (Media Studio Pro)video editor/capture program it does not exhibit these problems.
Also do not get confused between firewire transfer and analogue capture they are 2 total different operations. If when you used Studio8 etc you used Firewire transfer you are only transfering a file from camera to the harddrive so very little CPU time and memory is used. Where as Analogue capture using what ever codec requires lots of processing time, memory and hardrive space to process and convert/compress the video stream. Analogue video will benefit from having a dedicated harddrive just for video purposes. It may also help to kill all background tasks prior to any analogue captures, i.e. just the neccesary system programs (no virus checker etc.) and the video capture program running in memory.

Best Capture and Sequence settings for project ending up as digital file

Hi. Looking for capture/setting advice.
I am used to working in broadcast NTSC 10-bit uncompressed video, but I now have a project which needs to end up as MPEG-1 files. The tapes I have were recorded NTSC 4:3. Should I capture the footage in DV instead of Uncompressed 10-bit, and set my sequence frame size as DV? Will this avoid the reshaping of the image when I output to an MPEG1, or will I lose quality?
Thanks for the knowledge.

The tapes were recorded on DVCAM 4:3, but we have an
analogue capture board (AJA IO).
Then for best quality you should be capturing via FireWire as DV (its native format) and then editing in an uncompressed sequence.
This issue came up after I had captured and edited in
the 10-bit uncompressed (space is not an issue), then
was called upon to export stills of the footage,
which, of course, came out in the 720 x 486 format,
much to the consternation of the person who had to
use the stills. This person didn't understand how
the MPEG1 files could come out square, but the stills
came out in 720 x486. So it made me wonder whether I
shoudn't be editing in DV or some other "square"
format to begin with.
DV (DVCam) isn't a square pixel format. It's the same as what you've got except it's missing a measly six usually-blank lines at the top. You just have to make sure it doesn't get stretched into the 486 lines.
For your graphics person: all they have to do is stretch them to 10% narrower or 11% taller when they place them. That's all.

Analogue Video Interfaces

I work for a retail chain here in the UK, and frequently get customers wanting to buy a new computer with the intention of collecting all the analogue video footage they have built up of family holidays, grandchildren etc (since it's only when these people retire that they actually get the time to do this).
I normally sell them a 17" iMac G5 2.0GHz and shove an extra 512MB of RAM in, but need a little advice on analogue capture cards. Previously I have been supplying them with the Pinnacle MovieBox DV:
http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObjects/ukstore.woa/91001/wo/ul3gDPlKrBbI2ZAqncF 13EsbhDu/1.0.11.1.0.6.12
Which is fine with the iMac (the included software doesn't work, but I just leave that in the box, plug the device in, and use iMovie, it's better that way).
However I have recently come across the Canopus ADVC-110:
http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObjects/ukstore.woa/91001/wo/ul3gDPlKrBbI2ZAqncF 13EsbhDu/1.0.11.1.0.6.12
Is this worth the little extra over the Pinnacle product, and if so, why? It seems to me that it can be used without a computer, just plugging a DV camcorder into the DV out socket, and an analogue source into the S-Video / composite jacks, is that the only difference?
Thanks
Edit: I really need to merge my old Apple ID with this one somehow.

I would heartily recommend the Canopus product over the Pinnacle. I have and use the Canopus ADVC-100, an earlier version of the now current ADVC-110, and don't have single thing to say against it.
Some important features, especially for anyone bringing in long run time video from VHS tapes (or other sources), is the ability for the Canopus to lock the audio and video sync together. This ensures that the audio stay in sync over any length video you import. The loss of audio sync is a common and recurring problem with many analog (er analogue) video hardware importing systems.
Other benefits of the Canopus ADVC-110 is that not only can it import video, but it can also export your finished iMovie (or any movie from your favorite video editing application) back to tape, either in an analog form such as back to a VHS tape, or digitally, back to a DV camera. This allows you to share your edited movies, with people who may not have a computer or DVD player. Or it can be used as a form of backup, when sent to a high quality backup tape such as one on a DV format.
Well, thats my thoughts on the Canopus.
Tom N.

Looking for a good TV Tuner card.

Hello all,
I'm looking into getting a good TV tuner card that will work for cable and satellite (if possible). I have Rogers cable and a unused Starchoice Satellite dish that I might use down the road.
I don't really know anything about TV tuners, so, I would appreciate a few suggestions on which will work good with my rig and cable or satellite.
Or do you guys think I should go for the ATI All-In-Wonder graphics card? I do play games like FEAR, Quake3, Dark age of camelot, etc...
Or stick with the geforce 7800 GT + TV tuner option?
Thanks for any advise you can give me
Alex

as you've posted in the MSI TV tuner forum, we're only going to give advice on MSI products here
personally, i'd always stick with a seperate VGA card and TV card solution
if you're looking for a good analogue capture card, and picture quality is important, then maybe a hardware MPEG2 capture card, such as the MSI Theater 550PRO-E is the best choice for you
as your board has PCI-E 1x slots, this is an even better choice, as PCI cards can sometimes encounter lack of resources on newer PCI-E boards, especially SLI boards

This is wacky - but it worked! (multiformat multiclip)

Hi all,
Tell me why this worked...
I had a 4 angle multiclip sequence that I had synced up in DV from 3 HDV cams downconverted on capture and one SD cam.
I got the MXO box and got excited about HD editing and distribution, found that my system could easily RT ProRes (in medium quality) but choked on HDV.
Started re-capturing all my HDV footage as ProRes 422. Then found that I should not be able to include my SD angle in the multiclip that I had already setup.
But all footage being re-captured, tried it anyway by setting up my DV sequence with ProRes settings and then re-connecting my DV downconverts to the new ProRes files.
And it works! Plays back all angles, can switch and cut like before. The SD angle aspect ratio displays incorrectly, but I'm hoping - and here's my question - when I recompress back to SD for DVD distribution - will Compressor treat the different codecs separately and appropriately?
(I suppose an alternate solution would be downconvert from the MXO but this would be an analogue capture...)

I don't think it will work.
The multiclip clips must be the same settings (codec, framerate, AND dimensions),
so you have forced your SD clip into the HD dimensions, which is why it looks distorted.
However, now FCP thinks it's an HD clip, treating it "as-is".
Compressor will treat it the same way, i.e with the same distortion,
since Compressor has no way of knowing a component clip's history.
The only way to fix the aspect ratio is to export and upres your SD clip,
then import the upres to your project and make a new multiclip.
For the upres, you may want use the Motion tab settings so you can see
how the letterboxing/cropping is looking.
I hope that is useful.

Exported dvpal 720by576 file to uncompressed 10 bit

help help help please
i have a client that i edited a 26minute film for,i captured the footage as dv pal 720by576 edited as the same and exported as a quicktime ,current settings .
now the client needs the file sent to the states and has asked for it to be uncompressed ,
can i import the dv pal file and then export that as a uncompressed 10 bit file ,which i have done and there is a noticable difference in quality on my computer monitor.10 bit looks great but the playback is prone to stop&pause
is that because of memory or is there a problem in the process of exporting a dvpal to uncompressed file.
as they want to broadcast this ,which should i do send the dv pal file or the uncompressed 10bit.
any help is appreciated.
cheers
simon

I wouldn't have thought the camera footage would look any different. If you have stills, text or other graphics they will certainly look cleaner if you put them onto an uncompressed timeline. If this is the case then there may be a case for sending an uncompressed file.
As stated by lots of people in lots of posts, the computer monitor is only an approximation of the final output. For a start it is non-interlaced. For critical assessment of image quality you need to be looking at a good quality PAL (in your case) monitor. If you don't have an analogue capture card you aren't going to be able to do a valid comparison between your DV timeline and your Uncompressed timeline. The only way you are going to be able to get an output to your monitor without an analogue capture card is through your firewire, which will take you back to DV anyway.

HDV/4:2:0 and DVCProHD/4:2:2

I have been debating getting an AJA Kona LH capture card to improve my HDV editing perfomance.
AJA suggests that one advantge is that you can capture the HDV source material over the analog HD camera/deck output as DVCProHD. Then you can work in 10 bit 4:2:2.
I believe HDV color sampeling is 4:2:0. So if the source material is 4:2:0, is there any real benefit from the 4:2:2 color space you supposedly get after capture?
G5 Dual 2.5 GHZ, 4.5 MB (cause WinXP Can't), GeForce 6800 Ultra, Sonnet SATA 4+4 Mac OS X (10.4.7)

If all you want is a speed up in editing, why not use Apple Intermediate Codec (AIC) HDV, instead of Native HDV ?
Use the easy setup, select AIC HDV, capture, wait a long time for the transcode to complete, then you have a DVC Pro HD like codec (high data rate, independent frames that edit and scrub easily).
You also have a route back to HDV tape, once again, not a very fast one, but it does work.
Personally, I stick to native HDV, and 'suck it up' regarding the poor performance. Once I have a cuts only edit, I put that back to tape (nearly lossless - footage is left alone apart from around the cuts), and then consider what to do next with it. Transcode, re-import as DV, title and post, etc. etc.
The trouble with HDV to DVC Pro HD, aside from the fact the 4:2:0 will end up being rendered into a 4:2:2 codec (without the benefit of a 4:2:0 filter), is that NTSC DVC Pro HD has a native res of 1280x1080, whereas HDV is 1440x1080 (they are both 1440x1080 in PAL) so you have that added complication too.
Unless it is a mixed format project, or your output has to be DVC Pro HD, I would stick with your (majority) source format.
What are you going to make from this, by the way ? If you clear the render cache, and export via compressor, when you have finished, then all your effects and titles will not be re-encoded into HDV, so the argument put forward above, about artefacts, is also not true.
edit: Ignore the 4:2:0 filter part, what the sales guy suggested (analogue capture) would be filtered. You would not gain colour space, but you not be worse off either.

VCR with firewire

Hi,
   Has anyone tried to use a VCR with a FireWire to capture into Premiere Pro CS4 ???
   Thanks,
      Peter

I sometimes do this if I'm not at my machine with the analogue capture card.
- Attach "AV input/output" (often red/white/yellow composite RCA's to minijack) cable to your (firewire equipped) handycam or deck.
- Hit PLAY on the VCR
- Hit CAPTURE in PP
- Vision and sound should "pass through" the camera and be captured by PP as though the camera was rolling tape.
Naturally there are no "remote control" options in PP.
MP

Capture Analogue Audio

I am trying to capture from a D3 deck using a Decklink HD Extreme card. The video is being converted to SDI and captured successfully. The audio (which is analogue) is not being captured. I have performed tests to ensure that the audio connections are correct and that audio is present and am satisfied that it is.
In order to capture audio at the moment I have to route the D3 via a Digi Recorder which converts and embeds the audio. Although this does provide a solution, it ties up two decks when one should be sufficient.
Is there a setting that needs to be changed in order to accept analogue audio?
I would grealty appreciate any assistance you could give.

Sorry if I didn't make myself clear.
I opened up the blackmagic deck control app. from the applications folder and pulled down the preferences which are as I previously described.
I didn't touch FCP, I only mentioned it because of the similarities.
There isn't a 'control panel' or any stand alone app. which has any influence over the capture settings.
I also tried to download some updated software from blackmagic and made sure that all of the Apple software updates were installed.
All to no effect I'm afraid.

Trouble capturing video from VHS via Analogue to DV converter

I use Final Cut Express 1.0.1 and I've always been able to capture video from VHS via a Director's Cut analogue to DV converter box. Today it keeps freezing on me. I've tried force quit, logged off and back on again and even re-started the computer. I've got plenty of space on my two hard drives (125GB free on main drive and 85.42GB on my scratch disk).
I'm sure I've set the rest up correctly (composite cable from VHS to DV convertor box set to output and connected to input slots on box, and DV box set to capture). The box is correctly connected to the Mac.
I've also logged on using another user's account to see if the same problem occurs, and it does. I believe this means that dumping the my preference file won't help, but please correct me if I'm wrong. Any ideas how to stop this freezing on me would be much appreciated.
Thanks
Karen

Last bit of help from Martin may have some mileage in it as far as excluding hidden problems with the drive you are capturing too.
Have been reading into the requirements for the hard disc and it does make it clear having a separate one like you have is almost a requirement because of the work it does. Would it be worth trying a small capture to your system disc. If it helps that is how I am working at the moment so it doesn't appear to be instant fireworks if you do use this one but give it some thought first...
On the firewire port side of things I have seen some unexplained connection issues on this front which were cured by shutting things down, unplugging and then beginning again. Take it System Profile didn't yield anything?
Now I got back in front of my Mac it appears Quicktime Pro will allow capture from an attached device but appreciate you may not have the Pro bit, iMovie should be as good a test.
Nick.

Analogue video capture

I am soon to be switching from PC to Mac mini (as soon as it is delivered). I will be using this mainly for DV video editing using iMovie, however some of my video footage is on the Hi-8 format. Will the "Belkin USB2 DVD Creator" work on the Mac for capturing analogue video, Belkin do not seem to supply drivers for the Mac. Also is iMovie capable of handling analogue video?

Do you have a DV camcorder at the moment? Some DV camcorders have analogue inputs which are great. You can play and capture your analogue footage through the DV camcorder straight into iMovie.
Otherwise, Formac offer some products that you might be interested in.
www.formac.co.uk
Hope this helps,
Stu

PE7 - capturing analog video (VHS/Analogue video camcorder)

I'm a complete novice, so please excuse my ignorance on this subject.
Re the subject heading - To quote from the Help System:
1. To use video from analog sources in your Adobe Premiere Elements project, you must first convert (digitize) the footage to digital data, because Adobe Premiere Elements only accepts direct input from digital sources.
2. Use an AV DV converter to bridge the connection between your analog source and the computer. Connect the analog source to the converter and connect the converter to your computer. Adobe Premiere Elements then captures the digitized footage.
OK as far as it goes.
In my case I intend to use the Canopus ADVC300 as the digital video converter. The connections to this from analog devices (VHS/Analogue camera) and to the PC (via Firewire) appear straightforward.
In PE7 when starting a new project one has to choose from the following input sources - DV Camcorder; DVD (Camcorder or PCDVD Drive); Digital Still Camera; Webcam or WDM Device; HDV Camcorder; AVCHD or other hard disk/memory camcorder; Mobile phone & players; PC Files & Folders.
As far as I can tell there appears to be no means of selecting digitally converted analogue video, which is where I came in.
Perhaps the digitised analogue stream from the ADVC300 is saved to a file, in which case one would select 'PC Files & Folders'. Is this what is meant by 'Adobe Premiere Elements then captures the digitized footage'?
I would appreciate any advice on this subject. Responses from experienced ADVC300 users would be especially welcome.
Regards
Leonard

You want to load these files from PC Files and Folders, Leonard. Just browse to them.
You could also simply capture directly into your project using your DV bridge (the Canopus). Here's more information on capturing analogue, from the FAQs at the top of this forum.
http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.3bb95e46
By the way, if you're interested in more detailed information on capturing video as well as more detailed information on all of the tools in this program and how to use them, you may want to look into "The Muvipix.com Guide to Premiere Elements 7," written by that esteemed expert Steve Grisetti, who hosts this forum, co-founded http://www.muvipix.com as a site for supporting amateur and semi-professional videomakers and has written over 160 of the FAQs at the top of this forum.
It's available at Amazon.com or through the Muvipix.com store:
http://astore.amazon.com/chuckengelsco-20/detail/0615248993/104-3709942-5611121

Analogue Capture

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for