Auto Loggint and Capturing of miniDV tapes

Is there a devise or work flow that will let me simply "throw" a tape in my DV Deck and have the computer automatically log and capture - making new clips at break points - just like iMovie - but in Final Cut Pro? Or is there a separate devise that does this which is independent of the workstation?
I'm basically the producer/editor/video manager and I need to cut down my time that i spend logging and capturing tapes or my productivity will be terrible!
Thanks for your help.

Try CatDV. Many people swear by it.
http://www.squarebox.co.uk/features.html

Similar Messages

Capture/tranfer miniDV tapes onto DVDs/CDs

Since i upgrade my computer to Tiger 10.4.9, I can't capture without dropped frames any more with FCPro 4.5. According to Apple, I have to have FCPro 5. I wonder if you guys know a way /software that allows me to transfer footage from miniDV tapes to DVD or CDs. Thank you all.

I tried and It didn't work for me. Dropped frames could be from many other reasons. So I don't know. I movie works for me just fine.
After doing everything according to the instructions of the link, my final cut pro lost the audio during capturing. I didn't hear any noise even though the sound bars/levels indicated that there were sounds. I just couldn't hear it and figure out why. I had no problems whatsoever in I movie with the same tape. Thought you'd like to know. I appreciate any tips/info... however.

Can I "print to tape" using PAL and Capture from that tape using NTSC?

I need to edit video from a video card in the PAL format somehow onto the FCE Timeline using NTSC.

This is not any where nearly as simple as it sounds. You need to standards convert the PAL material to NTSC. I'd recommend using Graeme Nattress' Standards Converter for this. Then you can edit in NTSC and record to NTSC tape.
Just to add, FCE does not accept standard definition material from a video card. It only handles AVCHD media from a video card. The only HD tape format it supports is HDV.
Message was edited by: Tom Wolsky

Final cut xprs 4 and capturing HDV from tape

Hi all
I just tried for the first time to get FCXP4 to capture from my Canon HV20 in hidef and the software didn't do what the manual says it would do.
Manual tells me to create a new bin in the browser and then hit command 8 and instead of the DV capture window it would start a dialog box to capture HDV.
Well, it doesn't. It just says I don't have a video device connected.
Even though the same camcorder is captured by the same software just fine in standard def. HELP!

Do you have any other devices connected? How is the camera connected? What settings are on the media? What settings are you using in FCE? Did you change the settings before you initiated capture? Does system profiler see the camera?

Unable to Capture with MiniDV Deck - Strange Problem

Hello everyone,
I apologize if this is a repeat, but I couldn't find an answer among other discussions. I'll try to be as specific as possible..
The problem revolves around capturing a MiniDV tape. We are using a Sony GV-D1000 deck, which is connected via Firewire. Final Cut Pro recognizes the deck as a Device Control and Capture/Input setting.
We can control the deck, but we can't capture from it. The Log and Capture window reads "Preview Disabled". When attempting to capture, it pauses for a second and then says "The operation could not be completed as there is no video." This is very odd since the deck's display shows actively running video..
Our system is as follows:
8-core Mac Pro 2x3 GHz
10GB RAM
ATI RadeonX1900
BlackMagic DeckLink HD Extreme Card
w/a bunch of Lacie hard drives which I kept off during the troubleshooting..
Things I have tried:
- Restarting without Firewire devices running
- Trashing FCP prefs in the library folder
- Repairing Permissions in Disk Utility
I found an article here that was interesting...
http://support.apple.com/kb/TA24110
It kinda implies that the other audio card (BlackMagic HD Extreme) might be the problem. But there is no way to disable this card... or is there?
Can anyone help me?
Thanks in advance.

Hey everyone. Thanks for all the troubleshooting. Getting close to identifying the problem.
I brought the deck home with me to try it out on my personal MacBook Pro system. Same problem. the tape would play back, you could control the deck, but it would not import.
David brought up the tape itself, which, logically, I hadn't even thought of. So I threw in a completely different tape and voila! No problems. Was able to control the deck, view the video on my Mac's display (finally!) and yes, capture video to disk.
Just to make sure the deck wasn't being screwy, I tested both the original tape and the other on my personal miniDV camera and yielded the same results. Except when playing back the original, video wouldn't even display on the camera's LCD screen..
In short:
There has to be something funky with this tape that they gave us. We will probably ship it to another post house and see if they can get it to work out on a different deck. When I return to the office, I will try the other tape just to confirm there's nothing wrong with our Mac Pro system there..
Thank you all for you troubleshooting wisdom. I owe you all one.

MiniDV Tape issues

Hi. I am using P-Pro CS4, and trting to capture miniDV tape without the jagged edges (interlace?). When i use the de-interlace filter the image is unacceptably soft. Can someone help with steps, from the beginning on how best to capture and work with minidv tapes keeping the near broadcast quality and no jagged edges? Thanks!

Hi All,
I am not sure how to answer some of your questions. I am not at a computer with Premier pro, perhaps i should hold this until I am (also, in a few weeks i will have CS6 at work, now I have nothing).
It could be that I am setting up the project not to match the video (?). Also, I guess this has really been done on SC5 (I forget i did most of it at school, at home I have CS4).
What is "SD"?
I did not realize that the Canon GL2 gives me much choice in how it shoots, it is digital, but not HD. I never saw anything about "shooting interlace" or not.
So, the tapes were transferred onto the computer in a tape deck, I assume it is attached via firewire. I always wondered if I could do this without going through Premier Pro? As I mentioned, I am not there and cannot recall what the project settings were.
Is there different miniDV camera-setting? Should therebe just one "best' setting for minDV tapes? Can anyone enlighten me?
So, the files are .AVI and that's when they look jagged. I put one file on a computer at home, attached to my 55inch LED and they still looked jagged. I assume these are "raw" files? That is unprocessed? Maybe I am doing this part all wrong?
The final product will be for DVD, but if it is good enough, maybe for a TV broadcast. Doesn't this get decided in the "export' after i am done editing?
I am just at a loss as to why it plays back with thesedges. I don't think it did that with the old monitors.
So, if anyone can tell me about the settings, i will double check next time i am at capturing.
Thanks. Let me know if more info is needed.
Richard

Logging and Capturing

As a result of this thread: http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=3857627#3857627
I did a test of various ways to capture footage into FCP. Sorry for saying this again but I’m new to FCP - after 20 some odd years editing with proprietary, Avid and Premiere Pro NLE’s. I mention this [again] because it is hard to teach an old dog new tricks, and some of the bias that I’ve gathered along the way might show up in the way I approached this.
I have four one hour HDV tapes recorded on a Sony HC1; I used the same camera that created the tapes to down convert and capture standard definition NTSC anamorphic DV. Each taped averaged about 70-80 clips.
Tape 1
The first tape I logged the clips using the controls in the log and capture window. Fairly straightforward, but the HC1 was not very responsive to the J/K/L keys and the image in the capture window was very low resolution during scrubbing and searching. This made the process of logging slower than it should be. Once logged, batch capturing was fairly quick [about 1:12:00:00 to capture a 60 minute tape] and pretty much what I expected.
This was not a very efficient way to capture 70-80 clips, a lot of time wasted with pre and post roll. If you had fewer, 20-50 this might be the better way to capture but for what I was doing this was my least favorite way.
Tape 2
After entering the clip information into the log window I hit K key and capture “Now” button and captured the entire tape. I was a little concerned at what would happen when timecode ran out at the end. Nothing happened, it stopped and the clip appeared in the capture bin – all was good.
Once captured I created a custom Browser window with only the columns I wanted to log and make subclips: [following Steve Braker’s instructions]
1) Loaded the master clip into the viewer.
2) Set in and out points for the first clip.
3) Command-U to create a subclip.
4) Re-named the subclip, added description and label.
5) Click in Viewer and
6) Repeated steps 2-5 until 70 clips later it was complete.
Steve suggested deleting or moving the master clip, however checking the folder in the finder where the master clip was store revealed that this process didn’t produce individual clips. Apparently the subclips are simply pointers to the master file so I didn’t delete it.
This process was surprisingly fast but I still ended up with a single file that was approximately 5GB’s which made this process almost useless for working with subclips in Motion2 for example.
Tape 3
Marked an [in and out] in 20 minute intervals to create three master clips for this reel.
1) Loaded the master clip part 1 of 3 into the viewer.
2) In the Mark menu selected DV Start/Stop
3) After FCP placed markers at the scene breaks I “clicked the disclosure triangle” next to the master clip to reveal all of the markers in the Browser.
4) Selected all of the markers to highlight them
5) Chose Modify>Make subclip after which the subclips appeared in the same bin as the master clip and markers [note* at this point I checked my hard drive to find there was still only one contiguous master file for these subclips.
6) Re-named each subclip, added description and label and then placed them in a separate bin and placed the subclips that I didn’t want to keep in a bin to be deleted. [temp trash]
7) Highlighted the subclips that I wanted to convert to Independent clips
8) Chose File>Media Manager
9) Chose Use Existing from the “Media referenced by selected clip” drop down.
10) Selected the “Delete unused media from selected clips.”
11) Chose Clip Names from the “Base media file names on” drop down (Oops, sorry that’s for a PC) pop-up menu.
12) Un-checked the “Duplicate selected clip and place into new project.” This placed the independent clips in the same folder on your hard drive as the master file for the subclips. I suspect although I did not test it that if I had this checked I could choose a different folder?
13) Held my breath and clicked OK!
14) That’s when FCP started treating me like a total idiot “are you sure you want to do this, you’d better be because there’s no going back. Are you really, really sure…” Anyway for me since this is the only project on this machine I didn’t even read the warnings [yes I am an impatient idiot] **** the torpedoes full steam ahead..
15) Done! NOT Quite yet. You’d think that since I un-checked the “Duplicate selected clip and place into new project,” that FCP would be smart enough to place the new clips in my project window. Didn’t happen, had to control click and import files.
This process requires a bit more explanation. I had 16 subclips that I converted to independent clips, after which I deleted all associated subclips and markers. When I imported files there were only seven clips in the folder where the master clips was saved [now deleted as part of this process].
On further inspection all of the footage that I wanted was there, HOWEVER, by using the DV Start/Stop to create markers and then using those markers to create subclips if there are two or more clips with continuous timecode it consolidates them into one contiguous clip thereby defeating the purpose of creating the subclips in the first place. I’m guessing but if I hadn’t deleted some of the subclips I didn’t want to convert I would have ended up with the same large file with a different name.
The manual recommends that you delete the master clip from the Browser before converting the subclips into individual clips. I was suspicious of the need to do this so I left it and after the conversion it did what I expected, became offline. It was a good thing because I could use it to recapture. Also, any logging with description and labels etc is history it is not included in the new independent clip.
Tape 3 Part 2
I won’t bore everyone with going through the steps I’ll just explain how this one was different.
1) I didn’t use the DV Start/Stop option, instead marked I/O separately leaving at least 2 frames between edits to make sure there was discontinuous timecode.
2) I also didn’t bother naming or logging at this point and left whatever ridiculous name the subclip process assigned.
3) The settings in the Media Manager were all set from the previous conversion hit OK [this time read the warnings which would have done nothing to correct the previous attempt].
4) 12 subclips went in and 12 new independent clips came out.
5) Once I had the new clips I logged and added descriptions and labels etc…
Although this sounds like a very convoluted process, and it is certainly much more difficult than it needs to be, by the fourth tape it was predictable and quite fast.
I will say though that because FCP consolidated any continuous clips without warning you really have to pay attention to detail. And it would be nice if we could use the log & capture window for this process so any descriptions, labels etc would be carried forward to the new clip.
Certainly not as easy to accomplish as it is in PPro but definitely possible. There might be more functionality that I just missed, if so please let me know. Anything that can be done to simplify this would be helpful.
Mac Pro. 5GB RAM. 1TB SATAII RAID 0. Mac OS X (10.4.8) FCP 5.1.2

When you delete the master clip from the browser, you aren't deleting the media file it referenced. So the subclips reference that same original captured QT movie, it's just not in your project.
It will work. try it. It's how I've been working for about 6 years now. I don't have problems with subclips at all doing anything I want to with them.
Subclips are nothing more than reference files that reference a portion of a master clip. A Master clip is nothing more than a reference to the media file that you're capturing... it's not the media it's a reference to it.
Subclips are how FCP was really intended to be logged I think. I don't like long captures at all, and would prefer to actually capture the way you did the first time... but because it takes longer, I usually don't have time to do things that way. However, if you do things that way, you can add descriptions etc. to the logged clip in the Log and Capture window, if that helps your workflow.
The responsivness you lack with your HDV camera is because it's HDV... HDV doesn't contain all of the pixels of every frame, so to see a single frame the computer has to do a lot of processing to show it to you. It's an MPEG stream, which uses whole frame information every 8 or 15 frames only. The rest of the frames are the difference between the frames only on the recorded tape, thus the work and slow response to HDV logging and capturing.
P2 on the other hand, would make ALL of this MUCH easier to deal with. For one thing, each take is an individual file, and it's an all I frame format so it's easier for the computer to deal with. It renders 8 times faster than HDV does... no "conforming" necessary.
Jerry

Unable to properly capture HD video from miniDV tape in FCE

unable to capture HD video from miniDV tape
When I connect my Sony HDR-HC3 miniDV HDV camcorder to my iMac via firewire cable and use Final Cut Express to capture the video from the tape, I do not get a Capture window that allows me to specify in and out points, I just get a playback window that immediately starts capturing and the only option I have in this window is hit ESC to stop capturing. If I let this capture window continue to capture the video from the camera with miniDV HD tape, then the entire tape would be captured as one massive single video clip.
QUESTION: Is there something I change or do to make the proper capture window appear where I can specify in and out points to capture from tape for each clip?
NOTE: using same camera and tape with iMovie with automatic capture enabled, all the clips get captured properly. I also tried to use the manual setting in iMovie and it worked too.
More details(read only if you want more information)
I have a several miniDV tapes containing HD video created on a Sony Sony HDR-HC5 and Sony HDR-HC7. Unfortunately, both these camera were stolen, and I have since moved to a camera that uses flash memory, not tape. However, I need to get the video footage off these tapes, so I bought a used Sony HDR-HC3, it plays the HD miniDV tapes just fine and iMovie reads the video from this camera just fine, but Final Cut Express does not.
When I setup Final Cut Express, I used the Easy Setup and specified:
Format: HD
Rate: 29.97 fps
Use: HDV-Apple Intermediate Codec 1080i60
These setting match those of the camera and recorded tape. If I use any other settings but these, then Final Cut Express never sees the camera and never opens any capture window at all. Using Quicktime 10 movie inspector on the clips captured by iMovie from same camera, all the clips match this setting too.
Final Cut Express version 4.0.1
iMovie 09 Version 8.0.2 (821)
iMac 2.93 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 4GB 1067 MHz DDR3 running
Mac OS X Version 10.6.4
My Final Cut Express scratch disk is a Seagate 2TB external USB 2.0 Hard Drive that has been formatted to be Mac OS Extended (Journaled). This external disk is also where iMovie successfully captured all the video from the same camera.

Thanks for the answer. It makes me sad. I thought using Final Cut Express would be an upgrade to a more robust editing system from iMovie, yet iMovie does a superior job of logging and capturing video from HDV video on miniDV tape in comparison to FCE. Not only does iMovie capture each clip on the tape into it's own video file automatically, it also includes timestamp information in the filename indicating when the clip was originally recorded, which appears to be something that is missing from Final Cut Express. Now I realize that HDV miniDV cameras had a relatively short life span in the consumer marketplace and have since all been replaced by flash and hard drive based AVCHD cameras, but from circa 2004 to 2007, miniDV HDV camcorders were very popular and I am sure there are lots of consumers that must be super frustrated by Final Cut Express limited ability to log and capture clips properly from these cameras.
Assuming I do not want to make a rough cut of video in iMovie and prefer to begin my editing project in Final Cut Express (not doing XML export of iMovie project), I need to determine the best way to get clips captured via iMovie into Final Cut Express and determine if there is anything inferior in the iMovie captured clips that I need to be aware of. So far it appears that both iMovie and Final Cut Express reduce the 5.1 surround sound captured on the HDV miniDV tapes to stereo sound, which is not a big lose given the 5.1 sound was recorded from camera's built-in microphone, but it makes me wonder if the video is reduced in any way by the iMovie import process, examining the video in quicktime's inspector window the video appears to be the same in both iMovie and FCE, but I'll research the answers to these questions elsewhere on this forum and post additional questions if I do not find the information I need.

How can I import from a MiniDV tape and keep the clip order

A long time ago, I edited some MiniDV video together and recorded back out to a MiniDV tape using some older version of iMovie (ten years ago). I have latest version of iMovie (10.0.2) and have imported all of the edited video back into a new library. Unfortunately, the library is separating the video into separate clips and sorting them by the original timestamps of the original video (before editing). As a result, the clip are in a jumbled mess of an order.
Note that I am just importing the video from the MiniDV tapes so that I can export it as a Quicktime file. I really don't need the video to be split into clips at all. I would actually prefer to just import the entire video as one big clip.
Any idea how I can preserve the order of the

One thing that I have noticed is that Apples built-in camera is optimized for Face Time, so it sometimes captures at 30 frames per second, but if there is not a lot of motion in the frame, it might use 12 or 15 frames per second. So it has variable frame rates. This is great for FaceTime, but not so great if you are trying to keep the audio in sync.
The way to fix this is to use QuickTime Pro or MPEG Streamclip to save the movie out with identical specs except to specify 30 frames per second (or 25 in a PAL country).
I wonder if you are running into a similar problem in QTPlayer. If it is making a variable frame rate movie, you could fix it by dragging the movie into MPEG Streamclip and exporting as the same kind of movie, but with a fixed 30 fps frame rate. MPEG Streamclip is free and quite useful for stuff like this.
Just a thought.
Right now my QuickTime Player is hanging so I can't test to see if you could set the frame rate directly in QuickTime Player X.

Capture MiniDV tape as one clip

I am doing my first MiniDV tape capture. I rewound the tape, clicked play and Capture Now. When the tape was done, it was divided up into clips. I don't want this. How do I import it as one clip? (it broke it up into 5 clips of varying length) this is a friends home video.

If you are working with DV/NTSC or DV/PAL material, Final Cut Pro does not automatically segment the capture (unless there are time code breaks).
If you have HDV footage, I believe there is a check box somewhere in the capture settings to turn off the automatic clip generation.
x

Formatting a MiniDV tape for Capturing into FCP 6

How do I format a miniDV tape so that I can review footage as I shoot without breaking the time code? I am having huge difficulty capturing because of broken time code.

You use tried and true shooting technique. Pre-striping is a myth, because all cameras crash record, not insert record.
Good practice states:
Run at least 30 seconds of color bars at the head of a tape.
If you're going to be doing a lot of powering down, reviewing takes in camera, etc, it's good practice to run 10 or 20 seconds of bars every time you stop the camera. Then when you are ready to record again, back the tape up into the bars and hit the magic button. That way the code will re-generate from where you left off.
Also good practice to roll tape at LEAST 5 seconds before you call action. and the same at the end of a take.
Shooting documentary style? Do the above, only more so.

Current Time code field and "Capture Now has reached the end of tape......"

Hi I just got my new iMac and I have lots of space. When I open up the Final Cut Pro and press the capture now it gives me the notice that it had reached the end of tape, but I haven't reached the end. I have vhs in the VCR machine and it is connected through the digital device. Not only that but my current timecode field is always running and I can't stop it. Also I used the uncontrollable device and when the tape has reached the end I tried to escape but it seizes up and I lost my capture. what shall I do?

Yeah, I was just thinking about that. I'm doing this on an iMac.
What's going on with Capture Now? I know staying digital would be best. But I'm kinda doing this project to give myself some hands-on time with FCP to get familiar with it. I'd like to capture this stuff through the Log And Capture GUI if I can. Sooner or later, I'll need to do it with something else (possibly an old VHS tape) where I won't have the option of staying digital.
Anybody?

How can I convert MiniDV tapes to DVD? I've use a Canon GL 2 and an iMac about 1 year old. I'm trying to use iMovie and I've installed the latest drivers.

How can I convert MiniDV tapes to DVD? I've use a Canon GL 2 and an iMac about 1 year old. I'm trying to use iMovie and I've installed the latest drivers.

MiniDV was a great format, one I still use often. I also still use iMovie HD6 to process it and, for all the iterations of iMovie that followed it, I still believe it was one of Apple's greatest movie software programmes, next to Final Cut Pro, using a timeline method of editing. That was also in the day which Apple put Superdrives into their computers, so that you could not only make your movie in iMovie, but you could render it to iDVD and then burn the DVD. Now you need to buy an external burner.
Since iMovie HD6 and iDVD 6 were "universal" software, it has continued to work through the many OS releases since it came out with Tiger, I believe it was. So, it may still work with Mavericks too and, if you could locate a copy of iLife 06, probably used, you might enjoy the difference that HD6 has over all iMovie releases since then.
Not saying you can't process your MiniDV with current iMovie versions, but I'm not the one to speak about that.

After finally downloading my MiniDV tapes to iMovie 10.0.6 (Yosemite), I see that there is no iDVD (why did I buy a new Superdrive for my new MacMini). So, can I buy an old iLife 9 and expect it to load to the new machine. This is NOT progress!!

After finally downloading my MiniDV tapes to iMovie 10.0.6 (Yosemite), I see that there is no iDVD (why did I buy a new Superdrive for my new MacMini). So, can I buy an old iLife 9 and expect it to load to the new machine. This is NOT progress!! HELP

Hello!
They're still being sold in some places: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dsoftware&field-keywo rds=ilife+09&sprefix=iLife+09%2Caps%2C194&rh=n%3A229534%2Ck%3Ailife+09
However, do you absolutely NEED iDVD? There are alternatives, like Burn (free): http://burn-osx.sourceforge.net/
I suggest you try it out since it's free. Maybe it'll be enough.

Best strategy when getting started and capturing a bunch of video tapes

I recently purchased FC Express. I have 2 years worth of video tapes that I am starting to capture - about 20 1 hour-long tapes covering various trips, topics, and what not. I'd like to set things up for the most flexibility down the road since I'm not sure what I will end up creating. For example, I may want to create a multi-media DVD which takes elements from various tapes. I know that's vague ...
My basic question is when doing the capturing is it best to have a project for each tape or one big project that encompasses all of them or ...? Also, any recommendations regarding capture bins.
Anything else (suggestions, links/websites, etc.) which might help with how to best set things up for this miscellaneous multi-tape situation would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Steve

First, you're going to need more than 260GB of disk space to store that 20 hours of video (assuming it's standard def DV video).
Second, although you capture video in an FCE project, the resulting capture files are not limited to that specific project. In fact, you could capture all 20 of your tapes in a single project, then delete the project, and you would still have all 20 capture files on your hard drive (20 files, assuming you use Capture Now to capture all 20 tapes, each in its entirety, rather than using Capture Clip).
You might want to look into a cataloging app like FootTrack or iDive
Regarding bins, they are associated with a project. If you want to capture all your tapes in a single project then you might consider creating bins that have meaningful names and use them to organize your captured clips/tapes by subject, trip, etc.

Auto Loggint and Capturing of miniDV tapes

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