Capture Entire Beta Tape

I’m using FCP 6 with a Sony J-30 Beta Cam player, I just learned how to use Log and Capture to get clips from the beta cam player, but I was wondering if anyone knows how to get the entire content of a tape without the need for loging, will there be a way to insert a Beta tape and start capturing until the tape is done playing?
The reason I would like to do this is because we have thousands of Beta Tapes from 30 to 40 years ago that we will like to digitize and archive.
Any other helpful information would be appreciated.
Thanks in Advance.

Also make sure you put a check mark and time limit for 'Limit Capture Now to'...in your Systems Settings dialog.
If you don't, FCP will allocate the entire available drive space, since it has no idea how long to capture...and you'll end up with an unusable file.
I always set it for a couple of minutes beyond my longest tape to capture. If your biggest beta is a 40, then set it for 42. If you have a 90 min. tape, then set it for 92...etc.
You can set it for whatever you want (as long as it is more than you need) and it will not affect the length of any media to be captured.
K

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Is it possible to capture an entire DV tape into a single .avi

I am capturing DV tapes and even if I uncheck the "split scenes" option in the capture window, PE7 still splits the scenes into many .avi files.
Is it possible to capture an entire DV tape into a single file?
Thank-You for your help.

Steve
The split is completly turned off and I am getting multiple files anyway!

Batch capturing entire tape...recomended???

Is it a good idea to attempt to batch capture a tape in its entirety? I am having problems doing this...I do a lot of events that last often over 2 hours. Instead of capturing footage in clips, I just capture the entire tape. When I'm done with the project, I simply make the clips offline.
I'm in the process of reviving a project now, and one tape in it's entirety(55 min approx), captured OK, but I am having problems with another tape. I am getting a broken timecode error, when I don't see how this is possible...because I let the tape freely run. Also, under the logging info, the media ends before the tape ends, which means that is space left on the end of the tape without any timecode. Yet when I batch capture, it still goes to the end of the tape.....isn't a batch capture suppose to go by the clips media in and media out points?
All help is greatly appreciated.

I do this often. There are two shools of thought on this method -
Capturing entire tapes allows one to scroll through non-linearly and make subclips. The advantage to subclips is that they are serachable and you can add comments. The downside to this method is that the files are large, and you may be capturing much more metarila than you need. I often do this when working on docs with very high shooting ratios. The most recent one had 190 tapes for a 1-hour program, which led us to use offline RT for our cutting format and then recapture for online.
Logging and capturing single clips fives you the advantage of starting out capturing only what you know you might use, you can input the logging info at the start, and will have several small clips that may be easier to manage. Since at some point you'll have to familiarize youself with the matreial anyway, you might as well do it at the logging stage.
Several factors can contribute to perceived TC breaks - reusing tapes, camera stops, shooting format (HDV, for instance, will show a TC break each time the camera stops). If you are capturing whole tapes, you might do well to let FCP create new clips on TC breaks and just let it roll. Make sure the TC format matches between your tape and settings (DF vs. NDF)
Regarding rolling off the end of the tape during capture, you might be very close to the end with the clip you are capturing. You might try lowering the post-roll value in the device control preset in your A/V settings.
Hope this helps -
Max Average

Trouble capturing just audio from beta tapes

Hello, I am trying to capture some audio-only beta tapes and having trouble. The deck is all hooked up correctly (deck to IO box to mac), and I followed the manual instructions on how to create an audio only capture setting. When I go to capture the audio, I can hear the audio playing and it says "now capturing", but when it stops I get an error saying "Final cut was unable to read the movie file just captured." Is anyone familiar with this kind of problem? Let me know if you need anymore information about my settings (unfortunately I am relatively new to final cut).
Thanks,
Mike

Try this (no guarantees but it used to work): Go into your scratch disk settings and enable "capture video and audio to separate files." Wasn't consistently a problem, but when it was, this solved it. But I used to get the error when tried to initiate the audio only capture. Be sure and turn this off before you capture video and audio.
Also, what happens if you try and capture video and audio of the same section? You can always just export the audio and then delete the capture.

Beta Tape Cleaner

Probably not the right place to post this, but I'm at a stand still - We have beta tapes from 20 years ago that we not very well kept so it they are dusty and plays like crap. We are using a Sony J-30 Betacam player and FCP to log and capture the footages form the tape, but because the tapes are dirty, they all have this horrible lines across the screen.
I was wondering if anyone knows if there's a device that cleans beta tapes, any other ideas on hos to solve this problem will be very much appreciated.
Thanks.

Russ One wrote:
Do the search in Google on "Baking Video Tape" and also "Baking Audio Tape" lots of info there and even companies that do it or you.
Interesting piece of information, Russ, thanks for the tip. I wonder if that will work on my ancient 3/4" tapes?
that we not very well kept so it they are dusty and plays like crap. We are using a Sony J-30
Betacam player and FCP to log and capture the footages form the tape, but because the tapes are
dirty, they all have this horrible lines across the screen.
I've got to comment on the screen appearance, though. Oxide separation usually causes immediate head clogging. "Lines " from Beta playback can indicate a bad head, not necessarily caused by dirt or oxide flaking. Lines that remain constant through the entire playback indicate magnetic damage to the tape. Surface damage migrates and evolves over time. That is, it's not possible to, say, drag one's fingernail across the top edge of the packed tape and have it appear constant. The diameter of the pack changes to the timing on the edge damage artifacts change as the tape plays.
Further, it's almost impossible for dust to penetrate the closed Beta cassette. I don't think your issue is dust.
bogiesan

Copying beta tapes to DVD

I have some old beta tapes that I want to copy to DVD. I've seen products such as myTV.pvr that allow connecting a VCR to iMac, then copy the file to DVD. A few questions:
1. I understand that myTV.pvr creates files in MPEG-2 format. Does iDVD '08 support MPEG-2?
2. If anyone else has experience with myTV.pvr or similar Mac-compatible products, I would be interested in any recommendations or experiences (good or bad).
Thank you.

G'day,
I've had a lot of success with mpeg streamclip (free software) which allows a multitude of format conversions, especially mpeg2 (DVD) to .dv which imovie 6 requires. You will also need to purchase the mpeg2 playback add-on from Apple (inexpensive). Using mpeg streamclip you can re-edit previously burnt DVDs by opening them in mpeg streamclip and then saving them as .dv files. You can then import the .dv files into imovie 6 and burn them from idvd. The added advantage of mpeg streamclip is that it allows you to capture video projects created on non-firewire devices (most current digital camcorder models). Hope this is of use.
Cheers from Oz

Capturing old VHS tapes

Hello.
Can anyone out there tell me the best way to capture old VHS tapes on to my imac? i.e. what software is best to use? What format is best? Best way to clean up the tapes/ machine before playing them? Basically any little tip and tricks for a good result.
I have searched and googled but cannot find information relavent to my set up. I have already imported quite a few tapes and the results vary from not too bad to terrible.
I would say that I have about 30 tapes that I want to go through and take bits from and am willing to give up a lot of time but only if the results are worth it. So far that has not been the case.
The set up I have at the moment is:
Hitachi VHS recorder (good one at the time)
Canopus advc-55
27" imac i7.
Also have Final Cut Express installed but find the capture/ achiving far easier in imovie.
Any help appreciated,
Pat.

Hi
Canopus advc-55 - should work OK
I use a Canopus ADVC-300 as this has two important (to me) features
• TimeBase correction - mend's small drop outs
The Capture doesn't halt
Audio is keept in sync - even when drop out frames
• Picture enhanzing
Then I prefer to use
• iMovie HD6 - and this set to Capture NOT in a cut up version as then drop out frames will trigger new clips (called save as individual clips in iMovie HD6 pref - I turn it off)
Else I don't need anything else.
Capturing in FinalCut Express or Pro - is more problematic to me as they are much more sencitive and halt's Import much easier. (Much more baby-sittings) - my notes on this following.
Analog to Mac/Digital
From
• S-VHS, VHS, VHS-C - Camera or VCR (VHS-C needs adaptor cassette - SVHS/VCR in such cases)
• Video 8, Hi8 ...........................................( Camera / Digital8 Camera or special VCR-player )
Can be done via
• Camera and tape or video trough (if present) (miniDV or Digital8)
• A/D-box
    Several brands (Must be FireWire)
        Canopus ADVC-55 (now Grass Valley ADVC-55) - (only on way)
        Canopus ADVC-110 (now Grass Valley ADVC-110) - (two ways)
        Canopus ADVC-300 (now Grass Valley ADVC-300) - (Timebase/code-correction)
        EyeTV
• VCR --> DVD (result needs conversion to be of use)
Captured/Imported by
• iMovie 1 to HD6
• iMovie’08 & 09 & 11
• FinalCut Express or Pro
• Final Cut Pro - X ( iMovie’11 Pro? )
• QuickTime Pro
• iDVD
SCART - Must use an SCART-adaptor with in and out switch. The one that came with Camera is one way. Camera ----> VCR/TV - not other way around.
RCA - Connect right way around
USING the S-Video out than RGB-video (Composite) from SCART will give a significantly better result !
Why
• Want to do a DVDs
• Want to edit
Connect VCR to A/D-box via SCART---RCA (EU) or via RCA---RCA (US) and set SCART switch to out (if used). The A/D-box may have an in resp. out side. Connect to in-side. Set A/D-box Input selector to Analog in.
My ADVC-300 has two sets of dip-switches on bottom - for PAL they are set to
Left one number 6 is set to on - all others in off state.
If 6 in off state then it is NTSC
From A/D-box via FireWire 6-pin to 6-pin or 9-pin end to Mac FW port.
Now turn A/D-box or Camera ON
Start iMovie or QT or FinalCut
Select Import or Capture
Re-wind tape in VCR or Camera
Start - Play on VCR or Camera
Import or Capture Now
See that the saved movie is collected on a hard disk with sufficient space
1 hour needs 13.5Gb
8 hour needs 105-110Gb (e.g. a 240VHS tape recorded in LP-mode)
How to store the material
• As is - Icon with a Star on it (iMovie HD6)
• As a set of DVDs
• Collected in a folder - FinalCuts Scratch folders + Movie document on an external/second hard disk
• As DiskImages
• Back to miniDV tapes
Do not use LP-mode with miniDV tapes. Two major problems.
a. When Camera dies - so does the tapes - Can’t be play-backed securely on other Camera even if
brand and type number is the same - the tolerances are to small
b. Audio goes out of sync due to 12-bit recording and/or drop outs in video makes video and audio
not walk in pace / parallel. Resulting in a very tough re-sync problem.
Yours Bengt W

Digitize Beta tape with Sony UVW 1800 Betacam SP deck

Hi guys
I'm trying to digitize Beta tape with using Sony UVW 1800 Betacam SP deck. We've tried so many ways but still no luck.....If anybody has successful experience with this, please share the wisdom...!!!
I wrote what we've tried so far.
From Sony UVW 1800 Betacam sp deck to Sony media converter DVMC-DA2:
-S video cable, From BNC to RCA video cable, Audio cable connected with RCA cable.
(I've tried S video cable and BNC-RCA video cable at a time and one at a time.)
From Sony media converter DVMC-DA2 to Macbook pro:
-Firewire 400w/ firewire 800
FCP 7 settings:
-DV-NTSC easy setup
-Device control preset: We've tried Non controllable device, Firewire NTSC, Sony RS-422
Sony UVW 1800 betacam sp Settings:
-VTR setting(Local/Remote) is on Local
Sometimes we've also tried Keyspan adapter with keyspan driver. Keyspan serial assistant found Keyspan device but doesn't seem like I can have deck control on my mac...We used Rs422 cable to Mini din8 cable to connect Betacam deck and Keyspan.
But in FCP, it keep saying 'no communication'....sometimes it says 'not threaded'.
We've hooked Betacam Deck to Sony monitor to see if we can see pictures but we can't see anything or hear anything.....We can see just timecode. We have PVM-14N6U monitor and we used BNC cable to connect those.
Again, if anyone knows any small thing about this problem, please help me.
Thank you!!!!
P.S:
Even about cheap and good Betacam repair shop info is really helpful to me...!:)
Does anybody know any store which can offer service like sending a person to fix Betacam deck?
Thanks again!!

OK...this hits me:
We've hooked Betacam Deck to Sony monitor to see if we can see pictures but we can't see anything or hear anything.....We can see just timecode. We have PVM-14N6U monitor and we used BNC cable to connect those.
You connect the deck to a monitor and don't see or hear anything. OK...is the deck WORKING? Perhaps you can't capture anything because you aren't getting a signal from the deck. The deck will have 2 possible outputs....BNC that's a COMPOSITE signal (meaning SD video, a complete, but low end video signal), and three separate ones known as COMPOSITE...R-Y, B-Y and G-Y. Try both of those on the monitor. There's also one called SUPER. This is a COMPOSITE signal that also displays timecode. If you can see timecode on the monitor, that means you are plugged into this. BUT, if you see timecode and no video image...that means that the tape is bad, or the video heads are bad....because you are getting a video signal from the deck, but no image from the tape.
So we aren't even talking about the Sony converter...right now just trying to get a good signal...and you can't even do that, right? Might need to try another deck.

Capturing from Beta

Capturing: DV-PAL Widescreen 48kHz from Sony J-30 Beta compact player.
This device is equipped with Firewire port.
Could not get 16:9 format of captured or preview material.

When diverse DV devices are connected to Premiere, no any problem occured.
At beta tapes is raw material, and scene detecting would be appreciated.
This works, but format not.
I just got an advice from friend to capture as it is drag to timeline, adjust format on timeline and render to wide format.
I'm sure this works, but a pile of beta cassettes force me into something more efficient
Back in time of Pinnacle Studio, wide format capturing could be achieved. Now, this is Corel Video Studio.
Maybe capturing there works fine.
Or maybe to try HDVSplit?
I will try first yur advice about flag in vertical blank interval.

No video when trying to capture PAL dv tape w/Sony HVR-V1U camera

Hello there,
Im attempting to Log & Capture a DV tape with "DV SP PAL" content from a Sony HVR-V1U camera using an iLink FireWire.
I have deck control, timecode, and audio but no video. Instead I see bars for video w/the ominous "preview disabled" band. When I attempt "Capture Now," I receive the follwoing message "this operation could not be completed as there is no video." For Easy Setup, Im currently in "Format: PAL; Use: DV-PAL FireWire Basic" (ive other combinations, and again best I can get is deck control but no video).
The DV PAL tape plays fine in the camera's LCD screen. Also I had no issue capturing HDV NTSC tapes using the same Sony HVR-V1U camera.
I've checked my settings and the usual obvious stuff but no luck.
If anyone has any ideas on what Im doing wrong or things I could try it would be much appreciated.
Many Thanks,
Sam

are you sure this camera is fully pal compatible? Some cameras/decks will play back certain formats but will not output via firewire. Can you shoot PAL with this camera? If not, I'd guess you can't use it to capture PAL via firewire. Might check the camera manual.

Splitting events when capturing footage from tape

Using Final Cut Pro x, I want to capture footage from tape which is of a more then one event. what is the best way of doing this so as to avoid all of the footage captured as one event.

One way of doing this is to simply go into the Import from Camera window and select the clips that belong to one event then hit the Import Selection button. A window will come up asking you which event you want to import to and also give you the option to create a new event. After the little clocks fill up on each of the selected clips, that import is done. Now you can select the other clips and import them in the same way specifying a new event when you are asked where they are to go. Best wishes.
stpehen

Need to capture entire contents of a mini DV

What is the easiest way to capture entire contents of a mini DV? Must I create an offline clip and specify the media start and end points and do a batch capture, or can I use Capture Now?
Thanks,
John Link

If you use Capture Now, it will get everything minus any preroll needed to start a new clip on a timecode break.
If you change Device Control to Non-Controllable Device, in the Capture Settings, you will get absolutely everything but there will be no source timecode. Should you ever need to recapture that will make it very difficult/almost impossible to recreate your work accurately.

I would appreciate some help in capturing some VHS tapes into PP-CS6.

Aloha,
Just loaded CS6 and my 1st project is to convert some VHS tapes into HD DVD's. The VHS player I'm using has R/G/B Component video out & HDMI in/out. My PC video card is a Radeon 6750 with 1 x HDMI (in use for my monitor), 1 x DVI-I, and 1 x D-SUB. My mobo, a Gigabyte GA-MA78GN-US2H, has 1x D-SUB, 1 x DVI-D, & 1 x HDMI. I don't believe I can use both HDMI slots simultaneously. I'm not even sure I can use any of the onboard graphica ports while I'm using an external video card.
So my questions are; 1) which available graphic port on the video card will offer me the best VHS tape capture? 2) what are the capture settings (i.e. frame rate & resolution of most VHS tapes either home recorded or professionally recorded) that I should use?
Mahalo-n-aloha from the big Island where the water is always warm and clear, and where now (Jan-March) the Humpback Whales play.
konadon

Usually, video ports on a video card or motherboard are out only. You would need a capture card, or external box to get VHS video digitized into your computer.
For VHS tapes, I would recommend getting a Hauppauge HD-PVR available here: http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_hdpvr.html
It would save you a lot of headaches and make your job much easier.
If you'd like specifics: the HD-PVR has component inputs with optical audio, along with S-video and composite connections.
I've used it to capture many VHS tapes, and never had a problem.
Good luck!

Capturing a dvcam tape

i am trying to capture a whole tape from a dvcam, and i set an in and out point from beginning to end, but final cut keeps breaking as if there is a timecode break and missing chunks of media in the process.
Ive checked on the tape and there are no timecode breaks present, the settings are not set to stop capturing after a certain amount of time and the breaks always occur in different places on the tape every time i try to capture.
the deck i am trying to capture from is a HDV HVR-1500, dont know if that helps at all, i am trying to work out whether its the deck, final cut or tape thats the problem,
Lianne

Ive checked on the tape and there are no timecode breaks present, the settings are not set to stop capturing after a certain amount of time and the breaks always occur in different places on the tape every time i try to capture. the deck i am trying to capture from is a HDV HVR-1500, dont know if that helps at all, i am trying to work out whether its the deck, final cut or tape thats the problem,< </div>
I do not know that deck.
Most such errors are easily traced to the tape. Or the deck.
Breaks are occurring at different places suggests incompatibility between the deck and that particular tape. Let's say you shot on a Canon camera, a Sony deck might not like the head pattern. If you need this done in a hurry, get a new deck or try dubbing your tape from you camcorder to the 1500.
bogiesan

Is it possible to monitor audio through my mac while capturing from a tape in FCPX

Is it possible to monitor audio through my mac while capturing from a tape in FCPX?

I am sure that as you import a tape you will hear the audio as well as see the video.
Have you got FCP X?
If not, download the free 30 day trial.
http://www.apple.com/finalcutpro/trial/

Capture Entire Beta Tape

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