Capturing MiniDV video...

Hello one and all,
I have a Satellite P305 with 3GB of RAM running Vista Home Premium on a core-duo @1.86 Mhtz each. I have a Canon GL1 video camera and would like to be able to capture video from it. The camera uses the MiniDV format, which means that it uses Firewire. I would like to know if anyone here has a solution to capturing video from Firewire to USB or using a Firewire "adaptor" of some kind. I was concerned that the PCMCIA card would bottleneck the capture, and my understanding is that there is currently no Firewire to USB solution available (Or ever will be...). If anyone is doing this, I would GREATLY appreciate having the ability to do this. I am a Telecommunications and Film student and it would be so nice to be able to shoot and edit on MY laptop rather than going to a media lab on my campus. Any and all suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Well, not knowing which P305 model you have...
Some of them appear to have a 4 pin Firewire port. Some cameras may need a 6 pin port though, but maybe all you'll need is a cable and the appropriate software.
Otherwise, the computer has Express Card slots.

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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.

Why does my 4:3 miniDV video keep getting captured as 16:9? (Vidi/Final Cut Pro question)

This is partially related to Final Cut Studio, although not necessarily. I've been trying to back up dozens of my miniDV tapes on to my harddrive for several months now, racing against the clock as their video quality starts to degrade. Since Final Cut Pro started giving me problems with the timecode breaks, I started using a capture program called Vidi instead (v0.4.7) Everything was capturing well, considering, until just last week where several of my tapes, which were shot in 4:3, would capture as 16:9. That is, the video files were clearly stretched to a 16:9 aspect ratio and appeared distorted. Today I tried to go back to Final Cut (v6.0.6) to capture it the old way, and, lo and behold, the video was once again being stretched to 16:9.
A few things:
- I'm about as sure as I can be that these tapes were shot in 4:3. I've watched them several times on my TV and they are played back in 4:3, with the black bars on the left and right.
- I had actually captured video previously from one of these tapes a few years back and it recorded as a 4:3 video file, just as it should.
- I definitely have "4:3" checked off in Vidi when I capture the video. What's even more infuriating, is that BOTH Vidi and Final Cut show the video playing in its 4:3 aspect ration during apture. It's only when I check the captured file that it's been stretched to 16:9
- A tape I shot in 2008 captured perfectly with Vidi today - in it's 4:3 format. That seems to imply that it's not a software setting issue.
I'm starting to lose my mind with this, especially since I haven't found a single reference to this problem anywhere else. All I want is to get the raw DV data off of these tapes to work with at a future date, and I'd like it to be exactly as it was originally shot, not distorted. Maybe some bit of code on these tapes got messed up over time, resulting in capture software to think it was shot in 16:9? These tapes aren't anywhere near my oldest ones - they're from 2010 and 2011. Is there something obvious I'm missing when I capture these videos? If there's no other solution, is it possible to squeeze them back to 4:3? It might not look as good as if were captured in it's native format, but I'm out of ideas.

Not sure if it makes any difference for archiving purposes, but dv files (dv streams) are not generally recommended for use in fcp. .mov with the dv codec is how fcp captures SD video via firewire. Someone a few months ago claimed that .dv was fine with fcp, but I seem to remember that audio will always need to be rendered and since I always use fcp for capture of DV material, it's not an issue for me.
You can use compressor to both convert to .mov with the dv codec and reset the anamorphic flag. Not sure if there will be any loss of quality, so it might be worth testing this. Perhaps someone with more knowledge will speak up regarding this or alternative methods of converting .dv to .mov
What problems are you having capturing from within fcp? Shouldn't be a problem. I find that setting the easy setup correctly is crucial for successful capturing. Even if all the individual elements that seem to compose the easy set up are correct, there can still be problems. Perhaps you might want to start a new thread regarding your capture problems and we can see if we can solve the problem.

Interrupted Capture of MiniDV video, CS5.5.

I am a CS5.5 user and am having a video capture issue. The capture randomly stops and starts during video capture(MiniDV). The VRC keeps playing so there are missing areas in the captured video. I have tried all the basic things, such as, restarts, etc. Can anyone help?

More information needed for someone to help... please click below and provide the requested information
-Information FAQ http://forums.adobe.com/message/4200840
That **sounds** like something is running in the background that is interrupting the process
-Interrupt message #16 http://forums.adobe.com/thread/978014
Also, you MAY need to use the Legacy Driver http://forums.adobe.com/message/2981411 if your unknown OS is Windows 7

SONY GVD1000E MINIDV VIDEO WALKMAN and G5 imac

I was looking on the jigsaw sytems web site at the SONY GVD1000E MINIDV VIDEO WALKMAN and I saw that they say it is incompatable with a G5 imac
Is this so?

Neil,
1) Your best bet is to get 5.1 if you do not have it yet. It is a paid crossgrade, but as long as you have the original install discs it is a simple process.
2) The "e" at the end of your camera indicates that it is the PAL version I believe. Do you edit in PAL? or NTSC? Whichever you use just make sure to choose the proper easy setup.
3) Since you have a G5, I would suggest using that as your video machine. You can get around the firewire situation in one of two ways. First, and best in my opinion, is to purchase a second internal SATA harddrive and install it in the spare bay, set this as your "Scratch Disk" and your off. Second, buy a PCI firewire card and install this in a spare PCI slot, then connect your firewire drive to this. Or, if you feel the need, do both.
4) As for why iMovie works and FCP doesn't, the simple answer is the iMovie is a consumer program that has much lower tolerances than the PRO FCP. From what I understand, iMovie does not capture timecode and does not capture audio and video as separate files, among other things. To do these things there must be proper communication between the computer and camera.
5) Another thought is that your camera may be set to downconvert the footage to SD on output. This might also explain why you got something in iMovie and not FCP. Check in the menu system for your cam and see if it is set to downconvert.
K

Unable to capture analog video.

Hi,
I am running Premier Pro CS3 on a Windows XP machine. This is a new machine to me provided by my work. I am trying to capture analog video from a VHS deck that has both S-video and composite outs. The IT folks installed an ATI TV Wonder HD 650 PCI Digital & Analog TV Tuner to use as a capture card. In the device manager it shows up as an ATI Radeon HD2400 card. I don't have anyway of discerning the difference, and this may or may not be the main issue. When I open Premier and try to capture, it does not recognize the card as a capture device. Any clues about how to make this work would be great.
Thanks,
sarah

Premiere Pro does not natively capture from TV or graphics cards.
You will find links to many
free tutorials in the PremiereProPedia that will quickly show you how things are done in Premiere Pro.
Cheers
Eddie
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Forum FAQ

Capture HD video in Final Cut Express with a Sony HDR-FX7

When try to capture a video from my new Sony HDR-FX7 using the HD Format Apple Intermediate Codec 1080i60 the preview screen never shows the video being captured. In fact the video is never captured. Any suggestions to how set the 'Easy Setup'? When I try to capture with NTSC format the software keeps looking for a timecode that it will never find thus stops within a minute of starting. I would love to capture some video from my new Sony HDR-FX7 but not having much luck tonight. Have any helpful hints?

First, trash your preferences. Setting different incorrect settings and opening the capture window is a good way to corrupt the prefs files. HDV AIV 1080i60 is the only one to use if the camera is correctly set to output HDV.
Please give your full system specifications, what computer, what drives, how everything's connected, what settings are on the media (you really did shoot HDV?), and finally what version of the software, of the OS, and of QuickTime are you using?

DVHSCap to Capture HDV VIdeo

FCP does not support the JVC GR-HD1U but I have found that people have been successful capturing the video through Apple's DVHSCap then converting the data to .m2t transport files using MPEG Streamclip (I will post what I read below). I have downloaded DVHSCap but cannot figure out how to capture the vide from my camcorder. If anyone is familiar with DVHSCap I would very much appreciate some advice. Thank you all very much for your time!
Andrew
[ QUOTE ]
Iam looking for the correct FCP set ups for digitizing HD from the
JVC JY-HD10 .recorded on the camera in HD mode.
I can get camera control -FFW -ply- rewind- but no video in the digitiz window?
FCP 4.5 1.33 G4 powerbook 1 gig ram
[/ QUOTE ]
Apple and FCP 4.5 do not yet officially support JVC's HDV camcorders.
However, I have had very good results, over the past year, using Apple Development software to capture HDV files from my GR-HD1U. Then using free-ware software to convert the resulting .m2t transport files to QuickTime .mov files. I then drop the QT.mov files into an FCP bin and edit as usual using FCP.
I use Apple's DVHSCap application to capture HDV camcorder data tapes via firewire and convert the data to .m2t transport files. DVHSCap (for Panther) can be obtained by going to:
www.apple.com/firewire/
click on 'FireWire SDK 19 for Mac OS X (Download)
double click XFireWireSDK19e.pkg (to install the SDK)
DVHSCap (and similar VirtualDVHS) can be found in
/Developer/FireWireSDK19/Applications/
I also use a freeware program 'MPEG Streamclip 1.0.1', which is available from:
http://www.alfanet.it/squared5/mpegstreamclip.html
I use MPEG Streamclip to:
1) Locate clips of interest and set their 'in' and 'out' points,
2) Set the, optional, number of 'bad lines' to crop from the sides and top of each frame,
3) Re-scale, if desired, to 720p or 1080p,
4) Export to QuickTime...
5) Drop the resulting QT.mov file, which contains synced 'video and audio' data, into an FCP bin.

I don't have experience with your JVC format or deck but here is something you may want to read.
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/FCP6HD_and_BroadcastFormats.pdf
Page 19
*Important: If your computer has a PCI graphics card installed and you are logging or*
*capturing HDV footage, Final Cut Pro does not preview video or audio in the Log and*
*Capture window. You can still log and capture, but you need to use your HDV camcorder*
*display to preview video.*
I realize you have 5.1 but read this entire section on HDV, it could help.
Good Luck
Z1

Capture analog video

Hi, when i have a g5 with finalcut 5 i can capture analog video (betacam conected to a dvcam recorder then with a "non controlable device" and then "capture now") now, with the mac pro and fcp 6 i can't.
there are no signal to capture, what can i do?

The deck is in e/e if you can see the analog signal in the log and capture window. If you can't see it, it's probably not in e/e... keep looking, all pro decks have this function. The other thing you should be able to do is dub the source tape to the digital recorder. Make sure too the input selection on the machine is set up properly.
Jerry

Best way to Capture Analog Video (via DV)

I have no issues with capturing DV video froma DV Camcorder in PRE. The process is very smooth and I really am comfortable with it. However, when I am capturing my old wedding and other personal VHS tapes (via an ADTech Pyro AV) I really hate the capture capablities within PRE ( I am use PRE 7).
I was wondering if there is any advantage to using PRE for the DV Capture for my Analog material verses using either Windows Import Video, or using some other capture program like Pinnacle Studio (which allows me to specifiy the length of the capture verses having it just run on until I stop it.) Most of my VHS tapes are 2 hours in length and I would like to be able to say capture 125 minutes then stop (so I could just run the captures at night or while I am otherwise not using the computer.) With PRE7 it will just continue capturing forever until I stop it, which creates some enormous files that then need to be trimmed.
(Does anyone know a way to tell PRE to just capture for x amount of time on a analog to DV Capture?)
Is a DV Capture the same regardless of program? Is there any advantage to actually running the capture through PRE7 verses external where I can provide better control over the length and time of the capture.

If your ADS Pyro AV Link is set up right and capturing over FireWire, you should get the same quality no matter what program you use to capture -- and that quality should be as good as the original. Premiere Elements does nothing to change the video data of DV as it captures; it just saves it as it comes in.
But I would not recommend using any program or device that captures as anything other than DV-AVIs. Otherwise you're dealing with conversion issues and possibly incompatible video files, etc.
Does that answer your question?

Getting the following message on Final Cut Express "audio only capture selected video preview disabled" how can I get the video capture back?

I'm getting the following message on screen when attempting to capture video "audio only capture selected, video preview disabled." How can I get the view preview back?

FCE doesn't allow for audio only capture, it's in a twist somewhere.
Try trashing the FCE preferences.
Al

Video capture from video camera to macbook

I can't figure out how to capture my video off my video camera and transfer it to my macbook. I have QT pro and have attached the firewire, but when QT pro launches, there is no option to capture...any thoughts? Thanks

File, New Movie Recording. Press red button.

Captured NTSC video looks small in Canvas window

Often, when we capture video into FCP (version 4.5), the clip comes in at 50% of it's original size (that's how it looks in the canvas window and on the NTSC monitor). We have looked at a number of sequence settings and have not been able to rectify the problem.
We are capable of scaling each or the clips up to 160% of the original size and the clips will then fill the frame as expected. There does not seem to be any degradation in the video when doing this, but obviously we are doing something wrong and our solution is a long way from elegant.
In certain projects or sequences the video will be captured into FCP and be the normal size, but we have not been able to figure out what is the difference between these projects and sequences.
Thanks very much for your input.

Use the DV/NTSC easy preset to capture your DV material. If the material is recorded as anamorphic, use that preset.
Capture the video using the same DV/NTSC easy preset that you used to create the project.
Drop the clip into a sequence created using the same DV/NTSC easy preset..
The clip will fill the NTSC external monitor screen.
Set your Canvas and Viewer windows to Fill to fit.
x

Capturing input video from a DV camera

I found that my old Sony HC90 DV camera makes a good video to Digital converter so I can make DVDs of my old family VHS tapes made over 15 years ago on a video only camera.
I set it up using firewire so that the VCR video is visible on the camera viewfinder and therefore also on the capture preview window of PE9.
As soon as I select Capture, the tape starts playing and cuts out the input VCR video.
If I stop the tape playing on the camera, the PE9 capture also stops.
This means I cant capture any input video without the transport rolling.
If I record it all on camera tape I can replay this and capture it OK but everything will then take twice as long to do
Is there any way I can use the PE capture feature without it starting the tape transport as well so I can capture direct from VCR to Computer?
Alternately is there any other (hopefully free) capture program that doesnt also control the camera transport so I can just capture the video?

Thank you!
I think I will give it a try. I found a web page that seems to be the owners: http://paul.glagla.free.fr/captureflux_en.htm does that look like the correct page to you? His latest version is 6.0, and looks like it was done in 2008. Do you know of a more recent version?
I'm also trying to find a fire wire card for my computer (Dell XPS 8300)
I don't understand why they wouldn't include the firewire card, considering this is a great computer for video editing. I guess most people are using their computers for gaming and streaming and watching DVDs, not making them.
I have been able to import using PE10, but it seems a little glitchy.
I'm also going to try an updated version of the motionDV studio that came with my Panasonic.
Thanks again--
--Linda

Can I capture the video from the TV card or video capture card to publish

Can I capture the video from the TV card or video capture card to publish?
I tried to use the USB camera, it's OK. But, will the TV card or video capture card also work?

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iChat 5 cannot do HD (Max of 4:3 ratio at the above figures)
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Capturing MiniDV video...

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