HDV tape in Thailand

Listeroos
Sorry for slightly off topic, I'm going to Thailand in the Fall, and I had the buddy I'm staying with source HDV tape. He couldn't find any, and neither could I on the Sony Thai web site.
I asked at my local Sony store, and the sales person scratched his head and said that HDV tapes may not be in Thailand, and in any case "would be unuseable as they would be 'formatted' for SECAM."
I suspect bunk. Any other first hand experience?

Video tape doesn't come formatted, nor does it need to be after purchase.
-DH

Similar Messages

Importing DV/HDV Tapes

Hi,
I would like to know if there is any software to import DV/HDV tapes to my Macbook pro (doing the same job that we can do using the "Log and Capture" window) ?
I don't want to use the FCP to do it because I want to use it at the same time in another tasks.
Thanks

You cannot capture video AND use FCP at the same time doing something else. Meaning you cannot capture video AND edit video at the same time on the same machine. Just not possible. Nor can you capture and compress video at the same time.
To be able to capture video while you are working on something else in FCP....you'd need another machine.
Shane

Can FCP Black and Code HDV tapes?

(Reposted from the FCP Express forum)
I'm running FCP Studio 5.0.4.
I'm trying to stripe some HDV tapes for an upcoming shoot. I've set up a project using the 1080i60 Easy Setup. I have my Sony FX-1 set to HDV record mode and HDV input. When I go to Edit to Tape and hit the Black and Code icon, a dialogue box pops up giving me a dropdown menu from which I can choose the 1080i60 setting.
After the warning that I'm about to erase the tape with black and timecode, I hit OK and a status bar pops up saying it's 'Conforming HDV Video.'
All that is what I'd expect, but the estimated time for it to do this is 10 hours! I let it run for about 15 minutes just to see if that would change, but it looks as though it really would be that long. The status bar counted up to 1% complete during that time. That seems way too long to wait to stripe a tape.
I also tested doing this with Print to Video. I created an hour long sequence and filled it with slug. The same message popped up...only the estimated time was now 3 hours. Better...but not reasonable just to stripe a tape.
Any thoughts?
Other than the inevitable argument over striping tapes, I mean? : )

Its always been about a 50/50 chance of the previous footage cutting through frames of the new video when I have done this, so I never overwrite. Would overwriting black video be a safer bet?
And so the argument begins... Black is previous video whether it comes from a deck via edit system or a capped camera... either way is the same, you are laying down something that you are going to erase!!!!! If you have a break between takes, something is going to bleed through. The only reason you need a stripped tape is for insert editing.
That's why the recommendation is to not bother blacking tapes for shooting. Instead, take the time to ensure that you follow proper shooting practices that will avoid time code breaks.
As for re-using tapes... (that is essentially what you do when you black a tape before use.) Tape is cheap, why risk your money and rep by re-using tape.
rh

How can I digitizing HDV tapes into FCPX

I am about to upgrade my Mac laptop and FCP, but I need to know how I can import (digitze) my HDV tape based video into FCPX. The camera has firewire 400, but I have used a firewire 400 to 800 cable to digitize into Final Cut Studio. What is the best way to do it?

If you get the Retina MBP, you will need to get a FW–Thunderbolt adaptor to use with your 4 pin to 9 pin cable.
Russ

Help - HDV tape import problem - Sony HC-3 broken - Questions/Warning

My Sony HC-3 HD camcorder has just failed. I've had it just over 3 years.
I really don't enjoy video editing much, and despite maybe shooting 20-30 tapes of HD footage of my young children, I'd only got round to importing a handful over Firewire, but was lulled into a false sense of security perhaps by treating the tapes as my film negatives (new tape each time).
The camcorder behaved a bit erratically a few weeks ago when inserting a tape, then the other day it gave an error, I ejected the tape and had a constant C32:11 error flashing. Lots of user reports on the web, no idea what the real issue is, but any suggested fixes didn't work.
Essentially I cannot close the tape transport compartment with or without a tape - it won't accept a tape and return to record/play position.
Almost feels as though something isn't clicking/catching when you push the tape in.
Anyhow, I thought if worst comes to worst I'll just buy Sony's latest model - then the realisation they'd discontinued consumer HDV tape camcorders. Not a happy bunny.
I've sent camcorder to local Sony repair center and am awaiting outcome.
Now my questions are:
1 - Is there any way of simply reading the tape data using an SD camcorder if I ever needed to ? - There are programs that use them to archive data so I guess in theory it must be possible just to read the data, unless it's stored in an SD compliant file format rather than just data.
2 - is 1080i HDV (1440x1080 res) as captured by the Sony HC3 a cross-vendor format or Sony specific - (if 1 is impossible) could I if needed say pick up a Canon HDV camcorder and use that to import my video?
3 - are we to assume now that DV/HDV is dead as a consumer format despite it's better image quality compared to hard drive/memory card video codecs.
Hopefully Sony will repair my camcorder for a fixed rate charge - if they can't or won't what are my options for importing the video I've got on tape?
There are bound to be companies who'll do this for a fee if worst comes to worst, but I feel a bit annoyed with Sony for dropping support for the format after buying an expensive camcorder only a few years ago.
Even if it can be repaired, I'm not sure I'll want to continue using it if there's a risk of future failure and inability to import old tapes. Frankly I'm glad I've used the video function on my Canon 5D II a lot in the last year or so for quick video clips even if many are transiently OOF.
Yes, my fault for not importing the tapes immediately after shooting, but I'd assumed that I would be able to import the data well into the future evene if it meant a new device.
AC

Jeremy Hansen wrote:
HDV is not dead!!! Heavens, the pros laugh at AVCHD and hard drive based cameras. When you shoot on HDV tape, you have a backup.
Sony do still manufacture HDV pro camcorders of course - it's the early adopter consumer they've left in the lurch.
One of my original reasons for using tape was this automatic backup - silly of me not to routinely import tapes to Mac of course.
To answer your questions:
1. No, you can't read it with an SD camera. you are correct that it is just 12GB of data, but no software really knows how to go back and forth, so to speak. In case you care, there was an app years ago (I forget which) that could use a Dv camera as a 12GB backup drive. But practically, no.
Shame really seeing as it's just data - I'd used the Firewire SDK kit DVHSCap app to pull off 12-13GB m2ts files in the past which I felt would be ok for computer archival, unedited direct playback on PS3 and fairly quick to convert to AIC as needed for future editing purposes using a utility.
I did wonder if DVHSCap might be able to pull the data from an SD camcorder, but maybe the tape just would not play.
2. HDV is HDV. If you had problems, pros would advise you to import with the same camera, or at least same brand. But, usually there are no problems. There shouldn't be, but occasionally there are.
I was hoping this was the case, great.
3. Image quality is NOT better with hard drive based camcorders. In fact, most use a higher rate of compression than HDV. What is the advantage? A tape-based camera takes an hour to import and hour. Hard drive cams go faster. Some look great, but there is no advantage over HDV.
Yes, the only advantage of HD/card based camcorders is simpler import faster than real time, and I'd always been concerned with HD camcorders you'd have too many eggs in one basket if the HD failed in between imports to computer.
I own an HC-3, and you have to realize it was an early camera in the high-def market. I don't use it often (except as a secondary) because of its optics.
I've always found it produced pretty acceptable results - constantly amazed that 3-4 year old products get regarded as obsolete by manufacturers who just want you to buy the latest gadget.
Here is my advice:
Get a Canon HDV camera. Use it to import your tapes, and enjoy its superior optics and color quality. Opinion? Yes, but I believe it.
I may consider that if repair fails - any model recommendations that would trounce the Sony?
Cheers
AC

Best "Capture" workflow for projects mixing HDV tape and XDCAM footage

I'm trying to determine the best workflow for projects that combine XDCAM and HDV footage.
I'd obviously do the editing in a project designed for XDCAM, as that's the higher quality footage,
and render the HDV clips in the XDCAM timeline...ending up with an XDCAM end product.
I'd use SONY'S XDCAM TRANSFER to get the clips into FCP.
My question concerns capturing the HDV footage in this scenario. I've never been able to get
the Log and Capture feature for HDV footage to work, unless I've created an HDV project and am capturing into that HDV project.
So, generally, I create an HDV project, open the log and capture utility which is now set to capture HDV, and then capture the footage. I then close that project and create a new project, designed for XDCAM footage. I use XDCAM Transfer to get the XDCAM footage into the project, and I import
the previously captured HDV footage into that browser and start editing, rendering the HDV in the XDCAM timeline.
My question...do I really have to open, what is essentially a "fake" HDV project just to capture that HDV footage? You don't seem to have the option of capturing HDV footage (out of a camera or HDV tape deck) directly into an XDCAM project. If I try to change the capture or audio video settings of the XDCAM project to HDV, you get messages saying you can't do it.
Is there something I'm missing or a more streamlined way of doing this?
Thanks in advance for any input.

No need to jump through these hoops. Just set yourself up with a universal Easy Setup that will handle both. Choose your regular XDCAM HD Easy Setup then open the Audio / Video Settings window and change the Capture Preset to "HDV" and the Device Control Preset to "HDV Firewire" ... then click the "Create Easy Setup" button and save it for recall whenever needed.
Regarding the overall workflow, I'd seriously question the idea of creating XDCAM HD masters. No real benefit to that unless you need to export to XDCAM HD. Much better would be export your final master as Apple ProRes 422.
Best
Andy

Printing to HDV tape

I have not sent a project to tape in probably 3 years, and I rarely work with HDV tape so I need some help with this one. My acquisition is Sony XDCAM HD. I have ingested the footage and have it in an XDCAM HD timeline. I am attempting to send this footage to HDV tape for a client who wants to edit this himself.
FCP recognizes the camera because I am able to capture in HDV. If I try to Edit To Tape, I get an error message saying "Unable to initialize Edit To Tape. Please check your device control preset in audio/video settings". And when I try to Print To Video, FCP does its thing but I never see the video on the camera's LCD screen. Even when I put it in record/pause mode, it does not see the video.
Do I need to change my sequence settings to HDV and then render first?? what am I doing wrong. The camera is a Canon HV10 HDV camcorder.
thanks

thanks, I had tried changing the sequence settings to HDV but it still did not work. and what was bothering me specifically was in the video playback options, I did not see any HDV or firewire settings.
I decided to restart FCP and when I did that, I suddenly saw a list of HDV playback settings, but they were shaded. I then checked "Different Output for Edit To Tape/Print To video" under A/V devices in Audio Video settings and then it worked.

Problems importing HDV tapes

Hello everyone,
First time I need to importe HDV tapes, frames recorded on HDV1080i 50i. I use a Sony HDV camera recoder, plug in with an firewire 800.
I set everything as it must be, then when I open the listed and capture the preview is black and when I start to capture it's says something like "missing of datas from the device, check the connections".
Do I need a special firewire cable for HDV images? Cause It works if I want to import some DVcam frames...
Please Help!! Just rent the camera for few days for import tapes...

Also, I have found that the WAY HDV is logged has a big effect as to how easily it can be captured - I used to constantly get the same warning you do. I started to mark my in and out points "on the fly" meaning the tape was rolling (NOT paused) while setting in and out points. Since doing it this way, I have yet to get that warning again. I imagine that it must have something to do with the GOP nature of HDV, but I'm not sure... I can use the same camera and cables to log and capture DV (paused) without an issue. As soon as I switch to HDV, the warning reared it's ugly head unless logged on the fly.

HDV tape as a unique file

is there a way to import an HDV tape as a unique file, instead of having all those hundreds of files, one for each time there was a recording ?

In the Log and Capture window, click the "Clip Settings" tab. There is a setting for "Create new clip on Start/Stop". Uncheck this box.
I'm guessing this might do the trick but I haven't been able to try it since I discovered it was there when importing HDV.

Is there a way to Black and Code HDV tapes?

I'm running FCP Studio 5.0.4.
I'm trying to stripe some HDV tapes for an upcoming shoot. I've set up a project using the 1080i60 Easy Setup. I have my Sony FX-1 set to HDV record mode and HDV input. When I go to Edit to Tape and hit the Black and Code icon, a dialogue box pops up giving me a dropdown menu from which I can choose the 1080i60 setting.
After the warning that I'm about to erase the tape with black and timecode, I hit OK and a status bar pops up saying it's 'Conforming HDV Video.'
All that is what I'd expect, but the estimated time for it to do this is 10 hours! I let it run for about 15 minutes just to see if that would change, but it looks as though it really would be that long. The status bar counted up to 1% complete during that time. That seems way too long to wait to stripe a tape.
I also tested doing this with Print to Video. I created an hour long sequence and filled it with slug. The same message popped up...only the estimated time was now 3 hours. Better...but not reasonable just to stripe a tape.
Any thoughts?
Other than the inevitable argument over striping tapes, I mean? : )
Dual 2.3 GHz PowerPC G5 Mac OS X (10.4.2) 4GB DDR SDRAM

You should ask this question on the Final Cut Pro forum.

DV or HDV tapes?

Hi there,
I´m doing a video all in HDV shoot in HDV tapes and I got material from somebody else in a normal DV tape, this material was originally shot in DigiBeta. Does this print to tape from DigiBeta to normal DV takes away my high resolution? would it be better to print it in a HDV tape? (I don´t have a Deck and only can capture with my HDV camera)
Thanks
Javier

Well, if you're incorporating it into an HDV sequence, it would save an upconversion to HDV of the DigitBeta/DV material you have. Otherwise, you can just drop it into your HDV sequence with the other HDV clips and it'll render to HDV.
Neither format is inherently better-- HDV has more sheer resolution, but that is not necessarily a determination of quality. "Image quality" is more about the glass than anything else.

Copying HDV Tapes ...

Hi,
Can anyone PLEASE help. I am trying, ideally, to make copies of some HDV tapes? I contacted a local company who want +£40 per tape and I have 15 tapes. Someone suggested connecting 2 camcorders together and copying that way but that I may lose the codec on the copied versions? What is the best way for me to do this, or failing that how can I simply copy the tapes onto my hard drive?
Ali.

Hey Jaak:
Hopefully your camera supports firewire! Hmm, I think your camera has a hard drive, which from what I've come to undestand is tricky. You should be able to review your cameras instructions on "downloading to your PC" type topic.
You can also go to an apple store as well, if your near one. Sorry ,just don't know your camera. One more suggestion, call Sony tech support, I have a HV20 and Canon support is incredible. They walked me right through the whole shabangabang.
FFF out.

HDV Tapes better than MiniDV?

Can anyone attest to the more expensive HDV Tapes delivering better quality and/or reliability than regular miniDV tapes. They both record in HDV so is it just a marketing scheme?

I mostly agree with your comment, David. But just a reminder to HDV videographers that a "dropout" in HDV may well be more than a frame or two, but rather as much as 1/2 second depending on where in the GOP it occurs. When I used to use Premium, the couple of dropouts I did see were recovered upon repeated "recapturing" of a few seconds around the area. I always eventually got it. But that was enough to convince me when I went to HDV (actually a bit before that), to spend the extra $$$ on Excellence where I've had zero dropouts (knock on wood).
But then, I'm not a professional and don't go through as much tape stock as someone who is: I do about three plays a year (in addition to the usual birthday/christmas/vacation family stuff) with three cams, so about 9 to 18 tapes per event (two hour plays with inconvenient tape change spots, so three tapes per camera per performance; I always wind up shoot two performances), so that's only about 200 tapes in the last 6 years worth of plays.
I never reuse tapes, either, and other than for stuff you can readily re-film would recommend against reuse.
Eddie O

HDV tape random capture aborts in FCP

I am trying to capture many hours of HDV footage to disc. Capture Now is aborting frequently either due to alleged timecode breaks or alleged stream problems. But in fact the breaks seem to occur at random: on second or third attempts, capture passes smoothly over the supposed break point, only to abort again later on. I am rarely able to capture more than a minute at a time. Here are the hard facts:
Tapes are Maxell Professional DV-M63Master ME DV/HDV, recorded on only once
Camera for both shooting and playback is Sony HVR-V1P, connnected via FireWire to:
iMac G4 1.25 GHZ, 1 GB RAM, running OS X 10.5.8 and FCP 6.0.6
Capture disc is G-Tech 1TB G-drive, connected via FireWire (just bought to replace LaCie drive in the hope that it would solve the problem)
FCP is set to abort capture on dropped frames and on timecode break (I understand that this second option makes no difference with HDV anyway). I don't want to miss frames that are actually on the tape.
I know lots of people have had similar problems, and I've tried all the suggestions I have found on the forums. Have I missed something?

Julian,
With all due respect, you're asking quite a bit from a single G4 system. If you were back on Tiger and running FCP 5.1.4 you'd have maybe 25% more power, but you're real close to the edge. (I still have a dual 1.25 GHz G4 PowerMac and experimented with FCS2 on it...)
Attaching a fast disk array (RAID) might help a bit, but I doubt the central problem is disk speed. In reality, I think you only need to maintain something like 5MB/sec data transfer rate for HDV, but there is overhead processing and I'm guessing that a system that age probably has some "baggage."
I'd suggest that you freshen up the system by exporting non-critical data from the system drive until you have about 20-30% free space, repair permissions, run your crons (a utility like MacJanitor or Cocktail will do this) and run Disk Warrior on all attached drives. The point is to clean out the system to provide max efficiency at the basic level. You may need to disable apps that like to run in background and maybe even take the system off the net while working. If you can re-gain the original performance, you will probably make it through...
Good luck!

Are HDV tapes really necessary? (Last question for now, I promise)

Do you really need to use them to shoot HD footage? Is there an obvious benefit to them or is this another marketing thing?

no it is not needed
but they are "better" for preventing dropouts which will REALLY mess ya up in HDV (up to a half second lost)
yes it is mostly marketing
try PANASOINC PRO or MASTER tapes (they are actually cheaper in most cases but much reliable then most consumer tapes)
DAVE

HDV tape in Thailand

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