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Final Cut Pro 7 problems importing sd footage from DSR 20 deck
Hello,
I trying to use FCP 7 to import sd footage I shot with a JVC GR-D870 MiniDV consumer camera. Specs below.
https://support.jvc.com/consumer/product.jsp?modelId=MODL028241&pathId=26&page=3&archive=true
I used brand new Sony and TDK consumer grade mini dv tapes. I then loaded them into a Sony DSR 20 player/recorder and was able to watch them with a very minor pixilation and lag through Final Cut Pro 7. I had complete control of the deck and had no problems there, playing, rewinding, etc.
HOWEVER, when I attempted to import after hitting play on the viewer and then “Capture Now”, after 1 to 3 seconds, I received an error message.
“CAPTURE ENCOUNTERED A PROBLEM READING THE DATA ON YOUR SOURCE TAPE. THIS COULD BE DUE TO A PROBLEM WITH THE TAPE. CAPTURE HAS BEEN ABORTED AND YOUR CLIP HAS BEEN SAVED.”
Any ideas why? This is with both the Sony and TDk tapes and they were only used once. The computer is a Mac Pro 2009 4,1 with 16 gb ram. Should be no problem there.
Thanks for any suggestions.
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8 Replies
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Could be time code discontinuities. Try taking the deck out of remote, playing it manually, and using the “manual capture now” button, but first, go into prefs and turn off the “abort capture on dropped frames” box, then try again.
If the DV source tapes were recorded at SLP or LP speed, this could create playback problems in the deck, hence your artifacting issues.
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Thanks for the advice. The DSR 20 is set to “Local”, I went into prefs and “Unchecked” the “abort capture on dropped frames” and then manually pressed play on the dsr 20 followed by clicking “capture now” on the import window, and after 2 seconds it crashed again with the same message.
Any other suggestions?
Thanks!
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Double-check the path to your scratch drive and be sure you’re digitizing footage into a drive that has room for it.
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I conducted more testing. I added an ssd card, Samsung 840 pro Sata 3 card, so its fast and has 256gigs of space and im only using 110gb. I cloned the OEM Mac drive 750gigs.
I tested both drives individually after unmounting the primary drive I wasn’t using so it wouldn’t confuse the computer or slow it down.
My scratch disk is a brand new 7200 rpm drive with around 700gigs free space, basically unused. For the test I changed the scratch disk to the primary drive and to the separate scratch disk drive.
1. I tested the mini dv tape recorded on the JVC Gr-870 and got the same message.
2. I tested a DVcam tape recorded on a Sony DSR 300A.
No matter which scratch disk I use, (primary or secondary free unused drive) worked.
Is it possible that the older Sony DSR 20 deck doesn’t want to communicate with the newer version FCP 7.0?
Thanks again Mark!
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Try a different firewire cable. Also, what “speed” were these tapes recorded in? Do you have a “known good” tape from another project that you know worked fine the last time you captured it?
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Basically, I tried to import some Sony DVcam tapes. I don’t get the error message, but after walking away for an hour, Final Cut brought in 5 different clips of 1 second each. So, it didn’t give the message that the MiniDV tapes gave, but it didn’t work either. Those tapes were recorded using a DSR 200A camera and I initially imported the footage from the camera directly into my older G5 when I had it. So, either Final Cut 7, Mac Pro 4,1 2009 Intel Xeon, DVcam and mini dv tapes, DSR 200A and 300A camera, or DSR 20 VCR deck doesn’t like something.
As a matter of fact, I couldn’t even play without tons of pixilation most of the tapes. Some dvcam and mini dv tapes were able to be viewed through Final Cut 7, but I couldn’t import anything.
I was reading a product brochure for the DSR 20 and saw this statement. Playback Compatibility with
the DV Format
The DVCAM format is an extension
of the consumer DV format with
which it maintains playback
compatibility. This means that the
DSR-20P is capable of playing back
DV recorded tapes* without any
special adaptor, an advantage to
users who wish to play back their DV
recorded tapes as source material.
*Except LP modeSo, I will assume anything that didn’t work did not work for tis reason, LP mode. Problem is I have no cameras or decks left from the SD era, just this deck, tapes, and FCP. So, basically, I am beat!
Thanks for your help and unless you can think of something else, I think it’s just not possible.
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“As a matter of fact, I couldn’t even play without tons of pixilation most of the tapes.”
I’d almost bet money you have SLP tapes then. The good news is that you can find a camcorder or deck used for cheap online or local pawn and thrift stores. Don;t give up until you’ve tried that.
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I’m not sure about a JVC deck, but when I used to use a Panasonic 750 to capture DV tapes years ago, I had to set the deck up, through the menu, to play DV formatted tapes. It didn’t automatically detect the DV format. The deck needed to be manually set to play back that format.
Check your menu setups to see if that might be the case.
Also, there was a plug-in that fixed a problem with Panasonic decks aborting capture after a few seconds. It sounds like it might be the same problem. JVC and Panasonic decks are often pretty much the same decks just with different names. I still have the plug-in on my machine at home. I’ll take a look at it and see what it was called. I admit that I haven’t captured tape for quite a while now, and I don’t remember the name of the plug-in.E=MC2+/-2db
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