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Best way to capture DVD-R travel videos into FCP4?
While traveling in far flung parts of Laos and Cambodia I shot video on a new Sony DCR-DVD403 DVD-R camcorder. Since getting home I’ve viewed the disks on a large Samsung HD monitor, playing them on the camcorder itself, a typical consumer DVD player, and a higher end Sony DVP-NS975V DVD player.
Using the camcorder and the standard DVD deck for playback, picture quality was pretty good, excellent at times, but subject to wavy lines and the odd artifact at other times. However, when playing them on the Sony DVP-NS975V (which has an HDMI connection to the monitor and, I believe, supposedly up-res’s video to 1080i) picture quality was markedly better — really superb. I don’t know whether it’s the HDMI signal, or the up-res feature, or both that explain this but for whatever reason, the DVP-NS975V is the clear winner for playback.
So, now I want to capture my videos into FCP 4 and edit them to become finished DVD’s. How to best capture the video? I have FCP 4 and a Canopus ADVC110. Is there a way to convert HDMI to DV, should I go in to the Canopus that way? Or use a computer drive and drag, transfer, or convert my video into Finalcut that way? Or, does someone make a capture box or card with an HDMI input connector? When all is said and done, can I expect that my final, edited disks will look as good as the raw footage does on my DVP-NS975V?
I have access to a variety of goodies and boxes, so more expensive interfaces are not necessarily a problem. I just don’t know what the best approach would be.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. I came home with a lot of nice video material and would like to end up with edited DVD’s that retain the good quality and will continue to give pleasure over the years, as playback technology improves. Thanks in advance.
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5 Replies
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You could do an analog convert with your Canopus. But I would recommend DVDxDV. Check it out at:
https://www.dvdxdv.com -
If you’re trying to keep everything as clean as possible, you’ll want to avoid DV capture as that will add more artifacts and really degrade your image quality.
If you can find a DVD Player with an SDI output, that would be ideal so you could capture digital uncompressed from the machine to maintain absolute highest quality. Next from that that I would recommend the AJA Io LA to take the S-Video feed out of the DVD Player and capture at 8bit uncompressed. The Io LA is probably a more viable option.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Creative Genius, Biscardi Creative Media
https://www.biscardicreative.comNow in Production, “The Rough Cut,” https://www.theroughcutmovie.com
“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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doesn’t heuris make a plugin to edit directly from the discs to FCP?
https://www.heuris.com/MPEGProducts/dvdconnexit/index.htm
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Well DVDxDV doesn’t just save to the DV codec. You can save to ANY codec, even uncompressed. I’m confident it will give every bit as much quality as SDI out of a DVD deck to uncompressed.
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Guys, thanks a lot for your help and ideas. After reading and digesting your replies I’ve gone round and round on this. Some updates:
First of all it finally dawned on me that regardless of how good my DVD-R’s look when played on the DVP-NS975V (which does indeed upres to 1080-i, and whose circuitry I’m convinced really does minimize motion and crosshatch artifacts when playing my travel disks), I can’t make “finished” DVD’s in 1080i anyway. So the best I can do is find the cleanest way possible to capture the raw video, make my edited DVD’s, and then play them on the 975 and hen I want to watch them on my HD set. This was probably so obvious to you guys that you didn’t bother to mention it, but it wasn’t obvious to me. (I’m an audio guy who is relatively new to video.)
I got hold of a Pioneer PRV-9000 DVD-R (with DV out) and tried going DV in to the Canopus 110 but unfortunately, the Pioneer only played about half of my disks, it wouldn’t recognize the others. I have found that this is the case with some DVD players — they will only play about half of my disks, with no apparent rhyme or reason. Other decks play them all with no problem. Too bad, oh well.
So, with that possibility out the window, so I think I’ll go ahead and try the DVDXDV route. I don’t even have a DVD drive for my Mac yet, so getting one (and making sure that it really plays all my disks) will be the first step. If it does, I’ll go ahead and try DVDXDV. It seems better than trying to round up all the expensive hardware I would need to capture the disks via a digital video cable.
Thanks again for the help, it is greatly appreciated. I’ll keep you posted.
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