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Capturing Hi8 Problem
I’m trying to capture Hi8 footage. I’m using a sony dsr pd170 to pass the video through. When I hook the cameras up together, and put them both on vcr (play) mode, i can view the video. But when i hook the sony up to my computer, the sony’s screen goes blue and I can’t capture it on the computer. How can I fix this?
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7 Replies
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I’m making a guess here, but perhaps you should set your device control to “Non-Controllable device” in fcp?
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I just tried, it didn’t work. I can have the video playing through the camera, but when i plug the transfer cable from my computer in, the screen on the sony pd170 goes blank. I think it might have something to do with the camera…
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Do you have them connected together via Firewire or regular video cables? If it’s Firewire, you’ll need to switch to regular video connections to connect the two.
Also, I’m not sure you can use the camera as simply a “pass through” device. You might have to actually record the footage to the Sony first, and then capture from that DV tape to FCP.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR
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Yeah, I was trying to record the footage onto the sony pd170 but it wasn’t working. The cables I am using to connect them are just regular video cables.
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Walter is right on, the way to do this is to first make DV copies of the Hi8 with the Sony camera, then capture the DV tapes in a separate session– plus you now have digital versions of the Hi8 as archives.
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But how? I hook the two cameras up, turn them to what? Like, what are the steps?
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Not knowing the specifics of your Hi8 camera, I will assume it has composite video and audio L-R output. Use the cable that came with the Sony with 3 male standard RCA connectors on one end (usually yellow=video, white and red=audio) and a single minipin-size male connector on the other; the minipin plugs into an AV-in port on the Sony.
For better image quality, if your Hi8 has S-Video output, use that instead of the composite connector mentioned above (but keep the audio cables connected).
I’m not familiar with that particular Sony, but you may have to select analog input somehow. You can then record the Hi8 output onto DV tape in the Sony.
When that’s all done, capture the DV tapes into FCP via Firewire.
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