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Capturing Mini DV – Is there an easy solution?
I am getting mixed results when capturing to mini DV. I would love any suggestions or help in sorting this out. I have 3 scenarios. The first scenario works but the other haven’t the way I would like.
I usually grab mini DV footage into Final Cut via firewire through a Sony PD 150 camera without any problems at all. However if that camera is unavailable to me and I am forced to use option B or C then I’m in for a lot of troubleshooting which I would like to avoid.
Option 2 – I also have access to a Sony DCR-VX1000 which is another professional camera. However I can’t seem to ever get FCP to recognize the video or audio when it is hooked up to my G5 via firewire. No Video or Audio. So I decided to hook up a converter box and see if that would work. I went composite video and audio out of my camera to the converter box and then firewire from the converter box to my G5. I still came up empty. No video or audio despite the fact that I could see it playing back in the camera. I tried a couple of different capture settings. I tried capturing using the DV NTSC 48 Khz and the DV50 NTSC 48 Khz settings but NADA. No video or audio.
Option 3 – I then tried using a Samsung Mini DV camera that I bought for like $300 from Sears. I tried the fire wire method and was able to see video and audio in the DV and DV50 settings. However after capturing the video and audio for 3-4 seconds, FCP would then freeze up give me a couple of different error messages. Something about log and capture and the mini DV camera. I apologize but I did not write them down. I can post the error reading if it is needed. The 3-4 seconds would be fine but thats all I could capture at a time. I then ran composite video and audio from the mini DV camera to the converter box and then firewire from the converter box to my G5. This worked fine and I was able to capture as much footage as I wanted to at a time. I need to figure out the firewire issue though because I know the way I am doing it drops the video quality dramatically. This may be a silly thought but after all of that could it be the mini DV video/audio(can’t believe I’m typing this) is to big for the firewire cable so once it is compressed through the converter box it is small enough to be handled. Crazy! Ohhh the fun of capturing!!
This was all on the G5, FCP 4.5 and capturing to an XServe Raid.
Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Lee
G5 Mac OS X
Dual 2.0 Ghz
FCP 4.5 HD
XServe Raid 1 TerabyteG4 Mac OS X
Dual 1.25 Ghz
FCP 4.5 HD
Lacie Drives 200 Gbs -
6 Replies
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I have had a similar problem a few years back. The vx 1000 and the Samsung cameras are probably not tested/approved by apple. I had other similar cameras that did not work.
I then invested in a Sony GVD 1000 mini dv video walkman. About 1000 dollars. Works great , is always hooked up to my system and I save the heads on my cameras.jan o
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Maybe the VX1000 has some age problems? Anyhow if you capture DV (mini-DV is DV quality) it should be DV and not DV50 (DVCPRO 50 as far as I know). No matter if you use the PD150, the vx1000 or another mini-DV device. Most cheap AD converters that convert analog signals to firewire will generate DV.
Although it is not supposed to give any video signal if you would select DVCPRO 50.
Further it sounds a bit like general problems, you can try to trash the FCP prefs, and else uninstall FCP (search for all files to be deleted at apple support uninstall FCP) and reinstall. A full scratch disk can also generate problems, but your specs are quite generous for DV editing, so that is not to likely.If the problem persists, write down the error message.
good luck, john
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Thanks for the suggestions guys. I will give these a try and write down the error message if I can’t solve the problem. Thanks Again!
Lee
G5 Mac OS X
Dual 2.0 Ghz
FCP 4.5 HD
XServe Raid 1 TerabyteG4 Mac OS X
Dual 1.25 Ghz
FCP 4.5 HD
Lacie Drives 200 Gbs -
You may want to consider buying a deck. In my experience camera used as decks sometime have inexplicable problems reading tapes properly from other other manufacturers cameras. Although this problem doesn’t semm to happen as often as it used to it seems to be plaguing you. I have yet to run into that problem using my Sony DSR-11 deck and I’ve used tapes from all kinds of sources. Also by using a deck for aquisition and mastering you save a lot of wear and tear on your camera thereby extending its lfe (or need for service.) Good luck.
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Thanks for all the suggestions everyone!!
G5 Mac OS X
Dual 2.0 Ghz
FCP 4.5 HD
XServe Raid 1 TerabyteG4 Mac OS X
Dual 1.25 Ghz
FCP 4.5 HD
Lacie Drives 200 Gbs -
Hello,
I too have a Sony GV-D1000 and it has been working great for a long time but I am now having an issue with it. It seems to work fine until I plug it in to my mac and for some reason FCP does not recognize it as a device when I go to Log and Capture. It even shows DV In on the top right of the screen on the Sony but I can’t log and capture? I dont know if it has something to do with a setting that was changed but It was working and then the other day I plugged it in and realized it was no longer recognized by FCP or imovie. I was wondering if you had any ideas or thoughts on this.
Thank you,
Brad
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