Digitize MiniDV Tapes

[Jason Jenkins]

[David Blumenfeld] “Hi. I have borrowed a friend’s Sony DSR 25 and have a bunch of mini DV Tapes I want to digitize to work on in the future. I need the highest quality and wondering the best method of digitizing…Quicktime seems to do OK, or is it better to do it in FCPX? Thanks.”

If you are using a firewire cable then it is essentially just a data transfer, so the term “digitizing” is a misnomer in this case. No way to increase or decrease the quality of the files.

Jason Jenkins
Flowmotion Media
Video production… with style!

Check out my Mormon.org profile.

[Mark Suszko]

Well, don’t save them as ProRes HQ; that’s like putting a gallon in a three-gallon bucket. Prores422 will be more than sufficient to convert that 25 megabit DV stuff.

[Craig Alan]

I think the best quality is to stay with the original aspect ration and codec.

https://support.apple.com/kb/PH12743?locale=en_US

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Doug Metz]

[Craig Alan] “I think the best quality is to stay with the original aspect ratio and codec.

https://support.apple.com/kb/PH12743?locale=en_US“

+1

You’re not going to gain anything by transcoding to ProRes, since the tape is already a digital stream. In fact, it’s possible that an incorrect transcode setting could hose your freshly-ingested files.

Doug Metz

Anode