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DVCPROHD tape to disk transfer?
I do 3D graphics/visual effects work – so I’m not an editor nor do I work with FCP. BUT – we often shoot location or greenscreen footage on DVCPROHD (VariCam, usually 720p/24fps) and often need to find someone to transfer the tapes to hard drive so we can add the effects.
Its seems everytime we go to do this there is chaos and confusion. I think one house actually played the tape analog and re-captured it into their editing system. One guy said he was doing a digital transfer, but the resolution and aspect ratio was ‘getting changed’ in FCP during the ‘capture’ and he was worried about ‘re-compressing’ the footage…..?
OK – maybe I’m over simplifying – but there is DVCPROHD _DIGITAL_data on the tape – I want that EXACT same data in a quicktime file on a hard drive. How do you setup FCP w/ a digital connection to a deck to just transfer the data from the tape to hard drive without doing any re-conversion, re-capturing, re-compressing, etc…???? There shouldn’t be any data loss in the transfer – its digital tape to digital disk – yes?
We have an HD FCP pro system on order so in the future we hope to just rent a deck and do these transfers ourselves to save all the headaches.
Thanks
Dave Henion -
5 Replies
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Via firewire.
Connect the AJ-HD1200 or 1400 to a Mac running FCP 4.5 or later, use the DVCPRO HD easy setup that matches the frame rate shot (720p24, 720p30, 720p60) and then capture. That capture will be full resolution.
BUT…that file will only be viewable on a Mac. And that mac has to have that codec…the DVCPRO HD codec…installed into quicktime. If it doesn’t have it, then you won’t see it. If you are using a PC for graphics, you will not see this file.
Are you on a Mac or PC?
Shane
Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net -
Thank you for your post.
We use PC’s – but have a mac where we make our selects from the dvcprohd qt files and render it out uncompressed (codec: none) – since we usually only work on a few seconds of footage at a time the file sizes are managable.
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Where are you located? I know a house that will do this for you that won’t mess this up. They ship as well.
Jeremy
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Thanks Jeremy – we are in Orlando, FL. Shipping the tape is fine when we’re not in a hurry, but you know how that goes, sometimes we have to drive it somewhere, have it transfered, and get it right back same day. But any info you have would be greatly appreciated.
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Whats the connection to the deck usually? Firewire, SDI, etc?
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