FCE 4 Not seeing DV Deck

[John Watts]

OK, I’m guessing by the silence that FCE won’t recognize decks that are not cameras? Perhaps? No one wants to deliver the bad news.
Maybe back to Avid? humm

John Watts

[John Watts]

OK, some success. Tried a different deck. After hooking up deck and while playing tape, rebooted the computer and relaunched FCE. This time was able to digitize. That rocks.

John Watts

[Ben Ged low]

Yo John!

I see you posted in 2009. I’m helping a friend set up an edit suite with FCP and a Sony WV-DR7 deck. I can get FCP and the DV half the of the deck to talk to each other, no problem. I want to be able to free capture (non-controllable device) VHS from the deck. I did it once before years and years ago I swear I remember. Can’t get it to work now. I’m wondering if you’ve been capturing any VHS from the deck, and how you are getting FCP to ‘see’ the VHS?

The manual is not particularly helpful.

Any help would be most appreciated,

All the best,

Ben

[Tom Wolsky]

Jon was talking about Final Cut Express. You’re using a different application. You have to create a capture preset with device control set to controllable device. The other option is to dub the VHS to DV and capture from that.

All the best,

Tom

Class on Demand DVDs “Complete Training for FCP6,” “Basic Training for FCS2” and “Final Cut Express Made Easy”
Author: “Final Cut Pro 5 Editing Essentials” and “Final Cut Express 4 Editing Workshop”

[Ben Ged low]

Hi Tom,

I’m intrigued. How does one create a ‘capture preset’ to ‘controllable device’? I know I can set the option for ‘non-controllable’ device. But I’ve never seen one for ‘controllable device’ … the choices are always for a specific controllable device. But the moment I set a specific controllable device, like NTSC, run the VHS on the Sony deck and hit NOW for capture – FCP capture is waiting for a timecode, but of course there is none.

I’ve been told that I can set the VHS to dub to DV (the dub button between the doors of the DV & VHS players), and with a DV tape in the WV-DR7 DV player slot, hit the VHS button on the far right, start the VHS tape and capture using FCP’s ‘non-controllable device’. Only FCP gives me this message: “This operation could not be completed as there is no video.”

The friend I am helping has to capture hundreds of hours of VHS … so dubbing first to DV and then capturing the material would take forever and be very expensive. I swear I once captured VHS straight from the WV-DR7. I’ve heard rumours this is impossible. And yet, there is this memory; but I can’t remember exactly how we set up the deck to do this. I keep looking for someone who actually HAS this deck or has used it enough to tell me if it is possible to wild capture VHS direct from the WV-DR7.

And still looking, all the best, and thank you…

Ben

[Matthew Wood]

Sorry for the long delay, but I have this WV-DR7 version of this deck, and I am looking for the function also. Did you ever get a straight VHS-Firewire output without dubbing to DV first?
Thank you,

Matthew

[Joseph Magrini]

I don’t know if you ever received a response to your post.
I don’t own that particular Sony deck, and cannot speak directly to how it functions.
Neither do I work with Final Cut Express. I am a Final Cut Pro user.

However, I have long been interested in the WV-DR7 and while recently researching the device, came across an online posting with these instructions for FCP users:

In order to Capture from an S-VHS tape:
1) Turn on the deck and press the S-VHS button on the front panel. It should be lit.
2) The VHS dub button must be selected. This is the button on the top of the panel with an
arrow pointing left. A MiniDV tape must be in the deck in order for this to work. As
long as you follow these instructions carefully, the MiniDV tape will be unaffected.
3) When you go to capture window in Final Cut Pro, you must select “capture now” Also very important, Final Cut Pro audio/video settings must be on “non-controllable device”.
The is only controllable from the computer when it is in MiniDV mode.
4) Start playing the tape before the point you want to capture. Just before you want to capture the clip you must click on the NOW button in Final Cut Pro. After you stop
capturing, manually go to the next clip that you want to capture and repeat.

Perhaps you’ve already seen these suggestions. If not, maybe they will work for you.

[Ben Ged low]

Hi Joseph,

Got it fixed six months ago. But thank you, I’ll copy your instructions to a safe place. I was helping a friend who has been happily capturing VHS tapes ever since. But one day she may call saying she has forgotten the formula. And I’ll have your instructions right here to send her.

Mucho thankyou,

Ben