Importing and Exporting mini DV tapes

[Dave Baloun]

Hi Jeff,

I am very new to video transfer/editing so I need some help with transfer of over 100 mini-dv tapes.

You mention that the captured video from HDV is the same as what is on the tape. I did a few captures from my Canon HV30 and it does appear a little different than when I watch directly from camcorder to TV vs. hard drive to TV. Is there an explanation for this? Is there a processing slow down on the pc that might affect this? The video doesn’t appear as crisp, and when there is movement it does appear more blurred, and maybe a little pixilated.

Thanks,
Dave

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Dave,

How are you viewing “hard drive to TV”? Do you mean that your computer graphics card is outputting to the TV? With what app are you playing the footage?

HDV footage is 1080i (interlaced) and computers don’t do interlaced, they always display as progressive, so that can create strange results on playback. The footage will actually be OK when burned to Blu-ray for instance, but the “preview” on the computer may not look correct.

In any event, if you captured the HDV tapes via 1394, be assured there has been NO change to the footage. You simply moved the digital file from the tape medium to a hard drive, it is the exact same data.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Dave Baloun]

Hi Jeff,

I am playing the captured file by using an HDMI cable. What app? I think it windows media player.

I haven’t been able to render a blu ray video from the sample yet. I did suspect that the blu-ray option could be the solution, but I wasn’t sure.

If the capture process does truly capture “real” video from tape, then, I will not worry at this point. I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t losing any quality in the process. I will save the rendering to blu-ray for future time.

Thank you!

[Jeff Pulera]

There’s a lot of variables that can affect the video quality when playing from a computer –

1) Interlaced source with progressive playback
2) Display card settings
3) Player App settings

And so forth. No worries, the footage is fine.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Olly Andrews]

Hi Jeff. I’ve just seen your “If you want backups of your miniDV tapes…” post and thanks, it cleared up a lot for me. I’m using a Sony camcorder to convert VHS PAL home videos to DV, connecting to my Windows 10 64-bit PC via Firewire cable. What “capture” PC software would you suggest, that is simple and saves the original data with no re-encoding? I have Premiere Pro CC but I was hoping for something simpler. In Premiere Pro I’ve tried: New Project, DV, DV – PAL, Standard 48kHz, then File, Capture, Play, Record, then Stop, Save/OK. This creates an AVI, with an interference strip across the bottom that is not seen when playing the original VHS tape onto TV or the camcorder screen (it’s cut off, showing less of the overall scene). Is there a Premiere Pro option, or other capture software, that only captures the originally visible’ area? I have very many home videos that I will later just losslessly cut and join, not edit/re-encode, using Smart Cutter or SolveigMM, which only encode between cuts and ‘whole frames’, since Premiere Pro can’t seem to do that. Any pointers will be greatly appreciated, regards, Olly.

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Olly,

The old “CRT” displays always cut off some of the image behind the bezel surrounding the screen. That part of the video signal is called the “overscan” area. The distortion at the bottom of the captured image was always there – you just never saw it before! It is head switching noise, common on VHS playback. The Premiere capture and playback windows are showing you the entire image edge to edge now.

https://avaa.bavc.org/artifactatlas/index.php/Head_Switching_Noise

There is nothing you can do to capture a smaller part of the screen, however in Premiere timeline, just use the Motion Effect to zoom in just a little to eliminate the “rough edges” before exporting.

Thank you

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Olly Andrews]

Hi Jeff. Thanks very much for your info! Can you suggest a simple DV/Firewire capture program or should I stick with Premiere Pro CC, in which case are the settings in my previous post correct? Thanks for any any help, regards Olly.

[Olly Andrews]

Jeff, I just had another thought. I have another camcorder that records to SD card. With Premiere Pro CC I don’t use the scene split option but I use ‘stop on dropped frame’, otherwise the audio starts to lag, which means having to monitor progress. Would digitising/recording on the 2nd camcorder handle dropped frames better with no audio lag? Then I could let it run without having to monitor and get a single file (easy to copy to PC) per original tape, which I’d prefer. Thanks, Olly.

[Jeff Pulera]

For simple DV capture, try WinDV, a free download, just Google it.

Not sure what you mean about the second camcorder, what type/model is it? While I have found that glitches in an HDV tape capture can throw capture sync off following the glitch, I don’t recall that being an issue when I worked with DV for many years.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

Your Premiere capture settings of DV, PAL, 48k should be fine. However, use the ESC key to end a capture, rather than STOP.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers