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PAL DV tape, can I capture without PAL deck?
I have a PAL miniDV tape that I can watch in my NTSC camcorder, but when I plug the camcorder into the TV, it doesn’t play, as would be expected. I need to get this on to my computer so I can convert it to NTSC, but I’m having problems. I don’t have a PAL deck. I started to mess around with capture settings and was able to get it to play in the capture window and I hit Capture Now and recorded a few seconds. Great! However, I can’t seem to get it to play again. I get the “preview not available” in the window. I tried messing with the settings but couldn’t get it.
Anybody with experience with this who can help?
How is it possible for the tape to play (although the images is squished a little) in my NTSC camcorder (Sony PC1)?
-tw
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6 Replies
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You need a true PAL deck or camera. Though your camera has the ability to provide you with an image in the viewfinder , its not really converting it on the firewire output.
If this is an important enough job you should just bite the bullet and rent something for the day.
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I’ve managed to get capture PAL from my NTSC PD-150.
How? A bit of a work-around.
1. Easy settings – PAL DV
2. Open log & capture window.
3. Play DV Pal tape for a few seconds (L &C Screen says “no preview available)
4. Stop tape.
5. Clost L & C window (Apple-8)
6. Remove FW cable from camera.
7. Put FW cable back into camera.
8. Open L & C window.
9. L & C then should see the PAL signal.
10. Capture as normal.If the above doesn’t work, I try different variations of the above – opening and closing the L&C window, replacing the camera, etc – but after a few attempts I’m usually able to get PAL (and even PAL DVCAM) on my NTSC PD-150.
I hope this helps.
Wayne
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I had hope. And hope is all you need.
Because I had got it in once, I knew it was possible, although this technique you shared didn’t work for me. I used the Easy Setup of DV PAL and opened the capture and log window. It behaved as before with no preview available. Under settings, I changed to non-controlable device. I pushed play on my camcorder. While still playing, I changed settings back to PAL firewire device and presto! it was showing up. so I just cue rewound and when I got to where I wanted to be I pressed play on the controls (in FCP, NOT on the deck) and clicked on Capture Now. Done.
so it is possible to get PAL footage without having a PAL deck or paying to have it converted.
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Except you cant recapture if you need to revisit this project later on..but, i am glad it worked out for you.
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Actually I can because I was NOT in the non-controlled deck setting. I changed to Firewire PAL. So the in and out points and time code is intact. But, for this particular project, I’m just putting this footage he had from Europe onto a DVD for him so it’s not a big deal.
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Thanks, this worked! I had to mess around a bit to trick FCP but I think the trick was Easy Setup – DV PAL, then open L & C window, press LOG and then PLAY on the camera and the footage showed up. Now I’m able to use it in a NTSC sequence.
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