problems with digitizing dv tapes

[Sean Oneil]

That’s a tough one. Sounds stupid but try a different firewire cable and a different firewire port.

You might want to mention what deck and camera you’re using. Maybe someone with the same equipment knows what’s going on.

In the meantime, if you have time to kill, you might want to try capturing it using something other than Final Cut. It could just be one of those compatibility issues. I just Googled this, there’s a free trial for Adobe Premiere:
https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/tdrc/index.cfm?product=premiere%5Fpro

If that actually works, I’m sure you can import the captured footage into Final Cut and still edit with Final Cut.

Sean

[Louis Anajjar]

i hear ya.
i did try a couple different firewire cables, and ports…then i tried it on different editors computers and it had the same problem…i’ll look at what the specific sony deck is and get back to ya,

good idea!!!about trying premiere, and thanks for the link…

okay, to add further detective mystery-ness to my situation i should mention this, just thought of it: i have imported it twice before and had success…it was using a friends JVC deck, once on his computer, and then once on my computer… i switched some settings on my FCP6 and when I re-opened my project all the files went wiggly, opened the files using quicktime player and they were still wiggly…transferred them to my external OWC Mercury Elite Pro drive and opened them on my Macbook with quicktime and they played solid and fine!!! What the heck…and when i opened the solid/good quicktime files with FCP6 on my Macbook they were all wiggly!

is it possible that only my friends JVC deck transfers the data for those tape properly…also, should i try using quicktime 7.3 and FCP 5.1.4, would that have any effect you think if premiere doesn’t work???

looking forward to hearing what you think.
Louis

[Louis Anajjar]

p.s. i have tried an erase and install of everything too, but no luck

[Bret Williams]

I don’t know what you mean by wiggly, but you keep talking about qt player and your laptop, etc. You do realize that you can’t judge a video clip, a DV one especially, by the computer screen? Playback quality is dependant on QT settings, processor speed, video card, etc. The only way to judge the clip is by the NTSC monitor. Or television set in your case. Hook up a TV to your camera and play the clips back from FCP. If they look like they did when you played them back from the tape (on a TV) then you’re good.

There is really only one setting for 4:3 DV. To set up your system press ctrl+q and choose ntsc-dv preset. Firewire DV capture is firewire DV capture. A bit for bit copy. Unless you’ve set up your system to transcode to pro res or jpeg or something.

[C david Miller]

I see you have listed QT 7.4.5, which was just released. Did you find somewhere, where it said it was certified to be used with FCP. I couldn’t find anyone saying to upgrade, which allot of the times can be an issue? Am still using 7.3.1 with no issues and Leopard.

My two cents worth

Dave

Dave

[Louis Anajjar]

Bret,

thanks for the bit for bit, 4:3 only really has one setting…i’ve got it.
the tv thing i did know, i just connected my camera to it and played back the tapes, then I played back a dvd i had made as a test from my project—and there it was, things oscillating as if the pixels were drastically shifting position in some kind of wavy motion…it is looks like it is narrowing down to something weird with the tapes themselves…i still don’t understand though why it plays solid and steady in the preview window when fcp is reviewing the tape from a camera or deck, but when i capture it the clips is oscillating all over the place in a kind of wavy, vibrating twitch… i know i keep going on about this… sorry, just the dismay of a relatively new-bee trying to figure things out.
thanks for your time…if you have any other suggestions i would love to try them!
Louis

[Louis Anajjar]

totally, i’ll try heading back to 7.3.1 tomorrow morning…that will be awesome if it fixes it.
thanks very much for your two cents!
-Louis

[Louis Anajjar]

Dave,
one question for you.
how do i install 7.3.1 if i’m running on leopard 10.5.2 running?
i downloaded 7.3.1 for leopard from apple’s download page but it refused to install itself because it said “a newer version of this software is available”.
thanks,
Louis

[C david Miller]

Hi Lou,
Well am not sure what is really the best way, am sure many on here will have ideas. Myself, I would just wipe the drive and reload Leopard, see what version QT loads with it and then reload FCP and fly, may be the fastest, unless you have allot of other things on your computer.

If you have a second drive or external drive, I would Carbon Copy (Application) your present drive first.

I believe the Leopard 10.5 came with 7.3.1 QT as the load, I also know that 7.4.1 QT works with FCP too. But 7.3.1 is the safest at this point.

If you don’t want to go down that route, write me at video7105@comcast.net and I will pass on maybe some alternatives.

Dave

[C david Miller]

Here is the link for downloading 7.3.1 QT, if you need it

https://www.apple.com/support/downloads/quicktime731forleopard.html

Dave