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Transfer MiniDV tape to FCPX ???
I’ve got a truck load of old MiniDVD tapes from back when we were shooting in that format. Since we now seem to have a lot of time on our hands, I need to transfer some of these tapes into FCPX (running macOS Mojave) to edit. My Sony camera has firewire 400 out. My iMac has Thunderbolt 2 for an input. I can get an “Apple Thunderbolt 2 to Firewire 800” adapter (Mac input) and use a “Firewire 800 to Firewire 400” cable (camera out) to transfer. With the camera powered up, will it show up in my FCPX File > Import window? And what happens from that point (as far as capturing the footage into FCPX)?
Thanks for the feedback.
Ken Bennett
Video Adventures
Capturing Your Life’s Adventures! -
8 Replies
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I have not done it, but it should work.
Here’s what it would look like:
https://support.apple.com/guide/final-cut-pro/import-from-tape-based-cameras-verd0e78a7e/mac
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You’ve got all the right kit. Capturing DV can be a bit fiddly depending on what playback source you are connecting to. You may have to make and break the FW400 connection a few times in order to get things to function. One thing you should consider is using the camera archive option. That will capture the tape to a digital file that can then be used in import media section. The advantage to this is that if all goes well with your archive creation , you have a digital non tape baed version of the file and you can randomly access clips in the Archive when you import media. Tape based media is slow to work with so get ready for a paradigm shift.
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The Sony Z7U camera does have an HDMI out that I could connect right to my Atoms 4K recorder, BUT that HDMI output on the camera is ONLY for live output. Not from the tape playback. Dumb move on Sony. (Maybe one of the many reasons I went back to Panasonic). The best bet so far is the cameras FW400 output.
Ken Bennett
Video Adventures
Capturing Your Life’s Adventures! -
I have taken the Firewire output from a Sony recorder/player via a FW/TB2 adapter into FCPX without problems other than it does not split clips, you have to stop/start for each new clip.
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Not splitting clips can be a recording format metadata problem. The dv standard was hardly a rigid standard and while i have some tapes where camera starts and stops can be selected and captured, there are probably more exceptions to that rule than I care to think about. Going through the eercise of making a camera archive while time consuming, can also save a bunch of time, wear and tear shuttling tape back and forth.
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Too bad the new laptops don’t allow for thunderbolt connectors.
Neal Klaeser
Real to Reel Productions
http://www.realvideopro.com -
I had to go dumpster diving in some DV archives today. These are DV tapes that I captured in X using “create tape archive” function. Here is a screen shot of media import from one tape archive :
You’ll notice that there Is a long list of clips which are camera starts and stops. So going through the exercise of creating a tape archive as a first step while seeming to be a drag, will actually give you much better access to you tape material inside X than if you go about a manual crash and capture technique.
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Interestingly, I tried to import some DVCAM tapes into FCPX today and although the DV recorder was recognised it did not show any clips, just a black screen. Transport controllers;s were all inactive. This was the same source as used before so I don’t know why it is not working and can only surmise that there has been a change in the FCPX import compatibility. However, the good news is that I am able to import into iMovie which also recognises the clip breaks and then bring those files into FCPX.
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