[Dale Kutzera]

Thanks. I think that is the issue. I assumed the deck would automatically play the tapes at their native format, but that’s not the case. Worse, the J-h1 doesn’t have a 23.98 option. It only plays at 29.97 or 25. The audio is much better exporting at 25, and I’ve found information online about the 4% speed difference and ways to correct the pitch. I’m exploring option to convert the exported 25 fps footage to 23.98, but I may have to find a j-h3 deck after all.

[Dale Kutzera]

Is anyone familiar with exporting footage from a Sony J-H1? Here’s my current setup:
–HDcam deck to a Blackmagic Intensity Shuttle USB 3.0
–The shuttle connected to a Mac Pro tower into a USB 3.0 pci card
–Using Blackmagic’s Media Express I can view the footage…so far so good.
–BUT…there are dropped frames when capturing, the audio sounds like chipmunks, and every so often the program tells me the file doesn’t match the project’s settings.

So I believe my last hurdle is getting the right settings down. The hdcam deck flashes 29.97 so I assume that is what the tapes were recorded at. I choose this in the Media Express preferences window. I have tried capturing at both uncompressed and Prores 4444 settings. Both result in dropped frames, but less with Prores (which tells me a Prores format may be less taxing on the USB 3.0 pci card). While the video looks good, the audio sounds sped up. Any thoughts on the correct settings?

[Dale Kutzera]

Getting back to this task after the holidays.

What type of BM Decklink Card or Intensity Shuttle would work in an older mac pro tower? There are a dizzying array of cards. I’m hoping to pick one up off Ebay. Some have hdmi ports, others component ports. What model will fit into a mac pci-e slot…or do I just compare the slots to those of video cards I already have.

There are two flavors of Shuttle…thunderbolt and USB 3.0. My old tower has neither. Would fitting it with a Thunderbolt or 3.0 pci card make either type of Shuttle work?

Thanks in advance.

[Dale Kutzera]

Yeah I ‘ve hooked the deck to a monitor via that output and happily the deck works fine, but the video is rather “speckly” for whatever reason.

[Dale Kutzera]

Thanks. I’ll look for an Intensity card. Still overall much cheaper than having a house transfer all these tapes.

[Dale Kutzera]

So the D3, Monitor, and RS232C plugs are no use in exporting HD?

[Dale Kutzera]

I don’t believe I would. I’m basically trying to archive some footage from tapes to a hard drive. And the original project was completed in 720p and I may want to someday reconstruct it in 1080. There are about 9 40-min tapes. I was thinking of just capturing everything but if space becomes an issue I could just capture selected takes. That may require more control of the machine. But if less control means there’s a cheaper way to do capture I’m all for that.

[Dale Kutzera]

See if this image works:

[Dale Kutzera]

Thanks. I appreciate the help. Normally I’d go to a video house for this but the quotes I got here over a grand. And I have seen cheap video cards like this one:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/PCI-Express-x1-PCI-E-FireWire-1394a-IEEE1394-Controller-Video-Capture-Card/222642269546?hash=item33d6836d6a:g:VfUAAOSwq39Zt1NQ

But assume they are the wrong type for this setup.

[Dale Kutzera]

Thanks. I’ll look for one of those cards. Are there other brands or varieties of cards that get the job done for less $$$.