[J michael O’neill]

Thanks for replying, Raphael.
No, the Sony Trv17 is not a PAL camera, but it plays the PAL footage back cleanly. I have just been told that the PAL footage also is Sony DVCAM, which people seem to have trouble capturing into NTSC anyway. Is capture without a PAL playback deck impossible?

[J michael O’neill]

I am trying to capture PAL footage from England on an old Sony DCR trv17 camera, into Final Cut 5. I assumed that if I could see the PAL images undistorted in the camera viewer, FCP could capture them. The first time i hooked up the firewire cable, I could see vertically stretches images in capture preview. but subsequently, though the preview window gives me the vtr ok message and though I can hear the audio, no matter what setting I use in the capture presets or system settings, FCP tells me there is “no video”. Is there any solution to this problem short of buying a PAL/NTSC converter?