Transferring Tape from Canon HV20

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Transferring Tape from Canon HV20

Hi all - First post!

1. What's the best way to transfer about 12 hours of HD tape (yes, tape) from my Canon HV20 onto my iMac (2.4 GHz)?
2. Am I basically looking at 2 factors: 1. speed of transfer and 2. hard drive capacity?

(And I'm guessing that tape transfer must be in 'real time'?)

I've got 2 GB 667 MHz of RAM and 240 GB free on my hard drive. Also have a LaCie external with another 200 GB free (it's in fat32 format?).

I have looked into getting an HDMI cable for faster transfer, as I figure USB 2.0 will be waaay too slow - especially if I have to dump onto an external hard drive thru my iMac.

I'm guessing I'll also have to buy a 1 or 2TB external so I don't tie up all my memory and make the main system crawl. I know HD video consumes memory like a beast - isn't it like 30 GB for every hour of footage?

Other than buying a new system (4 GB RAM, 3+MHz, 1TB hd, quad or 8core macpro, etc) - which I'm hoping to defer for now - I would love any and all suggestions!

Thanks and much appreciated!

Message was edited by: myles09

iMac 2.4 GHz, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on May 19, 2010 10:12 AM

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Answer 1

May 19, 2010 11:22 AM in response to myles09

Welcome to the discussions!

A few points: memory is not hard drive space. Movies take up hard drive space to be stored, and memory when they are played. Storage spaces vs. thinking space.

You must transfer from an HDV (tape based) camera with the firewire cable. You don't have your specs listed, so I hope you have a Mac with a firewire port. It is the only way. The USB port is for transferring still photos from the memory card. You can capture via HDMI, but you have to invest many hundreds of dollars for an HDMI capture box.

HDV is 12GB per hour, but iMovie converts it into the Apple Intermediate Codec, to facilitate editing. This takes something like 36GB per hour.

Tape transfer is always real time.

What is your intended purpose? If you are dealing with these tapes separately, then you don't need any extra storage; you can work on one and finish it up before doing the next one. If you are archiving are making some big project, then you will indeed need more storage. Also, Fat32 drives have a filesize limit of 4GB. Reformat (erase) that disc into HFS+ using Disc Utility.

There are a few other ways to capture which would be better depending on your intentions, but they can get a little complicated.

So, what is your final goal, and do you have firewire?

Jeremy

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Answer 2

myles09 Author

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May 19, 2010 2:21 PM in response to Jeremy Hansen

Hi Jeremy - thanks for the reply and helpful info!

Yes, I have a a firewire port on my iMac but I do not have one on my camcorder! The only output options are HDMI and HDV/DV. I also have a component out (if that helps).

I'm hoping I can I get firewire cable to go from the camera HDV/DV port to the firewire port on my iMac?

Interesting about the file sz limitation of Fat32. Each tape is one hour and I want to transfer the entire footage of all 12 tapes to archive them - then edit from a copy of the archived files. Yes, I will still have the physical tapes in storage but once I transfer I will not want to do it again!

I've got other stuff archived on the Lacie external that would be awkward to erase, so maybe I'll have to buy a separate 500GB-1TB external hard drive to store this footage.

Uh oh! Also just realized - the external hard drive I buy has to also have a firewire connection so that I can connect Camera to iMac, iMac to External HD. Otherwise transfer will take even longer.

I'm not sure what type of editing I'll be doing to them. That's the next step - and another topic to post! - deciding on editing software, given that from what I've seen, iMovie may not be robust enough for where I want to go down the road (as I'm thinking Adobe Premiere or FCPro is more professional, industry-used). I will have to learn any software from scratch anyway, so I want to choose right and not have to relearn on another program 6 months from now. Thoughts on that?

Thanks a bunch!

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Answer 3

May 19, 2010 7:03 PM in response to myles09

That "HDV/DV" is a firewire port; it is a 4-pin port, and your computer uses either a 9-pin or 6-port; I think your model has both. Wikipedia is your friend. You just need the right cable.

Final Cut Pro may be the best option for you; you can capture in native HDV, with 12GB per hour; and decide how you want to use your new software after that.

What do you think?

Jeremy

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Answer 4

myles09 Author

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May 20, 2010 6:33 PM in response to Jeremy Hansen

LOL, you're so right, I forget about wikipedia and such. Ironic, since I'm doing a similar thing asking questions on this forum!

Do you use FCP? I am debating between that and Premiere (now that CS5 has been released and getting such favorable reviews on their new features). Having no experience with either, I'm still weighing which would be faster to get up to speed on.

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Answer 5

May 20, 2010 8:06 PM in response to myles09

Probably neither would be "fast" to learn. I would get FCP and commit to learning it.

In my line of work, people use either Sibelius or Finale for notation. Both are complicated; you just have to pick one and then not complain how complicated it is.

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Answer 6

May 21, 2010 9:57 AM in response to myles09

Hi Jeremy
You seem to have lots of knowledge about this. I am trying to import about 3 hours of movies form a XL1S Cannon camcorder into my I mac. The problem that I am having is that after importing I see the whole movie gets pixilated when I view it or if I burn it on a DVD. I know the problem is with the settings. Can you help me with this? I am importing with a firewire directly form the camcorder.

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Answer 7

May 21, 2010 10:15 AM in response to papa king

Have you looked at it on a TV set as opposed to your computer?

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Answer 8

May 21, 2010 12:26 PM in response to Jeremy Hansen

Yes when I connect the camcorder directly to the TV it is fine but when I connect it to the I mac and import it somehow the video quality is all messed up.

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Answer 9

May 21, 2010 1:29 PM in response to papa king

Don't judge by how the DVD plays on your computer. Computer monitors are good at making DVD video look poor. Burn it and play it on a real DVD player. It is probably fine.

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