Importing footage from DCR-TRV840 NTSC

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Importing footage from DCR-TRV840 NTSC

I'm not sure where to post this. I have an old Sony DCR-TRV840 NTSC with hours and hours of footage on digital 8 tapes. We have a very old white 13 inch macbook from 2008 in which we could install Final Cut HD onto. We have two newer macbook pro's, one of which has Final Cut X on it. What is the best option for me to try to import all of this footage before my camera breaks (the door is already pretty funky)? It appears that this camera is not supported on Final Cut X, correct? Should we import via the old computer onto an external drive (hoping that either computer or camera don't die on us?) Can we import to imovie or iphoto? Does it matter where I import as far as the codec goes (I don't totally understand this, but I obviously don't want my clips encoded in the most up to date way)? Please advise, I am lost here as to what to do.

Posted on Mar 21, 2016 10:10 AM

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Answer 1

Alchroma

Level 7

23,809 points

Mar 22, 2016 1:10 AM in response to jennicaz

Use the non controlled Device Easy Setup for D-8 footage.

Quicktime player can also capture.

Al

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Answer 2

jennicaz Author

Level 1

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Mar 22, 2016 8:22 AM in response to Alchroma

Will Quicktime capture in the same way (codec?) as Final Cut HD would? Do I need Quicktime Pro? I'd just rather use the newer computer than the older one and I don't have room to install Final Cut HD on there at the moment. Thanks.

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Answer 3

Alchroma

Level 7

23,809 points

Mar 23, 2016 2:15 AM in response to jennicaz

QuickTime X will capture.

D-8 footage will only be DV quality.

QTime X has a few quality options.

Al

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Answer 4

MartinR

Level 6

19,055 points

Apr 2, 2016 2:50 PM in response to jennicaz

Capture your DV footage in either FCE HD or FCP-X using the appropriate matching (DV) easy setup/sequence settings in the app. Also, as Alchroma said earlier, use a non-controlled easy setup because D8 cams cannot be controlled by Final Cut (you will have to capture manually).

Also, before capturing, make sure your easy setup expects the same audio rate that you recorded in your camera ... hopefully you filmed using 48KHz audio but many D8/miniDV cams had a default setting of 32KHz and users didn't know to change this before filming. (Just make sure the audio rate matches what your camera recorded regardless of whether they are 48KHz or 32KHz ... if they don't match, over longer clips the audio will drift out of sync.) This will yield QT files at resolution matching what was recorded on the tape and be editable in almost any video app.

DO NOT use iMovie or iPhoto to capture DV footage - depending on the version, they can do funky things with DV video.

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