KeyDemon

Q: Problem importing analog Video8 through Digital8 camcorder and Firewire

Hi!

I have some Video8 cassettes from a Sanyo camcorder which is dying, so I purchased an old Sony DCR-TRV480E camcorder from eBay which can capture Digital8, but also playback and stream both Video8 and Hi8.

 

I finally received the camcorder, and tried playing back Video8, it immediately changes playback function and views my old videos with audio through its built in TBC and DNR. Everything good so far.

 

Then when I hook it up to my MBP 2011 (Yosemite) through the FireWire-800 port, and choose import my (not supported) camera shows up and plays video and audio beautifully when clicking "Import". Only problem is - It doesn't import! It says" No data from device" in the upper right corner, even though it is playing back the video with audio in the import window without any problems.

 

The same happens in iMovie.

 

Anyone who's seen the same problem? I would want my DV's imported to FCPX without any quality loss, so I can finally have them digitalized, and get rid of those old tapes.

 

I appreciate any help on the matter.

Skjermbilde 2016-05-20 kl. 00.10.33.png

Posted on May 19, 2016 11:26 PM

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Q: Problem importing analog Video8 through Digital8 camcorder and Firewire

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  • by thesurreyfriends,

    thesurreyfriends thesurreyfriends May 20, 2016 8:18 AM in response to KeyDemon
    Level 3 (838 points)
    May 20, 2016 8:18 AM in response to KeyDemon

    KeyDemon wrote;

          If I choose QT7 and Max quality,

    There is no " Max quality" in QT7

    Just to remind you of the advice given by Alchroma at 2.53 am above.

    Device Native would be his first choice using QT7.

    If you select Device Native your video will be imported as DV.

     

     

    You said "I don't want it to do another conversion when importing to FCPX. "

    Alchroma's advice before you said this was...

    "Once the files are in your scratch disc import them to FCP X and tell FCP X to Leave Files in Place.

    No double handling or double space used."

     

    Alchroma then went on to say  "If it's captured and edited in FCP X as DV it will play OK "

     

    Hope this helps rather than hinders.

  • by KeyDemon,

    KeyDemon KeyDemon May 20, 2016 11:17 AM in response to thesurreyfriends
    Level 1 (24 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 20, 2016 11:17 AM in response to thesurreyfriends

    Sorry for my ignorance, it's just a lot of new stuff for me.

     

    I did test now with "Device Native" in QT 7 Pro, and while it did import, it was in 25p. I can't seem to keep the 50i on the imported file, so now the video is really choppy, like a standard movie on an old TV without interpolation.

     

    Is there any setting for this?

     

    I also tested LifeFlix, which has no settings, you just connect and click "Import". Very simple to use, but only 25p there as well.

    I also tried iMovie HD 6, clicked import - same thing, 25p...

     

    How can I fix this?

  • by Tom Wolsky,

    Tom Wolsky Tom Wolsky May 20, 2016 11:20 AM in response to KeyDemon
    Level 10 (118,107 points)
    Apple TV
    May 20, 2016 11:20 AM in response to KeyDemon

    WWhere are you seeing 25p. Post a screenshot.

  • by KeyDemon,

    KeyDemon KeyDemon May 20, 2016 11:42 AM in response to Tom Wolsky
    Level 1 (24 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 20, 2016 11:42 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

    I've now tested LifeFlix and Quicktime 7 Pro with a "full" 8 min video.

    They seem to do exactly the same, as the size and settings are identical. You can see 25FPS here:

    Skjermbilde 2016-05-20 kl. 20.30.25.pngSkjermbilde 2016-05-20 kl. 20.30.35.png

    Here's a snap from the videos, they're pretty much identical (there is 1-2 frames between them, so the noise is at different places).

    This is played back in QuickTime (Yosemite).

    01.png

    02.png

     

    The picture is slightly darker in VLC, and somewhat sharper. Probably just different codecs used for playback.

  • by Tom Wolsky,

    Tom Wolsky Tom Wolsky May 20, 2016 11:49 AM in response to KeyDemon
    Level 10 (118,107 points)
    Apple TV
    May 20, 2016 11:49 AM in response to KeyDemon

    50i is a stupid camera manufacturer nomenclature. There is no 50fps in SD. 50i is 25 frames of interlaced video. You can't tell from the QT info window if the video it interlaced or progressive. If you look at video with a quick movement on it you can tell if it's interlaced.

     

    Screen Shot 2016-05-20 at 13.47.53.png

    This shows interlacing in the QT7 player, You can't see it in the QTX player.

  • by KeyDemon,

    KeyDemon KeyDemon May 20, 2016 12:02 PM in response to Tom Wolsky
    Level 1 (24 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 20, 2016 12:02 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

    Spot on sir!

     

    This is when playing back in VLC.

    Probably why I noticed a somewhat darker and sharper picture in VLC. There is very little fast movement in this clip, so I didn't notice it at first.

    Skjermbilde 2016-05-20 kl. 20.55.11.png

     

    So everything is pure DV then? It doesn't seem to matter if I use QT 7 Pro or LifeFlix in terms of quality, and it was much simpler with LifeFlix (easier to manage the clips, it controls the camera, and it doesn't stop recording immediately when the video breaks up).

     

    In other words -> Is this as good as it will get? Can I store these DV coded .mov files as archived RAW material?

    The playback looks WAY smoother on my Digital8 camera, but that is probably because it is playing back interlaced?

     

    What threw me off was the "25p" info, because I thought 50i = 25p if you de-interlaced the video in f.ex. FCPX.

    The video-players on my Mac are all playing back in 25p.

  • by thesurreyfriends,

    thesurreyfriends thesurreyfriends May 20, 2016 12:03 PM in response to KeyDemon
    Level 3 (838 points)
    May 20, 2016 12:03 PM in response to KeyDemon

    Tom asked "WWhere are you seeing 25p."

    You said "You can see 25FPS here:"

     

    Just making sure no miss-understanding.

    25FPS=25 frames per second.

    The "P" in 25FPS does not mean Progressive.

  • by Tom Wolsky,

    Tom Wolsky Tom Wolsky May 20, 2016 12:06 PM in response to KeyDemon
    Level 10 (118,107 points)
    Apple TV
    May 20, 2016 12:06 PM in response to KeyDemon

    Ingest from DV is normally a straight data transfer. There is no conversion, nothing changes, the zeros and ones on the tape are transferred to the computer. It's like copying files from drive to drive, except it from tape to drive. There can be differences in monitoring setup and playback codec, but that's separate from the file itself.

  • by KeyDemon,

    KeyDemon KeyDemon May 20, 2016 12:23 PM in response to Tom Wolsky
    Level 1 (24 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 20, 2016 12:23 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

    Exactly. It's just 1-1 transfer.

     

    I was testing out some more, and enabled de-interlacing in VLC, using "Bob" Deinterlacing. Probably not the best thing to do, but now it looks MUCH smoother, and actually somewhat clearer(?).

    Skjermbilde 2016-05-20 kl. 21.22.47.png

     

    What do people do to get a smooth picture from DV?

     

    If I watch the playback on the camcorder, it is smooth, probably 50fps. I don't quite understand why this is?

  • by Tom Wolsky,

    Tom Wolsky Tom Wolsky May 20, 2016 12:30 PM in response to KeyDemon
    Level 10 (118,107 points)
    Apple TV
    May 20, 2016 12:30 PM in response to KeyDemon

    IT IS NOT 50FPS.

     

    THERE IS NO 50FPS IN STANDARD DEFINITION.

     

    COmputers are not designed to display interlaced media. DV is designed as a television format not as a computer format. It is designed solely for display on an interlaced television monitor.

  • by KeyDemon,

    KeyDemon KeyDemon May 20, 2016 12:31 PM in response to thesurreyfriends
    Level 1 (24 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 20, 2016 12:31 PM in response to thesurreyfriends

    Ah, sorry about that!

  • by KeyDemon,

    KeyDemon KeyDemon May 20, 2016 12:34 PM in response to Tom Wolsky
    Level 1 (24 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 20, 2016 12:34 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

    I understand.

    But why does it looks much smoother on the camcorder's tiny 2.5" LCD?

  • by Tom Wolsky,

    Tom Wolsky Tom Wolsky May 20, 2016 12:40 PM in response to KeyDemon
    Level 10 (118,107 points)
    Apple TV
    May 20, 2016 12:40 PM in response to KeyDemon

    BBecause it's a tiny LCD. It can discard one field and have no effective degradation because the screen is less than half the size of the 480 pixel vertical resolution of the media.

  • by KeyDemon,

    KeyDemon KeyDemon May 20, 2016 12:54 PM in response to Tom Wolsky
    Level 1 (24 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 20, 2016 12:54 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

    Aaah, I get it.

    That tiny thing TRICKED me to believe it had smoother playback, but it's just faking it! It looks great though, but probably because of those 2.5".

     

    So I can just keep the .mov files with DV-Pal codec as they are, 25fps/interlaced and import them to FCPX for export to a more friendly file size for sharing with family?

     

    How about the lines, how to avoid those on the exported video? That would be de-interlacing, or playing back on a TV/media player with automatic conversion to progressive video?

  • by Alchroma,

    Alchroma Alchroma May 20, 2016 9:07 PM in response to KeyDemon
    Level 6 (18,926 points)
    Video
    May 20, 2016 9:07 PM in response to KeyDemon

    Have you tried a sample of footage that has been exported from FCP X as a Mater File DV ???

     

    Screen Shot 2016-05-21 at 1.51.40 PM.png

     

    Al

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