Capturing Canon footage from a Sony HDV deck
by Brandon Hall
on
Mar 2, 2009 at 10:51:08 pm
I'm trying to capture some HDV footage shot on a Canon using a Sony HDV 1080i deck, model number HVR-M35U. I'm using FCP 6.0.1.
When I set my capture and device control presets to any variation of DVCPRO-HD, I can control the deck from my computer (play, fast forward, rewind, etc.) but I get no video. If I press "Capture Now" the capture window pops up and immediately disappears.
If I set capture and device presets to HDV, I get a message that says "Unable to Initialize Capture Device: Device is not connected or the capture preset is not set up correctly..."
This is for work and my boss is getting antsy so if anyone can help me, please please let me know what I'm doing wrong and how I can capture this friggin' video.
Re: Capturing Canon footage from a Sony HDV deck by Lee Berger on Mar 4, 2009 at 1:15:49 pm
I would check to see if the tape was shot in Canon's 24 frame mode. This mode is incompatible with Sony's hardware (Decks and Camcorders)for playback. If that is the case you will need to capture from a Canon HDV camcorder.
Re: Capturing Canon footage from a Sony HDV deck by Lee Berger on Mar 4, 2009 at 3:37:12 pm
[Todd Terry]"Actually, the Sony 35M will play back Canon 24f and 30f footage... in fact it's virtually the only deck that will, so I don't think that's the issue."
I didn't know that. I stand corrected and more importantly that's good to know.
Re: Capturing Canon footage from a Sony HDV deck by Brandon Hall on Mar 4, 2009 at 5:54:49 pm
OK. I'll accept that the Sony M35 is a wunderdeck. It is definitely playing the tapes - which I can view on the deck and the connected monitor. In fact, our cameraman did a little experimenting and shot tests in 24p, 30p, and 60i all of which we could watch on the deck.
None of which we could see in FCP, however, which only allowed my capture window to even appear when the capture and device settings were set to DVCPRO-HD, and even then, refused to show or capture any video.
I feel like I have tried every combination of settings. Am I missing something?
