Brand specific decks required to convert/digitize PAL HDV to NTSC?
 

Hello all,
I have about 15 HDV tapes shot in PAL for a job. The tapes were shot on two separate cameras, one a Canon and one a Sony. I don't have any more details from the shooter. I took them a place that does PAL-NTSC conversions (Dub Express/Express Media - in California), but for some reason their Sony PAL deck wouldn't read the tapes. I had never heard of this before. The guy there said that if it was shot on a Canon sometimes their Sony decks won't read the tapes. Does this mean I have to somehow track down someplace with a Canon PAL deck in order to convert this footage to NTSC, or even to digitize it? Has anyone had to handle this before? I didn't realize these tapes and decks were brand specific. Any ways around this? So far I have a relatively flexible deadline, but I"d like to get these at least digitized soon if possible...

Re: Brand specific decks required to convert/digitize PAL HDV to NTSC?
 

If the Canon tapes were shot using their propriety 24f system, the Sony decks will not reckognise them.

You're going to have to find a Canon HDV camera to get them downloaded, no other way to do it.

Cheapest way is to find a s/h HV20, 30, or 40 and snap it up, it'll do the job.


CS

Re: Brand specific decks required to convert/digitize PAL HDV to NTSC?
 

dang... there's always surprises with these tapes. do you think that if I find a PAL Canon Vixia that it will be able playback the Sony HDV tapes? thanks for your help!

Re: Brand specific decks required to convert/digitize PAL HDV to NTSC?
 

Don't think so, for the same reason the Sony decks won't read the Canon tapes.

However, as you're definitely going to need a Canon HDV camera to read the Canon tapes, no harm trying.


CS

Amsterdam companies - convert/digitize PAL HDV to NTSC?
 

Thanks for the advice Chris. I think I may just wait until I'm in PAL-land in a month and see if I can have things digitized there. Does anyone know of any companies that might do this kind of either digitization or conversion in Amsterdam?