Hello, anyone know if you need any software to transfer dv tapes from canon xl-2 to a computer? Have the fire wire cords don't want to capture to editing system just want to take clips off tapes and store on external drive Thanks

It makes no sense to stick all your tapes on top of an external disk and they won't fit inside the casing of the external disk. So your ONLY solution is capturing them and you need software to do that. A simple software program to do that is Scenalyzer for DV and HDVSplit for HDV.

Harm,

You're in serious danger of getting as jaded with this stuff as I am (and that's pretty seriously jaded).

Keep well.


CS

thanks reason for transfer is because the xl2 went back to canon 3xs and the camera was never dropped and has bad banding was so posed to be fixed and when camera came back the heads were so posed to be replaced and within 1 hour if even the banding was back went to the data video dn 60 tapes are over with. thanks

If you are on a mac you. Can use the builtin capture of iMovie or of QuickTime pro.

using adobe premiere with a pc thanks

just digitize them into premier and encode as mov files (or other format of your choice).

BTW Thomas, I'm only 20 mins away from you....I can take care of it for you if needed, or if you need an hand w/ anything else, just let me know.

Mike,

Capturing is a simple transfer of digital data. On a PC that will give you MS DV AVI, type 2.

Encoding to any other format will always result in a generation loss (unless you encode to Lagarith, UT or uncompressed) and about the worst thing to do on a PC is to encode to a QuiRcktime format like .MOV. QuiRcktime has earned that name for a reason. It completely destroys the 64 bit nature of PR and forces PR to use only the QuiRcktime server, which is by Apple design only 32 bit and second, it gives you the quiRcky chroma aberrations that seem to plague this program.

Harm...I'm not totally familiar with the workings of Premier (and I try to avoid .avi at all costs)....but can't you encode/export using QT's DV25 codec? Maybe I'm just used to how avid handles video (which is QT based not avi, even on PC) and I've had great luck w/ that.

QT Pro would let you capture and encode to DV25 which could also be an option, although I've never used it to capture so not sure how well that works.

Mike,

It is not only Premiere Pro, but also Edius and Vegas that use the standard Microsoft AVI format, even third party capture tools like Scenalyzer all use MS DV AVI. I have never heard of any application on a PC that captures anything but MS DV AVI, since it is the Windows standard. Matrox and similar card suppliers also use MS DV AVI exclusively AFAIK. The same applies to Premiere Elements, Windows Movie Maker, Pinnacle, Magix, etc.

If it is only a question of rewrapping the AVI to MOV there is no generation loss, but you still have the distinct disadvantage that Premiere Pro can no longer run as a 64 bit application because QT is a 32 bit application, and the absurd gamma shift of QT.

Why do you avoid the AVI format?

Harm,

I'm on Avid MC on PC...and it is QT based, so no reason to use avi ever. The 2g limit is annoying and I've had codec compatibility issues with avi files that clients have sent me. I don't have the same issues with mov files unless they are Apple Prores...and even then I can transcode them in Soreneson Squeeze (not optimal, but it works if needed).

All exporting I do is via QT reference files out of avid to Sorenson Squeeze for the actual encoding.

There is no 2 GB limit on AVI type 2 files. Did not know that AVID was QT based on a PC.

:) I didn't know there was an avi type 2. Whenever I deal w/ avi files, it's just whatever a client sends over.

Far as I know, the file size limit for Type 2 avi files is 4 GB ...

I've always used Quicktime dv.mov files on my PC -- the earliest card I had captured to that format (DPS Spark) and Quicktime always suited me must fine. I don't know of anything quirky about dv.mov files -- you can use them with any software that is QT friendly, and convert them without re-encoding to dv.avi for any software that isn't. A few years ago I switched to Macs primarily, and can't recall the last time someone asked me for an output that wasn't something QT worked just fine with.

In the Mac world, transfers via Firewire for DV formats can be done with programs and utilities that are part of the basic install.

Cheers,
GB

Geoff,

As part of our benchmark test, we export to MS DV AVI type 2, a 13 GB file in the current version. In the new version that may be even bigger, around 20 GB. So no 4 GB limit either.

Thanks for the clarification Harm

Far as I know, the file size limit for Type 2 avi files is 4 GB ...

Not true. The 4GB (actually, 3.99GB) limit is due to the FAT32 disk filing format itself (as it is on most reasonably-priced flash memory cards), not because of the AVI codec.

And the reason why every single one of my DV-AVI files from DV tape are all much smaller than even 4GB because the tape has been paused frequently during recording, and that DV import software always break up files according to the pauses on the tape.

I have never heard of any application on a PC that captures anything but MS DV AVI

DIF was a common captue file format used by some legacy NLE products from Fast Multimedia, now owned by Avid (via Dazzle and Pinnacle).

The 2 GB AVI file size limit commonly seen with media files on FAT systems came out of the Windows 95/98 era and "Video for Windows" architecture, and has stayed with us. While later version of windows can do larger files, the 2 GB limit is probably observed by vendors for some measure of backward compartibility.