Bizarre Capture problem

[Antony Meadley]

I expect this is due to having accidentally changed one of the hundreds of menu options on the Z1, but I can't work out what I have done wrong.

Firstly, I am in the UK, so I use PAL, not NTSC. So the camera is set to 50i.

I have shot several hours footage over the last 3 months with the Z1 and captured it all perfectly with Premiere Pro 1.5. I have shot all of this as HDV and then down-convert in camera to DV into the computer.

Then last week I was asked to do a shoot, but told I had to record it in DV as they needed to playback the tape on their machines. So I changed my Z1 from recording HDV to DV.

This weekend, I was shooting a short film, and I set my Z1 back to record in HDV. Today, I have been trying to capture it but something VERY strange is happening:

When I open the Capture window in Premiere Pro (PP from now on) and use the controls to playback the tape, it plays as if it is in slo-mo, with all the sound reduced in frequency. When I try to capture this, it gives the error "Lost connection to device".

When the Capture window is NOT open, and I move the cursor along the timeline, the LCD on the camera shows a distorted version of the image (as you get when watching a bad satellite TV program) and the display on the LCD changes to "DV SP 60i" in the top left. Why 60i ???? That would be NTSC!!!

When I playback on the camera itself, the display says "HDV1080i 50i" and the playback image and sound are great.

Now the even more bizarre thing is that if I open Windows MovieMaker 2 and capture with that, then the capture looks and sounds fine. And when I play the clips it creates, they play and sound fine. But when I put them on the MovieMaker Timeline, then they play in slo-mo just like in Premiere!!!

And if I play the AVI file which MovieMaker created using RealPlayer or similar, then it plays slo-mo.

BUT, if I capture using MovieMaker to a WMV file instead of to AVI then the WMV file plays back perfectly!!! But of course, a WMV file is no use to edit in Premiere!!!


Now I have done some tests... the problem is not with the new tape, because I am now getting this problem with my old tapes too. So the problem must lie either with my computer or with the Z1. My bet (as I had to change several settings) is that the problem is the Z1.

So does anyone know what I have done wrong?????

Thanks.

[Steve Crisdale]

I'll hazard a guess that it's because DV records at a different tape speed than HDV. This is why the record time is greater for DV than for HDV.

I'm not familiar with the Z1 as I have an FX-1e, but I'd further assume that when you change the mode without recording to a wholly new tape, that the different speed rates would affect how the camera then sends data, and how the OS, and subsequent programs read what is being received.

As for the switch to 1080i 60... Perhaps it's not just the shooting mode (DV or HDV) that must be selected, but also the flavour (PAL or NTSC) as well as image ratio (4:3 or 16:9).

I'm sure I spotted something about this in the "Editing HD/HDV" forum... Don't remember how it was resolved though.

Whether it's possible to select "DV - no conversion" in the camera's output menu options - and capture only the DV section of tape... And then reset the camera output options to "HDV - DV downconvert" for the HDV section to be captured.

Apart from that - I'm takin' stabs in the dark...

[Antony Meadley]

Originally Posted by Steve Crisdale

... but I'd further assume that when you change the mode without recording to a wholly new tape, that the different speed rates would affect how the camera then sends data, and how the OS, and subsequent programs read what is being received...

Perhaps I should have mentioned, I always use a new tape for each project, so I did not mix DV and HDV on the same tape.

[Ron Evans]

I have an FX1 so my comments may not apply to the Z1. There are two settings that I think are involved, the one that sets the record/playback format ( auto, HDV, DV ) and the one that sets i Link conversion ( there is also a speed setting for DV in your case it will be DV and DVCam I think, in mine it is SP and LP ). Try force setting these to HDV( not auto) with no conversion and see if that works. Make sure all the settings are for PAl too.

Ron Evans

[Khoi Pham]

Make sure that you did not accidently turn on DV downconvert, make sure that playback setting is on HDV. Good luck.