i.link and hdv>dv convert
 

After taping a lot of HD material, I have been trying to start capturing on a new Mac with FCP7. The problem is that Sony z5 down converts (or at least the captured footage appears as standard dv size).

If I go to the i.link set on the menu, and try to swith HDV->DV convert off, the whole i.link set gets turned off, and there is no firewire link. Anyway around this?

Is there any other way of capturing other than i.link/firewire?

I've spent several frustrating days on this, help would be most appreciated.

Best

Zev

Hi Zev. Make sure in VCR HDV/DV set on auto. iLink DV convertion should be off. Unplug the cable before applying this changes. In final cut shoud be Easy Setup menue (I use FCE) pick HDV 1080i 60/30/50 or 25 (whichever you need) Apple codec. Shoud capture HDV without a problem if you hit Capture in file menue in FCP (or maybe it is log and capture there, not sure).

Here I too have a downconvertion question.
I dit a 4hrs shoot on tape HDV format. Need to downconvert during the capture process to Final Cut Express, everything goes right exept one thing: image squezes to 4:3 for some reason. The other option in Z5U is do crop it, but it doesn't seem like a solution to me. I need to downconvert to DV but keep it in 16:9 and it just doesn't hapen. Any solutions for this, exept renderind in post?

No, no, no. Never use AUTO. VCR HDV/DV should be set to HDV. i.LINK CONV should be OFF. This does not turn off your firewire port. If your NLE is not seeing the cam, you likely have your NLE settings wrong -- make sure it is an HDV project.

There is no other way to capture HDV tape.

Never plug or unplug a FW cable if either device is powered on. Plug everything in with the power off, then power on equipment. If you make changes to the settings in the cam, just turn off the cam and then back on.

Down Convert squeezes the image to preserve all of it. Just set your NLE to "Unsqueeze" it -- usually by setting the PAR to 1.33, or using something like "Interpret footage" in Premiere. If you set up your project as DV widescreen it shouldn't look squeezed.

You can really simplify your life by doing everything in HDV and then only downconverting when you burn your DVDs.

Adam Auto mode in VCR menu is default in Z5, I didn't know that is should be set. Some footage is transfered in AUTO, some in HDV, but I do not see any difference.

In Easy setup there is DV-NTSC 32 khz Anamorphic and DV-NTSC 32 khz Anamorphic is that widescreen mode?

Thank you for an advise, trying to take the whole process in HDV till the end.

i.link and hdv>dv convert
 

Worked like a dream, Adam. many thanks.

But does that mean that it is always imported as hdv mpeg2? What if I want to import it as uncompressed or one of the FCP codecs (I just migrated from premier/pc)?

At least I can now get working.

Best

Zev

It's imported as HDV Mpeg-2 because that's how it's shot; that's what it is. It's a bit-for-bit data transfer, that's all. If you want to transcode to something else you can, but that can't improve on what's there. At best it can avoid further degradation. But you can't add data where there is none.

Alex--I don't know FCP or FCE, but "Anamorphic" sounds like the right preset. There have been problems reported with setting VCR HDV/DV to AUTO in terms of PC/Mac not seeing cam, so it's best to shoot HDV and leave VCR set to same.